My Response To Common Weight Loss Myths

skaskankerbr · May 2012

I will introduce myself. I am a junior majoring in Biological sciences at Louisiana State University. I currently conduct research in The biology department. Not on Nutrition. For privacy reasons I am not going to go into exactly what I study, but I do write scientific papers and am in the process of becoming published. I am a terrific researcher and I enjoy helping people overcome themselves to achieve their weight loss goals. I do not have an extensive medical background, but I have had to learn almost everything about every process in the human body and I compiled some of my scientific background into these discussions/rant/articles, whatever you want to call them.
If you wish for me to add information on another topic you can message me and I can look into it. Or if you simply want to ask a question I will try to either answer it or give you some creditable links to read. My primary concentration is genetics so I may not be able to immediately answer every question, but i can surely find something on it. One of the major issues with the internet and the general public is the inability to find creditable scientific research. I hope to fix that for a few people.

here is what I wrote.
The body is best thought of as a simple machine, not a sentient entity. No matter how complex we are as animals we are completely autonomously controlled by enzymes and mechanical body functions. You don’t think to breathe just as you don’t think to digest fats or carbs or proteins different. This is the absolute first thing you must understand when losing weight is that you have absolutely no control over many aspects of the process. What you do have is the basic fundamentals of weight loss. That is taking in fewer calories than you are expending in exercise and normal body function.
Your first step-Calculating your basal Metabolic rate (BMR)
Yes, I know what you’re thinking this is a strange first step wouldn’t you want to set a goal first etc. Yes, I just assumed that was already done. These aspects are non-scientific so I don’t bother with discussing them. A BMR is the amount of calories you burn preforming no unrequired work besides the autonomous ones your body carries out in order to survive. For those of you that aren’t science people I’ll give you an example. It is as if you are sleeping for 24 hours without moving or eating. Well your thinking to yourself why would this number be helpful to me? Well, if you don’t know how many calories you are using each day it is impossible to know just how much you should eat. To calculate your BMR you can use any of the million BMR calculators easily found on Google. Luckily! The myfitnesspal app already has one built in. When you started with the app you filled out your height, weight, age and physical activity. This did it automatically for you! It calculated your BMR and then added in how many calories you burn through your daily work. This is very important that you are acquiring reliable data.
Think of yourself not as a dieter, but as a weight loss accountant. The key to losing weight is numbers. The amount of calories you’re in taking has to be lower than what you are burning. I hear from many people that they are plateauing or are unable to lose weight. I am sorry this is your fault unless you have pre-existing medical condition such as thyroid disease. Chances are you are not being honest enough with yourself. If you have to measure EVERYTHING YOU EAT. Because if you are wrong by just 200 calories each day it can devastate your diet. You could be completely destroying all your work by cheating yourself by not rounding up. I personally round every number up and even add 10-100 calories over what I think I ate just to be sure! Those 100-200 calories each day you are rounding up can make a huge difference to you outcome. Remember only 3500 are in one pound of pure body fat.
Don’t look at how many pounds you have loose visualize it as a total number of calories. It may look like a much bigger number. In my case it was about 50k calories, but I managed to maintain about 750 calories in loss each day. If you do it like this you won’t be sitting looking at scale saying but I gained a half pound since last night!! NO, no you didn’t! WATER does not count. In any given day you can lose or gain several pounds in just water fluctuations. THIS is natural and shouldn’t matter to you at all. I never weigh myself on scale. If you want to know how many calories you have lost and therefore how many calories in pure fat you have lost. DO THE CALCULATION! Add up each day’s negative calories and divide by 3500. You should be amazed at the results.
Gosh I have already hit one page and I am not even close to being done…..
Now don’t start starving yourself to produce huge numbers. Like the author says your body does have starvation protocols. But these are extremely difficult to activate. (FOR MOST PEOPLE) Unless you start consuming less than 1000 calories for weeks at time you will not have to worry about your body doing these mechanisms, but I will provide you with enough scary information to keep you from considering it. After weeks of undernourishment you will begin to experience the same effects as anyone who is starving. Your teeth will begin to grey and fade, Skin will lose its elasticity, you will experience changes in mood and behavior, loss of appetite (yeah I know wicked cycle), loss of energy. If this sounds good to you. Please… Please seek help. This is an extremely deadly condition that if progressive can lead to muscular degeneration and even degeneration of high level thinking skills.
