Commentary: What Thin People Don't Get About Dieting

SuzySunshine99

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-thin-people-dieting-weight-food-resolutions-0101-20171227-story.html

I am not sure what made me more mad when I saw this commentary piece in the Chicago Tribune this morning....

The statement that "cutting calories alone doesn't lead to long-term weight loss".

The myth that there are "naturally thin" people who just have good genetics and high metabolism.

Or, the conclusion that if you are overweight, you do not have any chance of losing weight long term so you shouldn't even try.

So angry right now....

I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on this dreary op-ed article.

whosshe

Sounds like an angry fat person wrote it lol

maggibailey

Reads like the writer has tried and failed to lose weight and now needs a reason that doesn’t make her feel like she failed. There are some truths in the article but it’s overall goal is to make victims of people who don’t need to be victims.

Packerjohn

Maybe get someone that actually has a background in nutrition, human physiology, etc to write about this stuff in major newspapers.


About the writers:
Traci Mann is a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota and author of “Secrets from the Eating Lab.” A. Janet Tomiyama is an associate professor of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles.

MeanderingMammal

SuzySunshine99 wrote: »

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-thin-people-dieting-weight-food-resolutions-0101-20171227-story.html

I am not sure what made me more mad when I saw this commentary piece in the Chicago Tribune this morning....

The statement that "cutting calories alone doesn't lead to long-term weight loss".

The myth that there are "naturally thin" people who just have good genetics and high metabolism.

Or, the conclusion that if you are overweight, you do not have any chance of losing weight long term so you shouldn't even try.

So angry right now....

I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on this dreary op-ed article.

I can see the point that they're trying to get at; the physics of dieting is easy, the psychology is more difficult. People go through the annual period of denial, rather than identifying sustainable lifestyle changes. The example used is a common one that's talked about in these boards; the sabateurs that force donuts on people in the office, it's all a big conspiracy...

What the authors haven't done is open up the non-dieter being a lifestyle thing.

LivingtheLeanDream

Ok so I read it and yeah got a bit miffed but diets as in cutting calories do work. It's just when we stop counting, go back to old eating habits then yeah gain happens.

But all is not lost because I am testament to calorie counting working along with 1000s of others in long term maintenance on this site (2018 sees me at maintenance for 5 years). We have the choice to either work to stay slim or not. I choose to be slim.

cmriverside

Well if anyone has a skewed view of the Human Race, it's got to be psychologists. They pathologize every single human behavior, then listen to people endlessly play the victim, and get paid for that.

No thanks.

cmriverside

...sounds like job security to me.

ninerbuff

Remember that it was a psychologist that created the somatotype....................just by people's behaviors and not due to actually genetics.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

nvmomketo

I appreciate the call for empathy in this article. Walking a mile in another's shoes can help someone understand another's struggles.

I've been judgemental in the past. I remember not understanding how people could "let" themselves get fat back when I was 25, fit and exercising an hour a day, and able to eat most anything without gaining. Why couldn't they just eat less and exercise more? Easy!

Twenty years later I can't exercise much due to pain, and maintain on way fewer calories than I ate as a young adult, even while losing. I get it better now.

I think staying slim is harder for some people,especially those who were previously heavy. That doesn't mean they should give up or it can't be done - just that some people are going to have a harder time of it than others.

I have two kids for whom school comes easy. My youngest struggles. Reading and writing is just harder for him. It's unfair, sure, but he still needs to learn to read. He just may never never be as good at schoolwork as his brothers. I think similar things a be said about weight struggles.

JMO

dlhatch67

The article sounds like a fluff piece written for the New Year because so many people use that time to make dieting resolutions. Too bad the newspaper didn't ask qualified nutritionists to contribute. As most people who have lost weight and maintained that loss know, it's all about lifestyle change: making healthier food choices, limiting portions, monitoring caloric intake, and incorporating exercise into their lives. If the temptation toward junk food or overeating due to endless hunger is just too great for some people, as these psychologists say, then they certainly need to add counseling to that regime. But giving up just because they weren't born a "Nicki" is not the answer.

