Diet Experts & My Opinion

                               

I’ve grown weary of the opinions that are stated by all of the various Diet Experts… including those who are in the medical profession.  Every single one of them has some type of personal marketing agenda which is designed to provide THEM with money or recognition or both. They want to Help Themselves, by getting me to believe and accept their claim that following their advice will help ME.

To make myself clear, when I say,  “Weary”, I mean:

burnt-out, done-in, fatigued, played-out, spent, tapped-out, tired, wiped-out, worn-out, bored, fed-up, jaded, sick-and-tired, glutted, apathetic, demoralized, discouraged, disheartened, dispirited, drained, exhausted, annoyed, exasperated, frustrated, irritated, disgusted, and repulsed.

I’m weary of what Diet Experts tell me.  Things like: 

• Eat more food.
• Ignore Calories.
  
• Fast intermittently. Cycle periods of fasting with periods of eating.
• Follow a carefully timed eating schedule.
  
• Lose all the weight you want fast, fast, fast.
  
• It worked for me.  It will work for you.
  
• Thousands of my patients are proof my plan works.
  
• Lose up to 10 pounds in 2 weeks.
  
• Lose up to 40 pounds in 2 months.

Often “diet experts” want us to believe there are no restrictions on foods you can eat on their plan.  But, there is always a “but”.  For their plan to work, …. at least some of the time … we must omit, avoid or restrict at least one of the following:

• Fats
• Fruits & vegetables
  
• Legumes
  
• Proteins
  
• Carbohydrates

Diet experts start with claims that appear reasonable, and possibly correct, but then, unsatisfied with simple, basic, and verifiable truths, those “experts” then go on to spout additional information which is based solely on their own individual Pseudo Science beliefs. Even the most knowledgeable medical diet expert tends to express opinions which are ... at the most ... only about 80% Fact, with the remaining 20% merely Guesswork based on wishful thinking.

Today, diet creators claim that their plan “has the science supporting it.”
It doesn’t matter if the diet plan is high carb, low carb, high fat, high protein, low protein, or no food, they ALL have science supporting their plan.
   
Diet and nutrition science is competitive, manipulated, and highly profitable.
Having spent the past 50 years reading, observing, and personally experiencing just about everything available in the diet and non-diet nutrition world, I’ve come to a point… at this particular moment… where I find myself unable to believe a great deal of the claims that are made by any diet expert, including those who have medical degrees; who have become well-known authors; and who appear to be respected by those who are in agreement with their stated opinions.

That doesn’t mean that I’ve given up hope for long-term, weight-loss maintenance. It means that my own success requires me to personally develop an ongoing sustainable diet plan that works for me individually. It reminds me of that John Prine song: “We are Here Together, All Alone.”  Each person must follow their own path on their journey through life.  What works for me won’t necessarily work for you, and vice versa.

Any diet that gets a person to take in less food energy than their body uses will lose weight.   Any diet that gets a person to take in exactly the amount of food energy that their body uses will maintain weight-loss. Our bodies do what our bodies do.  Metabolism is based on involuntary factors, and people have almost no control over their individual metabolic rates.  Metabolic rates differ from person to person, AND from time to time.  Even people who have bodies that are the same age, size, and activity levels don't all use the same amount of energy, AND no one's body uses the same amount of energy all of the time.

Unfortunately for those of us who want to lose weight and maintain weight-loss, the bodies of Fat people are intrinsically designed to stay Fat.  Here is both our Joy and our Sorrow: food that smells good, looks good, and tastes good is Delicious, and our bodies' survival mechanisms make us desperately want to eat lots of delicious food whenever it is available.

Anyone can be a weight-loss diet creator.  Here’s a diet I just made up.  I call it the Prisoner-of-War diet (P.O.W. diet).  To follow the P.O.W diet, all you need to do is eat ONLY - every day - between 0 to 3 meals that are made up of only very small-amounts of inexpensive, very bad-tasting food.  

How long do you think anyone could stay on the diet that I just created? Probably only for as long as they are locked up, without the ability to access any additional food.  When the prisoners are released, the diet will end, and when that forced food restriction ends, the former prisoners will naturally choose to eat delicious food until their bodies feel satisfied, which will ultimately cause all of their lost weight to return.

So you see, the ultimate results of the P.O.W. diet is similar to that of every other diet. 

Here’s a diet expert’s opinion that I agree with: "at the end of the day if you don't like the life you're living while you're losing weight, you're virtually certain to gain it back.”

NOTE: Originally posted 9/28/2016.  Bumped up for new viewers.