Category: weight loss

body image · diets · weight loss

More in praise of moderate weight loss, or it’s okay to celebrate being an alpaca

Sam B12 Comments

In a much older post I made a distinction between those rare, magical creatures, the weight loss unicorns (people who lose a large amount of weight loss and sustain that weight loss) from the more common, but less appreciated, weight loss alpacas (people who lose a small or moderate amount of weight and manage to sustain that weight loss.)

There are at least two different ways to measure long term weight loss success. We can focus on those who maintain a goal weight or on those who maintain a weight loss of just five or ten percent of their starting weight. By that more easygoing measure, I’m in, I’m a success story. Lots more people are in even if we don’t typically think of only losing 5-10 percent of your body weight, a weight loss success story.

Call the people who meet standard 1, getting to goal and staying there, the unicorns. They are rare. Far more common are people who meet standard 2, exotic but not unfamiliar. Call them the weight loss alpacas. I’m a weight loss alpaca! (I’ve got a soft spot for alpacas.)

Savita notes in her recent analysis of the Biggest Loser study that one thing people miss is that some of the participants did keep some of the weight off. Again, small amounts but it’s not nothing.

Why does this count as failure?

Yoni Freedhoff often suggests we should change our standards and count as successful those people who lose and keep off small or moderate amounts of weight.

I think what hampers people more than anything else with weight loss is how success has been defined. Whether that definition comes from the glorification of extreme weight loss on idiotic television shows, or from public health messaging around the risks of obesity, or doctors discussing “normal” weights or body mass indices with their patients, or from personally held desires, the shared goal post is one of losing every last bit of excess weight.

When we look to those folks, my alpacas, three things stand out:

First, the moderate weight loss seems to be easier to maintain.

Second, there are more of them. Unicorns are rare but alpacas aren’t.

Third, they get most or all of the health benefits of weight loss.

Gretchen Reynolds says the same thing in her recent Globe and Mail piece on weight loss.

So what hope is there for weight maintenance?

Anecdotal reports by people who have succeeded in keeping weight off tend to have a common theme: constant vigilance, keeping close track of weight, controlling what food is eaten and how much (often by weighing and measuring food), exercising often, putting up with hunger and resisting cravings to the best of their ability. Those who maintain a modest weight loss often report less of a struggle than those trying to keep off large amounts of weight.

So here’s the question for further thought. Why don’t we celebrate modest weight loss?

Here’s some of my thoughts.

I’m with Yoni Freedhoff that we stigmatize overweight so much that we can’t believe we should count as a success people who are still very much overweight.

But more significantly, I think as long as we focus on looks, and think of weight loss in terms of getting down to normal BMI, or some ideal weight, we’re getting something seriously wrong. To my mind that’s where Weight Watchers and other commercial weight loss programs go wrong.

Let’s start cheering for the alpacas and celebrating small amounts of weight lost and maintained.

weight loss

Keeping weight off: Can you put a positive spin on vigilance even knowing vigilance is no guarantee?

Sam B4 Comments

 

We know that keeping the weight you’ve lost off can be nearly impossible.

But some people do it. I’ve written here before about those rare beasts, the weight loss unicorns. See What are the habits of weight loss unicorns? Recently Gretchen Reynolds answered weight loss questions in the Globe and Mail, including the question of why do some people manage to stay at the new lower weight when others can’t. What traits do those people share?

She writes, “Anecdotal reports by people who have succeeded in keeping weight off tend to have a common theme: constant vigilance, keeping close track of weight, controlling what food is eaten and how much (often by weighing and measuring food), exercising often, putting up with hunger and resisting cravings to the best of their ability. Those who maintain a modest weight loss often report less of a struggle than those trying to keep off large amounts of weight.”

I’m going to write another post about the difference between modest weight loss and getting down to your desired goal, or as I’ve called it, the difference between being a unicorn and an alpaca. But for now, I want to talk about “constant vigilance.”

It’s a common phrase when it comes to maintaining weight loss. In my review of Timothy Caulfield’s book I wrote,

The bit that I found hard to take, though I don’t doubt he’s right, was Caulfield’s assessment of what’s required for long term weight loss and maintenance. People who lose weight and keep weight off in the long run have some traits in common. And this group, because they’re rare, have been studied closely.  First, constant vigilance. They remain as focused and determined as they were when losing weight and they log and track just as carefully as when they started. Second, they exercise a lot. Third, they also don’t eat very much. Yikes.