AnnPT77

From the article:

If you are a dieter, remind yourself that you aren’t weak, but that you were in an unfair fight that very few win. Change your focus to improving your health with exercise (which doesn’t require weight loss), and resolve to make a different New Year’s resolution next year.

Next up: An opinion piece about how exercise alone won't improve your health.

GottaBurnEmAll

I skimmed the piece, it's nothing I haven't heard parroted before.

It jumped out to me when they said they were researchers, so I looked them up.

Needless to say, they're very popular with the HAES crowd.

What I could find by them was behind a paywall. Having said that, from a read of the abstract, I'm not too sure about their conclusion based on their research review given what I know about actual weight loss vs. weight loss studies. And make no mistake, they are drawing their conclusions based on weight loss studies, and there are problems with a lot of them, especially in regards to sustainability and follow up.

I could go on in depth if I didn't have a migraine right now, but I feel that psychologists looking at the large issue of obesity are like that analogy of the blind person trying to identify an elephant. They are only seeing a part of the picture and they're not really qualified to identify the whole picture in the end. They are drawing way too many conclusions.

Davidsdottir

"Naturally Thin Nicky?" This is the biggest piece of garbage I've ever read. If I ate whatever the hell I wanted to, if be 300 lbs. But, I've never been over 140 in my life.

lemurcat12

Trib's been terrible for a while now.

CSARdiver

Logic doesn't sell papers - conflict does. In this case a victim and villain must be created - the victim being those doomed souls with poor genetics.

Weight is the result of your behavior. Genetics plays almost no part in this.

Azdak

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

I skimmed the piece, it's nothing I haven't heard parroted before.

It jumped out to me when they said they were researchers, so I looked them up.

Needless to say, they're very popular with the HAES crowd.

What I could find by them was behind a paywall. Having said that, from a read of the abstract, I'm not too sure about their conclusion based on their research review given what I know about actual weight loss vs. weight loss studies. And make no mistake, they are drawing their conclusions based on weight loss studies, and there are problems with a lot of them, especially in regards to sustainability and follow up.

I could go on in depth if I didn't have a migraine right now, but I feel that psychologists looking at the large issue of obesity are like that analogy of the blind person trying to identify an elephant. They are only seeing a part of the picture and they're not really qualified to identify the whole picture in the end. They are drawing way too many conclusions.

I think it’s a complex issue and I don’t know that anyone is “qualified to identify the whole picture”.

Azdak

I think the biggest problem with this article is the demand for short, simple, contrarian content that seems to drive so much of what we read.

I don’t think what is written is as “bad” as it is narrow and incomplete. But nobody will publish 2000 words when they can get by with 300.

amyepdx

In fact, dieters like the chocolate candy even more than before. This is because other diet-induced neurological changes make food not only taste better but also provide a bigger rush of the reward hormone dopamine. That’s the same hormone that is released when addicts use their drug of choice. Nicky doesn’t get that kind of rush from food.

What a load of crap...

davebboggs2000

Its easy.... All you have to do, is take a aged parent to the doctor and sit in..... and learn all about the importance of it all....while they almost refuse to ... claiming they are trying...while you know they are not.....
After taking Mom to all of the classes for pain management and appointments for Heart and Kidney specialist over the last year .... and it sinking in ...Most of this they do to themselves .... and Mom wasnt overweight and this all started when she was little older than I am now.....

The PT doc in class mentioned apps for diet and exercise I stumbled on this ...duh whats the best one google? Started....got the band.....and the UA HR monitor and just did it...
We all die ....most dont get they can to choose how not to.... yeah Ill pass on the high blood pressure ...renal failure....suffocating from fluid in lungs.... extra pain that turns chronic and taking a doz pills 3 times a day..... Thats how I stay with this........ I have a goal....

Diet? Nope .....Life style change.....
Tricks....PORTION CONTROL.... Only eat when hungry...only eat until satisfied..... Drink a glass of water before and while preparing meal ....and log EVERYTHING .... chocolate is actually good for you... as are a lot of things in moderation.....
But most important ... LOG EVERYTHING..... So at the end when you fall apart...at least you'll know what didnt cause it....

JDixon852019

I thought I had skinny genes until I got a desk job and gained 40lbs in 2 years.