I'm going to break this all down in the most simple and real terms possible. People gain weight because they eat more than they need. That's all. Since we love us a quick fix and tricks to get ahead, we are always looking for an angle...and so, we are given one. It's carbs that make us fat, it's high fructose corn syrup, it's GMO foods, it's the food industry, it's the additives, it's gluten, it's the fat... NO! Own this or learn to be happy at whatever weight you have; you gain weight when you put too much into your gob.
Conversely, if you want to lose weight, put less into that pie hole than you need. It's very simple. At this point people chime in espousing Weight Watchers, Paleo, gluten-free, Spark, cabbage soup, fasts, cleanses, shakes, powders, potions and substitutes.
...and they all work
...and they are all bullshit
They work because each of them reduces your calorie intake and they try to do so without impacting your sense of satiety so that you don't stuff that hungry cake pit. They are all bullshit because they sell this notion that they have the "secret sauce." That there is something about the way that they reduce your calorie intake that is special and unique. Some of them work better than others and the ones that do, it's for two reasons, they work better at keeping you from being hungry and more importantly, they acknowledge the single simple truth about intake in a tacit way. These are the programs that demand you log everything you put in your mouth.
If you are going to manage to follow the single truth about losing weight, you need to know exactly two things: "How much energy does my body need?" "How much energy is in this food?" If you don't know these two things, your weight loss will be hit and miss and when you are done with your weight loss, you'll resume overeating (that's how you got overweight in the first place) and the cycle will continue.
BUT WHAT ABOUT EXERCISE!?!
Don't worry, I'm going to piss all over that like a drunken alley cat next post.
I have to agree...I mean, where were these programs hundreds of years ago when we didn't have an obesity epidemic? I do think as a society we have just forgotten how to eat. Yeah a lot of our current problems come from over-processed food, but a lot of it is that we are victims of marketing. I don't think everyone, but many people...it's easy for you and me to say TURN OFF THE TV, DON'T STOP AT THE DRIVE-THRU, etc. and I do believe in the power of choice. But I guess not everyone feels that way. :-/
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard when food that is not only bad for you chemically is marketed in huge sizes for cheap prices. Most Americans don't grow their own food, so they/we don't really understand on a daily basis the value of a crop harvest or why we shouldn't be eating the amount we should.
And it doesn't help that most of the consequences of eating too much are mostly long-term. In our "right now!" society, most people don't care until it's wayyyy out of control. And by then they are so conditioned to a lazy lifestyle that they don't even know where to start to make a change.
Anyway, long story short, I agree that these programs/diets aren't the answer. I do think they (specifically WW and Paleo/clean eating) can help shed the light on the real problem, though. I think everyone takes something different from them, and at the end of the day if you're taking weight off at a reasonable rate and re-training your body how to eat a smaller amount and more whole food, that's pretty awesome IMO.
Thanks Jen! Your last sentence just gave me an idea for the next post, exercise as a cure will have to wait. :-)
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