I’ve wondered if there are other ways to think about the kind of dedication that’s required to maintain long term weight loss. Can we rebrand constant vigilance?

Here’s Yoni Freedhoff in Vox writing about people in a weight loss registry who have managed to keep weight off.

Today there are more than 10,000 registrants who on average have lost 66 pounds and kept it off for five and a half years. Registrants have lost weight every which way. Some have lost rapidly, while for others it took years. Some lost weight with low-fat diets, others low-carb. Some used diet books for guidance, others self-directed, and others still went to weight loss programs for help.

The key to your success is actually liking the life and diet you’re living with while you’re losing weight

Looking to their success stories, published both online and as highlighted by Anne Fletcher in her book exploring the registrants, Thin for Life, the one common theme is that while maintaining their losses requires ongoing effort, that effort isn’t perceived by these weight loss masters as a hardship but rather as just living with new lifestyles, and lifestyles that they enjoy.

Okay, is there a kind of “constant vigilance” that could fit into a life I love? What’s “constant vigilance” even amount to in day to day life?

  • People who lose weight and keep it off continue to track and measure food.
  • People who lose weight and keep it off exercise pretty much everyday.
  • People who lose weight and keep it off tend to weigh themselves daily.

Put that way it doesn’t sound so bad to me. (Note that I ignored the not eating very much part.) I do lots of this anyway. Well, except for the weighing part. And possibly the not eating very much part but I’m ignoring that.

(One of the women interviewed in Caulfield’s book says that since losing weight she’s never had a full size entree at a restaurant, only ever a salad and an appetizer. Also, no dessert. Ever.)

Back to constant vigilance. Here’s the thing. It’s no guarantee.

It might be true that everyone who maintains a new lower weight does these three things. You might be like me, thinking about this, and thinking, “I could do that.” But while everyone who keeps weight off does these three things, it might also be true that not everyone who does these three things keeps the weight off.

To put in terms philosophers like to use, these three traits might be necessary for successful long term weight maintenance but it doesn’t follow that they’re sufficient.  You could lose the weight, remain constantly vigilant, and still gain it back. Constant vigilance is no guarantee of long term success. That’s a tough pill to swallow even if you do manage to find a way to make peace with constant vigilance.

If “necessary” and “sufficient” talk is new to you, here’s an explanation. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LqNm9d2__I

diets · Guest Post · weight loss

Extreme Dieting and Metabolic Adaptation: The “Biggest Loser” Dataset (Guest Post)

savita13 Comments

Let me start by stating that I am NOT a fan of the reality show, “The Biggest Loser”. The idea of sentencing obese people to 30 weeks’ hard labour and extreme food restriction under intense public scrutiny in the name of losing weight is basically torture for entertainment.

I saw some of them on a trip to southern Utah some years ago. While my husband and I were hiking in the magnificent desert of Snow Canyon State Park, these poor souls were marching along the road, heads down, sweating, panting, and really not having fun.

But was it worth it in the end? Did their strict 30-week regimen instill in them the discipline to maintain their now lean and mean bodies? Surely their metabolism had improved, and they were now fat-burning machines as a result of the 5 hour/day intense exercise.

A recent paper in the journal Obesity (Fothergill et al 2016 Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition”) addressed that very question. The authors conducted a very interesting study in which 14 of the 16 original “Biggest Losers” were recruited for follow-up studies on their metabolism and body composition. They had collected data from these subjects at three time points: before the competition, immediately after the competition, and 6 years after the competition.

Here are what I think are the most interesting findings of the study:

  1. While the subjects did regain weight, there was a mean weight loss of about 12% of body weight, and 8 out of the 14 participants in the study (57%) maintained at least 10% weight loss over the 6 years. That’s actually a pretty great outcome compared to most weight loss programs, where most people regain all of the weight within 1 year. 10% is really important, because some metabolic parameters can greatly improve after that kind of weight loss. In other words, it’s a very meaningful and significant weight loss outcome.
  2. The subjects maintained their high levels of physical activity. This is important, because….
  3. ….their Resting Metabolic Rates (RMRs) dramatically decreased at the end of the competition, and did not go back up, even after 6 years of maintaining their exercise regimen. This is called “metabolic adaptation”. The more weight the subjects lost, the slower their RMRs became.
  4. The most surprising finding was that metabolic adaptation did not correlate with weight regain. In other words, despite regaining weight, their RMRs remaining low, meaning that these subjects would probably have a low RMR permanently.
  5. Finally, the decrease in RMR did not correlate with changes in hormones and metabolites. Much has been made about changes in the circulating levels of the hormone Leptin. By the end of the competition, plasma leptin levels dropped dramatically (from 41 ng/ml to 3 ng/ml), but by 6 years, levels were up to 28 ng/ml; not quite normal, but it was increasing. Leptin is a hormone made by adipose tissue, and is secreted to tell the brain that the body has had enough to eat (what we call a “satiety signal”). Other metabolic hormones, such as thyroid hormone, did not change from baseline, and cholesterol levels did not change.

So, to summarize, these people did maintain some weight loss, but at the cost of their resting metabolic rate. Their metabolism has been permanently altered. Or, as Dr. Yoni Freedhoff says, destroyed. http://www.weightymatters.ca/2016/05/the-lasting-damage-of-biggest-loser_3.html

This study also showed that exercise does NOT have much impact on RMR. So all that exercise did not alter their body weights’ “set point” value.

However, these subjects clearly showed that they had a tremendous amount of discipline in maintaining their exercise regimen, probably because they were under intense public scrutiny. And most of them did maintain a 10% weight loss over the long term. So perhaps “biology is NOT destiny”, and a disciplined approach to lifestyle changes really can result in sustained weight loss.

So if exercise doesn’t increase RMR, what about diet? It was expected that the RMRs would reset back to their original values once the weight was regained, but that didn’t happen. So the lowering of RMR after that kind of dramatic weight loss is persistent, and may be permanent. The implications are that the subjects would have to eat far less than the recommended 2500 calories per day in order to maintain their original degree of weight loss. You’ve heard that some subjects had an “800 calorie handicap”, meaning that they would have to consume no more than 1700 calories per day just to maintain their weight loss. That would mean that these people would literally be hungry all the time. That is the direct result of a persistently damaged metabolism.

My take on this is that is it far, far better to simply exercise and get healthy and strong no matter what your weight. The scorched earth policy of The Biggest Loser will result in some weight loss, but at the cost of a permanently damaged metabolism.

savita (1)

Savita is a scientist and professor in London, Ontario. When she’s not in the lab investigating the causes of diabetes, she’s in the pool trying to keep up with her Masters swim teammates, or in a nice downtown restaurant enjoying local food and craft beer.

body image · diets · fitness · weight loss

Imagine if size really didn’t matter. Can you?

Tracy I6 Comments

One of the most intriguing news items this week reported on a six-year study that measured what happened to the contestants who lost dramatic amounts of weight in Season 8 of the reality TV show we here at Fit Is a Feminist Issue love to hate: The Biggest Loser.

For those of us who have gained and lost, lost and gained, and lost and gained again, the most obvious result wasn’t a shocker. The contestants are heavier than they were when the show ended.  The season’s winner, Danny Cahill, went from 430 pounds to 191 pounds over the seven month period of the weight loss competition.

And he’s gained 100 of it back. According to The New York Times article “After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight,” the regain is despite his best efforts. “In fact,” the article goes on to say, “most of that season’s 16 contestants have regained much if not all of the weight they lost so arduously. Some are even heavier now.”

The study has been revealing, not because it told us what we already knew–that it’s hard to keep off lost weight–but because the researchers discovered just how hard the body fights to regain lost weight. The key: resting metabolism. We all know that the metabolism slows when we diet. But here’s the thing:

What shocked the researchers was what happened next: As the years went by and the numbers on the scale climbed, the contestants’ metabolisms did not recover. They became even slower, and the pounds kept piling on. It was as if their bodies were intensifying their effort to pull the contestants back to their original weight.

Mr. Cahill was one of the worst off. As he regained more than 100 pounds, his metabolism slowed so much that, just to maintain his current weight of 295 pounds, he now has to eat 800 calories a day less than a typical man his size. Anything more turns to fat.

The sad truth for the vast majority of people who try to lose weight and keep it off is this: “despite spending billions of dollars on weight-loss drugs and dieting programs, even the most motivated are working against their own biology.”

All of the contestants in the study burn hundreds fewer calories per day than expected for a man or woman their size.  The upshot seems to be that extreme dieting and weight loss permanently slows the metabolism.