Your body doesn't feel secure. It has on switches and off switches. BUT above all, you are active and are consuming fewer calories than you are taking in no matter what! You will be losing weight. Your body CAN NOT store calories it does not get. If you somehow do manage to activate your bodies starvation protection mechanisms. AKA eating less than your BMR ~700-1200 calories each day for a week. Your body's metabolism will decrease you will see very apparent symptoms! BUT you will still lose weight. Your body will overcome and adapt. It is what it is designed to do and it will do it.
This brings up my next points:
WATER is not weight. It has no calories therefore consuming 20 cups of water is the same as 8 cups of water. Your feelings of being bloated or heavy are in your head. The body’s water retention fluctuates greatly within a day. That doesn’t mean you should weigh yourself at night to make yourself better. It’s lying to you. Do your calculations and celebrate your real losses…. The only differences huge amounts water can do for you are help your body beat a drug test and make you pee a lot. The recommended amount of water for the average person is 8-10 cups each day.
SALT- does not make you gain weight! This is the biggest fallacy ever all too much I hear this. "Salt makes me fat". "Salt makes me bloat up". If I had a nickel for every sorority girl I have heard say this.... I'd build a castle out of nickels
Table SALT IS AN IONIC COMPOUND it is comprised of Na Sodium, Cl Chloride. “A Salt” is a compound formed from a neutralization reaction involving an Acid and a Base. Table salt can be made by adding HCL hydrochloric acid to NaOH sodium hydroxide in a double replacement neutralization reaction. NAOH+HCL----> NaCl + H2O
NaCl is no different than the other thousands of salts out there many of them found in your Dasani water bottle. They are also necessary for your body to maintain osmosis, but do not in any way harm you in small amounts. Like anything in this world though too much of it will you kill you. Increasing intake can no doubt lead to heart disease long term and even short term lead to excess water retention this does not mean weight necessarily.
I hit page three… Still not done…
Your expenditures not only increase with exercise but also by EATING the more you eat technically the more you expend digesting it. This requires further explanation however. If you intake 2000 calories you will use 200 to eat digest and expel that food. If you eat 4000 Calories you will use ~400, but unless you’re a body builder or an athlete you will go way over your expenditures. This system can be used to your advantage. Eating foods low in calories and high in volume such as celery lettuce cucumber carrots etc. etc. In combination with a health yet extremely fat/protein heavy food like nuts you can consume all the necessary calories, but feel fuller.
My last ranting topic- Carbs=Fat=protein
Just like 1 ton of feathers is the same as 1 ton of bricks so is 1k calories of lard and 1k calories of celery. The difference is a 1 k calorie of celery is going to be a little over 15 pounds of celery and 1k calories of lard is about 4 ounces. Now I know none of you go out and eat tubs of lard, but you have to understand that foods such as nuts, non-lean meats, FAST FOOD!!! Contain more calories than eating lettuce. Additionally the salad dressing on your lettuce has more calories than the salad entire salad. Learning to cut back on things like this is going challenge, but it is possible and tools such as myfitnesspal greatly increase your chances of achieving results.
I think it goes without saying that nutrition is one of the most important elements in your diet and for more information on this you should check out many of the government websites, if you have any questions feel free to message me and I’ll try to eventually get to the messages.
Also, sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes I didn’t really have time to go back through this and do revisions. Not like I have all the time in the world.

skaskankerbr · May 2012

bump

FitLink · May 2012

Without your credentials, which you have carefully made sure we did not have, what you write is just so many words as well. Unless you have credentials in medicine and nutrition and can cite the journals you've published this information in, it's unsubstantiated opinion. You would have done better to post links to the information in peer-reviewed journals. As a scientist, you know that the gold standard in information is the peer-reviewed journal, so why give us your opinions when peer-reviewed data exists? Point us at the studies! If you want your "scientific" opinion accepted, state your actual credentials so we can check them for ourselves and link us to your studies so we can see the peer-review and methodology.

