Placebo Effect: Dieting is all in your head

[CountDeMoney]

I just make sure my prostate gets enough exercise.  Take care of the prostate that takes care of you!

[alfred russel]

Losing weight = Calorie consumption < Calorie metabolic maintenance

That's not placebo, that's fact. Even experimentation made by the Nazis has demonstrated that it works.

For all its negatives, the holocaust did demonstrate that eating very few calories while doing vigorous physical work will help you drop pounds. The jewish fellows in those labor camps were quite thin.

[11B4V]

Losing weight = Calorie consumption < Calorie metabolic maintenance

That's not placebo, that's fact. Even experimentation made by the Nazis has demonstrated that it works.

For all its negatives, the holocaust did demonstrate that eating very few calories while doing vigorous physical work will help you drop pounds. The jewish fellows in those labor camps were quite thin.

So was 76 days of ranger school. I started at 210 and by the end weighed 173. Was ripped like a mofo. But had the strength of a 10 year old and the energy of a geriatric.

[jimmy olsen]

Did you read the first fucking paragraph?

Do you actually read the how fucking dumb the articles you post are, before pressing Post?

I mean wow... diets are all placebo, even though numerous diets are actually proven to work!

I read it. There were numerous links within to various studies you might want to check out.

[CountDeMoney]

For all its negatives, the holocaust did demonstrate that eating very few calories while doing vigorous physical work will help you drop pounds. The jewish fellows in those labor camps were quite thin.

Nonsense;  it's just that the stripes were slimming.

[The Brain]

As I understand placebo it is important in a great many human activities. That being said it IS very simple to lose weight, IF you want to. Will is the way. Many people don't want to lose weight. They may claim (even think) that they do, but they do not. As with all things, if you're not prepared to do what it takes to achieve something, in which meaningful way do you actually want to achieve it?

With weight all it takes is eat a little bit less than you need to maintain fat reserves. It's very simple.

We use discipline all the time. It takes discipline to go to work every day, it takes discipline to not say the first thing that pops into your head, it takes discipline to follow traffic regulations etc etc etc. It's part of being an adult. Now would it be nice to eliminate the need for discipline for some of those things? Sure, it would make more people act in a productive manner since not everyone has discipline.

[Malthus]

Eat the right food. Develop an excersie routine that is progressive, sustainable, within your physical capability and doesn't bore you.

Fuck, it's not rocket science.

While that is obviously true, it is also, for many folks, quite useless.

Akin to telling depressed people "develop healthy daily routines, make some good friends, and be less sad". 

If they were mentally capable of doing that, presumably they would ...

[crazy canuck]

Eat the right food. Develop an excersie routine that is progressive, sustainable, within your physical capability and doesn't bore you.

Fuck, it's not rocket science.

While that is obviously true, it is also, for many folks, quite useless.

Akin to telling depressed people "develop healthy daily routines, make some good friends, and be less sad". 

If they were mentally capable of doing that, presumably they would ...

I understand people with a mental illness not being able to cure their mental illness.  I am not so convinced that being fat is akin to having a mental illness unless one equates eating too much a kind of addiction.  I suppose that might be the case for some people.  But given the expansion of waist lines in North America I think it more likely it has more to do with life style.

[derspiess]

I understand people with a mental illness not being able to cure their mental illness.  I am not so convinced that being fat is akin to having a mental illness unless one equates eating too much a kind of addiction.  I suppose that might be the case for some people.  But given the expansion of waist lines in North America I think it more likely it has more to do with life style.

No, no, no.  It's all a thyroid problem. 

[Malthus]

I understand people with a mental illness not being able to cure their mental illness.  I am not so convinced that being fat is akin to having a mental illness unless one equates eating too much a kind of addiction.  I suppose that might be the case for some people.  But given the expansion of waist lines in North America I think it more likely it has more to do with life style.

Not an illness, but not a simple cure either - even though everyone knows what the cure is (eat less, exercise more).

While depression is classified as a mental illness, 'situational' depression isn't simply a chemical imbalance - more like a bad cycle of behaviors and thoughts.

The "cure" in both cases is indeed a mental one. It is similar to the "cure" for smoking (which is of course to ... stop smoking).

All three (overeating, smoking, depression) are similar to each other in this way - that how to stop the problem is, on the surface "obvious", but in practice some find it hard to do. In all three cases, those without those particular problems often have scant sympathy - the solution is so obvious, so why the overweight, smoking or chronically sad person can't just successfully pull themselves out of it by a simple exercise of willpower must be because they are weak.

[The Brain]

I don't think the fat fucks on Languish are retarded nutjobs.

[DGuller]

I understand people with a mental illness not being able to cure their mental illness.  I am not so convinced that being fat is akin to having a mental illness unless one equates eating too much a kind of addiction.  I suppose that might be the case for some people.  But given the expansion of waist lines in North America I think it more likely it has more to do with life style.

Not an illness, but not a simple cure either - even though everyone knows what the cure is (eat less, exercise more).

While depression is classified as a mental illness, 'situational' depression isn't simply a chemical imbalance - more like a bad cycle of behaviors and thoughts.

The "cure" in both cases is indeed a mental one. It is similar to the "cure" for smoking (which is of course to ... stop smoking).

All three (overeating, smoking, depression) are similar to each other in this way - that how to stop the problem is, on the surface "obvious", but in practice some find it hard to do. In all three cases, those without those particular problems often have scant sympathy - the solution is so obvious, so why the overweight, smoking or chronically sad person can't just successfully pull themselves out of it by a simple exercise of willpower must be because they are weak.

Very well put.

[Jacob]

I understand people with a mental illness not being able to cure their mental illness.  I am not so convinced that being fat is akin to having a mental illness unless one equates eating too much a kind of addiction.  I suppose that might be the case for some people.  But given the expansion of waist lines in North America I think it more likely it has more to do with life style.

I think that lifestyle is one way of framing it, but if we are looking at it as as social phenomenon I think food infrastructure and other social structures are more relevant things to consider.

If the observation is "look at how North Americans have gotten way fatter" then "it's the lifestyle" is not an explanation but simply a restating of the observation - North American lifestyles exist in a very different context now than in the past. So what are the things that affect the North American lifestyle that results in the expanding waistline?

If we approach any given individual case - so-and-so is really fat because of their lifestyle - the answer there (assuming they want to lose weight) is how can that individual restructure their lifestyle such that they lose weight, which once again touches on the social structures that inform said lifestyle.

[Razgovory]

I don't think the fat fucks on Languish are retarded nutjobs.

Well, some of us are.

[The Brain]

I don't think the fat fucks on Languish are retarded nutjobs.

Well, some of us are.

I don't think you're technically retarded.