There’s a lot more to the article reporting on this research, and you can read it here. But what I really want to consider now is how we are supposed to react to this news. I venture to say, from a quick look at the first few of the over 2600 comments (I know, I know), that people will look for an explanation that makes this group of people different.

The most frequent thing that was pointed out in the first few comments I read is that they lost the weight really quickly.  What about following the progress of people in, say, Weight Watchers? That’s a slower loss. Do they keep it off?  Actually, the answer is: no. Not really. Not many. Any WW promotional materials that include “success stories” will say “results not typical.”

So the first reaction people have is denial.  This can’t be representative. It’s hard to know why anyone who has tried to lose weight and keep it off would think this isn’t representative since, chances are, if that’s you, you gained it back too! Really, these findings should come as reassurance that we’re not all a bunch of weak-willed moral failures.

But instead, people find them threatening because they may show something that’s really hard to accept: that for most people, it just cannot be done. You can lose the weight, but your body will do its damnedest to regain what was lost.

Why should we recoil from this likelihood?  Because it’s really hard to imagine a world in which size doesn’t matter.

One of the comments I read said, “so can we stop fat-shaming people now?” But the groundswell of support for the idea that the Biggest Loser contestants just “did it wrong” suggests that fat-shaming is alive and well.

People with normative bodies–the right size, shape, colour–gain all sorts of social and economic benefits and privileges. They’re more likely to get jobs, high grades, good performance evaluations. They have a better chance of finding partners, earning more money, having friends, being acceptable to strangers. Their chances of suffering abuse and discrimination because of their size are lower; their chances of finding clothing that fits, of fitting into the seat on their next flight, and of being able to eat what they like without being judged are much higher.

In other words, being perceived as obese by others has enormous social and economic costs.  Our obsession with size is so far reaching and ranges over so many areas of life, that it’s hard to imagine what a world where size doesn’t matter would be like.

If size didn’t matter, people wouldn’t be denied employment because of their size. It wouldn’t be commonplace for people to police the food choices of others and to hide behind the claim that “I’m just concerned about your health.” No one would face abuse because of their size or be the butt of bad jokes. There’d be more roles for people of all sizes in movies, and fat people could be cast in roles other than “the fat friend.” Doctors wouldn’t zero in on weight when you go for a check-up. Weight-loss wouldn’t be a popular indicator of physical fitness. Fashionable clothes would be accessible to people of all sizes. No one would spend money on weight loss programs or special “diet” foods. And people wouldn’t post about their weight loss efforts on social media. A show like The Biggest Loser would hold no one’s interest. And the results of the study would be neither here nor there.

I’m sure not everyone believes the research results in this study are depressing. But for those who do, why do they? People want to keep believing that something can be done about being fat. Keeping this possibility alive supports continued discrimination and hate because it throws responsibility back on individuals who are larger than the normative standard.

It’s obvious from the number of people who are attempting to lose weight and keep it off themselves that it’s not only people with normative bodies who are fat phobic. Lots of folks have internalized the cultural messages and experienced the social/economic costs of being larger than what’s deemed okay.

When the costs are real, it can be challenging not to hold out hope for change. If there haven’t been enough other studies about set-points and weight regain and so on, by following a high profile group of “losers,” this particular study shows in sad detail that dieting can and does do serious and permanent metabolic damage to those who diet “successfully.” And that it doesn’t work.

The upshot is, though I would like to think the comment “so can we stop fat-shaming people now?” would win the day, sadly, that’s not about to happen. People are too invested in (1) despising fat and (2) making it up to individuals to make the right choices so they won’t be fat to accept what so many already know: dieting doesn’t work.

Can you imagine a world where size doesn’t matter? What does it look like?

Sat with Nat · weight loss

I’m no weightloss unicorn

natalieh (she/her)7 Comments

  
I get incredibly nervous going to the doctor. I get so nervous that I have frequent trips to the bathroom, headaches and  nausea. So when I get my blood pressure measured I know it’s higher with the doctor than when I’m moving around at home. 

Two years has gone by since I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and it was time for my next follow-up. I was really glad to see my blood pressure has stabilized in the healthy zone. 

By the numbers, my blood pressure is down 30 points on systolic and 20 points on the bottom (that’s the one that I really need to keep an eye on).  I’m down 35 pounds from 2 years ago. My weight fluctuates by as much as 10 pounds in a month. The week before my period I puff up with water retention and it goes away. 

