On Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:29:31 -0500, "John A. Weeks III"
wrote:
>In article ,
> Magda wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:37:08 -0500, in rec.travel.europe, "John A. Weeks III"
>> arranged some electrons, so they looked like this:
>>
>> ...
>> ... What good does a diet do? Millions of people have spent millions
>> ... of person-days on diets. If diets worked, we would be a nation
>> ... of thin people. The mere fact that as more and more time is spent
>> ... on diets, while people continue to get larger, seems to suggest
>> ... that most diets simply cause overall weight gain.
>>
>> I went on a diet last May; by August I had gone from size 8 to size 4 (US).
>> If it works
>> for me, why can't it work for them? (Granted, my diet didn't include tons of
>> sugar and
>> starch *daily*...)
>
>If you are only talking a few months here, you haven't waited long
>enough to see the results of this diet. The net-net is that virtually
>everyone who diets ends up gaining the weight back, plus a little
>more within a year of ending the diet.
Not if they have a balanced plan they don't. I'm one of those people
who can't eat as they wish in terms of desserts and sweets -- even in
moderation -- unless I exercise pretty aggressively. But because I
want to do those things, I make sure I follow through on the exercise.
It obviously helps that I actually enjoy biking and don't feel that's
exercise. But I also make sure to do enough of it to count, which is
for me about 50 miles or so each week. And in the winter, if I can't
get out and/or aren't willing to ride because of weather, I follow a
regular pattern of indoor exercise.
Where most people miss in this area is thinking that diet alone will
do it. For better or worse, the human body gets more efficient when
you start eating less; so to see results, you have to generally
gradually increase your exercise or further moderate your diet to keep
losing or in some cases to even stay stable.
>
>Weight is a genetic factor in many cases. Your body will do whatever
>it has to in order to maintain that weight. If you start messing
>with it, your body will react to defend itself, and to whatever
>it can to get back to that weight. If it means carrying a little
>more just in case, your body will do that.
I'm not convinced this is behind our problem as a society. Medical
science has never come out with a genetic link that puts one third of
the American populace at a predisposition for weight issues. |