Losing weight has nothing to do with food

mw123

Let me inject some ideals with everyone in this weight loss community. First of all, I’m not an expert dietician, counselor or trainer. What I am is an ex-pro athlete that has battled weight loss for most of my life, until recently. Approximately 2 to 21/2 years ago I stumbled on some truths that I would like to share with people who also have battled weight issues that I have not seen discussed and that dramatically changed how I approach “dieting”. These four truths are something I put together over the years from different ideals. In fact my opinion about dieting, I think is so dramatically different then what we have come to expect as the norm that it tends to completely blow the minds of the people with whom I discuss it. It also opens up allot of disbelief that these truths are actually so simple. The main thing I tell people is don’t believe me, take these truths and research them for yourself, that’s what I did and being at my optimal weight is not even an issue for me. Think about it, I struggled for so long to lose weight that includes most diet programs yo-yo dieting and so on and now I don’t even think about it anymore.

There is to much to post on this forum so I created a blog, listed below. I am not receiving any money for posting I am only trying to get what I think is important information out to as many people as I can

http://losingweighthasnothingtodowithfood.blogspot.com/2010/10/losing-weight-has-nothing-to-do-with.html

kayemme

smells like spam.

HIzara

I think your 4 theories are pretty correct. I'm not an expert either, but from what I've observed on my weight loss journey thus far is that it is the case with numerous people I've interacted with that have seen me lose weight and want to also do the same. What's separated them from myself are numerous factors, including your 4 theories. :flowerforyou:

carl1738

I agree with this blog 100%! I hope more people read this, because it's true. People need to stop making excuses for themselves, what they eat and why they don't exercise enough.

vickiele1

Actually all that you posted here is truth - with the exception that there are some people who do have genetic predisposition to some things such as addictions - this is well documented in research. Whether the addiction is food, nicotine, alcohol, or some other substance is often irrelevant. Some individuals genetic composition will actually have an impact on their inability to refuse to participate in an addictive behavior or consume a substance they are addicted to.

Other than that one piece - you are right on. Good job.

Vickie

curtishill74

Not spam. Some good tips.

FemininGuns

I have to especially agree with the "people eat unconsciously". 5 years ago, I decided to try out vegetarianism in the hopes of making a difference... One week after being fully vegetarian, I went to a family gathering. I'm chit chatting with people, the usual... All of a sudden, I had a chicken wing in my mouth!!! I was like "WOAH! WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING?!" It was a TOTAL wake up call for as to how I ate etc... I hope more people read your blog.

Tasha1476

I agree with this as well. Good Blog.

gibbsgirl

I agree with Vickie that people can be genetically predisposed to having weight issues. It's the thought, "I had always given way to the fact that since I come from an overweight family I will be overweight, so why try." that causes problems. People with this genetic predispostion will have to work harder to lose weight or keep the weight off, but it is possible to be a healthy weight. They may never be a size 2, but they can still be healthy.

Other than that, your "truths" are true, but I don't really find them to be mind blowing. more like common sense. For the most part, I'm pretty sure everyone here knows moderation is the key. Now, whether we adhere to that is a different story!

scott24

Great post. I was reluctant to read at first because I thought, "Sure it has to do with food - I've been successful on MFP and it has everything to do with food." You are right on though - I know in my situation that I can enjoy virtually anything in moderation. I don't stress over whole grains, imitation eggs, or special supplements. I just take a new sense of accountability for what (and how much) goes in my mouth. I can go to McDonald's and enjoy an ice cream cone, without getting a double quarter pounder and large fries like I used to. I can eat a three-egg omelet for breakfast. This weekend I will barbeque some ribs - and I won't let myself eat the whole slab. I used to think restaurant portions were inadequate, but now I know better.

Thanks for posting the link to your blog. I'm sure I will visit again.

iamdesiderata

I understand that these are your opinions, and that you are not an expert dietitian or cellular biologist, but your first two points, "Weight loss has nothing to do with food" and "You are not genetically determined to be fat. (your gens from your parents did not make you fat)" are blatantly false.

These ideas will lead people to think very untrue things about diet and weight loss, ultimately leading to frustration and failure.

Instead of us doing the research, maybe you should refer to some experts yourself. Food has a greater impact than exercise alone when trying to lose weight, and it has been scientifically proven and backed up with scientific data. It's the combination of good food and the self-control that leads to diet success. You only went so far as to claim that it is mental capability alone, which is not true.