I’m no weightloss unicorn but I’m able to maintain my weight without overly patrolling my food intake. I’m drinking beer and eating potato chips when I want them. 

I’m pretty pumped about this cycling season and my doctor has no concerns about my health or me participating in the 600 km Friends for Life Bike Rally. 

I’m at 50% of my fundraising goal and would love a donation from you!

https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/mobile/mobilePersonalPage.aspx?registrationID=3180524&langPref=en-CA&Referrer=direct%2fnone

Thank you!

fitness · Guest Post · weight loss · yoga

Letter to the New Yoga Studio (Guest Post)

Cate Hundleby13 Comments

I was dismayed this week to discover that a yoga studio moving to my neighbourhood was claiming to help people with weight loss. For me and many people yoga provides a sanctuary from the body negativity and dieting pressure that pervades our culture. Yoga builds strength and flexibility and encourages pleasure in what one’s own body can do — which is completely different for everyone.

Increasingly, it seems to me, the value of yoga for both physical and mental fitness is perverted by the weight loss industry. A friend living in rural Alberta has no access to any other yoga, and misses the body positivity yoga properly provides. Are others of you finding this?

So, I thought I needed to write the owner a letter — if only to exorcise my frustration, and with some encouragement from a friend I did. It helped that the studio’s values concern community health and well-being, to which I appealed, along with a few links and facts — many gleaned from posts on this blog. Here’s what I wrote, some particulars omitted.

We have never met formally but your yoga classes were a favourite for me and my colleagues years ago at DTY.  I’ve practiced yoga on and off for decades and several times a week for a few years now. So I was excited to hear that your studio was moving very close to my home.  I know a number of people who live and work in this neighbourhood are excited about your studio move.

So, I started to check out your schedule on-line, but as I navigated there I was shocked and disappointed to see a weight loss message.  I haven’t looked far, but the very mention of weight loss as a goal for yoga is highly problematic, it jumps out from the screen, and the effect is fat shaming.  There is a body of research showing this effect of weight loss messages and the ineffectiveness of fat shaming in producing weight loss, though I expect you never intended that effect. 

I assume the reason you associate yoga with weight loss is because of its profound benefits for fitness, both physical and mental. Associating weight loss with fitness is a common error — see here, perpetuated by the massive weight loss industry.  I hardly know where to start discussing this: you are a fitness professional, but you are mistaken to associate yoga or fitness with weight loss, and I can only guess how you’ve been misled. It’s intuitive that encouraging weight loss would help people who want to lose weight, but the evidence indicates the opposite. First, losing weight is unhealthy for many people. More generally, while the science of weight loss is complex and often contradictory, one of the clearest results is that permanent weight loss is rare, and most weight loss programs just make people gain weight in the long run (see here and here, just to start). 

Perhaps you think you can help “the obesity crisis” and there is some reason to be concerned about that, but little reason to think individual weight loss programs will help. Those who lose weight and keep it off more than a year are known as “weight loss unicorns” and even then the evidence shows diet more effective than exercise. Nevertheless there are many reasons to desire the fitness and health — at any size — that yoga can provide. 

Part of the Yoga Loft mission stated on your web site is “to positively influence friends and family, ultimately influencing the community for better health, quality of life and happiness.” I share your hope for a healthier and happier community and believe the move of the arrival of your studio could aid that. However, the fat shaming and false hope extended by the mention of weight loss stands in the way.  It may be especially harmful for women who are pressured in so many ways to pursue weight loss, but that message poisons fitness for all kinds of people, including those like me who enjoy in yoga the very opposite of fat shaming and instead a robust body positivity.  

Please don’t spoil the potential of your studio to have a positive influence on our community by perpetuating the misinformation and fat shaming that comes across when you suggest you can help with weight loss. A healthier sense of our bodies would help us all thrive. If you are interested in a more positive view of fitness, this blog is a rich resource and it inspired a book that will be out in the next year — it has a feminist focus, but as the saying goes “feminism is for everybody.” (I have a few pieces there myself.) By resisting fat shaming, you may actually do more to help people who are struggling with obesity, as this recent article in The Globe and Mail indicates.  

If you’d like to chat about this over coffee, tea, or lunch, I’d be happy to.  

