Comments

1

Diets don't work? Pish tosh, of course diets work. It's willpower that doesn't work. Dieting is hard, it's slow, and people want instant results so they fail at dieting.

2

@1:

You didn't actually read the article, did you?

3

Anytime an article is title "Everything You Know About __ Is Wrong" it's going to be 90% hacky horseshit.

And this one is no different.

Sure. They are right that "diets" don't work. They are right that BMI is nonsense. They are right that willpower and character have very little to do with obesity. They are right that shaming people has never helped them.

But. The problem is in our food systems themselves and our sedentary modern economies. Nutrient density is low, calories are high, and we can eat too much addictive poison when ever we want. And we call it food.

But this pernicious myth that obesity itself is not a major factor in chronic ill-heath is belied by all of medical science. You can see the world over as other societies import our food industry and lifestyles that obesity rates rise and so do chronic disease rates previously almost nonexistent in those societies. So. No, Select individuals may be able to fat and healthy. But societies cannot be.

The so-called studies quoted by articles like this that show "healthy" obese populations are cherry picked, short term, and you have squint your eyes real hard in order to ignore a whole host of metabolic warning signs and ignore the aggregate data that come along with chronic long-term obese populations. This anti-science hoodoo bullshit is right up there with climate denialism and anti-vax in it's orthodoxy and hysteria. It allows the packaged food and fast food industries to get away with liberal murder.

And worse, the idea that noting all that - that obesity is unhealthy and should be prevented whenever possible - is "fat shaming" falls right into the hands of the industries and their lobbies that have polluted and ruined our food systems.

But here we are. Obesity is now the norm. We are almost all fat. The majority in this country are now obese and sick. And like the Idiocracy that reigns our political system the same stupid people now hold sway over science. So that's the way it's going to be.

The future of America: Hot. Flooded. Fat. Sick and stupid.

4

@2: I did. Here, and on other sites. And I still disagree with their premise. I get that the article is about more than just diets; I just basically disagree with that one "diets don't work" issue.

5

@4 Think of this way: The vast number of people who are already morbidly obese for any length of time who "diet" - like over 95%, like ANY diet or alteration/reduction to their calorie intake — regain (within five to ten years) all the weight lost.

So if some method has 95% failure rate you simply cannot say it "works."

People want to believe that it will will work precisely because it's hard and torturous and they don't want to believe they subject themselves to that horror for nothing.

The problem is what happens to most people's metobolism is basically permanent once they become obese due to modern industrial foods. Our "sugar rich/nutrient poor" food is basically slow poison.

Obesity is rarely successfully undone by calories in and calories out. There are changes on the genetic level once people become obese.

Epigenetics turns out to be a real thing.

6

Baby got back....

10

@3@5 is exactly correct on all counts.

And the rhetorical flub of this article is that it looks at potential for weight loss across populations but health among fat people by citing individuals. They in effect mirror image what they condemn as stupid dirty pool.

11

I learned more about the causes of weight gain and why it is so hed to undo from @3 and @5 than I did from the entire article. The article basically boils down to: “Stop being mean to obese people,” which is a fine message, but not as interesting as why we all got fat and what to do about it.

12

@9 - Some people love “cottage cheese asses.”

And in previous times, voluptuous women were considered the ideal of beauty. Looked at a Rubens painting recently?

In Rubens’s time, food was harder to come by, so most women were skinny. Basically, whatever is normal for women, we idealize the opposite. That may be the true evolutionary impulse: either to value the exotic and unusual or maybe just to make women miserable so they will let us touch them.

13

@5: Post any proof that obese people's genetics literally change once they BECOME obese. My god, how the fuck do people believe such stupid shit?

Your genetics can predispose you to gain fat more readily, but fat does not alter your DNA to force you to stay fat. if that was true, obese people could never lose weight, but obviously they can. Physics still exists even if you are fat.

@11: You get fat when you eat more calories than you expend over a long period of time. It's no mystery.

You lose fat by eating less calories than you expend over a long period of time. It's no mystery.

Americans eat too much calorie dense food, and over half of them are not willing or able to run a mile. It's no mystery.