jennmetz · May 2012

Thank your for taking the time to explain so much .. and in very clear scientific (yet understandable !) terms.
I truly appreciate the honesty.
A question .. I was recently reading in Timothy Ferris' book The 4-hour Body that the amount of calories macro-nutrients (proteins, fats and carbs) release are measured by how much energy they release when incinerated.. and that our bodies , rather than incinerate metabolise these nutrients differently. In a study (conducted by Kekwick and Pawan) he quotes... 3 groups put on calorically equal , semi-starvation diets of 90% fat, 90% protein and 90% fat. The results were as follows... the 90% fat group lost .9lbs/day, the 90% protein group lost .6lbs/day, and the 90% carb group gainer .24/day.
His rationale is that the way we measure calories today was established in 19th century by chemist Wilbur O. Atwater through incinerating foods and is archaic. That it's the hormonal response to macronutrients (in particular carbs) that determines whether our bodies store or burn the metabolites ... and that each person's response varies.
I find this fascinating!
Love to hear your thoughts!!
j

mfpcopine · May 2012

Without your credentials, which you have carefully made sure we did not have, what you write is just so many words as well. Unless you have credentials in medicine and nutrition and can cite the journals you've published this information in, it's unsubstantiated opinion. You would have done better to post links to the information in peer-reviewed journals. As a scientist, you know that the gold standard in information is the peer-reviewed journal, so why give us your opinions when peer-reviewed data exists? Point us at the studies! If you want your "scientific" opinion accepted, state your actual credentials so we can check them for ourselves and link us to your studies so we can see the peer-review and methodology.

I agree with this.

To the OP: Presentation also counts. If you're publishing a lengthy piece of writing on the web that you expect people to take seriously you should always proofread and check for grammatical errors. You should include spaces in between paragraphs, have consistent style in your headings, etc., do whatever you can to make your article easy to read. I understand that you may be only 20 years old, but that's not an excuse. I don't care that you supposedly don't have time, you've consumed MY time in asking me to read what you wrote.

I think it's nice that you're trying to help.

misticache · May 2012

bumping to read later
Thanks for taking the time.

Joyounette · May 2012

Thanks a lot.
Something I didn't understand though: what percentage of your BMR should you eat in order to lose weight as fast as possible without decreasing your metabolism? (I know this question has been asked and answered over and over again but all the answers I find vary so much). My BMR is of 1475.

tigersword · May 2012

Without your credentials, which you have carefully made sure we did not have, what you write is just so many words as well. Unless you have credentials in medicine and nutrition and can cite the journals you've published this information in, it's unsubstantiated opinion. You would have done better to post links to the information in peer-reviewed journals. As a scientist, you know that the gold standard in information is the peer-reviewed journal, so why give us your opinions when peer-reviewed data exists? Point us at the studies! If you want your "scientific" opinion accepted, state your actual credentials so we can check them for ourselves and link us to your studies so we can see the peer-review and methodology.

I agree with this.

To the OP: Presentation also counts. If you're publishing a lengthy piece of writing on the web that you expect people to take seriously you should always proofread and check for grammatical errors. You should include spaces in between paragraphs, have consistent style in your headings, etc., do whatever you can to make your article easy to read. I understand that you may be only 20 years old, but that's not an excuse. I don't care that you supposedly don't have time, you've consumed MY time in asking me to read what you wrote.

I think it's nice that you're trying to help.

Agree with all this, especially for someone who says they are working on being a published writer. This doesn't read like someone with the credentials to be a published writer.

tryinghard71 · May 2012

Thanks for the post. All opinions should be welcomed. I am not a scientist either but sometimes have ideas to help others based on my own experience.

frangipaan · May 2012

bump

PercivalHackworth · May 2012

Thanks for the post. All opinions should be welcomed. I am not a scientist either but sometimes have ideas to help others based on my own experience.

