After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
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Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
#2> The difficulty in keeping weight off reflects biology, not a pathological lack of willpower affecting two-thirds of the U.S.A.
Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese. Biology has not changed in that time. What has?
Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
#3Boxers and other people doing martial arts competitively have always known this. There has been a "walking around weight" concept since I can remember. Maintaining lower or, even more importantly in that context, higher weight takes concentrated effort.
BTW it's a really weird post-Christian belief that there is some you apart from your body and it can do things against your will.
Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
#4I can give personal, anecdotal experience as to why this happens and a chart from Withings will illustrate perfectly. I know what I have to do now, and I'm fighting like hell to make it happen.
Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
#5> The difficulty in keeping weight off reflects biology, not a pathological lack of willpower affecting two-thirds of the U.S.A. Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese. Biology has not changed in that time. What has?
>Biology has not changed in that time.
Oh, yeah it has. Changes in food and environment have modified our biologies. The effects of food energy overexposure are semi-permanent.
Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
#6> The difficulty in keeping weight off reflects biology, not a pathological lack of willpower affecting two-thirds of the U.S.A. Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese. Biology has not changed in that time. What has?
Well, not willpower. The human condition is pretty steady. The industrialized food chain, on the other hand, has changed dramatically.
Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
#7> The difficulty in keeping weight off reflects biology, not a pathological lack of willpower affecting two-thirds of the U.S.A. Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese. Biology has not changed in that time. What has?
Easy access to cheap calories.
Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
#8I wonder why, when we talk about obesity, there is this tendency to use language that removes responsibility from the person, or at least move it from their mind to their "body", as if they were different entities.
I think obese people fit the definition of addicts. Most of the time, other addictions are fought by pushing awareness on the person, forcing them to recognize they have a problem and that they need to change.
I don't hear much "you were born this way" or "that's just what your body wants" for other drugs. Is it because other drugs are always viewed negatively, whereas food is a pillar of life under normal circumstances?
Maybe it has to do with the very high prevalence of obesity, and the echo chamber being big enough that deflection and denial are harder to combat?
Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
#9> The difficulty in keeping weight off reflects biology, not a pathological lack of willpower affecting two-thirds of the U.S.A. Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese. Biology has not changed in that time. What has?
Impulse control is fundamentally biological, so obviously a "lack of willpower" can't be the explanation.
Re: After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight
#10> The difficulty in keeping weight off reflects biology, not a pathological lack of willpower affecting two-thirds of the U.S.A. Fifty years ago, two-thirds of the USA were not obese. Biology has not changed in that time. What has?
The agriculture, restaurant, and food industry. Quite a bit, actually.