The laws of physics do not stop applying once you put food in your mouth.

18

13 seems really angry and will probably become more so when someone finally tells him about epigenetics

14 seems in need of intimate touch but is probably very off-putting to any potential partners around them

19

Oh wait the majority of these commenters have already deleted their profile. Must be hard to be such a piece of shit

20

@18, @19 - The fat and the homeless really cause the trolls to swarm. Hate is even more addictive than sugar.

21

Or rather, the fat bring the troll out, since I would bet 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, and 17 are all the same person.

22

This has never been rocket science. Our resident pontificating Dr. says:

"The problem is what happens to most people's metobolism is basically permanent once they become obese due to modern industrial foods. Our "sugar rich/nutrient poor" food is basically slow poison."

I agree with that, except permanency is not inherent. I would change the first sentence to "...people's metabolism is impaired once they become obese due to modern industrial foods, but it can always be turned around by a vigorous and dedicated exercise program coupled with a healthy diet."

That's a fact.

23

If you change your diet (everyone has "a" diet--it's just what you habitually eat) and lose weight, and then you change your diet back and gain weight, in both cases the diet "worked".

Different diets do different things. Most people eat too much food that translates, in conjunction with their activity level, to a "weight-gain promoting diet".

26

@25 Why go to all the effort to tell fat people that you don't find them attractive when you could just date the subset of people whom you want to date who are willing to date you? You're just plain mean and want to hurt people. Wonder what effect that quality has on your 'love' life?

28

@27 - You got a blowjob last night? That’s awesome! I just assumed someone with so much anger towards women wouldn’t be on speaking terms with his mom. Happy to be wrong!

29

Also, kudos for squeezing in the creation of a dozen fake accounts between all the blowing and the jobbing!! When I’m busy getting it on, trolling the internet is, like, fourth or fifth on my list of things to do. Not you - you know the obese aren’t going to insult themselves!

34

@30 - Congratulations there, Linus Torvalds. You cracked the matrix that is the Stranger account signup screen.

Sorry I mistook your healthy attitude towards women for anger. Hey, btw, I am starting a movement for the acceptance of asshole men. Let me know your address so I can send you an invite. You will never have to worry about being banned by us!

36

The advice I personally follow:

1) Eat healthy, nutritious food heavily skewed towards plants.

2) Avoid heavily processed foods or foods high in sugar. Basically, if it has an advertising campaign, avoid it.

3) Exercise at least moderately. More if you like, but at least moderately.

4) Throw your scale away.

37

So much whining, but still not any evidence that physics stops existing once food goes in the mouth, or that being fat magically rearranges your DNA so that you can make energy out of nothing. Weird.

38

@37 A heck of a lot of calories DO go out the ass even of the overweight; shit is mostly bacteria that contain lots of calories. The guts of obese and older people have become populated by different microbes than those of young and skinny people. Most of the calories we eat are eaten by those microbes in our gut, and they can modulate how many of the calories are then absorbed into our bloodstream, and how often we poop; pooping less frequently leads to more calorie absorption. A few studies have found that repopulating the gut with microbes from skinny individuals ("fecal transplant") actually causes obese mice to become thinner. Let's look forward to the day when skinny people can monetize their shit!
The GI tract: Once cells of epithelial tissues (gut, stomach, skin) are stretched, they reproduce, and the new cells would have to go through their life cycle (90 days for most cells of our body) without much stretching, in order not to be replaced by other cells to get the tissue to shrink again. But people tend to eat until they "feel full" which can depend on tissue stretching, so once the stomach or gut has become enlarged, you naturally eat more. Also, there are chemical sensors for fat that influence when we feel full. So people tend to eat a lot more calories of fat-free food that substitutes sugar or glycerol for fat.
Finally, a recent paper found that weight sensors in the bones feed back to set our metabolic rate. Sitting down all day, OR standing all day don't signal those sensors; but standing up does. The implied corollary is that moving around, standing up a few times an hour, walking or biking to work, or park a mile away from your workplace and walk the rest of the way (especially with weights attached to the legs or abdomen), will all increase your metabolism and set your body weight lower.

