Misinformation.

jan5555

Thank you for saying this. It needed to be said.....

hamncheese67

Everyone should read the first post and keep it in mind when they post "advice".

AFitJamie

I'm not arguing against what the OP wrote, I'm asking a question. We are trying to clear everything up here, right? So what's the answer? If you can eat ten times a day or just once a day and your metabolism is fine either way, why can't you eat just once every two days? Or once a week, as in my extreme example? What's the difference?

Well to start with, perhaps common sense...

Extreme examples provide little help... the alternate extreme to this is, I guess, an IV drip... also not really all that suitable for a great lifestyle - wouldn't you agree?

I believe you will find upon review of this thread, that the point is that there are many options on how you choose to manage the frequency of meals. The point is being made, and supported, that "Metabolism" isn't dramatically affected if you spread your daily calorie intake across 2-3 meals a day or 6-7. Some posts on this website suggest to readers that they "HAVE" to eat 6-7 times a day - this can create a feeling of being doomed from the start if that isn't possible for someone - not just because they may not like it, but many challenges may arise from external forces, such as a job where having a number of small "meals" throughout the day isn't really practical or feasible, etc. The point here is to let people know that there really are fewer "rules" to weight loss and they should feel encouraged to work within some basic requirements and work out the expression of the rest of the details in their own lives.

I believe, and no flames please, I'm trying to interpret here, that the overall scope of the post is to suggest that people need to be cautious with what they adopt as rigid requirements as opposed to selectable alternatives.

So aside from the impracticality of eating as you've proposed, I don't believe it is a meaningful dialogue to engage in. Obviously your body is going to want food more than once a week... no matter the number of calories you take in that one setting.... however you do that. Search on this site or many others and you'll read opinions and studies suggesting a maximum time to fast before your body will... (here you can insert all kinds of evil these opinions warn against.)...

The point of the thread isn't furthered by trying to suggest a "right" way - if you insist on trying to determine the "right" way to spread your calories for metabolic reasons... you've missed the entire point and I would suggest you begin reading from the beginning again.... And don't miss the point of "MisInformation" that is key here - people helping to correct misinformation are helping if they can find tactful respectful ways to do so...

Respectfully,

Jamie

(Apologies Sidesteal if I'm misinterpreting - feel free to correct)

valeriebpdx

A fine post. As a former editor and current nursing student, it takes all my restraint not to correct everything on these message boards. You have saved me quite a bit of time.

PJilly

I like this post very much, and that doesn't happen very often. Well, there are the posts that I like because they make me laugh (often because they are filled with misinformation). But that's not why I like this one.

reneeileen

I'd like to talk about something.

Often times on the forums, we'll see someone post what looks like a helpful post full of dieting information. If the information is faulty, some people will reply with the intent to correct it in the hopes that too many people don't buy into the bad information.

Then a bunch of people will get upset with the guy or gal who is trying to correct the person, saying "Stop hating" or "Stop being so negative!". (Sometimes people do post rude replies but it seems like any disagreement is arbitrarily viewed as negative as of late).

Misinformation is bad.

I will give you a few examples to attempt to explain why:

Let's look at meal frequency, which would fall into the personal preference category. Does meal frequency matter?

It might matter for behavioral reasons and it might matter for performance reasons and if it leads to better gym performance it could minimally effect expenditure. But it DOES NOT effect metabolism and if someone says this gem:

"It's very important to eat every 3 hours so that your metabolism keeps burning. If you skip a meal your metabolism will slow down and your body will actually STORE FAT. So please make sure to eat every 3 hours". (<--- this claim is entirely false)

...this is problematic because people who DON'T currently eat frequently might think "Crap, I'm doing it wrong. I'm going to have to fix this". Now they're going to reschedule what could be an eating pattern that works very well for them based on the bad information that increasing their frequency will increase metabolic rate. Additionally, they'll have to eat smaller meals (because they would obviously keep kcals/macros constant) which would probably have a negative effect on adherence/satiety.

Is eating frequently arbitrarily bad? No. It's personal preference. But convincing someone that it's metabolically relevant is BAD, because this convinces them that they must follow this advice.

Lets look at a different example from a recent thread:

"You shouldn't combine carbs and fats in the same meal because it will cause your body to store fat!"

This was recently posted in a topic and not only is it completely bogus and not supported by anything, but the end result was (literally) that someone replied with:

"Thanks so much for this, I'm going to stop eating PB+J sandwiches".

