Media loves quoting statistics – but so often it is at best ignorant – at worst a lie. It's easy to lie using statistics. This headline in a newspaper at the check out counter in the grocery store could capture your attention, making you wonder if you should stop eating ice-cream before going to the beach or a pool. But a combination of factors that seem linked because they occur at the same time is the example of poor research. And yet still becomes something that most people believe. People believe dieting can cause weight loss because of flawed statistical analysis. They are confusing causation with correlation!
That’s how you manipulate statistics – you leave out other important factors.
And that's what is being done right now to convince people that having additional weight is going to make them more vulnerable to Covid-19 and other nasty diseases!
Let me explain: Just because two things occur at the same time doesn’t necessarily mean that one causes the other. There is an important difference between causation and correlation which I'll explain below.
Summer is a time when it’s hot outside. More people eat ice-cream in the hot summer weather, and more people ALSO go into the water to cool down, so more people drown.
A flawed study would report that eating ice-cream causes drowning because they both increased at the same time! Now you realize that it isn’t true that ice-cream causes drowning! They just occurred at the same time of year. The researcher left out the important considerations and jumped to the conclusion that eating ice-cream causes drowning. This is the same kind of research that many people read and believe.
A common expression is "I'll believe it when I see it." But in actuality, the truer statement is: "I'll see it when I believe it!"
Many people become so attached to believing this type of flawed study that they fight against findings that dispute their BELIEFS. Perhaps you’ve fallen for the study and joined the groups of people who now believe that eating butter, and saturated animal fat is causes weight gain and heart disease. Yes, this too, is an “Ice-cream Causes Drowning” type of study.
And finally, the media and medical doctors are starting to say, “oh, we were wrong”…. but that doesn’t help the people who died from cardiovascular disease caused by eating VEGETABLE OILS INSTEAD OF BUTTER!! Eating fats do not cause weight gain. In fact, the entire Paleo and Keto craze is based on eating fats. Those proponents say that doesn't cause weight gain, in fact they claim it causes weight loss. (but that's another flawed study... )
Dr. Peter Attia, a medical doctor who once blamed fat people and diabetics from causing their own poor health has had an epiphany. We assume that weight gain comes first and causes diabetes and other illnesses. But what if, as surgeon and nutrition researcher Peter Attia has suggested, weight gain is actually an early symptom of diabetes? Or what if weight gain and type 2 diabetes are both caused by an unknown third variable?
Another fervently held misconception is that eating less and exercising more will cause weight loss that is sustainable. FALSE again! The fact that the Diet Industry doesn’t want you to know is that 95% of all diets fail to keep the weight off for more than a few months to a couple of years no matter what diet, what exercise, what "lifestyle change". A recent PBS special report on NOVA was a great program that explained the newest scientific research that supports this idea!
What causes weight gain? You might be shocked to hear that dieting is often at fault! It’s almost impossible for something to fail for so many people as often as dieting does.The problem with dieting is it goes against everything that Mother Nature has designed to keep you alive. Dieting, by cutting calories slows your metabolism, as does excessive exercise.
When your metabolism is lowered by 30% UNDER your amount of diet food, you are miserable and stressed, the weight will start coming back on its own. That’s only one part of Mother Nature’s plan to keep you alive! In fact, your body is so profoundly specialized at maintaining your weight that you will find this quote from Health At Every Size, by Lindo Bacon, Ph.D. shocking!
But people who don’t have weight challenges want overweight people to believe they must continue this battle to lose weight for the rest of their lives– or they are lazy, and undisciplined. Yes, it’s easy for them to say: "YOU have to make a “lifestyle” change!"
TRIGGER ALERT: They say that fat people eat junk food. I heard a very upsetting description of heavy person as a "fat pig who put too much food in his pie hole."
Let me ask you a question: Have you ever seen a thin person eating junk food? Why is ok for THEM to eat that? They are just lucky and won the metabolism lottery!
Now let me ask you a question: Why is it some people, like my good friend Yolanda can eat like a SUMO WRESTLER and never gain weight?
We played tennis, went to the gym, walked up hills and did aerobics together. She ate real food, I ate rabbit food. She stayed slim (still is tiny! and I'm NOT!). There are lots of people like that – but no one realizes that they just won the metabolism lottery, and others didn't win and they have very slow metabolisms!
There are also many factors, including genetics, stress and even economic level (that really is a cause of stress) that have an impact on weight!
My experience with overweight people tells me exactly the opposite about eat less and exercise more. Heavier people have been chronically under-eating (dieting) and punishing themselves physically and emotionally. Sure, maybe at some point they have overeaten comfort food. But on the whole, you could even describe these plus size people as having an eating disorder. They don't eat enough because they're always dieting!
Heavier individuals have a mindset has become chronically stressed from hating themselves, then giving in, and then again, being disgusted with themselves. In order to lose weight, most of them must stop dieting, and start nurturing themselves with by increasing their food intake and LESS exercise, more sleep and forgive themselves for hating their body! Hopefully, eventually eating more food may reset their metabolisms so they are not always starving themselves. But it's almost impossible for that to happen when you see the research what the research shows!
The Mindset of a dieter plays into the Law of Attraction – and not in a good way. It’s the mindset of deprivation, frustration, “can’t and should” that invites more misery, deprivation and frustration and stress. And that’s just talking about their CONSCIOUS mindset. There’s the issue of unconscious and subconscious beliefs that are ALSO sabotaging their ability to lose weight and maintain it. And then there's the effect from being abused, humiliated or neglected as a child from birth to six years old that has been described in detail in the ACE Study.
Plus size, larger bodied and heavier people must break free from the pervasive gaslighting and brainwashing that makes you hate your body. You must learn to reject the self-hatred and negative thoughts you hold about your body. You must relearn the focus of your mindset must change to appreciate and nurture your body. You must also break unconscious and subconscious belief patterns that are making your life miserable and learn to make peace with your body and food. Only then will you be able to stop stress eating and eat anything you want, just like your smaller bodied friends.
The bottom line is: Don’t fall for the flawed research that makes you a victim. And enjoy that ice-cream especially in the summer time, because you deserve to nurture yourself, and you’re NOT going to drown!
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It’s NOT what You’re Eating! You call it stress eating. Eating is your response to stress! So why do nutritionists, dietitians, doctors, and other diet gurus tell you to change what you are eating to stop stress eating?? That is CRAZY! What is stressing you out? The ONLY way you will be able to stop
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