What nobody tells you about losing weight
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re other people commenting on your weight
Pre-pandemic when I worked in an office, there was a guy (who had Crohn's Disease) and a long hair blonde woman, who was probably in the ideal bmi range, who were always making sideways comments like eat less, move more and giving judgy side-glances no matter what I ate.
Well of course someone with Chrone's doesn't have a problem with extra weight, how ridiculous it is for him to be so judgy! And I do believe all those things they said - eat less more more, for example - are all lies and unsupported by scientific evidence.
But no two ways about it, those sideways looks and judgy comments are mean-spirited and cruel and they do cut deep, no matter how I try to ignore them. Hope everyone is able to manage those comments better than I did.7 -
I bit my tongue and sat on my hands over that, so thanks for asking.8 -
I recommend you read "The Obesity Code" by Dr Jason Fung. He reviews all the various things we have been told our entire lives, including being made to feel inadequate, no self-control, etc, and destroys them by reviewing long-term scientific studies.1 -
He reviews all the various things we have been told our entire lives, including being made to feel inadequate, no self-control, etc, and destroys them by reviewing long-term scientific studies.
Thank you. I asked the question because I thought that myfitnesspal was an app for logging food (calories - fats - carbs- protein) and excercise and I never thought that I'd find here someone who doesn't believe in that. So initially I thought that my inadequate english made me misunderstand your point.
In my life I don't let anyone control my emotions and I never felt the need to "destroy" someone, especially the scientific community. As a scientist (in a very different field) I expect the new findings to be presented in peer reviewed scientific papers and not in popular books. Also generally, scientists react with "oh look at this weird thing! why do you think it happens? what if we change some parameters?" when there are new findings. In my engineering field I never saw a researcher using the word "destroy" against other scientists.
But I'm not a doctor and can't keep up with research papers. Thus, I trust my doctor.
Until now: I eat more calories, I gain weight. I eat moderately, I lose. It worked perfectly so far for my body.
I'll always say "I felt... " instead of "I was made to feel..." because I intent to keep being the only one responsible for my thoughts and my feelings and I won't let anyone else control my life. That also worked miracles for my life. If I'm to blame for my shortcomings, I'm to be praised for my successes and my life is in my hands and my abilities to change for the better.
But that's just me. If that doctor's book makes you see results,you should follow that path.
I'm not a doctor, and I'm not in any place to comment or advice others about their lives.
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I recommend you read "The Obesity Code" by Dr Jason Fung. He reviews all the various things we have been told our entire lives, including being made to feel inadequate, no self-control, etc, and destroys them by reviewing long-term scientific studies.
I recommend you do some research on Jason Fung before believing anything he says or writes. His pseudoscientific ideas are not published in peer-reviewed literature, and it seems that at best he's giving out bad advice.11 -
...elided...
Thank you. I asked the question because I thought that myfitnesspal was an app for logging food (calories - fats - carbs- protein) and excercise and I never thought that I'd find here someone who doesn't believe in that. So initially I thought that my inadequate english made me misunderstand your point.
...elided...
Yes, I ascribed to the eat less/move more philosophy -- and that worked for me when I was in my 20s but that is much more challenging now that I am older.
Yes, I am using mfp to track my food intake because my dr is concerned that I am not eating enough. I have had no appetite since I was discharged from the hospital a month ago and some days eat less than 1200 calories, according to mfp.
I'm not 100% convinced that Dr Fung is correct but I am open to the option that he is correct and the previous studies have been skewed by the sponsors of those studies. Anyone remember when the tobacco industry funded studies that said smoking was safe? Or how about when the US FDA was considering if sugar could be GRAS (generally recognized as safe)? Well that was a long time ago (1967) and the sugar industry covertly funded that research that put the blame on fat and not sugar. You can read (or listen) about that on a Sep 2016 NPR report.
And yes, this has been published in accepted scientific journals - JAMA of Internal Medicine. Here is the link to the synopsis. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2548255
Dr Fung is not alone in his conclusions and he is not the first doctor to publish a book like his. He talks about balanced diet and everything else - things that mfp is useful for.
