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Diet and exercise alone are no cure for obesity, experts say


Meshugger

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Funny, even though I'm an exercise nut I haven't got an opinion on this topic.  To have one I'd first have to take people seriously who do lack even the most basic amount self discipline, control and common sense. 

Edited by Woldan

I gazed at the dead, and for one dark moment I saw a banquet. 
 

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Funny, even though I'm an exercise nut I haven't got an opinion on this topic.  To have one I'd first have to take people seriously who do lack even the most basic amount self discipline, control and common sense. 

 

You sound like you think those are innate abilities rather than learned skills.

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Well, a meta-analysis of 29 studies does seem to hint at the odds being severely against one who wants to maintain weight loss in the long term:

 

F1.medium.gif

 

But as you can see, the meme of "people will unavoidably regain all weight lost and then some" is pretty much false.

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"Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."

 

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I don't know if that's really "working correctly" because "feeling bad about it" can take so many forms. I highly doubt a person whose psychological response to seeing a fit person is "you'll never look like that, go die in a hole you fat pig" is going to be motivating, let alone the "correct response".

Correct response would be acting on that response not only think it.

 

 

You mean searching for a suitable hole and dying in it while ruminating on one's worthlessness?

"Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."

 

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I don't know... Just seems very exaggerated from personal experience. The fact that your body fights back is not new information. "Eating less" should in fact be managed carefully as the body will resist burning fat in starvation mode and in the long run the craving will win. But none of that is unmanageable with the right approach and just seems to justify people failing at discipline by exaggerating the hardship.

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Common sense other than critical thinking combined with basic knowledge? i.e. things you learn?

In my opinion common sense is simply another term for low level logical thinking skills - which is a built-in skill. Edited by Woldan

I gazed at the dead, and for one dark moment I saw a banquet. 
 

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I don't know if that's really "working correctly" because "feeling bad about it" can take so many forms. I highly doubt a person whose psychological response to seeing a fit person is "you'll never look like that, go die in a hole you fat pig" is going to be motivating, let alone the "correct response".

Correct response would be acting on that response not only think it.

You mean searching for a suitable hole and dying in it while ruminating on one's worthlessness?

Yes that is exactly whay I mean.

 

 

Could you please provide a justification for wishing death on people for the crime of being fat?

 

I don't know... Just seems very exaggerated from personal experience. The fact that your body fights back is not new information. "Eating less" should in fact be managed carefully as the body will resist burning fat in starvation mode and in the long run the craving will win. But none of that is unmanageable with the right approach and just seems to justify people failing at discipline by exaggerating the hardship.

 

Do note the study I linked earlier. It shows that on average, about 20-30% of the original weight loss is sustained by the end of a five-year-long period. And this is for people who had medical supervision.

"Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."

 

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The actual article is behind a registration wall, so unless somebody takes one for the team and posts the whole thing, there is no way to tell exactly what the researchers found, much less draw any practical conclusions from it. That being said,
 
Changing what you eat (or more strictly learning to eat) and taking up a training regime that is tailored to you by a qualified professional will lead to a more healthy body composition. There is abundant research that consistently shows that a caloric deficit will lead to weight loss, some of which is freely available. Sure, there may be the odd case that remains obese no matter what, but black swans arent statistically significant. Bummer if you happen to be one, though.
 
Maintaining a "healthy" body composition is much harder. Behavioral modification is certainly a neglected aspect in the fitness part of the equation (the other one being medical advice), and from what I've read, statistics show that not only self-reported success rates are very low, but also that rebounding back to bad habits and as a result to excess weight is more common than the alternative (!). There is very little teamwork going on between medical and fitness professionals (except maybe at the pro sports level, but that's neither here nor there), and even when there is, seldom do they have the skills needed to provide the subject with the tools to maintain the gains they have made in the long run. And considering how much money there is involved in treating the problem as opposed to solving it, I doubt this paradigm will change.
 
