Quote:
Originally Posted by PaCarolSue
I have a friend who has been very naturally thin all her life. We recently were discussing our eating habits. She doesn't eat breakfast because she's not hungry in the morning. Just wants a cup of coffee. When she does get hungry, she eat whatever she wants, paying no attention to how many calories, carb, or fat is in the food. It's what she wants, and she eats until she had enough and then she just stops. She doesn't eat more because it tastes good, or because she doesn't like to waste food, or any other reasons people have for overeating. She doesn't continue eating because the others around her are still eating, and she rarely takes the leftovers home. She's just done. Period. Never thinks about whether what she ate was "on plan" or "off plan."
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I just had a lovely salad, chock full of things that are good and good for me, with a side of chicken gizzards baked in chicken fat. About half of the food is sitting on the plate beside me, and I'm full. It was my first meal of the day, and will likely be my last--unless, of course, I get hungry, in which case I will eat unless it's so late that the idea of food in my stomach before I go to bed is unappealing, and then I will calmly wait until tomorrow. I think it's unlikely, because right now the thought of more food makes my stomach do a mild pitch-and-yaw. I didn't count down the hours until I could eat that meal, or weigh or measure my food, or practice any kind of portion control. (Clearly, that would have helped me avoid the waste. O well.) Blue cheese dressing? Plop it on there. Grated cheese? Gimme. Avocado-broc-spinach-full fat cottage chees-kale-red-pepper? All sounded good at the time. But now I am full, and I am done. How have I transformed myself to eat like your `genetically thin' friend? I just don't eat my trigger foods, esp. refined carbs. That's it in a nutshell.
The thing that jumped out at me from that article is the use of the word `dieting', which, in the linked articles, meant caloric restriction. Poor folks in those studies were probably HUNGRY! Fry them up some bacon and eggs, dollop on some sour cream and salsa. Feed them up so they can lose some weight and not be hungry all the time, and the H-kisses will probably lose their come-hither power. I think if they had done studies of people in POW camps who were calorically deprived, they would have been hyper-aware of the Hershey's kisses by Niky's desk as well, even though they're not fat. Body says eat when deprived of what it needs. Give it what it needs and it wanders off and finds another way to stay amused.
That "demoralizing and all-encompassing battle" against my desire to eat when hungry sounds really horrible. I dread that, I really do. [yawn] I watched a TED-ish talk by the physician about whom the article was written: same thing--the weight just mysteriously `came back' like an abandoned puppy that found its way home. His treatment of choice? Optifast and a few cups of veggies. Maybe it's not the DNA, people! Maybe it's the way you're trying to treat it!
So really what do these studies prove? Oh, yeah--dieting and caloric restriction don't work. Extreme caloric restriction extremely doesn't work.
I am borderline-ranting a bit here because I can empathize with people who read these kinds of articles and think, "This is hopeless. I am doomed and destined to be fat," and surreptitiously dump the candy bowl of Kisses into their pockets. Later, Nicky's workmate will look at Nicky and think, "This is so not fair on so many levels."