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re other people commenting on your weight
Pre-pandemic when I worked in an office, there was a guy (who had Crohn's Disease) and a long hair blonde woman, who was probably in the ideal bmi range, who were always making sideways comments like eat less, move more and giving judgy side-glances no matter what I ate.
Well of course someone with Chrone's doesn't have a problem with extra weight, how ridiculous it is for him to be so judgy! And I do believe all those things they said - eat less more more, for example - are all lies and unsupported by scientific evidence.
But no two ways about it, those sideways looks and judgy comments are mean-spirited and cruel and they do cut deep, no matter how I try to ignore them. Hope everyone is able to manage those comments better than I did.
What nobody tells many about losing weight is it really can be as simple for some people as eating less and moving more. And that statement is in fact supported by scientific evidence, and has been for a long, long, long time. Time and time again peer reviewed studies show that energy balance is the primary driving force behind your weight. Not macros, not fad diets, not theories. There is no "code" to being overweight or obese, there is simple science in action, and both result from people eating more than required for the energy they expend, thus they store calories in the form of fat.
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robertw486 wrote: »re other people commenting on your weight
Pre-pandemic when I worked in an office, there was a guy (who had Crohn's Disease) and a long hair blonde woman, who was probably in the ideal bmi range, who were always making sideways comments like eat less, move more and giving judgy side-glances no matter what I ate.
Well of course someone with Chrone's doesn't have a problem with extra weight, how ridiculous it is for him to be so judgy! And I do believe all those things they said - eat less more more, for example - are all lies and unsupported by scientific evidence.
But no two ways about it, those sideways looks and judgy comments are mean-spirited and cruel and they do cut deep, no matter how I try to ignore them. Hope everyone is able to manage those comments better than I did.
What nobody tells many about losing weight is it really can be as simple for some people as eating less and moving more. And that statement is in fact supported by scientific evidence, and has been for a long, long, long time. Time and time again peer reviewed studies show that energy balance is the primary driving force behind your weight. Not macros, not fad diets, not theories. There is no "code" to being overweight or obese, there is simple science in action, and both result from people eating more than required for the energy they expend, thus they store calories in the form of fat.
I most wholeheartedly agree with the above statement. I'm a 60 year old woman and I've had a predominantly healthy , clean eating diet for decades. .
5 weeks ago I found myself staring at the scales in the doctors surgery. Somewhere over the last decade in between eating salmon , salad and boiled eggs I'd reached the weight of 100 kgs.
Ummm... utter disbelief.
So that very day I came home , downloaded the MFP app and started to religiously track what I was putting in my mouth. Actually weighing portions and adjusting accordingly.
I bought a pedometer and started a YouTube walking program.
And I'm losing weight.
Yes, my diet was already very clean...but I was eating too much ..and not moving enough.
So far, so good. I'm putting my faith in the simple Calories in and Calories out and I feel absolutely empowered and in control.
I'm kicking myself that I didn't do this 20 years ago. I would have realized much sooner that my perception of portions was out of wack. Never mind! I'm doing it now and the system is working.26 -
I recommend you read "The Obesity Code" by Dr Jason Fung. He reviews all the various things we have been told our entire lives, including being made to feel inadequate, no self-control, etc, and destroys them by reviewing long-term scientific studies.
Popular press books aren't necessarily good science, even when they point out studies. Individual studies are fairly meaningless, until replicated and confirmed. Further, most readers of the book don't read the studies. That's understandable, but it leaves readers vulnerable to cherry-picked content, and sometimes the studies don't even say what a book claims!
W =hen I'm swayed to some theory, I consider it important to read its critics, and I try to do so fairly. Fung is not well regarded by peers in the field. He's had success in treating certain conditions, but that speaks more to his clinical acumen than his theories about why it works.
In the larger world of the relevant science, it's an accepted fundamental truth that moving more and eating less (i.e., calorie balance) is at the foundation of body weight management. The problem is that even though calories are the foundation, there's much more to accomplishing weight loss at a practical and even scientific level than getting a calorie estimate from a so-called "calculator" then counting calories.
