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Nutrition Obesity Has A Simple Solution - Eat Less

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Shahaf Levin

Shahaf Levin

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Kozushi said:
It's cool that it all seems simple to you, but if it were indeed so simple the entire population would be walking around fit and strong, which clearly is far from what is really going on! :)
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Why do you think so? I think we can all agree that obesity has a very simple solution... eat less... or in Dan John's words: "Eat like an adult". So why are there so-so-so many obese people?

As @Matts said:
Matts said:
let's not confuse "simple" with "easy"....
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I'll give an example:
My 130+kg cousin went to the orthopedic doctor with knee pain (both knees). The good doctor had a very simple solution. He told my cousin to lose weight. My cousin got mad, told him it's not a "real" solution and demanded prescription for insoles to alleviate the pain. After pleading and screaming he got his prescription and the problem was solved... for now...

Many people don't like to pay their dues, work hard, diligently and patiently. They want instant gratification and have no appreciation for quality.

Trainees are people...


That actually may be worth a dedicated thread (not obesity, the why people don't do simple stuff that work)...
 
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Not necessarily no. It all depends. In highly general terms... people wanting to lose 'weight' can eat less and lift weights. Those people wanting to gain weight or experience hypertrophy can eat more and lift weights.

Pretty far of topic from the original post...
 
As much as I want to agree, I don't think it's simply eat less. Research shows that once you reach a certain weight, your body tends to want to stay there. Someone who is 200 lbs but previously 250 has to eat less than someone who has always been 200 to maintain that weight.

You're right, it seems simple but our bodies are strange things... I just don't think it can simply be a lack of will power or discipline, or frame of mind.

Part of it is our view is warped... In my group of friends, they all joke about how I'm "tiny" because I'm 150 lbs (70 kg ish). However, looking at my BMI, I'm over the median for least risk - I'm a 22.1, where 18.5-25 is considered normal. Now I'm not saying BMI is the best health indicator, I think body fat % and visceral fat is much better to know, but my point is that I am almost exactly at the proper weight for my 5'9" height yet and am considered small. In Europe, I look like everyone else. In North America, I'm small.
 
What you eat makes a difference. An entire bag of frozen Brussels sprouts has about the same calories as a can of Coke, to use an extreme example.
 
wespom9 said:
You're right, it seems simple but our bodies are strange things... I just don't think it can simply be a lack of will power or discipline, or frame of mind.
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I refer you back to one of the quotes in my original post:

Matts said:
let's not confuse "simple" with "easy"....
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It might be extremely hard, difficult, challenging and frustrating. It is also simple...

And even if obesity is some deep dark hole no one can escape, nobody is born obese. There is a l-o-n-g road before you reach to that dubious destination you can definitely "eat like an adult" and get on a different path.

While never obese, I dropped weight from 78kg (documented, probably was in the low 80s before I started) to 67kg in a little over a year. All I changed in my life was that I started lifting weights (with a crappy program) and eating like an adult for a change (more vegetables, less crap). It wasn't easy, but it was simple.
 
wespom9 said:
Research shows that once you reach a certain weight, your body tends to want to stay there. Someone who is 200 lbs but previously 250 has to eat less than someone who has always been 200 to maintain that weight.
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I'd very much like to see the research that bears this out.

Effectively, what you are saying is: the metabolism of heavier people, when they achieve a lower goal weight, is significantly and constantly lower than the metabolism of those who stayed at that goal weight for the majority of their adult life (with lifestyle choices and muscle-to-fat-ratios kept constant).

Calories in versus calories out. It is that "simple".

One needs to remember that "simple" refers to the idea, not to it's execution.

Why don't people do the simple things that work? (1) They don't know, or aren't convinced, that it works; or (2) It takes a combination of ambition and dedication to thoughtful and effortful work, and they don't really want to put in that work.
 
kodo kb said:
I'd very much like to see the research that bears this out.

Effectively, what you are saying is: the metabolism of heavier people, when they achieve a lower goal weight, is significantly and constantly lower than the metabolism of those who stayed at that goal weight for the majority of their adult life (with lifestyle choices and muscle-to-fat-ratios kept constant).

Calories in versus calories out. It is that "simple".

