I agree with most of your post here, unquestionably in fact. The aspect of willpower is problematic though, and education is also a factor.
A lot of people can lose weight through following an eating plan. Few people can lose weight simply by exercising - it's just not possible to do enough to make a difference. The real key is what we're ingesting.
But these achievements tend not to last. The Australian Government Health Department estimates that 2 years post diet, the overwhelming majority of people have gained the weight back, and often more weight. An important reason for this regain is that willpower is no match at all for unconscious conditioned thoughts, feelings, and behaviours around food. Without extinction of maladaptive conditioning around food, despite all the diets and all the programs currently being touted, we will continue to see rising overweight/obesity rates.
Another issue is education. As Annette Taylor points out, a coffee can contain 410 calories. Some syrupy coffees can be over 500 calories. This is more than a meal's worth and yet is used as a snack. A mere extra 200 calories a day accumulates an extra 11 pounds per annum. It doesn't take much.
Part of education is awareness of how the unwanted pounds found themselves onto the body in the first place. It's possible to roughly calculate how many calories people are consuming on average per day just by looking at what it must be taking to maintain their current weight. With the rare exception of some disorders, the excess fat describes exactly what is going on. But unless the person is doing unbridled eating for at least a week, documenting all food and beverages that are consumed, it's often not possible for them to really understand how those calories got to their stomachs. Self denial is incredibly common.
I'll end by saying deprivation isn't the answer and neither are eating programs, and these are especially inappropriate when the person has far more urgent issues to deal with. But we will not have an answer to the obesity epidemic without first really understand exactly how the fat got there, and then start extinguishing conditioned thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that have led to unhelpful eating.
Absolutely - the main factor is controlling calories but adding in exercise helps and adds incentive to watching caloric intake. The fact that many adults do not take responsibility for understanding caloric intake v. caloric need and the rough caloric value of what they consume is problematic. This is something that others can help with, e.g., doctors, dieticians, parents, schools, etc. However, even such education will likely fail when counteracted with reinforcement of a mindset that values indulgence over self-control and perpetuates the belief that one can be healthy at any size. The fact that people often put on weight after undertaking a diet is not a reason not to control caloric in-take. It is a reason to understand that a diet is not the answer. A diet is almost always temporary, leaving open the very real possibility of returning to old habits. A change in life style is more appropriate - cultivating habits that are not viewed a temporary way to drop pounds but a permanent way to sustain healthy eating.
I often had clients who swore they ate very little. With no symptoms of a disorder, they were basically claiming to have bypassed the laws of psychodynamics. They really had suppressed or had amnesia for their eating.
This is so timely given that just yesterday, I believe, the WHO noted that half the world will be obese by 2030 - not just overweight but obese, which is far greater overweight than simple overweight (https://www.worldobesity.org/news/one-billion-people-globally-estimated-to-be-living-with-obesity-by-2030) In addition I am appalled that places like Starbucks and McDonalds, who could launch HUGE marketing campaigns for healthy eating prefer to market their high fat/high sugar drinks and quadruple burgers, respectively. Over the last 3 years Starbucks did away with most sugar-free fat free coffee drinks such as their "skinny" alternatives and they did away with salads in their to-go foods. Instead they market their unicorn Frappuccino Here is the nutrition info: Amount Per Serving
Calories: 410, Total Fat: 16g with 10g Saturated Fat, Dietary Fiber: 0g and Added Sugars: 59g with only Protein: 5g. This is appallingly unhealthy. With their marketing resources they could lead the way in healthy options and eating and drinking. They also did away with all of the salads because of shelf life. But marketing could make those go so fast, your head would spin if they wanted to. Or take just a plain latte. With nonfat milk you get 0 g of fat, no matter the size. With a regular whole milk latte you 14 g of fat in a Grande (medium, 16 oz) drink.
I agree with most of your post here, unquestionably in fact. The aspect of willpower is problematic though, and education is also a factor.
