Complex Numbers

No Time to Diet

There are a lot of things we don't know, and I'm generally okay with that. But there is one thing that we don't know that is an endless source of frustration for me.

https://www.cracked.com/blog/how-dieting-may-have-helped-cause-obsesity-epidemic...

How Dieting May Have Helped Cause The Obesity Epidemic

If you've stepped outside at some point in the last few decades, you've probably noticed two things. One, we're in the middle of an "obesity epidemic," and two, we have entire aisles in our stores dedicated to weight loss products. But shouldn't that second thing have nullified the first? Isn't it kind of weird that this epidemic has grown right alongside the industry that claims to sell its cure? What if these products and plans aren't merely wasting your money? What if they're a cause?

The use of the term "epidemic" for obesity has also bugged me. It's not like that shit's contagious (at least, we don't think it is), and that's what I think of when I hear "epidemic." So the scare quotes above are, for once, justified.

We've covered before how losing weight and keeping it off is almost impossible with dieting alone  . But there's a theory that takes this idea much further. And the more you learn about it, the more it makes sense.

It's worth following that link; it's to another Cracked article by David Wong, who as far as I'm concerned was the guy who made Cracked great again. I say "was" because he left recently, but these articles preceded his departure.

At Least One Study Says Dieting Is Actually The Problem

When it comes to nutrition science, one study doesn't generally mean jack squat. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be subject to further investigation.

But if you know a little bit about the physiological effects of dieting -- i.e. abruptly changing eating habits to drastically cut calories -- this makes a scary amount of sense. When it comes down to it, dieting is a form of self-imposed famine. And when we're starving, our bodies do some seriously intense stuff in response. Stuff that may keep you overweight forever.

Lots of people have presented hypotheses about why we're fatter, as a group, than we used to be. Less movement. Fast food. Changes in gut biome. Lower willpower. Overprocessed food. None of these hypotheses pass my personal sniff test. That doesn't mean they're wrong, of course - I'm often the one that's wrong - but, for example, I'm not convinced that we move more now than we used to; the modern obsession with exercise didn't do anything to fix obesity; in fact, its popularity coincides with the rise in average weight. I'm not saying that I think there's causation there, but clearly, we're not moving around less.

It seems that the more we think we know about food and nutrition, the less "healthy" we are, no matter what metric we use to define "healthy."

There's something else going on, but I don't know what it is. I'm fairly sure about what it's not, which is a sudden loss of collective willpower.

Other Studies Back This Up

One study doesn't generally mean jack squat, but a bunch of studies increase the confidence level.

There's a reason nobody seems to know anything about long-term weight loss, and why every year there's a new diet fad that's just the flip of the last one. ("Actually, you should only eat the bacon! It's the bun that was bad!") Most studies of food and nutrition are notoriously unreliable.

Which is what I've been saying.

The men in the study were fed an average of 1,800 calories a day (more than many modern weight-loss diets suggest), and their reactions to this deprivation were telling. These formerly happy and healthy dudes experienced severe psychological problems, temper tantrums, violent outbursts, and an extreme obsession with food. They basically became hangry toddlers.

I really hate neologisms like "hangry." Probably that's because I've been eating 1400 calories a day, almost every day, for over a year, and it's making me Hulk out. Or it would if I had the energy to Hulk out.

It Turns Out That Dieting Can Really Mess You Up

I've said before that I don't usually do anything for only one reason. But one of the big reasons (pun intended) that I've been trying (mostly successfully) to lose weight is so when I go to Europe, I don't want to be seen as a stereotypical American.

Studies also show that eating disorders like binge eating are a physical response to starvation -- even self-imposed starvation like dieting.

Weird thing about my current eating plan (I don't call it a "diet" for psychological reasons): I rarely feel hungry on it. In the past, I've tried things that did keep me hungry, and consequently, they didn't work for very long. But I suppose it's possible that, even without the physical feelings of hunger, my body is still in starvation mode.

If you're wondering whether this is a psychological or physical response, please remember that those are not separate things. Your brain is just another organ, and like all of your organs, it has built-in mechanisms to help you survive. Under the right circumstances, though, those very reflexes can work against you; ask any lifeguard how hard it is to save a drowning person who is thrashing around.