So someone comes on here and posts something completely false and out of fear, another person eliminates something they enjoy from their diet. Now, for all we know someone else is reading that post and not replying, because they're in the kitchen stressed out over how they're going to re-arrange every meal in their day so that the carb sources aren't ever eaten with fat.


This is not a good thing.

There's a very small list of things that are necessary to lose weight.
There's a very large list of things that are personal preference for losing weight. (In this list I include medical reasons, moral reasons, individual intolerances).


Both of these are important, but focus on the necessities first and customize the personal preference aspects to give you the best adherence or most enjoyment possible out of your journey.


And don't confuse the two for yourself or others.

/end rant.

STOP HATING!

Hehehe

In all honesty, I enjoyed your rant very much. I think this all the time as I read threads.

albinogorilla

Agree with OP, misinformation is rampant. Although, I do feel that a lot of the misinformation, is useful in other means. Weight loss is a calorie in, calorie out game thats pretty much the important part. But, the misinformation that is often put forth, if was put forth in other capacities could be helpful to some. Obviously there is no way to stop this, as people join, post a few times, leave, rejoin...........take 6 months off........post again.........change a screen name...........start over, etc..........

Ex:
Eating several small meals vs a couple with the same calorie content will not help you lose weight, but for somone, it might be easier for them to stay within their calories if they spread them out more through out the day.

Ex:
Guzzling water will not make you lose weight. But, for someone it might help them to feel more full, and as a result eat less until they get a better feel for portion control.

Personally, I enjoy the "broscience." Not to be embraced as fact, but rather to share peoples personal experiences. If someone lost weight and looks great, its because they ate at a calorie deficit. But, if the method they used to do that is different I would like to hear it. Just dont pass it off as science. Maybe eating 7 small meals is more realistic to somone just starting out who is used to snacking all the time........ that might make the difference for them.

Before the internet this so called "broscience" was what we had, and we got by pretty well on it. It has benefit, but needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

BaconMD

Your metabolism starts slowing down after about 72 hours of complete fasting. Millions of people actually do eat every other day, and live just fine.

Thanks. I started off facetious, but then I really wanted to know.

I believe, and no flames please, I'm trying to interpret here, that the overall scope of the post is to suggest that people need to be cautious with what they adopt as rigid requirements as opposed to selectable alternatives.

Makes sense, this and all else you wrote. I've advised people to eat when hungry, so that could be one meal, or eight. Whatever works for them. But as I said above, I wasn't actually being serious at first, but then I got curious about it. Before I started trying to eat better (ie: not Wendy's once or twice a day) and practice portion control, there were actually days that I didn't eat at all. I don't think it was a good idea, even then. I just sometimes didn't eat, wasn't hungry, or whatever.

PJilly

Agree with OP, misinformation is rampant. Although, I do feel that a lot of the misinformation, is useful in other means. Weight loss is a calorie in, calorie out game thats pretty much the important part. But, the misinformation that is often put forth, if was put forth in other capacities could be helpful to some. Obviously there is no way to stop this, as people join, post a few times, leave, rejoin...........take 6 months off........post again.........change a screen name...........start over, etc..........

Ex:
Eating several small meals vs a couple with the same calorie content will not help you lose weight, but for somone, it might be easier for them to stay within their calories if they spread them out more through out the day.

Ex:
Guzzling water will not make you lose weight. But, for someone it might help them to feel more full, and as a result eat less until they get a better feel for portion control.

Personally, I enjoy the "broscience." Not to be embraced as fact, but rather to share peoples personal experiences. If someone lost weight and looks great, its because they ate at a calorie deficit. But, if the method they used to do that is different I would like to hear it. Just dont pass it off as science. Maybe eating 7 small meals is more realistic to somone just starting out who is used to snacking all the time........ that might make the difference for them.

Before the internet this so called "broscience" was what we had, and we got by pretty well on it. It has benefit, but needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

I like hearing people's anecdotes too, provided they come from a place of, "This is what was helpful for me," and not, "This is the only way it can be done."

albinogorilla

Agree with OP, misinformation is rampant. Although, I do feel that a lot of the misinformation, is useful in other means. Weight loss is a calorie in, calorie out game thats pretty much the important part. But, the misinformation that is often put forth, if was put forth in other capacities could be helpful to some. Obviously there is no way to stop this, as people join, post a few times, leave, rejoin...........take 6 months off........post again.........change a screen name...........start over, etc..........

Ex:
Eating several small meals vs a couple with the same calorie content will not help you lose weight, but for somone, it might be easier for them to stay within their calories if they spread them out more through out the day.