Very quickly I received a positive response! They removed the weight loss language, and apologized for the oversight. Wow!  That’s the best response I’ve ever received to a complaint, and renews my faith in yoga as a social as well as physical and mental practice.

fat · fitness · weight loss

Students struggle with why weight loss is so hard

Sam B3 Comments

As Tracy wrote in a post  a few weeks ago one of the great privileges that we have as professors in the Department of Women’s Studies and Feminist Research at Western is that we actually get opportunities to talk to smart students about fitness as a feminist issue.

Writes Tracy, “As we did last year, we got to guest tonight lecture in the Women’s Studies course, “The Body.” This time, our colleague Andrea Allen invited us.”

My half of the class was called “The Obesity Panic” and I talked about the social construction of the “obesity epidemic,” gender, the obese body, and normative thinness. The students had read an excerpt from Eric Oliver’s book Fat politics. The real story behind America’s obesity epidemic.

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Oliver is critical about the characterization of obesity as an epidemic, “Such a characterization, however, has many problems: the average American weight gain has been relatively low (eight to 12 pounds over the last 20 years), and the causal linkages between adiposity, morbidity, and mortality are unclear.”

We also looked at Kathleen LeBesco‘s characterization of moral panic, as another way of understanding the social hue and cry about obesity. She writes: “Moral panics are marked by concern about an imagined threat; hostility in the form of a moral outrage toward individuals and agencies responsible for the problem; consensus that something must be done about the serious threat; disproportionality in reports of harm; and volatility in terms of the eruption of panic. “

image

One of things I talked about was the very low long term success rates of diets. Why do doctors recommend them given the likely outcome? See Well intentioned lies, doctors, and the diet industry and Doctors and unwanted weight loss advice.

Part of the answer is that no one–not even doctors–wants to believe it’s impossible. Certainly none of the students that day wanted to believe it. We all want to hold on to that dream.

Someday our Prince (or Princess will come)! Someday we’ll lose that 5/10/20/40/60/100 lbs!

I told the students that I sometimes looked at Oprah’s failures with a sigh of relief. If one of the richest women in the world can’t do it–with a full time personal trainer and her very own chef–what’s the hope for someone like me?

But my students were skeptical.

Maybe the women who want to lose weight but can’t aren’t trying hard enough?

Maybe, maybe we just don’t how to lose weight?

Some students had specific helpful food suggestions. Others thought maybe the women gained scale weight but last fat and they didn’t know that muscle is denser and heavier than fat.

It was one of the most fervent bouts of class participation I’ve ever experienced.

Of course, weight loss is hard work, they thought. But it’s not that hard. It’s not rocket science. It’s not brain surgery. I showed them the numbers. Their brows furrowed. Here’s hoping I got them thinking.

 

body image · diets · fitness · weight loss

Are People Really Happy for People Who Lose Weight?

Tracy I9 Comments

This topic of weight loss has come up quite a bit lately, even though we are a blog that professes (rightly) not to be about weight loss and definitely not about dieting.

I can’t even count the number of posts we’ve written over the years that say fitness is not measured by weight loss (recent case in point: Sam’s musing yesterday).

And anyone who knows me knows well that I do not compliment people on weight loss. Pretty much never, since that time Sam and I both remember all too well when we complimented someone who, in fact, had indeed lost lots of weight — because she had cancer! Yes, that ranks up there with the times in my life I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.  And of course, Sam’s recent weight loss has a lot to do with having her thyroid removed because she had surgery for thyroid cancer in the summer.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “you’ve lost weight! you look great!” is not a compliment. Granted, lots of people are trying to lose weight. And, granted, those people probably like it when people notice (maybe?) because heck, they’re trying. Why isn’t it a compliment? Because it implicitly says, “and you used to look like shit, and guess what? I noticed that too!” And it implicitly assumes that everyone wants to lose weight, that losing weight is a good thing in and of itself, that being fat is not good (and looks awful), and that people are entitled to monitor the size of others’ bodies. And all of that is crap that we shouldn’t be assuming and doing.

But here’s something: I wonder whether people are actually happy when someone they know loses weight (not because of cancer, but because of effort)?  The reason I wonder is that at any given time, I would say a good 50% of the people I know are trying to lose weight or thinking about it, and more than 50% of those aren’t successful (not surprisingly, given this and this and this and this and oh so much more!).