At the scientific level, other fundamental truths are that human bodies are dynamic with respect to calorie balance, that results vary between individuals, and that other characteristics of food (besides calories) matter in a practical and (to some extent) theoretical sense. (<== Very few sources ever tell us these things - with specifics - about weight loss, so I'm gonna say this post is on topic. Long, though, because I'm going to be more specific
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Human bodies are dynamic in that calories in affect calories out. Oversimplifying: Eat more calories, there's a tendency to be more active, so burn more calories. Eat fewer calories, there's a tendency to fatigue, bleeding calorie burn out of one's day. Do major calorie-burning workouts, and fatigue may also make a person drag through the day, so net calorie burn is lower than expected. Or, if someone becomes more fit (gradually!), there's a tendency to move more in daily life, maybe do more exercise, maybe add muscle and bump up resting calorie burn (RMR) a tiny bit. This doesn't mean the calorie balance concept is incorrect, it means that it's more nuanced. It still comes down to eating less (than we burn) and moving more (than we eat), but the target number can shift.
Increasingly, it seems like the weight of research is demonstrating that people vary in ways that affect weight management results, and for varied reasons. Some people seem more sensitive to those "tendencies" in my previous paragraph. Gut microbiome and individual genetics can affect how each person responds to particular foods, calorie levels, activity types/levels, etc., in ways that can strongly affect practical weight management. Again this doesn't mean that the calorie balance equation is incorrect, it means that people vary in the fraction of calories they absorb from their food, how their calorie intake (plus timing and food choice) affects energy level and even attitudes, how sated they feel, etc.
Food characteristics also cause variation that can affect calorie counting. Some foods require materially more calories to digest than others, for example. The effect of that in a typical mixed diet is small, but it's a thing. Some people will find some foods more mood-enhancing, energy-increasing, filling, and the like. Again, that's not an invalidation of "calories in, calories out" as a foundation issue, but rather that calculating the actual detailed ins and outs is more complicated, and food choice also affects the practical ability to accomplish a weight loss goal. (It's a good thing that we don't need to be totally accurate to use calorie counting successfully. All we need is workable estimates.)
From observing my friends, some people seem to have a bent to believe iconoclasts, perhaps because of a conviction that the mainstream view is inherently corrupt due to money following the mainstream, and because of intellectual inertia in that mainstream. (The iconoclasts are usually happy to encourage those views.) Historically, it turns out that some iconoclasts are right, sometimes in ways that radically transform a field. In practice, that doesn't happen very often. Most iconoclasts turn out to be completely wrong.
My opinion: Some of the strategies Fung advocates will help some people. His theoretical foundations are shaky, and some of his pronouncements are not well-supported by science.
P.S. I agree with @Ariadne__ that "being made to feel" thing is not in accord with my personal philosophy. To me, that's self-disempowerment. It can lead toward simmering resentment, besides (because of perceiving that others block our success via our feelings). I prefer to focus on what I personally can control or at least influence, and when it comes to eating and moving I have nearly total control, in the fortunate comfortably middle-class, developed world situation in which I find myself. YMMV.
In my social set, which is a biased sample of humanity (not speaking of the big wide world), I've noticed that people who tend to be repeatedly attracted to iconoclasts also tend to feel they've been victimized in some way by mainstream ideas, to the extent of becoming suspicious of the mainstream. That's understandable, but can be problematic.
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@AnnePT77 says it all.
The simplicity and sensibility of the Calories in and Calories Out for me has been a workable and realistic approach. No bells and whistles, smoke and mirrors or endless brain noise taking up space.
I love the system! The system works!
I'M in charge of ME.9 -
you know those exercise or yoga poses where they make you bend and then say 'take a deep breath' and you are like 'yeah right!' either i can bend or i can breathe.... well now it kinda makes sense.16
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I started doing 100 situps a day now I have gone up to 350 a day and I can do 150 without a break!10
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Norma_Cenva wrote: »you know those exercise or yoga poses where they make you bend and then say 'take a deep breath' and you are like 'yeah right!' either i can bend or i can breathe.... well now it kinda makes sense.
Wait’ll you can do a wrap- without moving folds of fat out of the way. That was a red letter day.5 -
Norma_Cenva wrote: »you know those exercise or yoga poses where they make you bend and then say 'take a deep breath' and you are like 'yeah right!' either i can bend or i can breathe.... well now it kinda makes sense.