39

@28:

Who says they're on speaking terms - probably the reason she just gave him a blowjob was so she wouldn't have to talk to him...

40

@35: Probably healthier than a Stouffer's Lean Cuisine.

41

Oh Teddy. You’re rabid dumbfuckery never ceases to amaze. It’s EPIGENETICS. It’s about gene expression. And diet and environment turns out to effect gene expression quite a bit more than ever thought.

I invite you to do a google search on the epigenetics of obesity and metabolism.

Like:
“Genetics and epigenetics of obesity
Blanca M. Herrera, Sarah Keildson, and Cecilia M. Lindgren”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3213306/

“...Epigenetic marks, or “imprinting”, affect gene expression without actually changing the DNA sequence. Failures in imprinting are known to cause extreme forms of obesity (e.g. Prader–Willi syndrome), but have also been convincingly associated with susceptibility to obesity. Furthermore, environmental exposures during critical developmental periods can affect the profile of epigenetic marks and result in obesity.”

Now is this a settled matter in science? No. Much more science must be done.

And if you starve people will they lose weight? Of course.

But it turns out metabolism is much more complex than just calories in and calories out.

It turns out that once many people become obese from a modern diet high in fructose there are chronic effects that change your metabolism in fundamental ways that in many people appear to be permanent or at least unaltered by merely reducing calories and losing weight.

Now you can do your usual stomping your feet and pooping your pants in your typical vapid confusion or you could maybe do wee little bit of reading. The words will be multi syllabic and science-y but if you tilt your screen over to one of the other kids on the short bus they can sound them out with you.

42

This will make it easier for you:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=epigenetics+and+obesity&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart

43

Oh. Since there is an endocrinologist sitting nine feet from me right now she recommends you check out the latest articles on studies in endocrinology and epigenetics from Endocrinology News. Yes. There is such a thing, I guess.

Epigenetics is all the rage with endo-nerds these days (I said that just to bug her).

44

@22 “That's a fact.”

No. No, it’s not a fact. It’s only a “fact” in 5% of the tens of thousands of morbidly obese people studied and tracked for over a decade.

But since you seem to not understand statistic and the implications of longitudinal studies how about an anecdote that’s also a fact? You seem to be enamored by those anecdotes.

You know that horrible reality freak show on tv where they humiliate and torture fat people for your entertainment called The Biggest Loser? You know it? Every single contestant regained nearly ALL that weight after six years. If they stuck to the reduced calorie healthy eating and excercise regime or not. That’s a god damned fact.

Because thier metabolisms are damaged, man. Sure they could starve themselves - and I mean that literally- and lose weight again. But repeatedly forcing your body to lose massive amounts of weight isn’t healthy AT ALL. It’s not like intermittent fasting. No. Your body can’t keep going through that level of deficit over and over without sacrificing healthy tissues and straining your kidneys and liver and autoimmune system. (I was a boxer and wrestler, man. I had cutting wieght down to a science.)

Here’s a science fact. The best way to deal with obesity is to PREVENT IT from happening in the first place. Once people become obese due to the American lifestyle, most, not all, but most, cannot keep the wieght off - no matter if they excercise or not - and have a normal healthy nutritious diet. Because the way thier bodies process calories is altered. So they have keep shocking thier metabolisms in more and more extreme ways to initiate wieght loss. There may be a way to change that but just a reasonable diet and excercise regime does not work long term. And radical regimes are not healthy. That much is conclusive.

It’s our FOOD, man. Most our produce comes from long logistics chains so it’s nutritional content is poor. And there is sugar in fucking EVERYTHING. And there may be issues with other additives. When countries adopt this food pattern... they get fat.

Fun fact: Other less obese wealthy western societies do not eat that many fewer calories nor are they radically more active. They certainly don’t eat less fat.

But they DO eat more FRESH food, much more fresh produce, generally less red meat and the red meat they eat is raised healthier and most importantly they eat much less fructose and processed foods.

American fresh produce is expensive, unlike many other countries. So most children in this country are raised eating convenient cheap shitty food so they get fat and then get sick and can’t lose the weight as adults. What kids get fed is not thier fault. And what parents are told is “healthy” is a lie.