So I’m going to go out on a limb here, and it may be a lonely limb that reveals me to be petty and small-minded: a lot of the time, people aren’t actually happy for you when you lose weight. First, there are the killjoy feminists like me who don’t really notice anymore when the people around them lose weight.  I consider the not noticing to be a personal accomplishment of mine.

But even more than that, there are those people who are battling the odds when the odds are heavily not in their favour. That would be the majority of people on a diet or weight loss program, actively trying to lose weight. I’m going to venture that a good portion of those people actually feel a little screw turn in their gut whenever someone they knows beats the odds and actually “succeeds” at that elusive goal: weight loss.

Seeing people who, for whatever reason (sometimes cancer, sometimes dieting, sometimes grief, sometimes — though not nearly as often as we’d like — exercise) drop pounds can start an internal monologue that, far from being thrilled for the person, quickly turns inward to self-flagellation and a sense of failure: If she can do it, why can’t I? What am I doing wrong? What’s wrong with me? I’m such a failure.

I’m happy for you if that’s never you. But if that’s sometimes you, join the club. Because I do go there, still today–my non-weight loss noticing-self can go there.

So I’m just going to put this out there and be totally frank. I really can’t stand it when people talk about their weight loss. I don’t care what the reasons. I don’t care if you’re trying or not trying. I don’t care if it’s for performance or for looks or just because that’s what friends, family, and strangers like to talk about.

You know, you can dress it up any way you like. But to me it’s such a personal thing that our social world has made into a public thing. And I’m always stumped about what we’re supposed to say. “Good for you!” even when someone is trying just goes against everything that feels right to me. It’s like encouraging something that I see ruin the lives of perfectly excellent people who think that weight loss will afford them something they need in order to feel good about themselves (or better about themselves). I just can’t have the conversation anymore, with anyone. [I like Carly’s suggestion of saying, “how does that feel for you?” but those don’t feel like my words]

So this brings me back to the question of whether people are really happy for people who lose weight. If you’re like me, you’ve read lots of stuff on dieting and weight loss in your time. And they always talk about the saboteurs. Those are the people who want you to eat another helping because they cooked it, or a piece of cake because it’s a special occasion, or chocolate because it’s Valentine’s Day, and therefore thwart your efforts at weight loss. Are they happy when their loved ones lose weight? Sometimes, the literature says, they feel threatened.

And then there are those people who are trying and getting nowhere. Are they happy for you? I’m not so sure. But I think it’s complicated. And that’s because successful weight loss is hard to square with the reality of how difficult it is to lose and maintain weight loss. And so when someone achieves it, we may be a little happy for them (maybe some people are super happy for them), but lots more people just use it as another reason to get down on themselves. And that’s the painful truth for many.

I don’t mean to be saying that that’s the only reason, or even the main reason, I don’t like to talk about weight loss (yours or mine). But it’s not a neutral subject, and it’s loaded with all sorts of cultural meaning that hooks into horrible attitudes that I don’t like to encourage. And even when someone’s reasons aren’t about that stuff, it’s still highly personal and that makes it at the very least an odd thing to advertise and go on about.

I can’t control what others want to talk about, but over the last little while, after a few conversations (with a few different people) that made me squirm and feel uncomfortable, I know for certain that I’m not taking part anymore. And for all of these complicated reasons, I’m going to be totally honest and say I’m happy for people about all sorts of things, but not super happy for someone simply because they’ve lost weight. I realize that makes me sound grumpy and petty, but there it is.

health · weight loss

Model of metabolic health tiara and weight loss magic wand?

Sam B7 Comments

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I recently had a complete and thorough doctor’s visit, a very detailed check up that ended up with me fretting a bit about my weight. That path led me to referral to a specialist at the metabolic health unit at a local hospital. I wanted to know if there were good medical reasons for me to lose weight or a good medical explanation for why I found losing weight so hard.

I knew already that I have a healthy living rock star profile when it comes to blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. (The last time I had this tested the nurses joked that they wanted to meet the person with such good cholesterol results and they spent awhile chatting with me about my diet.) You don’t have to care about health or make it a priority. No judgement here. See Healthism, fitness, and the politics of respectability.

But I do worry about health and I wanted to make sure that I was really okay.

After all, the media constantly bombards us with stories about the health implications and costs of obesity epidemic. We hear a lot about rising rates of overweight and obesity and what that means. I wanted to know, personally, what it meant for me.