Kinda hard to read an article that simply starts with the TDEE explanation, and continues with

Table SALT IS AN IONIC COMPOUND it is comprised of Na Sodium, Cl Chloride. “A Salt” is a compound formed from a neutralization reaction involving an Acid and a Base. Table salt can be made by adding HCL hydrochloric acid to NaOH sodium hydroxide in a double replacement neutralization reaction. NAOH+HCL----> NaCl + H2O

placeboaddiction · May 2012

Great read. Credentials don't matter too much to me, more just common sense. We are often brainwashed on dieting and its nice to read a little scientific breakdown instead of a glossy packaging promising that the company's product will do it magically.

skaskankerbr · May 2012

Without your credentials, which you have carefully made sure we did not have, what you write is just so many words as well. Unless you have credentials in medicine and nutrition and can cite the journals you've published this information in, it's unsubstantiated opinion. You would have done better to post links to the information in peer-reviewed journals. As a scientist, you know that the gold standard in information is the peer-reviewed journal, so why give us your opinions when peer-reviewed data exists? Point us at the studies! If you want your "scientific" opinion accepted, state your actual credentials so we can check them for ourselves and link us to your studies so we can see the peer-review and methodology.

I don’t think it should matter. All of my information presented above can be easily double checked on google by finding a .edu or .gov website that states what I did. I don’t need to cite this like a formal paper because honestly who questions where I got the 3500 calorie per pound number(for example). Google it. I am 20 years old and I don’t feel like having people do a google search, find me on the university website and have emails to my private email or even phone calls, because my phone number is accessible through university records. I stated I am a student. One of my papers is currently in review, not in the field of nutrition or health, but in biological sciences. Take what I write for what you want, but I think it shouldn’t come under fire just because I am not willing to open my life to you. I see your profile is private.
I took a picture of my biology text book and my organic chemistry text book if you would like to read them. They are my primary sources for all of this information. Biology Eigth edition by Cambell and Reece. I have also taken several courses on Microbiology, Genetics, ichthyology, and this summer Advanced Biochemistry.

unassembledandy · May 2012

love it ^_^

and nice to see a "myth busting" without, EXCEPT THIS PRODUCT!

haha

you can tell you know more than you are putting across in your writing, but appreciate you taking the time to stick it up for us, was a fun read and informative

skaskankerbr · May 2012

This is extremely true. I really tried to simplify this in my first post stating that a calorie is a calorie and yes when you burn 1k calories of lard in a calorimeter it provides the same heat as would 1k calories of celery. This is due to the basic definition of a calorie (the amount of energy required to warm one gram of water by 1 degree centigrade) (of course factoring in the 1k calorie to 1Cal conversion) You are left with a very explosive result. If you wish to perform a little home science with this, Take one peanut and light it on fire outside. The peanut should very quickly produce flames as high as 6 inches and burn for almost a minute, maybe longer. Of course this is not complete combustion, but this is in a way still more effective combustion than our body is able to do. If you read on page 177 of my biology text book (which I know no one will, but for kicks ill cite it) “about 40% of the potential chemical energy in glucose (which is the fundamental base for all the food energy we get) has been transferred to ATP; the actual percentage is probably higher because DELTA G is lower under cellular conditions.” This basically tells you that only 40% of your food is actually used by the body as energy. The rest is waste (separating basic minerals such as calcium that are used for non-energy purposes). Most of this energy is lost to either waste products or released as heat that keeps you warm. In fact the reason you shiver when you are cold is to activate the stored ATP in your muscles generating billions of tiny “camp fires” between muscle fibers.
The way each of us process food varies, and I am certain that with age our body becomes less efficient at processing food.
As far as your study states it is correct all of our knowledge of calorie use is based on the calorimeter which is not the same as the human body. There are formulas and calculations that food companies use to compensate for the “average person” in order to not tell you the exact caloric content of their foods. In general, unless you’re running a furnace capable of complete combustion in your body you aren’t getting much of that energy. Each person’s metabolism plays a great role in how each of these macronutrients is digested. Hormones are responsible for where fat is placed on the sexes, they play a large part in glycolysis and ATP synthase so it would be expected that each person would have completely different results. Science however focuses on the whole rather than the one.