When my physical therapist asked me to do child’s pose, I complained that it made my hips hurt and I couldn’t breathe well. Thirty pounds later, I can rest in child’s pose very comfortably. Makes a big difference.12 -
BrightEyedAgain wrote: »I literally had to shed my old identity for a new one, and I still bump up against that occasionally even 2+ yrs into maintenance.
I know this thread is aimed at people LOSING weight, but this concept is also 100% true for the inverse, people who are intentionally trying to GAIN weight.
When I graduated from school, I was scrawny, gangly, geeky. No game with the girls, dismissed by the guys. In the classroom my intellect made me a god who people wanted as a lab partner or tutor, but in the hallways and outside of school, I never fit in.
Life and poor diet made me gain 70lbs, of which I was able to lose 50 when I discovered MFP. I had been lifting weights throughout my weight loss, so the physical change was dramatic, and I wanted to see how I would look if I made it a point to not just lose fat but gain muscle.
I'm now 30lbs heavier with the same (almost) waistline, and the image in my mirror is nothing like the scrawny me from my school days. In the gym I feel like I belong, my kids and wife love how I look, I've received compliments from strangers and coworkers.
But forever in my mind is the old identity every time I look into the mirror, bouncing back and forth between "man, if only I looked like this back then" and "no matter how much muscle you gain, you're still the scrawny geek with no game".14 -
But forever in my mind is the old identity every time I look into the mirror, bouncing back and forth between "man, if only I looked like this back then" and "no matter how much muscle you gain, you're still the scrawny geek with no game".
If I may offer some completely unsolicited advice: it is time to retire those old thoughts. And just like you did the work to improve your physical self, you can also do the work to improve your self-messaging.
Write out a new message to yourself, take it to the mirror, and say it out loud while looking at yourself. Perhaps something along the lines of I look and feel great. Look how far I've come! I did the work, and now I get to enjoy the rewards. or No matter how my exterior changes, I'm still the same intelligent person who is awesome to be around. or How other people perceive me holds no power over how I see myself. The only opinions that matter are my own, and those of the people who care about me.
Write up something that looks good and true to you on paper, and then practice saying it to yourself until you feel like you own it. This is going to feel super awkward at first, but you can practice until these new thoughts feel normal, and the script in your head changes for good. You deserve to feel fabulous about who you are. Also, I'm pretty sure anyone who judged or ignored you for being "scrawny" missed out. But most people have these kinds of negative self-thoughts, and we all deserve to change those thoughts into something that serves us better. It doesn't do anyone any good for you to permanently rent out your mind to some 15-year-olds who don't even exist anymore!
P.S. Also, "game" is totally overrated. What you have -- a family who love you, and coworkers who care enough about you to give you compliments -- is far, far better than any "game." Although I suppose one could argue that a guy who gets compliments from strangers must have some amount of "game" 9 -
Apparently jeans and trousers are a lot more durable at a lower weight. I used to need new ones every 6 months or so since the thighs would be worn through despite not being a very active person. None of my current pairs show the slightest sign of wear despite being several years old, and they were all bought used!12
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@AwesomeSquirrel
That's pretty funny. Money saver though, which is much appreciated after having to replace everything with smaller sizes.
I always would wear out my rain pants where I sat on my bike seat since I was a bike commuter. I stopped buying nice rain pants and bought less expensive PVC pants. They still weren't cheap, and they'd last a year or two. My jeans wear out the same way, but it takes a few years. They should last longer now that I don't have to commute.4 -
And I do believe all those things they said - eat less more more, for example - are all lies
I recommend you read "The Obesity Code" by Dr Jason Fung. He reviews all the various things we have been told our entire lives, including being made to feel inadequate, no self-control, etc, and destroys them by reviewing long-term scientific studies.
I read Dr. Fungi’s book as soon as I got diagnosed with diabetes almost a year ago. I found it very interesting, and encouraging. I must have missed something because I never came away thinking that ,eating less and moving more was a bad thing and didn’t work. I don’t remember much else from his book. I do eat less, and am moving more and it’s definitely working.
I tried to make an appointment to see him, but couldn't get one. I guess he’s too famous now.0
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