Same goes for how much genetics influences our body weight. Yes, environment plays a larger roll in when, how, what, and why you eat, but genetics determine your metabolism, where you gain weight, and how your body reacts to the carbs, proteins, and fats that you ingest. You do have the control over what you put in your mouth and how much you exercise to try to counter your genetically determined physique, but you failed to mention that the genetics of a person determines how much they have to work in order to obtain a healthy body weight, which varies greatly among humans.

Your results will not be everyone's results, hence the data supporting genes and body weight. The only reason I am challenging your post is because you are suggesting radical lifestyle changes that could in turn be harmful for other people or lead them to failure. I support clean eating and a combination of cardio and strength training, a proven, effective, and healthy way to lose unwanted fat and gain lean muscle. This system has been proven to work for the majority of humans, and has significant research to back this up.

Refer to these websites for information regarding the relationship between weightloss and your diet:
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56398
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/loseweight.htm

Refer to these websites for information regarding the relationship between genetics and weight:
http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2712/Weight-Physical-Health-GENETICS-BODY-WEIGHT-OBESITY.html
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/friedman.html
http://blogs.webmd.com/pamela-peeke-md/2009/09/genetics-may-load-the-obesity-gun-but-environment-pulls-the-trigger.html

JDMPWR

I agree with both views. Genetics can have a predisposition on weight gain but I still feel the choices of when and what you eat can be the dealbreaker so to speak.

I feel that people make a decision to lose weight or not. My brother used to be 160-170 in HS and now is like 217 and is taller and bigger then I am and all he does is make excuses about working out. I used to look up to him and a physically fit person now I am somewhat saddened by his lack of motivation.

mw123

Hi Iamdesiderata,

I did not want to get into a debate about genes (remember I am not an expert, but I have included quotes from some experts).

I could not agree with you more when you say, “but genetics determine your metabolism, where you gain weight, and how your body reacts to the carbs, proteins, and fats that you ingest”.

My objective was to point out that “genes are not your fate”. This is not me stating this, it is a quote from Dean Ornish, M.D., He goes on to say; “we found that over 500 genes were affected by lifestyle changes. In fact, certain disease preventing genes were up-regulated, or turned on, and certain disease promoting genes, including oncogenes involved in cancer, were down-regulated, or turned off. The results of this study suggest that comprehensive lifestyle changes may cause changes in gene expression that could be beneficial to the general population as well as to those with prostate cancer”.

- Dr. Ornish was recognized as “one of the most interesting people of 1996” by People magazine, selected as one of the “TIME 100” in integrative medicine, chosen by LIFE magazine as “one of the fifty most influential members of his generation” and by Forbes magazine as “one of the seven most powerful teachers in the world. Founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California. He is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Ornish received his medical training in internal medicine from the Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He received a B.A. in Humanities summa cum laude from the University of Texas in Austin, where he gave the baccalaureate address.

My main objective about genes is to show people that it’s not a death sentence, there are many Dr’s. stating the same thing (a few quotes listed below). Sure you have good genes and bad genes but “they are not your fate”. This is the my belief that I have formed by researching experts. In my blog I stated “do your own research”. What I am saying is that these Dr’s, are telling us about genes and you can draw your own conclusion whether or not you agree with them. But the data is out there.

I understand that these are your opinions, and that you are not an expert dietitian or cellular biologist, but your first two points, "Weight loss has nothing to do with food" and "You are not genetically determined to be fat. (your gens from your parents did not make you fat)" are blatantly false.

Dr. Bruce H. Lipton, PhD
Our DNA does NOT determine what we will be, how we will develop, what 'diseases' we may suffer...We have the power to change our health and actually change the way our DNA expresses itself through the beliefs we hold to. We have been misled into thinking that all of our potential is 'pre-programmed' within our genes...but this is NOT so.

"...Recent advances in cellular science are heralding an important evolutionary turning point. For almost fifty years we have held the illusion that our health and fate were preprogrammed in our genes, a concept referred to as genetic determinacy.
Cellular biologists now recognize that the environment, the external universe and our internal physiology, and more importantly, our perception of the environment, directly controls the activity of our genes.”-Bruce H. Lipton, PhD (Ret. Department of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine, Stanford University’s School of Medicine)


These ideas will lead people to think very untrue things about diet and weight loss, ultimately leading to frustration and failure.

Dr. David L. Katz
We have tended to think in terms of "nature versus nurture" -- with lifestyle and genetic influences on health as independent and potentially competing forces. This study, and others like it, ostensibly change the game. They suggest that lifestyle and genetics are not independent after all, but interact. Even our genes are influenced by lifestyle choices. We can, it seems, nurture nature.-Obesity expert Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.