Its not character. It’s not discipline. The Dutch, French, and Spanish are not more disciplined. The defining difference?

It’s our fucking food.

45

@41: So your DNA does not change once you get fat, like you said it does?

So it is still possible for obese people to lose weight, even when you said it wasn't?

So the article you chose proves you wrong and me right?

Great. Not sure why you needed to bitch and moan so much, but I am glad you are finally thinking clearly, and not under the foolish belief that physics stops existing once you are fat.

Glad you had your helper nearby to help you finally read something factual on the topic.

47

“American fresh produce is expensive, unlike many other countries”

You don’t travel much do you.

48

@46: Look, I know you need to aggressively move the goalposts, but everyone already knows that people have different metabolisms and differing energy expenditures throughout the day. The cause of this is simply irrelevant. No one is saying that ONE diet program will work for 100% of people. No one is saying that everyone can lose/gain weight as easy as anyone else.

The problem comes when people like you and that very angry guy stretch this to the magical thinking that states it is impossible for people to lose weight, and that the laws of physics and thermodynamics do not apply to fat people, or food that goes in the mouth.

If you desperately need to defend people staying obese and not trying to get healthier, you can do that for whatever self serving reasons you need. But you don't get to decide the laws of physics no longer apply because you are fat.

50

@49: Yes, you entered the conversation and decided you alone were allowed to declare what it is was about, and what everyone had already said (despite the comments being right there in black and white). This is your routine, and it is laughably self-serving.

Anyway, I was originally responding to the guy who made silly claims that being obese changed your DNA, making weight loss impossible which is what I was responding to. He then linked a study that proved nothing he claimed.

You then decided that meant I was claiming that everyone has the exact same metabolic process, and that genetics does not matter. Then, with your manufactured high ground, you started whining about trolling, before posting a comment that agreed with my position.

I mean, I am glad you came around, but your process is really bizarre and childish.

51

Hahaha you don’t know what epigenetics is do you?

I never said your DNA changes, dumb fuck. I said there are changes in the genetic level as in epigenetics - gene expression. I never ONCE mentioned DNA, dumb fuck. You just made that up because now you once again look like an idiot and are too embarrassed to admit you’re wrong. What else is new.

53

@47 I travel every month. I’m traveling NOW. And because your trollin sock puppet pile of shit I guaratee I travel more than you and have lived in more countries than you.

54

@52 just give it up. He’s a moron. He will never, ever, admit he was wrong. All he can do beat a strawman to death.

If he actually had reading comprehension he’d know that nobody has ever claimed “losing wieght is impossible.”

Yes. If you never eat or reduce calories enough you will burn up fat and muscle tissue. Nobody has denied the laws of thermodynamics. Not even the mentioned articles.

The studies - the fucking data - shows that the overwhelming majority of obese people GAIN IT BACK even if they maintain excercise regimes and a normal diet. That’s just a fucking fact of the data.

This guy can rage-shit his pants all he wants but that’s what decades of data shows. They’ve even done comparative studies of like heritable populations. The same rate of calorie consumption as say non-obese people in the Netherlands (not sure that was the exact country, but anyway). And Obese Americans of Dutch decent gain the weight back while the native Dutch group did not. Shit like that. It all points to a much more complicated problem than just “stop eating, fatty!”

So, either Americans are uniquely lazy, undisciplined goobers, or there is something different about our food systems. AND THERE IS.

The weird thing is people Teddy have to react like “WHAT! NO! OBESE PEOPLE IS FATTY LOSERS!”

Instead of “that’s fascinating. We should do more research to find out how we could fix our food.”

No. It way more important to point at the fatties and laugh. Except. Guess what? The fatties are the majority. And, statistically, I bet most these “LOL fatties” trolls are fat.

It’s all part of this Bootstrap mythology Americans are desperate to maintain. And that industries sell them.

Side note: For YEARS he posted total bullshit about the Sound Transit vote and was correct a dozen times with links to the vote tallies etc, and he kept doing it. He’s a hopeless dimwit.

55

@54: Are you finished with your tantrum?


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