I sense there is a great deal of bias surrounding this topic.
The goal is to lose weight, right? And this guy being discussed is an advocate of the Atikins diet, right?
All I meant (and all I said) is that “Atkins works through the drastic reduction of the type of calories that make up 40-60% of American diets: carbs.”
I conceeded that “There are lots of variables in regard to the psychology of dieting, physiological advantages to consuming certain foods and nutrients & genetic predispostion of metabolism”
And concluded that “dieting and body weight is fundamentally about simple caloric arithmetic”.
...
From my wikipedia reserach, Atkins includes a two week “Induction” phase which involves what appears to me as nothing more than carb-eliminating & portion control.
Over the course of two weeks, I posit two things tend to happen to an Atkins dieter: (1) they lose weight through a rather dramatic reduction in calories & (2) they form some habits.
(1) leads to some increased positivity and will to continue & (2) helps them stick to the diet with less will power expenditure. (In many cases I’ve seen, and as a result of their increased will positivity and new habits, people incorporate some other helpful weight loss measures concurrently, such as consistent exercise, which furthers their efforts.)
You seem to be suggesting this is more complicated and magical than I think it need be, and then critiicizing my simpler solution.
OF COURSE dieting is hard because of lots of well established psychological and physiological reasons. I’m not trying to discount that. But pretending Atkins works primarily by some other mechanism other than calorie reduction is, in my current opinion, not true.
If I’m wrong, show me.
You mentioned insulin as a variable I’m ignoring… And then you said cases like those “don’t make up a very significant fraction of people who are obese in the modern, western world”.
...
By the way, I think I’ve made this clear, but I’ll make it clearer because it is a big deal to me: I’m not in the over-simplified (ignorant) crowd who simply says “Fat people eat too much”, as I believe this discounts the significant role that, for one case, individual differences in metabolism make in people’s weight over the course of many years.
There is a “Skinny Elite” class who look down on those who are not skinny and make judgements in regard to their character, discipline, etc. This is the result of ignorance. Two people can have identical energy balances (cals in/out) over the course of a decade and end up 100+ lbs apart in body mass, and that is without figuring in the psychological & emotional toll it obviously takes on a person to “fail” in comparison to people who are much less disciplined in their diet and excerise regiment, and then be judged daily for it.
Over the course of two weeks, I posit two things tend to happen to an Atkins dieter: (1) they lose weight through a rather dramatic reduction in calories & (2) they form some habits.
They also lose a lot of water weight.
But pretending Atkins works primarily by some other mechanism other than calorie reduction is, in my current opinion, not true.
Well I think the hypothesis is that by eliminating refined carbohydrates, you are adjusting your body’s internal “food clock” so that you will naturally end up eating less. So it’s analogous to the Shangri La diet, except that the Shangri La diet purports to adjust your internal “food clock” through a daily shot of flavor-free calories.
I sense there is a great deal of bias surrounding this topic.
The goal is to lose weight, right? And this guy being discussed is an advocate of the Atikins diet, right?
All I meant (and all I said) is that “Atkins works through the drastic reduction of the type of calories that make up 40-60% of American diets: carbs.”
I conceeded that “There are lots of variables in regard to the psychology of dieting, physiological advantages to consuming certain foods and nutrients & genetic predispostion of metabolism”
And concluded that “dieting and body weight is fundamentally about simple caloric arithmetic”.
...
From my wikipedia reserach, Atkins includes a two week “Induction” phase which involves what appears to me as nothing more than carb-eliminating & portion control.
Over the course of two weeks, I posit two things tend to happen to an Atkins dieter: (1) they lose weight through a rather dramatic reduction in calories & (2) they form some habits.
(1) leads to some increased positivity and will to continue & (2) helps them stick to the diet with less will power expenditure. (In many cases I’ve seen, and as a result of their increased will positivity and new habits, people incorporate some other helpful weight loss measures concurrently, such as consistent exercise, which furthers their efforts.)
You seem to be suggesting this is more complicated and magical than I think it need be, and then critiicizing my simpler solution.
OF COURSE dieting is hard because of lots of well established psychological and physiological reasons. I’m not trying to discount that. But pretending Atkins works primarily by some other mechanism other than calorie reduction is, in my current opinion, not true.
If I’m wrong, show me.
You mentioned insulin as a variable I’m ignoring… And then you said cases like those “don’t make up a very significant fraction of people who are obese in the modern, western world”.
...
By the way, I think I’ve made this clear, but I’ll make it clearer because it is a big deal to me: I’m not in the over-simplified (ignorant) crowd who simply says “Fat people eat too much”, as I believe this discounts the significant role that, for one case, individual differences in metabolism make in people’s weight over the course of many years.
There is a “Skinny Elite” class who look down on those who are not skinny and make judgements in regard to their character, discipline, etc. This is the result of ignorance. Two people can have identical energy balances (cals in/out) over the course of a decade and end up 100+ lbs apart in body mass, and that is without figuring in the psychological & emotional toll it obviously takes on a person to “fail” in comparison to people who are much less disciplined in their diet and excerise regiment, and then be judged daily for it.
They also lose a lot of water weight.
Well I think the hypothesis is that by eliminating refined carbohydrates, you are adjusting your body’s internal “food clock” so that you will naturally end up eating less. So it’s analogous to the Shangri La diet, except that the Shangri La diet purports to adjust your internal “food clock” through a daily shot of flavor-free calories.