Instead of us doing the research, maybe you should refer to some experts yourself. Food has a greater impact than exercise alone when trying to lose weight, and it has been scientifically proven and backed up with scientific data. It's the combination of good food and the self-control that leads to diet success. You only went so far as to claim that it is mental capability alone, which is not true.

I could not agree with you more on this, with an enfaces on "self control" because this by far leads to "diet success", not food. I agree, it’s what you put into your mouth that counts but it is self control (consciously eating) that will determine how much or how good. This is why I say that “losing weight has nothing to do with food” it starts with your choices, how you feel at the present moment that will determine what you eat. Eating an occasional slice of pizza is NOT bad, eating a slice everyday may-be, or eating a whole pizza in one sitting definitely. People need to eat healthy, most of the time and I don’t think there is anyone who would disagree with this, but why are we not? Also, there is such a thing as a healthy pizza. Why not choose that?

The point I’m trying to make is that it’s your thoughts about food that is bad not the food, per say. People know that French fries are bad but they eat them any way, why? We have been subconsciously programmed what foods are good and what food are bad and for some reason all we want to do is eat the bad. We subconsciously choose to eat bad all of the time, why? Emotional eating? Why else do we continually eat or over-eat unhealthy foods. It’s not my parent’s fault that I eat a whole pizza in one sitting instead of eating grilled chicken with a side of broccoli (no butter). Why do we continually do this? I think it’s our beliefs that we have either been told or picked up along the way (genes-you can’t leave the table until your plate is clean-etc.) that until we know what they are and how they have been sabatoshing us then we can CHOOSE what is right for us. So my point is that food (or anything else for that matter)is not doing this to us, we are.

Same goes for how much genetics influences our body weight. Yes, environment plays a larger roll in when, how, what, and why you eat, but genetics determine your metabolism, where you gain weight, and how your body reacts to the carbs, proteins, and fats that you ingest. You do have the control over what you put in your mouth and how much you exercise to try to counter your genetically determined physique, but you failed to mention that the genetics of a person determines how much they have to work in order to obtain a healthy body weight, which varies greatly among humans.

You’re right, sorry I missed this. To me it is obvious that people’s ability to lose weight varies, based on metabolism and many other conditions. The more weight you have to lose, no doubt about it you will have to work harder but you will definitely lose. Your genetic makeup will not cause you to stay overweight. You may be genetically pre-disposed to be overweight, but it is not the reason that you are.

Dr. David L. Katz
"Let us by all means study our genes, and their associations with our various shapes and sizes. But let's not let it distract us from the fact that our genes have not changed to account for the modern advent of epidemic obesity -- our environments and lifestyles have," Obesity expert Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.

Your results will not be everyone's results, hence the data supporting genes and body weight. The only reason I am challenging your post is because you are suggesting radical lifestyle changes that could in turn be harmful for other people or lead them to failure. I support clean eating and a combination of cardio and strength training, a proven, effective, and healthy way to lose unwanted fat and gain lean muscle. This system has been proven to work for the majority of humans, and has significant research to back this up.

Again I agree with you, “I support clean eating and a combination of cardio and strength training, a proven, effective, and healthy way to lose unwanted fat and gain lean muscle”. You could not have said it better, I myself practice this daily. What I don’t agree with is that I am “suggesting radical lifestyle changes”, on the contrary. I am suggesting to people that they have the power to lose the weight they want, it is not some outside force that is keeping them from being at there optimum weight, its them.

Once I understood that genes are not my fate and that I was in control of what I eat how much and when, when and how much exercise and that it was me keeping me at this weight not someone or something else, this was one of the single most reasons that I dramatically and very easily dropped my weight.

Refer to these websites for information regarding the relationship between weightloss and your diet:
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56398
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/loseweight.htm

Refer to these websites for information regarding the relationship between genetics and weight:
http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2712/Weight-Physical-Health-GENETICS-BODY-WEIGHT-OBESITY.html
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/friedman.html
http://blogs.webmd.com/pamela-peeke-md/2009/09/genetics-may-load-the-obesity-gun-but-environment-pulls-the-trigger.html

DJH510

Actually all that you posted here is truth - with the exception that there are some people who do have genetic predisposition to some things such as addictions - this is well documented in research. Whether the addiction is food, nicotine, alcohol, or some other substance is often irrelevant. Some individuals genetic composition will actually have an impact on their inability to refuse to participate in an addictive behavior or consume a substance they are addicted to.

Other than that one piece - you are right on. Good job.

Vickie

A good point. The supposed genetic predispositions toward being overweight, if they do exist, are mental and not physical conditions.