Has "Eat Less, Move More" always been common

infamousmk
infamousmk Posts: 6,025 Member
edited January 10 in Chit-Chat
knowledge? I did not grow up in a health-minded household, and I confess that I just found out about the whole calories in vs. calories out a couple years ago (thanks to MFP!), so I have a genuine question about what science has had to say about this.

Especially given the fact that I've always known about fad diets. And everyone knows at least a few, right? So, were there just crazy bro science ideals out there before someone amazingly discovered it's all about calories*? Or was I just really, really dumb?

I've been contemplating this for some time now, given the fact that it seems as though every new member to MFP holds at least some of these bad ideas as gospel... I mean, one of my first posts ever was telling someone to do low weight and high reps to get 'toned'... Why doesn't everyone just know about the whole calories thing?


*I realize there can and most likely will be more to "it" than calories, but for ease of sharing of information, we're going on the 'it's all about calories' concept.

Replies

  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    I think there is a real lack of public education in this area, which leads to people believing random things that they hear.
  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,474 Member
    you can't lose it if you do not move it.
    ITS TRUE!
  • lacurandera1
    lacurandera1 Posts: 8,083 Member
    I think there is a real lack of public education in this area, which leads to people believing random things that they hear.

    That, and a real lack of motivation. To learn and/or do.
  • VelociMama
    VelociMama Posts: 3,119 Member
    Most of the bad information out there is from advertisements over the years bombarding people with "buy this supplement to lose weight!" kind of information. If you ever watch those ads, they also tend to make ridiculous statements about hormones and whatever other "chemical" they are trying to sell you and explain in pseudoscience why it works. Combine that with the "I WANT IT NOW" culture of instant gratification, and you've got yourself a recipe for fad diets and crappy information run amok.

    Historically, human beings have been well aware that excess food and a sedentary lifestyle leads to weight gain, and less food and a more active lifestyle leads to weight loss for a very very long time.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    It's because so many magazines publish bull crap that isn't based on science. They make faulty logic jumps, no one realizes it and just spreads the misinformation around.

    So the 6 meals a day thing (I totally believed that for a long time). Someone realized that you burn calories digesting food. Then some one jumped to the conclusion that if you burn calories digesting food if you digest food more often, you burn calories more often, so they wrote about eating 6 times a day to increase "metabolism" which I guess is the amount of calories you burn. A million other magazines pick-up on the idea and republished it. In truth, yes, you burn calories digesting but it's proportional to the amount of food eaten. If you eat 2000 calories spread over 6 meals you burn the same amount to digest it as if you at it all in one meal.

    Same thing with the high rep thing. Someone stuck a needle in a dude's arm, and a woman's arm. Under the microscope they discovered the woman's muscle has more "endurance" fibers than the man's. The man has more "fast twitch" ones. Therefore they decided women were better at endurance and men strength so women should ONLY train endurance. I'm not sure how they made that jump but again 8 different magazines reprinted it and suddenly it's fitness "law".

    So yeah, I blame fitness magazines.
  • Tw1zzler
    Tw1zzler Posts: 583 Member
    I think there is a real lack of public education in this area, which leads to people believing random things that they hear.

    This. And magazines print so much misinformation based on the latest study which is usually flawed, they rarely post the specific study.

    I grew up eating 'health' food. There is always someone out there extolling the virtues of one diet over another, it's confusing. Someone new to health & fitness might need advice from someone experienced. I read Tosca Reno's Eat Clean and started that, then I read Eat to Live and was convinced being vegan was the way to go. Then I read Wheat Belly and the Primal Blueprint and thought Paleo is the way to go... so much out there to be confused by.

    I have a friend who works for a company that is in hospitals and takes referrals from doctors. They sell prepackaged meals, bars & shakes. Eat the boxed stuff & fruit & veggies and you are done. Some people need it to be that simple.

    I think that a lot of 'bro-science' came from early body builder experience and science is bearing some of it out. People that tend to lose fat for good, eat a calorie controlled diet and continue to exercise to maintain.
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