I've said something like this before, too. If you're drowning, you have less control of your body. You're going to do whatever it takes to survive. You may be laboring under the impression that you have control over what you do, but that control is an illusion. So it is when you're hungry or thirsty; you're going to eat or drink whatever is available.

One reason I get groceries delivered is so I don't get tempted by junk food in the grocery store. There's a personal rule I developed (and subsequently ignored) many years ago: never go grocery shopping while hungry. It's easier for me to follow that rule if I shop for stuff online right after I've had a meal or snack.

They often define success within a short time frame, like under a year, even though most people who regain weight after diets do so in the two-to-five-year range. Oh, and they're also usually based on self-reporting. How well do you think that works when people have been trained to credit the diet when they lose weight but blame themselves when they gain?

I'm under no delusion that I'm some sort of outlier. I fully expect to gain weight again. I'm seeing the signs of that even now; when I do go out, it often takes everything I've got to avoid eating stuff I know is high in calories. I'm not sure how long I can keep up the self-denial.

I've simply decided to reach my goal weight and then worry about it. Whether I will be successful at that or not is still an open question.

Dieting Is To Blame For A Whole Lot Of Unhealthy Habits And Attitudes

I saw a discussion of how we should program the AI of self-driving cars. Sometimes, while driving, humans have to make split-second decisions; these decisions can mean the difference between life and death. They asked people to envision several different scenarios for the AI - basically trolley problems. Like, it's going to hit Pedestrian A or Pedestrian B, no matter what, so which one should be prioritized? The vast majority of people said that, in any situation involving anyone else and a fat guy, the fat guy should be the one hit.

As a (formerly) fat guy, I take this personally.

Remember, these weight loss diets aren't just unhealthy and ineffective. There's an entire marketing-driven culture that comes along with it. Obese people declare their weight gain to be a personal moral failure, rather than trusting the overwhelming amount of research that says weight loss is not about motivation or willpower.

New business model: sell a lot of unhealthy food with one subsidiary, and sell a weight-loss plan with another subsidiary.

If someone else hasn't already implemented that, I'd be kinda disappointed.

So What Do We Do?

If scientists and dietitians agree that dieting can make obesity worse in the long term, how else can we solve the supposedly big problem of our big selves? How are we supposed to get to a healthy weight if we can't diet?

As I said, I'm not losing weight for just one reason. But "health" is actually way, way down on the list, somewhat below "I reached Peak Levi's" and "I don't fit in the cattle seats on airplanes." If I were concerned about health, I'd also stop smoking cigars. But I don't, because nicotine is a very effective appetite suppressant. Now, I had some blood testing done recently, and I seem to have neatly sidestepped diabetes, so there's that. But that's an effect, not a goal.

Our mental health, our sleep schedules, nonstop marketing of foods high in salt, sugar, and fat ... it all ties in to an increase in hunger urges that, statistically, cannot be resisted by "pride" or "grit" or "willpower." Telling an overweight person to "just stop eating" is like telling someone with bronchitis to "just stop coughing." They can do it for a while, if they really concentrate. But eventually the body takes over.

And here we come back to me railing against Puritanical attitudes. "It's YOUR FAULT and you can fix things if you just do everything you're supposed to."

Many a coke addict has had co-workers tell them they look fantastic because they dropped 40 pounds in two months.

I'm not a coke addict (I am, however, a Coke addict), but if that's what it takes to lose weight, I'd consider it. Again, it's not about health for me.

Instead of setting goals around making your body conform to beauty standards, find healthier habits that you can stick with for the rest of your life. It means realizing you have to find healthy foods and activities that you actually want to do, versus bitterly complying out of fear of ridicule.

Consequently, that advice doesn't work for me. I noticed as I was gaining weight that, paradoxically, the more space I took up, the more invisible I was. I'm not just talking about chicks ignoring me; I gave up on that sort of thing long ago, and I'm certainly not going to start trying to enter the dating scene now. It's everyone. Now, people have started noticing me again, and you know what? Fuck 'em, that's what. So yeah, I'm bitterly complying.

I'm still not sure that conforming to social standards of acceptable looks by cutting back on the things that I actually enjoy doing - drinking beer, going out to eat - is a good trade-off. But I'm still working toward it, at this point just to see if I can actually do it.