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The fantasy of being thin
A quite good essay about the "When I'm thin everything will be better" thinking of a lot of dieters: The fantasy of being thin.
I must admit, I have pretty much literally thought "How dare they take my hope away?!" when reading fat acceptance blogs and their message that diets don't work. Because if that's true, then that sinks the only (fairly slim) chance I have of getting rid of my reflux, which is something I'm not ready to come to terms with. But if it's true then it's true, it's like debunking ineffective cancer cures etc. And as she says in the post, if you spend all your time pinning your hopes for bettering your life (in whatever way) on losing weight, and it never happens, then that's a waste of all the time and energy you could have spent pursuing those goals in other more effective ways.
I still think Weight watchers has been good for Cam and I even if we end up as fat at the end as we were at the start, since it's gotten us exercising and eating healthier. (I've seen one or two blogs which even argue against that, but them I don't take so seriously)
EDIT: the other thing I find annoying about fat acceptance blogs, which is totally not their fault, is all this talk about "eating whatever you want" when if I did that I would be seriously sick. Stupid allergies for all the foods I really like :(
I must admit, I have pretty much literally thought "How dare they take my hope away?!" when reading fat acceptance blogs and their message that diets don't work. Because if that's true, then that sinks the only (fairly slim) chance I have of getting rid of my reflux, which is something I'm not ready to come to terms with. But if it's true then it's true, it's like debunking ineffective cancer cures etc. And as she says in the post, if you spend all your time pinning your hopes for bettering your life (in whatever way) on losing weight, and it never happens, then that's a waste of all the time and energy you could have spent pursuing those goals in other more effective ways.
I still think Weight watchers has been good for Cam and I even if we end up as fat at the end as we were at the start, since it's gotten us exercising and eating healthier. (I've seen one or two blogs which even argue against that, but them I don't take so seriously)
EDIT: the other thing I find annoying about fat acceptance blogs, which is totally not their fault, is all this talk about "eating whatever you want" when if I did that I would be seriously sick. Stupid allergies for all the foods I really like :(
fantasy of being thin?
Nearly, 80% of all smokers fail to quit smoking when trying, as well as heroin, and crack users. We don't tell them oh well...just don't try.
Intuitive eating "eating what you want" assumes that our bodies are programed to eat correctly. When in fact (IMO) our bodies are programed to eat as if we face starvation tomorrow. That is why people relish fatty and high carb food, because our bodies are programed to eat as much of it as we can in order to survive the lean periods.
The fact that we face a huge obesity epidemic (yes it is real) demonstrates that intuitive eating is doomed to failure.
I've been arguing with fat acceptance at my blog www.unfatblog.com for sometime trying to debunk their myths. They sing a tempting siren song to those who are overweight and struggle to lose it. It is tough to lose weight, no one is arguing that.
Re: fantasy of being thin?
CLEARLY YOU ARE A TROLL IN THE EMPLOY OF THE MONOLITHIC DIET INDUSTRY
*cough*
I think batting around the "95% of all diets" fail is an oversimplification. There are a lot of factors that make diets fail. Poor planned fad diets make up the majority of these attempts.
Possibly, though even weight watchers (which I think gives good advice) doesn't do that well (pro WW slant, anti-WW slant) and this study has low results for all diets studied long term (but has better news for exercise)
And even if there was a 50% success rate for dieting overall that's still 50% of people who are stuck the way they are and have to find a way to live with that.
Nearly, 80% of all smokers fail to quit smoking when trying, as well as heroin, and crack users. We don't tell them oh well...just don't try.
Absolutely, and I agree that it makes sense for overweight people to try eating healthy and exercising (it certainly won't do any harm)
But I actually think our society is too hard on smokers and the overweight: yes, these are unhealthy things to be, and people should be encouraged to try to change, but given how provably difficult they are to shift, we shouldn't accuse those who fail of laziness, and instead should make some efforts to accommodate them. I realise this is an unpopular opinion amongst my fellow nonsmokers!
My personal feeling (based on anecdotal evidence) is that the truth lies halfway between: if you don't exercise enough or eat very healthily then changing that will make you lose some weight, and that's a good thing...but there's no guarantee that it'll make you thin. And if you know that you're as thin as you're ever going to get then I think it is ok to accept that, and work around it rather than spending the rest of your life trying and failing to lose weight and making yourself miserable.
But yeah, the "intuitive eating" thing seems unintuitive to me, even apart from all the stuff I'm allergic to I constantly crave sugar, but it always makes me feel like crap afterwards.