Regardless, the headline is clearly misleading. "Diet and exercise" are a cure for obesity, provided the patient can stick to the treatment. It's interesting that in the article intro, it says "These adaptations might be potent enough to undermine the long-term effectiveness of lifestyle modification in most individuals with obesity, particularly in an environment that promotes energy overconsumption." That's not diet and exercise that are at fault then, now are they? (hint: when it says "environment" it's not referring to a heat transfer in a thermodynamic sense)

 

 

 

 

Common sense other than critical thinking combined with basic knowledge? i.e. things you learn?

In my opinion common sense is simply another term for low level logical thinking skills - which is a built-in skill.

 

Interesting theory. Is that mathematical logic you are referring to? Formal (Aristotelian) logic? Computational logic perhaps? Because most people can do none of those without training and, in fact, it happens to be fairly counterintuitive. Formal logic developed as a tool to identify and correct fallacies i.e. "informal" logic errors. Much like mathematics, it doesn't come naturally to the population at large.

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- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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Could you please provide a justification for wishing death on people for the crime of being fat?

Me? I'm not the one thinking they should die and that they are worthless. When did I became a part of the original scenario posted by TrueNeutral?

 

 

 

No, you're the one thinking the correct response to them seeing a fit person is to kill themselves.

 

 

 

 

I highly doubt a person whose psychological response to seeing a fit person is "you'll never look like that, go die in a hole you fat pig" is (...) the "correct response".

Correct response would be acting on that response not only think it.

 

 

 

I even asked you for clarification on the issue.

 

 

 

 

Correct response would be acting on that response not only think it.

You mean searching for a suitable hole and dying in it while ruminating on one's worthlessness?

Yes that is exactly whay I mean.

 

"Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."

 

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Better fat than bald.

 
Are Bald Men More Commanding?
 
 
 
Though in my case my wife doesn't like when I buzz my head and she hates it when I shave it completely bald

 

 

Truth is most women do not prefer bald men. Truth is most women do not prefer fat men. Key words here being 'most' and 'prefer'.

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Yul Brynner. wub.pngwub.pngwub.png

Bald sexiness largely depends on the shape of the head in question as well as non-physical attraction considerations like confidence aura, voice etc. which apply to all, bald or not.

“Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
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There has been this weird backlash going on against fit people lately though, like that mom who had the no excuses campaign. The whole fat shaming thing makes no sense to me. If you see someone super fit and you feel bad about it, that is your conscience working correctly.

Those fit people being able to run for more than 30 seconds or being attractive is a micro aggression, man.

 

But really, people have something against fit people? I can understand that if the fit guy is some muscle bro preaching about lifting every opportunity, but just some non fatso? Odd.

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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Maybe it's not so much a backlash re: being fit as it is a backlash against being told what's bad for you  all the time. eg, some may have pet peeves re: backseat health advocates/health news at this point and just tend to lump "fit people" into that category whether they deserve it or not.

“Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
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Maybe it's not so much a backlash re: being fit as it is a backlash against being told what's bad for you  all the time. eg, some may have pet peeves re: backseat health advocates/health news at this point and just tend to lump "fit people" into that category whether they deserve it or not.

 

Plus, there's the whole thing where you're never thin enough for some people. Action - reaction. When I see a poster for a Hunger Games movie get posted and the comment section is full of "I dun get y every1 luvs Jennifer Laurence, shes so fat" then I weep a little for our ancestors because their offspring has degenerated.

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I always wonder what kind of shape, those people saying someone like Jennifer L. is so fat, are in themselves. :-

“Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
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Funny, even though I'm an exercise nut I haven't got an opinion on this topic.  To have one I'd first have to take people seriously who do lack even the most basic amount self discipline, control and common sense.

You're assuming everyone cares about being in shape. There are people who don't care, even when they know the medical consequences.
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I always wonder what kind of shape, those people saying someone like Jennifer L. is so fat, are in themselves. whistling.gif

 

No need to wonder, that's what God 4chan gave us the "2/10 would not bang" meme for.

Edited by 213374U

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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