Searching for an analogy

tfield98

I'm often frustrated to see friends and loved ones suffering from sloppy, hit-or-miss (mostly "miss") dieting, often characterized by them vaguely as "getting more exercise" and "portion control" or by some special, "magic" dietary formula.

I'm a CICO fanatic.

I've been trying to come up with an analogy for calorie deficits that would help these friends and loved ones see how absurd it is for them to devote so much time and energy in such a haphazard way.

Why do I bother with an analogy? Because analogies can be very effective ways to communicate new concepts, especially when speaking to someone who has an emotional commitment to a contrary way of thinking.

My current analogy is below. Do you have one you like more? Let's do some brainstorming.

My analogy: You're in a row boat. In the bow, someone is pouring water into the boat from a tin can. In the stern, you're bailing with a tin can. The only way to know if the boat will fill with water is to compare the bailing and filling rates. (Calorie deficit)

For years, there's been more water coming into our boats than being bailed out. That's why we gained weight.

Our goal when dieting is to change that balance so more water (calories) is being removed from your boat than water is being added.

We can do that in two ways. We can speed up the bailing (CO). Or we can slow down the pouring (CI).

That's a simple fact. There's no magic here; there's no need for complicated approaches. It's simply a matter for understanding and measurement.

Once this is understood, we can ask, "How can we slow down the inflow of water?" (Restrict calories consumed) "How can we speed up the outflow of water?" (Exercise)

The analogy also allows us to point out that "bailing faster" or "adding water more slowly" are the ONLY approaches that can keep the boat from sinking eventually.

All that CICO does is carefully measure the rates at which water is being added and removed so we know exactly where we stand. Who wouldn't want to know where they stand calorie-wise?

Furthermore, most fad diets are similar to adding food coloring to the water.

And if someone says, "Help, I'm bailing really fast but the water level is still rising in the boat" then the response is simple, "Either, you're not bailing as fast as you think you are or the water is coming in faster than you thought."

Anyway, the whole analogy is weak, IMO, not great.

Do you have any suggestions (other than that I should STFU about dieting when talking with friends and family?!) :-)

SuzySunshine99

I tell people (only when asked) to think of it like a bank account. You only have so many dollars (calories) in your account each day. If you spend more that that, you are overdrawn (and gain weight). If you spend less, you can save up some money (calories) to splurge on a treat.

kshama2001

Others have mentioned that friends/family got CICO when presented as a calorie budget analogy - if you eat more than your budget you will go into debt (gain weight), etc.

JeromeBarry1

You need to tailor the analogy to the strengths of the receiving party. That becomes very complex very quickly. That's why I find life easier to explain with simple truths.