[podcast flashvars=”titles: ‘ampersand'”]http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/wp-content/uploads/llvlcep80-ampersand.mp3[/podcast]
Hello and welcome to episode 80 of the Internet’s hottest low-carb podcast, “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore!”
Today, our host Jimmy picks apart the anti-weight loss rantings of the blogger known as “Ampersand.” He has come up with three theories why dieting for weight loss is for the birds, but we have the facts that show he’s the quack! Listen in for Jimmy’s thoughtful rebuttal.
LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE 80:
– Learn more about the Odiogo technology to bring audio to blog text
– “The Case Against Weight Loss Dieting” by “Alas, A Blog” author Ampersand
Did you miss anything Jimmy said today? Have no fear, a complete transcript follows!
Transcript of Episode 80
This is Episode 80 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.” Welcome back to the podcast that makes low-carb so much more than a diet. This way of eating is a permanent and healthy lifestyle change that will not only help shed the pounds, but totally transform your life for the better. Stick around a while and you’ll see why so many people these days are enthusiastic about livin’ la vida low-carb. If you aren’t already, then pretty soon you may be one of them. Regardless, I’m happy to have you here.
I am often asked to offer more and longer podcasts by the devoted listeners who come here faithfully on Mondays and Thursdays each week. Nothing would make be happier than to be able to do that, but time constraints do not permit it. However, thanks to magic of a new blog tool called Odiogo, you can download audio episodes of my LivinLaVidaLowCarb.com blog posts anytime and listen to them on your mp3 player or on your computer just like you do this podcast show. Go to the show notes section at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com to find a link about this amazing new technology and how you can subscribe to my blog’s Odiogo feed.
Today I’d like to discuss an issue that showed up on another blog that I believe merits further discussion by those of us who are pursuing weight loss for the sake of managing our health. Just when you think you’ve heard it all, along comes something like this that turns rational thinking upside down and leaves you scratching your head wondering how in the world people can come up with this stuff. But that’s exactly what we have here with a fellow blogger named Ampersand (gee, I wonder if that’s his real name?) from a blog called (and I’m not kidding) “Alas, a blog.” Seriously, that’s his blog and you can find a link to the post in question we will be discussing today called “The Case Against Weight-Loss Dieting” in the show notes section at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com.
This is NOT a joke! Believe it or not, this Ampersand fella is dead serious in his hypothesis that people who are fat are better off remaining that way rather than trying to lose weight to improve their health and image. He’s even got all sorts of fancy graphs and charts to make his case, too! His three-pronged theory against weight loss will at least make you stop and think about why you want to lose weight in the first place. And that’s always a good question to ask yourself–why do you want to lose weight? Are you doing it for yourself out of a real concern for your health and the way you look or are you simply succumbing to societal pressure that you must lose weight to be a person of value and significance? While you are mulling that thought around in your brain just a bit, let’s take a look at what Ampersand has to say on the subject of remaining overweight or obese as a way to live a longer, healthier life. Remember, he’s dead serious about this and he makes a compelling argument even if I do disagree with it. Here are his three theories:
THEORY #1 – For The Vast Majority Of Fat People, Weight Loss Dieting Doesn’t Work
Ampersand contends that the failure of diets to bring about long-term and lasting changes in body composition for most people means they are an ineffective means for helping people lose weight. He adds that no weight loss program has ever been found to work over the long term to keep weight stabilized. The statistics show that over 95% of people who lose weight on a diet gain back the weight within five years.
Here’s a quote from his blog post:
“Isn’t that amazing? It’s not as if Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast, diet clinics, Jenny Craig, and the thousands of other companies making billions of dollars from promises of weight loss haven’t been trying. If anyone could reliably make fat people thin, they’d soon have more money than Microsoft and Haliburton combined.”
That’s true, it would be really something if there was a weight loss method that worked for everyone every time it is tried. But this is the real world and the human body is very complex. Since each individual person has a different metabolism, tastes in food, heriditary health conditions, and more, it renders the search for a one-size-fits-all diet plan futile. Is this a reason to give up on weight loss, though? Absolutely not! If you have tried to lose weight on a certain weight loss plan and it doesn’t work, then try something else. I did this for many years of my life until FINALLY I was able to find a way to eat that would not only help me lose weight but keep it off forever. Of course, that was livin’ la vida low-carb and I’ve never looked back. Had I just thrown my hands up in the air and said the heck with it, as Ampersand is suggesting people do, then my life would be in serious trouble today. I was already on medication for breathing, cholesterol and blood pressure with a very real possibility of developing diabetes and possibly having a major heart attack when I weighed over 400 pounds. I shudder to think what might have happened if the Atkins diet had not rescued me from that dreadful scenario. I don’t want to think about it because I’ve lost the weight and improved my health now. And I’ll keep being healthy as long as I continue to apply those principles I learned during my weight loss. I’m in this for life because it worked for me Ampersand would probably retort that I haven’t kept the weight off long enough to declare victory over my obesity just yet. That’s fair and I’ll concede that point. But it has been nearly four years since I began this journey and only time will prove that this is a sustainable way to eat over the long term that will keep my weight under control. I will tell you this–this is the longest point in my life after losing weight that I have been able to keep the weight off. Thirty-two months since losing 180+ pounds and counting! Do you know how good it feels to say that?! Come January 2009 after I’ve kept the weight off for a total of five years and I’ll be having my weight management victory party ready to go celebrating the thrill of lifelong weight management! I’m getting there and enjoying the ride along the way. Am I just the exception to the rule, Ampersand? Or perhaps could your conclusion about weight loss dieting be WRONG when it comes to livin’ la vida low-carb, hmmm?
