I have a nutrition theory. What do you think?

I think... no

Or. You could eat less and move more.

Don't overcomplicate something simple.

Eat well. Get moving. Be consistent. Be patient. See progress.

I've read articles that said the same thing about your theory, and had one doctor tell me to go low carb/sugar to control my pre-diabetes, but it's just not something I can stick with . BTW, I'm an apple.

Every one is going to be different, but it really does come down to calories. I'm very pear shaped and I started my weight loss last fall in a size 14 jeans. I did alternate day intermittent fasting (a different way of restricting calories, with low calorie 'fasting' days), and fast forward to today-I'm wearing a size 4 jeans and can wear size 2 shorts/size 0 skirts. The only thing I did was restrict my calories, albeit in an unconventional way I also did absolutely no exercise while I was activity losing weight. My mom is apple shaped and is now doing alternate day intermittent fasting and she's no longer obese, for the first time since she was a kid. The only thing she's doing is restricting her calories

Could you define the time range, when you were weighing and how often, what defines the "weight coming back on" according to you.

I know that weight will fluctuate up and down according to the scale. According to my scale, I've gain 7-8 pounds over the course of the last few days eating at deficit and exercising. Knowing that I was not eating at surplus, this is the results of water retention, food, bloat, and whatever else, but I do know it's not the increase of actual fat.

I am prone to be "apple" shape. I KNOW I lose best when I eat low glycemic.
Everyone in my family is large (I'm not). Everyone is apple shaped. I've been trying to get my sister to try to eat low glycemic for years. I'd bet her a thousand bucks she could more readily lose weight that way.

Or. You could eat less and move more.

Thanks for not making me go through the - "stop complicating things" speech...

No to the theory. If one is healthy (no disease) and with no hormonal complications, then ANY diet will work if followed.

I made a thread a while back about people not being "special". And it still applies. Human physiology works the same for everyone.

i would really like to see more sex-specific studies on the fx of different nutrition/exercise regimes.

most studies that pay attention to it show that (healthy) women and men have different hormonal responses both to exercise and diet. not huge differences, but they exist.

re body type: the diabetics with apple shapes could easily include people who were originally pears & gained visceral fat as a result of metabolic processes

I am apple and when I first started on MFP I ate a really heavy protein diet, not atkins, just I ate meat/eggs all the time.

The last 5 months or more I have become vegetarian, probably because I overloaded on meat and the thought of eating meat turns my stomach.

With the protein and now the carbs I always keep within my calorie goals.

It has not made one jot of difference to my apple shape.

I am still apple but with a lower bf%

My belief is that your shape is determined by genetics. My mother and maternal grandmother, great grandmother were all apple shaped

Let me add on to my previous post..if you have a parent with...let us say large ears/small nose/under eye bags

Let us just call them distinguishing features, then, they are most likely going to be passed down genetically.

You can not `diet` those features away.

If you are apple/pear/hourglass etc then it is most likely that you have inherent genes and all you can do is work with them the best you can.

If you become overweight then those problem areas will become more apparent.

I, too, have been thinking a lot about the conflicting advice and evidence around weight loss. I enjoyed reading your theory and thought it made some sense on its face.

Unfortunately, it doesn't ring true with my own experience. I easily lost 20 lbs on a paleo-type diet, when I was doing very little exercise and I was definitely eating a high calorie diet. I'm a pear. My husband is an apple and while he initially lost over 65 lbs doing paleo he stalled out and is now going with calorie restriction although still low-carb.

I'm now experimenting with calorie counting and looking for a calorie deficit approach so I can eat the foods I love (in moderation). I'm curious to see how it compares with the paleo experience. While the paleo experience is a proven system for me, the truth is I was not happy with the foods I needed to eat (or, more specifically, what I couldn't eat) and my regaining the weight is proof that, for me at least, it's not a diet I can stick with for life. I'm hoping perhaps calorie tracking will be sustainable for me.

I know it seems to be "common sense" that weight loss is as simple as maintaining a caloric deficit, but obviously it is not that simple or we wouldn't have an epidemic of overweight people. Blaming it on willpower and character strength is an easy moral judgement, and discards the vastly complex systems in our body that are involved in regulating body weight.

Yes, it is true that you can starve yourself into thinness and spend half your life at the gym, but really who wants that and who can live a life where they are hungry all the time? If you are going hungry you will not last on any diet for a lifetime, and yo-yo-ing is worse for you than just being fat, so some studies say.

The Black Swan principle states that it is very hard to prove all swans are white, but as soon as you find one black swan you have disproven the theory. It is easy to state that low calories are the cure for all overweight people, but the black swans are already out there. You can eat a higher calorie diet and lose more weight faster than a lower calorie diet. I myself am living proof of that.

Calories in = calories out is a huge oversimplification of a complex biochemical system whose main priority is homeostasis. The body has many redundant systems whose job it is to reset things to the status quo. This is why many people stall out, etc. Things change as you change your eating and exercise habits. In some ways, your body is working against you. In other ways, we sabotage our bodies by introducing high carb intake and refined sugars to a body that never evolved to handle such a diet.

I've come to believe there is no one theory that is going to work for everybody and be a realistic solution to weight loss. But I do feel there is a solution for a healthy weight for each person, they just need to see what works best for them.

It's possible. Anyone who outright dismisses it is closed-minded.

Or it's just something someone pulled out of thin air with zero evidence.

It's not a "theory." It's an idea. At best it's a hypothesis. But it's not a theory.

It's possible. Anyone who outright dismisses it is closed-minded.

Or it's just something someone pulled out of thin air with zero evidence.

It's not a "theory." It's an idea. At best it's a hypothesis. But it's not a theory.

Perhaps "conjecture" is the word you're looking for?