10-01-2019, 08:20 AM
Weight is an area I have real scientific expertise in. The evidence is overwhelming that something in modern life, most likely chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system, are interfering with the body's weight control mechanisms and causing some people to gain large amounts of weight. In the long run, all lifestyle interventions fail. Stimulants are dangerous and addictive, and tend to shorten life span. Some people truly need stimulants for neurological illnesses, but taking them for weight loss seems to be a bad idea.
Dieting is not only ineffective in the long run, but there is increasing evidence that it makes weight problems gradually worse. When treatments are used against intelligent systems, the intelligent system fights back. This is widely known when it comes to taking narcotics, of course -- narcotics generally make suffering worse in the log run -- but it also seems to be true with dieting. Fat is the body's defense against starvation. No matter what method is used to lose weight, the brain interprets the weight loss as a sign of famine, ad tries to store even more fat.
Exercise is very healthy for most people but seems to have little if any effect on fat stores.
Bariatric surgery changes the signals the digestive tract sends to the brain, making the brain think the body has eaten a large amount of food when the body has eaten only a little. This can cause very substantive weight loss. However, bariatric surgery has many risks. I firmly believe it should be used only to treat metabolic problems, and never for cosmetic reasons.
It's important to realize that type 2 diabetes and other metabolic problems are actually caused by a shortage of adipose (fatty) tissue in which to store fat. These disorders are not caused by the amount of fat a person has. People who have little adipose tissue often get Type 2 diabetes even if they are quite lean -- this is true of many East Asians, for example. Meanwhile, some people are able to store hundreds of pounds of extra weight with no metabolic problems at all -- their bodies easily generate adipose tissue.
Our society's whole approach to weight loss is based on mistaken assumptions, which is why 100,000,000 or more Americans really want to lose weight and have made repeated attempts to do so, with no long term success.
Dieting is not only ineffective in the long run, but there is increasing evidence that it makes weight problems gradually worse. When treatments are used against intelligent systems, the intelligent system fights back. This is widely known when it comes to taking narcotics, of course -- narcotics generally make suffering worse in the log run -- but it also seems to be true with dieting. Fat is the body's defense against starvation. No matter what method is used to lose weight, the brain interprets the weight loss as a sign of famine, ad tries to store even more fat.
Exercise is very healthy for most people but seems to have little if any effect on fat stores.
Bariatric surgery changes the signals the digestive tract sends to the brain, making the brain think the body has eaten a large amount of food when the body has eaten only a little. This can cause very substantive weight loss. However, bariatric surgery has many risks. I firmly believe it should be used only to treat metabolic problems, and never for cosmetic reasons.
It's important to realize that type 2 diabetes and other metabolic problems are actually caused by a shortage of adipose (fatty) tissue in which to store fat. These disorders are not caused by the amount of fat a person has. People who have little adipose tissue often get Type 2 diabetes even if they are quite lean -- this is true of many East Asians, for example. Meanwhile, some people are able to store hundreds of pounds of extra weight with no metabolic problems at all -- their bodies easily generate adipose tissue.
Our society's whole approach to weight loss is based on mistaken assumptions, which is why 100,000,000 or more Americans really want to lose weight and have made repeated attempts to do so, with no long term success.