A lot of people can lose weight through following an eating plan. Few people can lose weight simply by exercising - it's just not possible to do enough to make a difference. The real key is what we're ingesting.
But these achievements tend not to last. The Australian Government Health Department estimates that 2 years post diet, the overwhelming majority of people have gained the weight back, and often more weight. An important reason for this regain is that willpower is no match at all for unconscious conditioned thoughts, feelings, and behaviours around food. Without extinction of maladaptive conditioning around food, despite all the diets and all the programs currently being touted, we will continue to see rising overweight/obesity rates.
Another issue is education. As Annette Taylor points out, a coffee can contain 410 calories. Some syrupy coffees can be over 500 calories. This is more than a meal's worth and yet is used as a snack. A mere extra 200 calories a day accumulates an extra 11 pounds per annum. It doesn't take much.
Part of education is awareness of how the unwanted pounds found themselves onto the body in the first place. It's possible to roughly calculate how many calories people are consuming on average per day just by looking at what it must be taking to maintain their current weight. With the rare exception of some disorders, the excess fat describes exactly what is going on. But unless the person is doing unbridled eating for at least a week, documenting all food and beverages that are consumed, it's often not possible for them to really understand how those calories got to their stomachs. Self denial is incredibly common.
I'll end by saying deprivation isn't the answer and neither are eating programs, and these are especially inappropriate when the person has far more urgent issues to deal with. But we will not have an answer to the obesity epidemic without first really understand exactly how the fat got there, and then start extinguishing conditioned thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that have led to unhelpful eating.
Absolutely - the main factor is controlling calories but adding in exercise helps and adds incentive to watching caloric intake. The fact that many adults do not take responsibility for understanding caloric intake v. caloric need and the rough caloric value of what they consume is problematic. This is something that others can help with, e.g., doctors, dieticians, parents, schools, etc. However, even such education will likely fail when counteracted with reinforcement of a mindset that values indulgence over self-control and perpetuates the belief that one can be healthy at any size. The fact that people often put on weight after undertaking a diet is not a reason not to control caloric in-take. It is a reason to understand that a diet is not the answer. A diet is almost always temporary, leaving open the very real possibility of returning to old habits. A change in life style is more appropriate - cultivating habits that are not viewed a temporary way to drop pounds but a permanent way to sustain healthy eating.
I often had clients who swore they ate very little. With no symptoms of a disorder, they were basically claiming to have bypassed the laws of psychodynamics. They really had suppressed or had amnesia for their eating.
A lot of evidence suggests that snacking often goes unrecognized as a source of significant calories as does the calories in drinks.
This is so timely given that just yesterday, I believe, the WHO noted that half the world will be obese by 2030 - not just overweight but obese, which is far greater overweight than simple overweight (https://www.worldobesity.org/news/one-billion-people-globally-estimated-to-be-living-with-obesity-by-2030) In addition I am appalled that places like Starbucks and McDonalds, who could launch HUGE marketing campaigns for healthy eating prefer to market their high fat/high sugar drinks and quadruple burgers, respectively. Over the last 3 years Starbucks did away with most sugar-free fat free coffee drinks such as their "skinny" alternatives and they did away with salads in their to-go foods. Instead they market their unicorn Frappuccino Here is the nutrition info: Amount Per Serving
Calories: 410, Total Fat: 16g with 10g Saturated Fat, Dietary Fiber: 0g and Added Sugars: 59g with only Protein: 5g. This is appallingly unhealthy. With their marketing resources they could lead the way in healthy options and eating and drinking. They also did away with all of the salads because of shelf life. But marketing could make those go so fast, your head would spin if they wanted to. Or take just a plain latte. With nonfat milk you get 0 g of fat, no matter the size. With a regular whole milk latte you 14 g of fat in a Grande (medium, 16 oz) drink.
Thank you Annette. The easy access to excessive high calorie food makes maintaining a healthy weight more challenging without a doubt.