david58

+1!

Again, the basics are relatively simple. Achieving them is hard.

My rant re pseudoscience is maybe just because our approach to science is all too often our "research" is published just to earn more research dollars, well before the "science" is proven. And we aren't (science-wise) nearly as smart as we thought - for an example, just look at the history of the evil egg. Once loved, then hated, then redeemed. So much of what we have "known" about diet and metabolism has been shown inaccurate, or the commercial side of it has obliterated and obscured the science.

My rant was triggered because I have become fed up with all the excuses that the research provides (and I have fallen prey, too). But until I [we] understand, as an individual , that it isn't anybody else's fault (chemical companies, McDonalds, or BPAs or whatever), and that it is up to me alone to be in charge of what I eat and how much of it I do, I will not have victory over my weight.

Whatever it takes to motivate you, is fine. If hating McDonald's and you want to prove them wrong by never eating there again and dropping 100#, that is wonderful if it motivates you. I want to eat healthy, be healthy, so I can hang around and enjoy more years with my dear Bride and to play with my grandkids (and teach em to ride and to then drop em on the hills.....).

goldfinch

I have found it very helpful to count calories too. Plus, I budget on a weekly basis and average my calories for a week. So some days I am high and sometimes low, with a fair amount of variation. Today I went to a lunch buffet with the spouse. It was both lunch and dinner and tomorrow I will have to short myself on calories. Generally I have to stay away from buffets, as at my size (110 pounds) they do not make economic sense.

As near as I can determine I don't burn a lot of calories exercising because even with exercising about an hour a day on average I still need to stay around 1400 to 1500 calories to maintain my weight. I still do not have a feel for my calories burned, partly because my day to day exercise varies in time, intensity and type and I don't really trust the accuracy of my polar monitor for calories burned. I watch the scale and figure the calories for the week and manage to stay within a 4 pound range, which can be accounted for by natural variability.

goldfinch

Research findings are published well before science is settled because it is part of the process. Someone does a study. Peers review it. Others read it and do related work, either finding similar findings or different findings. It moves by fits and starts. Sometimes it is the press that presents a scientific paper as if it is The Answer. Sound bites and science don't go well together. Knowledge about things like cholesterol and eggs developed over time and is still developing. All practitioners can do is go by what is the best evidence at the time. And eggs were not uniformly considered evil. The good, the low fat, was recognized. The idea was to limit the consumption of eggs, not eliminate them.

Diet research has a long way to go. For example, the jury is still out on low carb, high fat. We have more intriguing lines of inquiry than we have answers. But all we can do is apply what we know now, knowing that what we know changes and develops over time.

Keep in mind that heart disease has been dropping in the US population. Science has given us high blood pressure treatments, treatments for high cholesterol, and knowledge about dangers of smoking which caused many to quit. This reduced heart disease. Heart disease dropped despite the fact that people are not any less obese. At it has dropped the most among the educated.

I absolutely do agree that commercial interests often run counter to acquiring knowledge. Do a Google search for the best diet and see how many thousands of crap results you will get. It is very difficult for a lay person to get good solid nutritional advice, especially as the science is not settled and government is not terribly interested in regulating misleading claims.

For me knowing that there are reasons for weight gain is freeing. Are those reasons excuses? I don't care. I don't have to blame myself. I still lost weight. So far, I am keeping it off even though I know there are reasons I and others gain weight. However, I find it interesting that some people seem to give up when they find that there are reasons for their weight gain. I am not sure how we deal with that, if in fact this is borne out, but I am in the camp that knowledge in general is a good thing even if some people react poorly to that knowledge.

goldfinch

You can learn that there are reasons you are or were fat and still take charge of what you eat. These are not mutually exclusive positions.

Ratzinger

This article is not saying that "calories in/calories out" is BS. The point (based on scientific studies) is that the body reacts to weight loss by trying to put weight on, that that a 180 pound man who has lost 50 pounds has to eat fewer calories to maintain his weight than a 180 pound man who hasn't lost weight.

Pinyon

I agree with both sides here.

If you lock me in a closet and feed me 1400 calories a day, I will definitely lose weight, and keep it off...until you let me out of the closet. My doctor had me record each bite of food for over a year, down to the teaspoons of ketchup, soy sauce, etc.

According to those food/body-size charts, I should be able to eat about 2200 calories a day. Anytime I go over 1400 calories for a few days in a row, I gain weight.

I can be "good" for months-to-years, but the right/wrong combination of external stressors quickly make me lose it with my eating. Eating behavior is damn hard thing to control. You can stop drinking alcohol, or taking drugs, but you have to eat every day. And you often end up eating with other people socially...

I also definitely think that we also have to take responsibility of our actions. It is harder for some of us to stop eating than for "normal" people. Just like it is harder for some people to stop at one or two alcoholic drinks, stay true to the same romantic partner after the early euphoric stage wears off, etc.