The answer it turns out is nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip.

I met with a specialist who assured me that I’m a model of metabolic health. I’m very fit and my commitment to physical activity matters far more than the number on the scale, she said. She told me that people come in lots of very different shapes and sizes and as far as she could tell there was no medical reason for me to lose weight.

She said she wished she had a weight loss magic wand to wave and help me lose weight if that’s what I wanted but she didn’t. She granted that especially with menopause approaching it’s very tough.

However, in the absence of the magic wand, I should just keep moving and enjoy my life.

The same unit of the hospital also has a scale that spits out BMI numbers and accompanying advice. Mine said, and I’m paraphrasing: Lose weight or die soon.

I showed the doctor the slip of paper and she said it was false. But why give them out then? Why scare people if it’s not true? What’s up with that? Argh. Grrr. Just stop.

I still want to lose weight and make it up hills faster. But it’s good to know there’s no health reasons at stake if I can’t.

Health Reform

 

fitness · weight loss

Feel the burn?: Sam mulls calories, exercise, and energy conservation

Sam B2 Comments

Many people ask me the same questions over and over again… What should I eat and what should I exercise like in order to look like the guys in the fitness:

So this morning, after two hours and fifteen minutes on my bike trainer in a super hard class, I looked at the information in a new light. Mostly I pay attention to average cadence and to max and avg heart rate, but today I also looked at calories–956 calories burned, it claimed–in a new light, given a study that was making the health and fitness rounds this week.

See More exercise doesn’t mean more calories burned

“Gym-goers might think that if they huff it on a treadmill for two hours every day, they will burn more calories overall than if they sneak in just 30 minutes.

But according to a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, as long as people are doing at least some baseline level of activity, they will expend about the same amount of energy each day no matter how much exercise they do — suggesting that exercise alone cannot be relied upon as a way to control weight at a time when the majority of American adults are overweight or obese.

For the study, a team led by Herman Pontzer sought to test whether energy expenditures increased as physical activity did, or if those expenditures plateaued no matter how much activity people were doing.

Researchers looked at 332 people in five different populations around the world: a mostly agrarian group in Ghana; people living in a township in South Africa; urban residents in Jamaica; island dwellers in the Seychelles; and suburbanites in the United States.

For about a week, they tracked physical activity using wearable devices akin to Fitbits, and measured energy expenditures through a specialized urine test.

They found that the amount of spent energy does increase with physical activity levels, but only in the low ranges of exercise overall.”

Here’s the study they’re talking about: Constrained Total Energy Expenditure and Metabolic Adaptation to Physical Activity in Adult Humans.

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What do I make of the study?

First, I hate the reporting about it which mostly takes the form of “diet not exercise the key to weight loss.” See Why Diet Matters More than Exercise For Weight Loss, In One Video Why? Because the assumption is that the reason we exercise is weight loss. If that were my motive I would have quit long ago! See Why don’t plus sized athletes lose weight? for some discussion of this. I worry that it discourages people from getting active. Suppose they’re right, and there’s no reason to support the claim that they’re not, and diet matters more than exercise when it comes to weight loss. It’s still not clear to me that there is good evidence that diet works either.

Also, it’s not new news. See Science, exercise, and weight loss: when our bodies scheme against us.

Second, there are lots of good reasons to exercise that have nothing to do with weight loss. There are performance reasons, for example. I’m staying in bike shape over the winter to be able to do fun things next summer, like the Kincardine Duathlon and the Friends for Life Bike Rally. My reasons have nothing to do with weight loss. Indeed, I want to lose weight to be faster on my bike going up hill. There are also health reasons. Weight lifting/strength training, for example, is great for bone health even if it won’t help you lose weight.

Third, the research helps make sense of a puzzle we’ve blogged about here before, the athletes who work out hard but then flop the rest of the time. See Sedentary athletes, not a contradiction in terms and Children can be sedentary athletes too.

Fourth, and practically, it means that if we’re tracking exercise and calories the maximum we ought to count is 300 calories. That’s the actual difference researchers found between those who exercised and those who didn’t, regardless of what our instruments tell us. In light of that, let’s ignore the chart above. Let’s ignore the numbers on our Garmin. Bye bye calorie counters! But that doesn’t mean working out is not worth doing. Fitness matters more from almost every perspective. See Fitness and exercise are what matters, not weight loss.

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