• spujb@lemmy.cafe
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    6 months ago

    This exposes how much popular misinformation there is about dietary science.

    The fix to being skinny is never as simple as “eat more” in the same way the fix to being overweight is never as simple as “don’t eat.”

    There are a whole bunch of psychological, physiological, and downright safety concerns that go into effectively dieting (yes if you just start starving yourself you can die). And on top of that, research has repeatedly demonstrated that fat/skinny shaming just makes people worse off than they were.

    I encourage folks to have the openmindedness to understand that if things were really this easy, no one would have weight concerns.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      It does boil down to eating more or less. It just might not be as easy to learn to do that

      • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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        6 months ago

        “Boils down” in the same way that a days long cross country road trip boils down to putting lots of gas in your car.

        Yes, fuel technically is the main physical component involved in moving mass across distance, but there are myriad other hurdles and points of failure involved such as driver health, sleep, food and navigation.

        • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          I think it boils down in a much more concrete sense than that since how many calories you get vs how many you spend is the absolute most important factor and the one thing to make sure you’re doing correctly, with everything else being stuff supporting that goal.

          If you are underweight and need to gain weight, you need to eat more. How you can achieve that, that’s when you can start to get more specific. But still, ya gotta eat more.

          • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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            6 months ago

            You are completely correct. As long as you consume less/more calories than you spend, you will lose/gain weight. How to achieve that is where it can get complicated but I don’t think anyone can dispute the fact.

            • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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              6 months ago

              You are both correct. There’s this strange and false assumption that people struggling with weight somehow don’t know this though.

              They are incredibly aware. When people ask for advice, comments like OOP’s “eat more” are preaching to the choir.

              It’s as aggravating and obvious as “I need advice for a long drive?”—“well make sure you put gas in the car.” Like, duh.

              • chumbalumber
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                6 months ago

                Not only that, but how to gain/lose it in a healthy way.

                A ‘correct’ answer to help lose weight is to try meth. It is not recommended to try meth.

    • Trollception@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Do you have a source on starving yourself/fasting can cause you to die? I know that’s true for cats but never heard of it in humans, our bodies are designed to burn our fat reserves to create energy.

      • Zeppo@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        One, you can run out of fat reserves. You can also run low on critical minerals or electrolytes like magnesium or potassium and have a heart attack. Also, while fat may replace a carbohydrate source, you need protein intake as well. It’s obviously happened to people in famines.

      • Wav_function@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        This guy fasted for a year but consumed some essentials.

        I think if you consume nothing but water you will die at some point.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Barbieri's_fast

        For 382 days ending on 30 June 1966, he consumed only vitamins, electrolytes, an unspecified amount of yeast (a source of all essential amino acids) and zero-calorie beverages such as tea, coffee, and sparkling water, although he occasionally consumed small amounts of milk and/or sugar with the beverages, especially during the final weeks of the fast.

        • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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          6 months ago

          VERY important to note that he did this while in close communication with a doctor, consuming vitamins and other essential nutrients. No one should try to do this alone.

            • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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              6 months ago

              there’s a good chunk of hateful losers on the internet who just like to blame weight struggles on people’s “failure mindset.”

              not only are they assholes ignorant of basic medicine they are also fucking dangerous because they essentially encourage eating disorders.

      • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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        6 months ago

        Not a doctor nor dietitian—Protein-Energy Undernutrition is what can bring this about. More or less it’s a deficiency of macronutrients, even though there is technically enough energy in the form of fat, which leads to potentially life threatening conditions.

      • PainInTheAES@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Fasting and starving yourself aren’t the same. Starving is either being out of food without fat reserves or eating too little each day so your body never switches over to burning fat stores. Fasting is overall pretty safe and becoming better studied recently.

        I’ve been fasting every other day since October and used it to lose 50 LBS. I’ve felt pretty great the whole time and eat high protein/take a multivitamin on eating days to make sure I don’t run into any issues. Occasionally I drink electrolytes on fasting days if I’m being active. Many also do time restricted eating without issues