THEORY #2 – Losing Weight Makes It More Likely You’ll Die Sooner
Say what? Talk about your twisted thinking! But let’s see what he’s talking about in his blog post. Ah, now I get what he’s thinking. People who go on a diet and lose weight almost inevitably gain back the weight they lost and then some as previously noted. Studies have shown that this yo-yo dieting can cause people to die sooner than if they had just kept their weight steady throughout their life. Ampersand provides statistics that claim people with lower body mass index have the highest mortality rates while people who gained weight after college had a “significantly lower mortality risk.” He explained that those who intentionally lost weight died sooner from conditions such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Here was an interesting observation Ampersand made about the data he cited:
“It’s worth noting that the negative effects of weight loss seem to exist regardless of if the weight is regained or not.”
So I guess I’m MORE likely to die sooner now that I am an athletic and healthy 220-pound man than when I weighed 410 pounds and gasping for air to breathe with high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Is that what Ampersand is claiming?! There is one bit of good news at the end of this theory by Ampersand–he encourages moderate exercise to “increase your lifespan” even if it doesn’t result in weight loss (the whole concept of Health At Every Size thesis). Well, kudos for at least making SOME sense…FINALLY!
THEORY #3 – The Idea Of “Normalizing” Eating Habits Is A Myth
Ampersand wrote:
“The case for weight loss dieting typically assumes that fat people are fat because they eat more and exercise less than thin people; that thin people, if they ate as much as fat people, would also be fat; and that if fat people only ‘normalized’ their eating habits, they would be thin.”
Narrow-minded thinkers may believe this to be true, Ampersand, but most of us who have educated ourselves about what’s right for our bodies realize that we each have our own customized factors that make losing weight easier or harder than for other people. That’s one of the reasons why weight loss is not an exact science and why the weight loss industry is a multi-billion dollar business. Everybody has their own theory about how people should eat, but there are some generally good guidelines for eating better that livin’ la vida low-carb has taught me: avoid sugar, processed foods, white flour, starchy foods, while consuming lots of healthy low-glycemic fruits and non-starchy and especially green leafy vegetables, high-fiber foods, and high-protein foods. Combine those eating habits with moderate cardiovascular exercise and resistance training each day and you will be well on your way to being healthier than you’ve ever been. This notion that people who are fat are eating the wrong way and need to change their habits is absolutely dead on! While there are some people who gain weight beyond their control (for example, people with thyroid problems), most people pack on the pounds because they eat too much of the wrong kinds of foods. If you eat a Big Mac, Large Fries, and Large Coke at McDonald’s every day while slurping down cup after cup of sugary sodas and then raiding the snack machine of all the potato chips, candy bars and other junk food you can find, then there is nobody to blame for your obesity but yourself. YOU are the reason you got fat and nobody else! Ampersand cites studies that say fat people don’t eat more calories or eat much different from thin people. And yet their weight discrepancy exists. Furthermore, Ampersand notes that studies have also shown that fat people who somehow manage to get their weight under control and keep it off are actually “effectively anorexic.”
Oh now that’s funny, Ampersand! Anorexic?! Are you serious?! I guess you haven’t seen what I eat lately, my friend. I am ANYTHING but anorexic. At the very least, I’m making BETTER choices about what I put in my mouth rather than grabbing at whatever is the cheapest food I can find. While I am much more discriminating in my food selection, I am certainly not doing without to the point that I’m anorexic. That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard! Is it possible to be anorexic eating around 2,000 calories a day? Me thinks not.
There is an excellent question Ampersand asks at the end of this particular theory point:
“Why is it that people cannot seem to lose weight, despite the social pressures, the urging of their doctors, and the investment of staggering amounts of time, energy, and money?”
Ah, elementary, my dear Ampersand. The answer to that question is found in the question itself. Society, doctors, and the rigors of dieting can cause people to become frustrated by it all and they just give up prematurely. But if people would set aside all of those supposedly negative things and simply look at weight loss as something that THEY want to do for themselves to improve their lives, then and only then can weight control come about. Do you remember the question I asked at the beginning of this podcast about why you want to lose weight? If your answer is anything other than because YOU want to do it for yourself, then let me tell you flat out that you are doing it for the wrong reasons. As much as my wife Christine really wanted me to lose weight, it wasn’t until she stopped bugging me about it and I made up my own mind to do this for ME that it finally happened. I can confidently say that is why I have been able to keep the weight off for good because I wasn’t trying to impress anybody else when I did it. I did it for ME and nobody else. And the rest they say is history.
That’s it for Episode 80 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.” What do you think about Ampersand’s theory that remaining fat is better than even attempting weight loss? Does he make a convincing argument to you or do you agree with me that his line of reasoning is seriously flawed based on your own experience? Let’s talk about it in the show notes section of Episode 80 at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com. THANK YOU again for listening and I look forward to coming back again on Monday for yet another thrill-packed episode of the Internet’s #1 low-carb podcast show. So, until next time, keep on livin’ la vida low-carb!