Ex:
Guzzling water will not make you lose weight. But, for someone it might help them to feel more full, and as a result eat less until they get a better feel for portion control.

Personally, I enjoy the "broscience." Not to be embraced as fact, but rather to share peoples personal experiences. If someone lost weight and looks great, its because they ate at a calorie deficit. But, if the method they used to do that is different I would like to hear it. Just dont pass it off as science. Maybe eating 7 small meals is more realistic to somone just starting out who is used to snacking all the time........ that might make the difference for them.

Before the internet this so called "broscience" was what we had, and we got by pretty well on it. It has benefit, but needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

I like hearing people's anecdotes too, provided they come from a place of, "This is what was helpful for me," and not, "This is the only way it can be done."

exactly..........

Acg67

Not to be embraced as fact, but rather to share peoples personal experiences. If someone lost weight and looks great, its because they ate at a calorie deficit. But, if the method they used to do that is different I would like to hear it. Just dont pass it off as science. Maybe eating 7 small meals is more realistic to somone just starting out who is used to snacking all the time........ that might make the difference for them.

This is a good point and i think people tend to take issue when people state why something worked for them and that why happens to be pseudoscience or some other nonsense. It's one thing to say here's how i did something and what worked for me and something totally different saying here's what i did and here' s why it worked and they list a whole bunch of stuff that is nothing more then broscience at best

danielnoble

What would be good if people actually supported their claims with references from the scientific journals they are getting their information from.

Acg67

What would be good if people actually supported their claims with references from the scientific journals they are getting their information from.

When people do, others just ignore them

snaggly

As an absolute newbie to fitness and weight loss, I was completely and utterly confused by all the contradictory information posted on this site :laugh: :laugh: :sad:

I got even more confused when I spoke to different personal trainers because each one had his/her own way of doing things :laugh:

BUT at the end of the day, I have learnt so much from this site and am slowly finding out what works for me long term. I mean, who the heck knew who Tom Venturo or what IF or spiking was before venturing on this site??

Thanks to all the knowledgeable members here for posting about your successes, failures and your take on all the info out there

albinogorilla

What would be good if people actually supported their claims with references from the scientific journals they are getting their information from.

When people do, others just ignore them

too much readin'

SFalconStorm

What would be good if people actually supported their claims with references from the scientific journals they are getting their information from.

When people do, others just ignore them

I often look up links that are posted. I just don't usually comment on the big debates because by the time I get done reading , a) the topic has already been beaten to death and b) someone else has usually already said what I wanted to say anyway.

That being said, I am not a statistician (sp?) and often don't have the educational background to interpret some of these studies so I do have to rely on another person's interpretation and season it with common sense.

I would also like to say that I see a lot of people falling back on the 'ask your doctor' thing and I have to say that doctors are just as human as the next guy and the one that scraped by with the barely passing grade still gets to put 'M.D.' after their name. Even their advice has to be seasoned with some self education and common sense.

That's my two cents.

Elizabeth_C34

What would be good if people actually supported their claims with references from the scientific journals they are getting their information from.

When people do, others just ignore them

Yup.

Sidesteal: You rock man! This post is epic awesomeness!

Elizabeth_C34

As an absolute newbie to fitness and weight loss, I was completely and utterly confused by all the contradictory information posted on this site :laugh: :laugh: :sad:

I got even more confused when I spoke to different personal trainers because each one had his/her own way of doing things :laugh:

BUT at the end of the day, I have learnt so much from this site and am slowly finding out what works for me long term. I mean, who the heck knew who Tom Venturo or what IF or spiking was before venturing on this site??

Thanks to all the knowledgeable members here for posting about your successes, failures and your take on all the info out there

It takes a while to sort through the B.S. Sidesteal, Acg, and Ninerbuff are really really great guys to listen to. They know their stuff and are happy to provide source information if you ask for it.

tameko2

YES!

I hope people take this to heart. It's almost like you have to post about exercise calories or the "evils" of carbs and insulin to get a response around here.

I actually had the following thread titles ready to go:

"It's not about calories, it's about clean eating"

and

"I have massive breasts and I cannot jog"


But I thought I'd make one more attempt at a legit title. Next time it's on.

I think you should repost this under both of those and more like:

"Paleo dieters only please!"
"LADIES ONLY PLEASE, TOM QUESTION"
"Low carbers here"
"Christian long distance cyclists who are going vegan"
"sports bras - plz help"

AntWrig

People only believe what they want to hear.