A few thoughts about weight loss
Jun 2, 2013 8:57:28 GMT -6
raindroproses, chrispy, and 1 more like this
Post by reddarin on Jun 2, 2013 8:57:28 GMT -6
This is the post I made in our May thread but I thought it was worthy of making into a stand alone thread.
You are careful and eating LC/NK but the fat isn't just flying off. You've got a lot of weight to lose and, you think, because of that you should be losing it quickly but you are not.
Clearly that is not true for you. It isn't true for a lot of heavy people that pursue LC. Your body is your own. It is unique. That means that if 100 other people of similar height and weight lost 10 pounds a month it has nothing to do with you.
Right? Your body is not their body. Proof? If it were true then every person with a lot to lose would lose quickly with LC. That is not the case so clearly one has nothing to do with the other and something else, or a set of other things, must be the causative factor.
It has another meaning that is a bit more subtle too. When you compare your height/weight to the success of other people of similar height/weight you are implicitly saying that your metabolism is essentially the same. But that is impossible. Proof? If that were true there would be NO diet industry because one formula for weight loss would work for every human on the planet.
Also, having a lot of weight to lose, and therefore it should be lost quickly, is logic that does not bear up under scrutiny. It is rooted in the calories in calories out paradigm which is demonstrably false but pervades weight loss thinking nonetheless. At its root it ignores the fact that a person that is struggling with weight is .... struggling with weight. That person isn't struggling with weight because it is a nifty thing to do. They are struggling because having excess weight has nothing to do with how easily or quickly the excess can be lost. A person that can shed pounds quickly can do it because they can do it not because they have weight to lose and can consciously instruct their body to lose it. Lots of people that are fat and struggling are the same people that could put weight on and take it back off easily in the past.
Let's apply that logic to other situations.
"I'm a super crappy driver so I should get better at driving every day".
Nope. Maybe you are a crappy driver because you are blind as a bat and need glasses? How then do you compare to a crappy driver that is crappy because they are negligently inattentive? Are you a crappy driver because you suffer from insomnia and are always too tired to drive well? Being in the 'super crappy at driving' group is meaningless because the reasons people are super crappy at driving, and their ability to move out of that group quickly or slowly, is unique to the individual.
"I've never worked out so I should get better at working out every day like other people that have never worked out".
Nope. Take a look around at the people in a gym. Lots of them do not have physiques that would inspire confidence in working out producing results. And the gym is a great example of the self-selection that weight loss forums have too. Successful people continue going to the gym while unsuccessful people do not. So you see those people that look good that had to have started where you are too (from not working out to working out) and assume that you must likewise see their results. But you don't see the people that struggled and fell off because they too thought that they must get similar results based on the visibility of successful people - exhibit A would be the New Years resolution crowd that packs into the gym in January and are gone by February. Here is another thought about this analogy: just because the fit are fit now doesn't mean that they didn't struggle terribly to arrive at where they are now with fitness.
"I never did ride a bicycle as a kid so I should be super duper at it quickly".
Oh? Consider the bicycle to be your body. How are you going to do when your body is a single gear bicycle with tires going flat the same size and shape as another person's bicycle (body) but their body is a ten speed with tires made to race? Your body has a rusty chain and no chain guard so the other person rides on blissfully while your body keeps tripping you up with your pant leg getting caught in the chain. When the group of ten thousand hit the steep hill, the bodies with working gear changers chug on up the hill with comparative ease while the rest are zig zagging wildly, struggling to advance, blind to the fact that their body is different from the other person's body on the inside where it counts.
This isn't unique to LC. All weight loss methods share this complexity. The advantage LC has over all other weight loss methods is that it produces health benefits that are not tied to weight loss. That is a very important distinction. Other ways of losing weight are healthy *because* you lose weight not because of what you are eating.[/quote]
You are careful and eating LC/NK but the fat isn't just flying off. You've got a lot of weight to lose and, you think, because of that you should be losing it quickly but you are not.
Clearly that is not true for you. It isn't true for a lot of heavy people that pursue LC. Your body is your own. It is unique. That means that if 100 other people of similar height and weight lost 10 pounds a month it has nothing to do with you.
Right? Your body is not their body. Proof? If it were true then every person with a lot to lose would lose quickly with LC. That is not the case so clearly one has nothing to do with the other and something else, or a set of other things, must be the causative factor.
It has another meaning that is a bit more subtle too. When you compare your height/weight to the success of other people of similar height/weight you are implicitly saying that your metabolism is essentially the same. But that is impossible. Proof? If that were true there would be NO diet industry because one formula for weight loss would work for every human on the planet.
Also, having a lot of weight to lose, and therefore it should be lost quickly, is logic that does not bear up under scrutiny. It is rooted in the calories in calories out paradigm which is demonstrably false but pervades weight loss thinking nonetheless. At its root it ignores the fact that a person that is struggling with weight is .... struggling with weight. That person isn't struggling with weight because it is a nifty thing to do. They are struggling because having excess weight has nothing to do with how easily or quickly the excess can be lost. A person that can shed pounds quickly can do it because they can do it not because they have weight to lose and can consciously instruct their body to lose it. Lots of people that are fat and struggling are the same people that could put weight on and take it back off easily in the past.
Let's apply that logic to other situations.
"I'm a super crappy driver so I should get better at driving every day".
Nope. Maybe you are a crappy driver because you are blind as a bat and need glasses? How then do you compare to a crappy driver that is crappy because they are negligently inattentive? Are you a crappy driver because you suffer from insomnia and are always too tired to drive well? Being in the 'super crappy at driving' group is meaningless because the reasons people are super crappy at driving, and their ability to move out of that group quickly or slowly, is unique to the individual.
"I've never worked out so I should get better at working out every day like other people that have never worked out".
Nope. Take a look around at the people in a gym. Lots of them do not have physiques that would inspire confidence in working out producing results. And the gym is a great example of the self-selection that weight loss forums have too. Successful people continue going to the gym while unsuccessful people do not. So you see those people that look good that had to have started where you are too (from not working out to working out) and assume that you must likewise see their results. But you don't see the people that struggled and fell off because they too thought that they must get similar results based on the visibility of successful people - exhibit A would be the New Years resolution crowd that packs into the gym in January and are gone by February. Here is another thought about this analogy: just because the fit are fit now doesn't mean that they didn't struggle terribly to arrive at where they are now with fitness.
"I never did ride a bicycle as a kid so I should be super duper at it quickly".
Oh? Consider the bicycle to be your body. How are you going to do when your body is a single gear bicycle with tires going flat the same size and shape as another person's bicycle (body) but their body is a ten speed with tires made to race? Your body has a rusty chain and no chain guard so the other person rides on blissfully while your body keeps tripping you up with your pant leg getting caught in the chain. When the group of ten thousand hit the steep hill, the bodies with working gear changers chug on up the hill with comparative ease while the rest are zig zagging wildly, struggling to advance, blind to the fact that their body is different from the other person's body on the inside where it counts.
This isn't unique to LC. All weight loss methods share this complexity. The advantage LC has over all other weight loss methods is that it produces health benefits that are not tied to weight loss. That is a very important distinction. Other ways of losing weight are healthy *because* you lose weight not because of what you are eating.[/quote]