Show me a weight loss diet that results in regain of lost weight while the person continues sticking to the diet.
I came upon an influencer whose body fits the “beauty standard.”
Her history: athletic, never been overweight, never been underweight, a figure just right and enviable.
She recently announced that diets don’t work. The irony is that her father has maintained weight loss long-term.
Dad says he’s never felt better; the weight loss has eliminated aches and stiffness he’d feel upon rising from extended sitting. He’s been sticking to a specific way of eating which includes going light on the carbs.
Yet his daughter has announced to millions that “diets don’t work.”
This is akin to saying, “Starting a business doesn’t work.”
What’s really bizarre with her and others with similar messages is that she endorses intuitive eating.
Isn’t intuitive eating a type of diet?
It subscribes to various tenets — as would many other kinds of diets. If an influencer swears by the intuitive eating approach — they shouldn’t go around telling their followers that diets don’t work.
Long Term Weight Loss
Most overweight people, particularly morbidly obese, won’t experience long-term weight loss.
This doesn’t mean it’s accurate or even almost accurate to state that diets don’t work.
There is not a single recorded case in which an overweight individual — who loses let’s say 80 pounds via cutting back on caloric intake — regains the 80 pounds while continuing to adhere to the reduced calories that caused them to drop the 80 pounds. Not a single case.
Whether the weight loss is 150 pounds or 20 pounds, nobody gains back the weight if they STICK to the menu that shed the pounds in the first place.
When people put the lost weight back on – the diet didn’t fail. Instead, they switched back to their old eating habits that made them overweight in the first place.
It’s important that I emphasize that some “diets” are difficult to sustain, such as very low carbs; cutting out bread, pasta and potatoes; eating within only a short time frame; severe caloric restriction; having only a protein shake for breakfast, another for lunch and then a small dinner.
However, there are sustainable ways to lose excess weight and keep it off for good.
Portion control is perhaps the most sustainable, adherence-friendly route to permanent weight loss.
And yes, some obese individuals will lose a lot of weight via portion control – but then lapse and resume a very high caloric intake and return to their starting weight. Why is this so difficult to grasp for these influencers who keep preaching that diets don’t work?
Any number of issues could cause a successful dieter to fall off the wagon, including new-onset stress and unresolved trauma from childhood.
But these factors don’t mean one shouldn’t always strive for a healthier, livelier and more mobile version of themselves.
According to the influencer whose father tightly watches what he puts in his mouth every day and thus maintains his weight loss, it’s useless for alcoholics to keep trying to quit drinking.
“Diets don’t work” has pretty much the same meaning as “Quitting drinking doesn’t work.”
And yes, many alcoholics have fallen off the wagon after lengthy periods of sobriety. Same with drug addicts.
Many smokers will tell you they’ve quit the habit – hundreds of times.
Just what do these influencers recommend that morbidly obese people do – quit trying to lose weight and remain in pain and continue suffering other weight related issues such as sleep apnea, lack of stamina and feeling exhausted after spending a few hours walking around an amusement park with their kids?
Would they also tell someone with a drinking problem to stop trying to quit drinking, or a smoker to give up on kicking the habit? These influencers are deranged.
The Business Model Analogy
How many people have you known throughout your life who started a business – but it “failed”?
Many businesses fail early on. Does this mean nobody should ever start a business?
According to the influencers’ line of logic, the answer is yes: Don’t bother going into business for yourself, because a substantial share of new businesses drown within their first few years.
For example, the U.S. Small Business Administration data shows that only about 68% of new enterprises survive their first two years.
This means about 32% shut down within two years.
I know of an elementary school girl who has made bracelets to sell at various functions.
Sometimes her station does well; other times not so well.
Would that influencer tell her to just throw in the towel? I doubt it. Instead she’d probably cheer her on for her next sales station, or give her some words of encouragement.
But that same influencer would tell a morbidly obese woman with knee pain and shortness of breath just from doing housework to hang up all future weight loss attempts for good and just love her body “as it is.”
People who’ve kept off significant amounts of weight will tell you that the difference in quality of life as a slimmer person is off the charts.
And they don’t mean quality as in being treated better in social or business situations.
They mean in terms of HEALTH. This includes restorative sleep, waking with energy instead of aches and pains, being able to run along a beach with their kids, not having to worry about staircases or long walks on a vacation, knowing they’d be able to get their body hustling in the event of a crisis, being able to bend over with ease, and the list goes on.
Many report that when they were fat, they thought they did okay – but only when they began losing weight did they start realizing just how difficult things had really been as far as stamina and movement.
This reminds me of a girl in my fifth grade class who, for the kicks of it, wanted to try on my glasses.
She didn’t wear glasses and wanted to see what it felt like. So she tried them on and was floored:
“Oh my gosh, I could see much better! I thought I had good eyes but I can see so much better with your glasses!”
Likewise, many very overweight people just don’t know how good it feels to move with a much lighter body until they lose the weight.
And when a morbidly obese influencer insists that she can spend all day on her feet at festivals three days in a row without any problems — you can bet your life savings she’s only in her 20s or barely into her 30s.
Please, influencers … stop the nonsense already. Stop encouraging obese people (whose medical histories you don’t even know) to stop trying to lose excess, harmful body fat.
