The Weight Loss Trap: Why your diet isn't working
 

That's the cover headline of the latest TIME Magazine. The article by Alexandra Sifferlin isn't really all that hopeless. Basically, as the subtitle inside says, "No single diet...will work for everyone."

Her sources include the National Weight Control Registry, to which many of us here have added data, and The Bariatric Medical Institute in Ottawa, quoting medical director Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, whom many of us read regularly online.

It's fair to say that, yes, you can lose weight if you really, really want to. It's hard. It's endless. It's highly individual. You might not end up looking like a super-model.

Like we've been saying around this site for quite a while. :thup:

From my experience with the National Weight Control Registry I would say that they have absolutely no credibility. It is a very flawed study that only shows that most people who maintain weight loss maintain it by following the advice that is commonly given. Their method of recruiting subjects and collecting data effectively erases any alternative means of weight loss beyond the most commonly given advice.

So here I am this outlier. Weight loss has not been very hard for me and maintenance has not been very hard. Yes its endless if you want to call eating a healthy diet endless. I just don't struggle very much. I have no wish to consume toxic substances so I avoid them. It's that simple. I know others find it harder. I like the taste of Ben and Jerry's, strawberry shortcake, fresh baked bread slathered with butter but not eating them is no tragedy. I could just say that I suppose that that's just me, maybe I'm lucky. I don't know. I don't see myself as extraordinary in any way. I've just come to terms with reality and accepted it. I have more important things to think about. I'm happy to no longer be fat and sick using a method that last I knew the National Weight Control Registry had no interest in studying. or understanding

Jean

Here! Here Jean!!
I could not agree with you more, and I think unless you truly believe this, you will not succeed...
I am so anxious to no longer be fat and sick...
I am working hard toward that ultimate goal!!

Atkins was the first diet that worked. And now I'm 14 years and counting...

Jean, I totally agree with your post ~ most especially these parts b/c these have been my experiences/feelings as well:

Me too, but I did my first round with Atkins '72 in 1977... played AT trying to lose weight and NOT following the plan once I lost all the weight...can we all say "yo-yo dieting" for years and years... I won't bore you with the details...but I finally got my act together mentally and I won't go back to eating those toxic carbs again b/c it's a choice I've made...

Wishing everyone heartfelt success on your personal LC journeys to better HEALTH! :thup:

Just finished reading the article which IMO is the best and most balanced article I have ever read on the topic. In particular, the article focuses on individual differences, and on what worked for different people - though there are some generalizations.

It also mentions when there is disagreement among dieters and scientists - whether BPA is a problem or not (I believe it is, and keeping weight has been easier for me since I try to avoid plastic especially with heated food, but drink my water from mugs or a metal water bottle)

Few things I feel could be improved - the reason why some docs say exercise is good for you but not so good for your diet is that exercise induces hunger in many. But it is an important natural anti-depressant, and ongoing/underlying depression is one of the major predictors to regaining weight.

I was very upset about the NYT article that basically said scientists say its in your genes, not in your will power.

So, what is really difficult is how to make it clear that overweight people CAN change their fate, no matter whether its BPA or genes or depression that got them where they are without being stigmatizing and making things worse. But we all know that self discipline is part of the recipe to keep in shape

Ah yes! I hear the choir singing. I love you all, but you are indeed "outliers."

How many times have you heard someone say, "Give up bread?? I could never do that!" Or "Life without cake isn't worth living."

We'd hope that the connection between nutritious real food and good health would become common wisdom. Meanwhile, we're stuck with the popular view that a "diet" is a temporary intervention.

The NWCR must have some kind of evolving database. I haven't heard from them in ten years. But surely Low-carb is now included among their successful maintenance tracking. Surely!?

Just finished reading the article which IMO is the best and most balanced article I have ever read on the topic. In particular, the article focuses on individual differences, and on what worked for different people - though there are some generalizations.

It also mentions when there is disagreement among dieters and scientists - whether BPA is a problem or not (I believe it is, and keeping weight has been easier for me since I try to avoid plastic especially with heated food, but drink my water from mugs or a metal water bottle)

Few things I feel could be improved - the reason why some docs say exercise is good for you but not so good for your diet is that exercise induces hunger in many. But it is an important natural anti-depressant, and ongoing/underlying depression is one of the major predictors to regaining weight.

I was very upset about the NYT article that basically said scientists say its in your genes, not in your will power.

So, what is really difficult is how to make it clear that overweight people CAN change their fate, no matter whether its BPA or genes or depression that got them where they are without being stigmatizing and making things worse. But we all know that self discipline is part of the recipe to keep in shape

Often on this forum, someone will provide a response expressing her thoughts so clearly and articulately, that I only need to provide a :thup: :thup: :thup:

Time has a 2,000 word article about weight loss and does not mention the word Insulin once? Nina Teicholz summarized this as "truly uninformed reporting."

To me, looking at pictures of "ordinary" Americans from the 40's and 50's, is how slim most people were compared to today.

Obesity wasn't an epidemic, Diabetes Type II didn't appear in 10-year-olds. A woman with a matronly figure was in her forties and fifties, not in her teens and twenties. Likewise a guy with a belly.

At the turn of the century, a "circus fat man" looked exactly like someone in any mall in the country. We are talking a time span of only a century.

That is environment. Not genetics.

The TIME article was essentially a regurgitation (you should pardon the expression) of data from the NWCR. Not exactly breaking news.

Now we get to blame obesity on genome, microbiome, and bisphenols. To use a current meme: Nobody knew good nutrition was so complicated. :lol:

It's easy to blame a lot of stuff on genetics. It takes many many many generations for human gene mutation to occur. It's the epigenetic (environmental) influences that enable people to express or repress a gene's characteristics. These influences are "remembered" or copied at the cellular level, so they can be inherited by succeeding generations. Introducing the wrong foods over a period of time makes genes behave badly. Our recent science experiment of the Food Pyramid (MyPlate) and following a Low Fat diet are proving this to be the case. It doesn't take long (about 30 years) for a toxic environment to result in poor health outcomes.

yes environment
 

Indeed. But this article on exactly that point is much better than a recent NY Times article, headline read something like people falsely attribute obesity to lack of willpower when experts say its genes.

Completely agree that the increase in obesity is the environment. But which? Is it pushing food into babies early, making 4 and 5 year olds sit still for hours to bring early learning, is it the only walks we do is from the parking lot to our office? Is it the diet of coke and pizza? or the plastic everywhere?
We really don't know which of these factors brought about the epidemic. I lived in China in 2009, and China's obesity epidemic is happening now, with a 30 year delay. And I still don't know... as all these changes happen at the same time...

The Time magazine is making exactly the point that genes only explain a small fraction, and talks about the individual reactions to exercise and diet being different, and no scientific study has been done on the genetics of which diet would work - it won't happen in my lifetime.

I also honor them to bring up BPA - and state clearly that science is still unclear about.

You all know so much more than the average Time reader, so considering that I still feel that while not rocket science, it is the best public science piece on dieting I have read.

Can anyone give me a reference for a better one?