Why Diets Dont Actually Work

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/04/why-diets-dont-actually-work-according-to-a-researcher-who-has-studied-them-for-decades/

by moomin • 11 years ago

2 3 11 years ago

washingtonpost.com

Rainymood• 11 years ago

If one had, shouldn't it have survived the test of time?

Yes ... eat less than your body burns.

why dieting over the long term is actually impossible

Oh so I lost 10 kg over the last couple of years on accident? How fortunate! Guess my 'healthy' eating habits are just nonsense after all!

nobody has willpower

This is bullshit. Everybody has willpower, maybe a finite amount of it but it's there.

Losing weight is 'simple', not easy. Eat less than your body burns. That's it. However, there are some caveats. This technique requires you to accurately 'guesstimate' how much your body burns but also your caloric food intake. Losing weight also doesn't necessarily mean 'looking better'.

The most important thing though are habits. Habits are powerful.

dagw• 11 years ago

It feels like the article is splitting hairs on "dieting" vs "eating habits". Dieting, as in a set of very strict arbitrary rules, is hard to do over a long time period. "Eating habits", as in a general yet flexible set of guiding principles, is a lot easier to keep with over a long period of times.

I've certainly changed my eating habits to be a lot healthier over the past 5-10 years (mainly more fresh fish and vegetables, less soda and fast food) compared to the 5-10 preceding years, but I wouldn't say I've been on a "diet" over the past years. I still occasionally eat all kinds of unhealthy stuff, but just not anywhere near as often as I used to.

majkinetor• 11 years ago

While she has many good points her final words are nonsensical (do nothing, just let it stabilize on a 'predefined' setpoint).

It is well known that various agents influence appetite: THC, stress, hormonal disturbances, exercise, drugs, (green) coffee etc.

So what appears to be your predefined setpoint might actually be a combination of other unfortunate factors which in most cases CAN be fixed by adopting certain lifestyle and taking certain drugs/supplements. This is ofc. hard as it requires a lot of self experimentation to pinpoint most likely agent involved.

As analogy, if you find yourself gluten intolerant, you will probably tend to avoid the thing rather then thinking that you should simply ignore it as that is your nature.

There is no evolutionary benefit in being obese (there is some merit in being slightly overweight with aged individuals) - you predispose yourself to myriad of problems (diabetes, CHD, low vitamin D content, bone stress etc.), you limit your agility (which was not good idea back in time) and so on. So there is NOTHING natural in this.

Plus, you actually don't have to starve - ketogenic diet mimics starvation effects without the actual starvation. I lost 25 kg before 5 years using it and gained 7 afterwards because of my later life choices (extremely sedentary lifestyle and adoption of higher level of carbs). What I learned is that carbs obviously don't agree with me and that my mass starts to rise very fast as soon as I adopt more of them without exercising (which would redirect those carbs to muscles, not fat, if done in proper time frame).

Why Diets Dont Actually Work

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