Well, you say to me reasonably, what about people like Richard Simmons? He was fat once and he lost weight, and is still skinny. What about that, Mrs. There-Is-No-Diet-That-Works? Even more, what about That One Show Where They Put People On A Ranch In Arizona And Yell At Them As They Exercise For Ten Hours A Day?
I have a couple of theories about Mr. Simmons, who seems like a genuinely caring (if self-loathing) man. First is that he perhaps had disordered eating while he was fat, and then lost to his setpoint when he corrected that disordered eating (i.e., he was NOT trusting his body and enjoying his food, but doing something else). But there is an alternate explanation that I hesitate to bring out, because I don't know him, and am basing this only on the advice and anecdotes he gives in his materials: it's possible the man has a very bad eating disorder, with elements of anorexia and exercise bulemia.
When his materials give advice like "suck on a frozen grape because you can make it last an hour" and talk with pride about eating around 1000 calories a day, that's anorexic behavior. And trying to balance calories in with exercise out is exercise bulemia. Both types of behavior are incredibly physically and psychologically harmful, even more harmful than being involuntarily starved by someone else. They do far, far more damage to a body than even pop science thinks obesity does--like they give you cardiac arrythmias and liver damage, and make you more prone to fractures from things like coughing.
And Biggest Loser?
It's widely known that almost ANY diet will work for about six months, and any study that claims to examine the effectiveness of dietary interventions has to continue for FIVE YEARS before those interventions can be called sucessful. The structure of the TV show pretty much ensures that everyone, given severely restricted calories and an unhealthy amount of forced activity, will lose large amounts of weight. As we have seen, here and there, most of them will regain weight when they're back in the community.
This is a beautiful, protective mechanism that God built into our bodies. Throughout human history, it's been terribly difficult to get enough calories. Most people have fought infections and parasites for most of their lives; most people still do. In America we are blessed that most of us don't have to spend half our body's energy on tapeworms and infections, so we can actually grow to be the size that we are genetically programmed to be. (Did you know in the Middle Ages most men were about 5'2'' and died at about age 50?) For most of history there have been bad harvests, raiders, long winters, and other reasons why people went hungry. God protected them by desigining their bodies to get more efficient in a famine. Biology is powerful, and the body will protect itself by getting back to its setpoint weight.
It's not the Biggest Loser people's fault that they gain weight back in the community. It does not mean they fell off the wagon; most studies find that people who regain weight after diets are STILL dieting, sometimes even MORE restrictively than they were while they were losing weight. It's just impossible to fight your biology.
Unless, you know, you starve yourself so quickly (like a concentration camp) or steadily (like an anorexic) that you kill yourself fast or slow. Just like I can lose weight if I want to by cutting off my arm.
To me it is revealing that the ONLY way people can produce these results is with very, very, very extreme and dangerous measures, measures that would be regarded as definitely pathological if thin people undertook them. For instance, when I'm not pregnant and following common nutritional advice, as a relatively thin person of my age and activity I'm told I should be eating around 2800 calories a day.
But let's say I want to lose weight. Then I'm told that I should eat about 1600 calories a day and vigorously exercise for an hour. One diet I saw for growing junior high girls recommended only 980 calories a day and exercise (nutrition guidelines say a growing girl should get around 2500 calories on average). Even in the concentration camps people were supposed to get 1750 calories a day, though by the end of the war it was about 500.
Think about that. Even in concentration camps, places set up to kill people, they knew they ought to give the inmates 1750 calories a day, or 150 MORE calories than I am supposed to eat if I want to lose weight.
Does this begin to sound insane to anyone else?
Breanna
2 comments:
Hi there,
Then what is the best and healthy way to lose weight?
Hi Rajitha! I've had some good success losing *inches* with an exercise program called T-Tapp--Google it if you are curious. It takes about 15 min a day. But there really isn't a good healthy way to lose *weight*, and diets pretty much are self defeating. See some of my earlier posts in this series for links to, for instance, the Health At Every Size movement (or Google it). Good luck! :)
Post a Comment