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What commonly given MFP Forum advice do you personally disagree with?

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Replies

  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    Not a specific piece of advice, but offering advice without understanding fully the issue at hand is a common problem. Where the person is in the process, what their bodyfat % is, etc. are all critical pieces of information, which leads to much of the misinformation and really bad advice at times.

    The one that is kinda getting to me lately is offering advice to raise/lower calories based on the MFP numbers without asking how their weight loss is going. So if someone says they are eating 1200, kinda more important to see if they are losing as expected then determine if they need to eat more.

    Actually, it's more important to first see if they're even tracking/logging accurately in the first place. Most people who think they're eating 1200 calories and not losing aren't eating anywhere near 1200 calories.

    My point is that we don't know if they are losing or not. It's different if they come asking why they are not losing, but I've seen a bunch where they don't say if they are or aren't, and it turns out they are losing fine.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    Nutrition/fitness/weight loss.

    I think you're supposed to answer first. :wink:

    I see a lot of people staunchly defending certain things as 'the one true way of eating that works for everyone' (TM). I think that most long-timers would agree that each of us need to find what works for us in regards to eating schedule, macro breakdown, etc. Not being too rigid, or trying to change your diet and lifestyle to the point that it's unsustainable. It's funny how heated some of these discussions can get around diet and exercise.

    I've never seen moderation become such a hotly contested topic in any other setting than this.

    Yeah.

    Taking the chance of starting WWIII, but I agree with this...

    Some people are moderators with some foods and some just aren't.

    If you are - well, good for you.

    Maybe step out of the discussions with people who aren't.

    Not everyone is the same on this.

    I also think the moderator/abstainer thing may be overstated (even Gretchen Rubin has a more complex breakdown she likes now).

    Very likely many or most people are moderators on some things or at some times and abstainers on others.

    Sometimes people may not be moderators under some circumstances (i.e., can't have it at home, or can't eat it out of a large package), but could be about others -- I'll have it on holiday, I'll have it outside the house.

    At one time I thought I could not moderate certain foods and had to have a restrictive diet or regularly overeat. I eventually realized that if I put structure around it I could moderate more broadly (although with some things it's easier to just abstain). I would say that exploring the specific experiences and nuance can be helpful.

    I definitely agree that it is much more nuanced. It's not black/white that you're either a moderator or abstainer. There are plenty of shades of gray. I am most definitely gray.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    Nutrition/fitness/weight loss.

    I think you're supposed to answer first. :wink:

    Probably, but then I would have been woo'd into oblivion for mine! :) I personally think calorie counting can go too far sometimes. It's silly to advise someone to weigh their banana at home, bring it to work and eat it, and then bring the banana peel back home to weigh it. Weighing the banana and just making a reasonable estimate of the peel weight based on previous bananas makes more sense to me.

    For the average person who isn't having trouble losing, I would agree. I think that advice tends to be given to people who are saying they can't lose weight, but have huge holes in their logging.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    It's not a specific piece of advice, but it kind of bugs me when people talk about cardio as if it were all one undifferentiated thing, regardless of exercise modality.

    Different forms of exercise place different demands on the body. If there's consistent practice over time, the body responds to those demands. Different forms of "cardio" involve different demands.

    Most of them make demands on more than the cardiovascular system. For example, a total beginner who starts cycling regularly is going to develop some leg strength, and (other conditions met - protein, fuel, progressive stress, etc.) eventually add leg muscle . . . not as rapidly as with weight training, but it will happen.

    "Cardio" is not all one thing.

    Here also, I think most of the MFP old hands understand and reflect this, but it does get shorthanded in some threads in a way that can limit insight/understanding.

    The myths ("cardio burns up muscles" without qualification) are a whole 'nother matter.

    There's lots of dumb advice (telling beginners to do HIIT for maximum weight loss effectiveness; universal prescriptions to "cut carbs", "eliminate sugar", "eat clean", etc.), but a lot of that seems to come from starry-eyed near-beginners who've read too many lame diet/fitness blogs and are evangelists for what's helped them lose their first 5-10 pounds. Most people do tend to think other people are just like them, or should be . . . but that would be boring. ;)

    I can attest to this. I've been a cyclist all my life, for two decades or more before I started lifting. I've always had trouble with pants, if the legs fit the waist is too big.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    OddDitty wrote: »
    For me its when people start giving medical advice or diagnosing others.

    I haven't seen that.
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