i was arguing with a grown woman who’s done slimming world and lost weight and we had an argument about how you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight and she wasn’t having it.
she was like well i lose weight while eating in a surplus!! well you clearly weren’t in a surplus and how would you know if you were if you don’t count calories??
i tried explaining calories in bc calories out she was like “well i’m on slimming world and we don’t use that”
it made me SO mad like what’s not clicking
trulyhealy
Member Posts: 219 Member
Member Posts: 219 Member
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you’re right but like it’s just so annoying
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Weight loss and everything that goes along with it
she’s not an acquaintance we talk about weight loss a lot and i thought she would understand the facts since she’s lost weight
Agree. But to the OP, I feel you. I have become verrry cautious as to who I tell I about my weight loss efforts/calorie restriction. It seems wild, but I find more people telling me "you can cheat" regarding my dietary changes than "good for you on taking control of this!"
My body has historically told me that "YOU NEED TO NOT EAT THIS MUCH AND THEN YOU WILL LOSE THIS EXTRA WEIGHT!" Sooooo I'm going to listen to my bod rather than the metabolically/physiologically different bodied opinions around me.
Good luck and keep it up!
It does not worth that way though. Some, probably not many, people are able to lose weight while believing the wrong things. That is good news for many of us though. Calorie deficits can happen even if the person doesn't realize it is happening or trying to directly make it happen.
I believe, and it is a weird thing to wrap your head around, that if you go through a long period of steady weight gain it is extremely likely that there were also days you lost weight. It it just that gaining days greatly outnumbered losing ones.
As you know from this example, people sometimes lose weight without actually *counting* calories. Maybe there are prescribed diets, or point systems, or some other mechanism. You and I know that behind the scenes, those methods are causing the person to be at a calorie deficit, and that that's why they lose weight.
It's not unusual, especially with the commercialized/marketed programs, for the program to say that "calorie counting doesn't work", and to have reasons why it doesn't. Sometimes there's a kernel of reality in those reasons, but they're not fully accurate. (Sometimes we dedicated, committed calorie counters can act the same way about other methods, too. 😆). Slimming World is a profit making enterprise, isn't it? (We don't have it here.) Maybe it has some of that "calorie counting doesn't work" stuff in its materials.
Anyway, if people don't count calories, they can be very calorie unaware. Some people here on MFP shift their eating to a more "whole foods/healthy" ways of eating, and find it "so much food". Some of the commercial programs (maybe Slimming World?) try to shift people more toward more whole/healthy foods, too, and people not calorie counting maybe think they must be eating more calories because they're eating more food (as it seems to them)?
I understand your frustration, but I think sadly people are not going to have a good understanding of methods they themselves don't explicitly use. There may indeed be certain parts of this that you won't be able to discuss with your friend, and stay on pleasant terms., sadly. Maybe some parts can be talked about without argument, though, and still maintain some dialog?
Sorry you're experiencing this.
I don't think the average person has much of a concept of what a calorie is, beyond the food label. If you don't have a strong understanding of how the biology of metabolism works, calories can be really mysterious and confusing. The idea of more food vs. more calories can be hard to grasp, as we typically first look at volume/weight as an easy indicator of quantity, though it can be very deceiving.
I think Ann above hit the nail on the head. If folks aren't using calorie counting and seeing its effects first hand, they are a lot less likely to accept that it works. There is also SO MUCH bad information out there about diet and weight loss. If someone already has misconceptions, you are starting from a disadvantaged point. You are in a position to not only correct their misunderstandings, but are also often implying that what other people they trust (often more than you) have told them is true. Cognitive biases make changing these opinions very difficult to do.
I agree. I have so many relatives who claim they cant lose weight and "counting calories doesn't work". Only (insert random diet trend that ultimately works by lowering calories) works for a few weeks I lose a ton then nothing and I give up!
They cant seem to grasp the concept. Or the concept that these "diets" cause a lot of water and bulk weight loss in the beginning then are frustrated when they start having a NORMAL 1lb loss a week and give up.
Saw this the other day and did a *facepalm*... lots of comments on it too with people believing that different timing of IF will somehow target different areas of fat.
And so it's no surprise that people don't understand energy balance.
Ultimately for claims that fall under science, the thing to ask someone is, "can you tell me now what evidence, what observation(s) would need to exist, hypothetically, to show you that your beliefs are wrong?" If they can't tell you that ahead of time, they don't really have a workable model in their mind, and it very well might not be worth discussing further.
It's based on calorie reduction through types of food (low-fat food from a list, generally has to be cooked) and portion size (fill 1/3 plate with low-cal veg and the rest with food from a list), and calorie counting for the points.
I think it would be easy for somebody to think they were eating in a surplus because it looks like there's no calorie counting, and I know people sometimes say they are eating more (because they are having to eat more low-cal veg, and low-fat foods, so there is more bulk).
Impossible doesn't mean what you think it means. You, me and everybody else can't create energy from nothing.
If you said inadvisable, inappropriate or difficult that's very, very different to impossible. Words have meanings and if you choose the wrong ones don't be surprised when you get a negative reaction.
Ginga Ninja, aka The Head Potato, is that you?!?
Yes. While there is every possibility there is a miscommunication between you and them, if you are accurately reporting their analysis, then yes, the people do know at least one thing your advisers don't. Like if you purported your medical researchers said "the earth is flat", they'd be just as wrong about that despite their years of medical school. By the same standard, if your advisers are literally saying a body can't lose weight in an actual calorie deficit, they are know at least one thing less than people that say calorie deficits cause weight loss.
Not to mention, for all they learn about very specific forms of biology, plenty of doctors do believe wrong things. There are plenty of doctors that deny evolution despite the fact that without it, it makes no sense that they ever study animal models in addition to humans, or that a test on a chimpanzee is more reliable about what will happen from a treatment than the same done on rats, and both better than a study done in iguanas.