Thank your for taking the time to explain so much .. and in very clear scientific (yet understandable !) terms.
I truly appreciate the honesty.
A question .. I was recently reading in Timothy Ferris' book The 4-hour Body that the amount of calories macro-nutrients (proteins, fats and carbs) release are measured by how much energy they release when incinerated.. and that our bodies , rather than incinerate metabolise these nutrients differently. In a study (conducted by Kekwick and Pawan) he quotes... 3 groups put on calorically equal , semi-starvation diets of 90% fat, 90% protein and 90% fat. The results were as follows... the 90% fat group lost .9lbs/day, the 90% protein group lost .6lbs/day, and the 90% carb group gainer .24/day.
His rationale is that the way we measure calories today was established in 19th century by chemist Wilbur O. Atwater through incinerating foods and is archaic. That it's the hormonal response to macronutrients (in particular carbs) that determines whether our bodies store or burn the metabolites ... and that each person's response varies.
I find this fascinating!
Love to hear your thoughts!!
j

skaskankerbr · May 2012

Thanks for the post. All opinions should be welcomed. I am not a scientist either but sometimes have ideas to help others based on my own experience.

Kinda hard to read an article that simply starts with the TDEE explanation, and continues with

Table SALT IS AN IONIC COMPOUND it is comprised of Na Sodium, Cl Chloride. “A Salt” is a compound formed from a neutralization reaction involving an Acid and a Base. Table salt can be made by adding HCL hydrochloric acid to NaOH sodium hydroxide in a double replacement neutralization reaction. NAOH+HCL----> NaCl + H2O

I had to Add alittle bit of my chemistry terms in there. I didn't take 2 years of chemistry and Organic chemistry to waste it. My teacher would be proud lol for most people that info didn't really matter anyway.

BunnieBun · May 2012

bump

harlanJEN · May 2012

Government websites and government recommendations : PROB the last place I'd look to for valid nutritional advice. Standard college textbooks - wouldn't rely on those either since the majority of their data comes from governmental "recommendations"

skaskankerbr · May 2012

Haters gonna hate. This is an internet web forum. Not a science paper. You have to understand this. More importantly i am not forcing you to read what i wrote. Even more so my current paper took 8 months of data collect, 3 months of drafting, is on it's second internal review before being sent to the publisher and out for peer reveiw. It will then probably be reject ( like all papers are the first time) then i fix it and sent it back. I don't have a year and a half to post something here.

JoniBologna · May 2012

I understand your desire for privacy, but you shouldn't leave out your credentials and later prompt people to ask you for advice. This seems rather foolish, in my opinion. If you're going to hand out advice, be sure to establish your credibility, and a course in biology and o-chem does not make you an expert.

skaskankerbr · May 2012

Without your credentials, which you have carefully made sure we did not have, what you write is just so many words as well. Unless you have credentials in medicine and nutrition and can cite the journals you've published this information in, it's unsubstantiated opinion. You would have done better to post links to the information in peer-reviewed journals. As a scientist, you know that the gold standard in information is the peer-reviewed journal, so why give us your opinions when peer-reviewed data exists? Point us at the studies! If you want your "scientific" opinion accepted, state your actual credentials so we can check them for ourselves and link us to your studies so we can see the peer-review and methodology.

I agree with this.

To the OP: Presentation also counts. If you're publishing a lengthy piece of writing on the web that you expect people to take seriously you should always proofread and check for grammatical errors. You should include spaces in between paragraphs, have consistent style in your headings, etc., do whatever you can to make your article easy to read. I understand that you may be only 20 years old, but that's not an excuse. I don't care that you supposedly don't have time, you've consumed MY time in asking me to read what you wrote.

I think it's nice that you're trying to help.

Agree with all this, especially for someone who says they are working on being a published writer. This doesn't read like someone with the credentials to be a published writer.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction
Not saying I am a genius but i do like to live up to that. One of my role models A.E along with Dr. Tesla

My Response To Common Weight Loss Myths

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