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The Obesity piece on HuffPost

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  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,365 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »
    The article makes several good points, and a lot of iffy ones. I agree with its overall questioning of both our societal attitude towards obesity, and the way that the health care system addresses the problem.

    But the writing is flawed by hyperbole and failure to understand the research it cites. For example:
    "As early as 1969, research showed that losing just 3 percent of your body weight resulted in a 17 percent slowdown in your metabolism—a body-wide starvation response that blasts you with hunger hormones and drops your internal temperature until you rise back to your highest weight. Keeping weight off means fighting your body’s energy-regulation system and battling hunger all day, every day, for the rest of your life"
    I can directly contradict the bolded. I've lost 4.5% of my starting weight, and was very seldom hungry while doing it. As I write this, I've only eaten 80% of my allotted calories for the day and I'm not feeling particularly hungry at all.

    This kind of sloppy expression of one point makes me question everything else in the article. I wish the author had tightened up his fact-checking, because I'd really like to know which of his points are valid.

    I've lost 27% of my body weight (and maintained the loss for nearly a year so far), so that means I should have experienced a 153% slowdown in my metabolism according to their math. And I should have a body temperature somewhere in the 80F degree range and be "blasted with hunger hormones" and wanting to do nothing but eat all day and night.

    What a steaming pile of bovine manure.

    I lost 23% of my body weight in 2014-2015. My REE at 275 lbs was 2470. My REE at 215 was 2070. Body temperature remained the same. All this while hypothyroid.

    Cherry picked post-modernist bovine squeeze. If you want to waste time and view the studies sourced in this you find the same drivel. Caloric intake self reported. No peer review. Analysis based upon reported as opposed to collected data. Subjective nonsense aligned to push a narrative of re-branding failure.
    Exactly. It's just another version of "safe spaces" and/or "everybody gets a trophy". Telling people to not feel bad about being a failure because it's not their fault.

    So typical HuffPo garbage... good to know, I won't even bother reading it.
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
    Hmm, interesting comments. I haven't read the article but the comments about body temp caught my eye. My thyroid is damaged (ultra sound showed this years ago) and my regular body temp varies from 94.5 (early am) to 97.5. Usually in the 96.5 range. I've tried more than one thermometer and it's always the same. I've lost over 100 lbs and maintained for a year. I'm also 62 years old which is likely also a factor.

    Losing weight did not make it impossible to maintain my loss nor do I think it had a big effect on my body temp. It was always chronically low. My thyroid is monitored by my doc who says I am in the normal range with my current meds.

    My point, yes there is one, is that you need to learn to eat in a way that you can maintain and no body is the same. So as usual I think a spark of truth often drives these claims. Just as adaptive thermogenesis has a small affect on people but usually so minor it is not why people are fat nor does it cause a body to go into starvation mode requiring them to eat more. But the headlines sell so they write em.
  • determined_14
    determined_14 Posts: 258 Member
    Lest anyone think I dropped out of my own thread, I’m still here! Reading everything. Just busy today!
    Thanks for the thoughts. They all about align with my own take, but I’ve never (yet!) struggled with obesity and don’t want to presume I know what it’s like.
    I was pretty sure the unsustainably low metabolism and the body temp had to be unsubstantiated, as as several mentioned, there were no citations.
  • BeePosp
    BeePosp Posts: 3 Member
    cyclone48 wrote: »
    So why is losing weight so hard? I bet I'm like many people on this board - successful in many other areas of my life (career, family). I've overcome health issues (not related to being overweight), money troubles....yet the one area of my life that continues to be a struggle is my weight. Am I too complacent, give up too easily, ready to take the easy way out. I didn't in many other areas of my life. Why this?

    I do feel that there is something that tugs me in the wrong direction when it comes to weight loss. Whether it is a biological drive to take in as many calories as possible or the food industry doing everything it can to keep us eating more and more or something else entirely.

    Don't get me wrong...I take full responsibility for my weight problems and I know that there is no magic pill and that I have to want it and work for it. I just think that if it really was a matter of "more willpower", more people would be successful.

    Something that stuck with me during my fitness journey, is the mindset you choose. With your family you made them a PRIORITY. With your career, you knew it was your JOB to do well, so you get paid. So make taking care of yourself a priority, or think of it as your job. Or both. No excuses, no blaming outside influences, etc. Would you have tried to find an excuse why not feed your baby when she was crying? Of course, not! Would your employer accepted your being in a bad mood as an explanation why you didn't finish a report on time? I assume, not.

    I hope this helps!
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
    VUA21 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    I'll say this much - at least it's consistent with HuffPost's typical garbage level of 'journalism'.

    I'm getting a lot more enjoyment from seeing it torn to pieces on Facebook by the evidence-based health/nutrition community than I did from reading the original article. It gives me a headache when I roll my eyes that much.

    If you're getting skull DOMS from eyerolling, are you making sure to add in the workout? And would that be cardio or strength training?

    Huff post journalism is only slightly less fact based than flat-earth physics.

    LOL ...No more headaches for me. I now will only have "skull DOMS."
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    determined_14 wrote: »
    Anyone talking about this? I looked around the forums but didn’t see it.
    https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/

    Obviously we as CICO practicers don’t believe in much of this article.
    Is metabolism permanently lowered by obesity?
    Will power isn’t a limitless resource— what should people do who can’t seem to stick to diets?

    I just took a look at it, but as they say - TL:DR
  • UltraRunnerGale
    UltraRunnerGale Posts: 346 Member
    I am a recovering alcoholic; I drink, I die. Food is killing many, but it's not looked at the same way. It is, indeed, a bit different than drinking; I don't drink at all, but we all must eat. It is, indeed, similar to drinking as you have to hit your bottom. The pain must outweigh the pleasure and hard choices must be made. As I tell struggling newcomers to AA, "you don't have to live like this". There is hope!!
  • youngcaseyr
    youngcaseyr Posts: 293 Member
    Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    They lost me at establishing "fat" as an identity to be protected. So if you lose weight you lose your identity, or are betraying "your people"?
    There's a very similar issue with deaf people who get cochlear implants. Does the existence of this technology mean that "deaf" should no longer be considered an identity meriting protection?

    I see what you're saying here, but when deaf people wear hearing aids or get a cochlear implant they are still deaf when they take their implant off to go to bed or take a shower. However, not all deaf people identify as culturally deaf to begin with, but their identity is ultimately up to them even though other members of that community may have different perceptions of them depending on the choices they make with regard to their deafness.

    When someone who was formerly obese loses weight and is able to maintain a healthy weight, they are no longer obese, though they may still hold on to aspects of that identity like a recovered alcoholic. If other obese people feel that there is a fat "culture" that is associated with one's identity, that's for them to decide, though I don't agree with it being something that needs to be protected. That being said, one's own identity is just that: their identity. Others may have opinions about it, agree or disagree with it, or identify similarly, but I don't think people can "remove" identities from others or decide whether or not that identity is "legitimate."
  • bigbandjohn
    bigbandjohn Posts: 769 Member
    I took a quick skim through it. Seems like the person follows the "Dawn French" philosophy. I agree with the idea "fat shaming" is wrong. It's ok for people to be happy where they are. People have a choice, as did I. When I was heavier, I felt that it was ok to be that way. Now after massive weight loss I realize how wrong I was. There is "fat shaming", and there is "concern for health". Much of what I saw as shaming was concern, and knowing how much healthier I am makes me realize that. I wonder how much of the comments viewed by people as "fat shaming" is really truly someone being concerned for the person's health and they are trying to be caring, because on reflection, that's what most of it was for me.

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