One needs to remember that "simple" refers to the idea, not to it's execution.

Why don't people do the simple things that work? (1) They don't know, or aren't convinced, that it works; or (2) It takes a combination of ambition and dedication to thoughtful and effortful work, and they don't really want to put in that work.
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Food (pun intended) for thought:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/why-you-cant-lose-weight-on-a-diet.html
 
Steve W. said:
Food (pun intended) for thought:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/why-you-cant-lose-weight-on-a-diet.html
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Thanks for this. I didn't read the articles, but I did read the research.

So, metabolic adaptation is a real thing, and can remain (in certain people), but the extent that it does depends on so-far unstudied factors. In addition, comparing the metabolic changes during the "Biggest Loser" in 14 people, all with class III obesity, to your average weight-loss client might be like comparing apples and oranges. For one, the 14 people in the study lost >4 lbs a week, much more than your average weight-loss client.

As well, this meta-study of weight regain after weight loss points to numerous factors that effect weight regain, not all of them metabolic in nature. (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn/2013/210524/)

The study also remarks that the decrease in metabolisms lasts for 24 months in many previously studied obese participants, as opposed to the 72 month hold presented in the study you linked to. When discussing obesity, many factors are in play, like how long one has stayed obese, the effects this has on a person's hormones, as well as diet/hunger strategies.

All this being said, it is as simple as calories in versus calories out. The fact that whatever the "calories out" changes for people with different genetics and medical/exercise/diet history does not the simplicity of the original formula.
 
  • I've come to believe that the more we focus on food and think about it and read studies, etc., the harder it is to deal with it rationally. I've tried to go back to way it was when I was a kid- we got fed something, we always left the table wanting more (big family), Mom always said "wait til lunch" (at breakfast) or "wait til dinner" (at lunch) and we just got busy and forgot about it til then. So, I agree with OP- eat less, stay busy, and don't obsess about it.
 
Matts said:
  • I've come to believe that the more we focus on food and think about it and read studies, etc., the harder it is to deal with it rationally. I've tried to go back to way it was when I was a kid- we got fed something, we always left the table wanting more (big family), Mom always said "wait til lunch" (at breakfast) or "wait til dinner" (at lunch) and we just got busy and forgot about it til then. So, I agree with OP- eat less, stay busy, and don't obsess about it.
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So very true.

For some reason people seem to be obsessed with food and diets now a days.
 
Reading @Matts and @Mirek post reminded me of something I read at Psych and Original Strength Performance.

We "program" our conscious and subconscious to take action by imagining what we want, but the problem is that our subconscious mind doesn't recognize negatives (OS performance kindle location 815, don't remember where it is exactly in Psych). So obsessing about "not being fat" and "not eating" set our subconsciousness to "being fat" and "eat".... I guess that where Think Positive! stems from...
 
Eat less? Not necessarily. Eat better.

My obese friends on diet are frightened by the amounts of food I eat. They shouldn't be - they should pay attention to what kind of food I eat.
 
I am going to be doing a bit of experimenting with this Slow-Carb thing. My wife and I have decided to give it a try. Not that I am exactly obese :) but I am interested to see what will happen. I have a PL meet in 20 days and, rather than my usual method of making weight, I'm going to try this. Usually, I just start dropping carbs and salt the week before and also take an herbal diuretic and, for the 4-5 lbs. I need to drop, that's always been fine.

-S-
 
Pavel Macek said:
Eat less? Not necessarily. Eat better.

My obese friends on diet are frightened by the amounts of food I eat. They shouldn't be - they should pay attention to what kind of food I eat.
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I agree that "eat better" is the real solution, that's why I quoted @Dan John's "Eat like an adult".

Either "less" or "better", it is still simple, which is the general idea...

Maybe it should be "eat less crap"...
 
@the hansenator , I haven't read the article you posted yet, but calorie counting is still obsessing about food and thinking along the line of "consume less calories". Since the subconscious don't really get negatives all that's left is calorie obsession...
 
"Eat less crap", yes, because common ways of just "eating less" (calories) works - but short term, not long term. There are clever ways of eating less, better to say "not over-eating". Intermittent fasting, which I a a big fan of, is one of them. Still - the food selection is priority #1.
 
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