Weight Loss Research May Never Get It Right

Many area’s of weight loss research will examine specific causes for weight gain and then try to fix that specific cause.

Many researchers are looking for answers in the wrong places.

This might make sense in a clinical research setting when the process involves writing a grant to ask for money from a government organization.

But it doesn’t make much sense to you or me who are just trying to find something that works in our life that we can apply today.

Here is just a short list of factors that most likely contribute to the way we eat:

1. Exercise

2. Country we live in

3. Family upbringing

4. Emotional stress

5. Work environment

6. Commute time for work

7. Physical activity levels outside of the gym

8. Workouts (if you do them at all)

9. Relationship status

10. Family status (married or single, kids or not, living with other family members)

11. Genetic factors

12. Socio-economic status (how much cash you got!)

As you can see the genetic component is just one of many factors that impact how you eat. However most of the weight loss research and interventions you hear about focus on just this area.

It’s the proverbial “you’re broken and if we just get enough research funding we’ll be able to build a drug or food program that can fix you”…BS!

The sum total of all the items on the above list (and I’m sure there are others I’ve missed) is what will determine you’re weight loss success.

In the case of weight loss I’m afraid that it will never be possible to truly study it with real effectiveness.

Next monday’s podcast we will cover this topic in detail. You can find it here: Adonis Lifestyle Podcast

John

Posted by johnbarban in Weight Loss
Tags: eating less, Overeating, weight loss research |17 Comments

17 Responses to “Weight Loss Research May Never Get It Right”

  1. Aditya Says:
    April 9th, 2010 at 1:34 pm

    Country we live in : I am from India. And the kind of food here, wow, I must say way too high on the calorie scale. A single dish might be a whooping 800 calories. What works best here, Eat Stop Eat with Warrior Diet to fit in. But one things for sure, Indian Food is one of the most awesome in the whole world and I love it, just cant do without it. I make it a point to enjoy every bit of it. On a sidenote, I love all kinds of food, though!

    Relationship Status : Weight loss is slower if we are committed haha! No its true, and this is from my experience! Because we should never forget those dates full of eating outs. But then again, we can adjust everything with Eat Stop Eat. Single people are lucky when it comes to weight loss. Speaks for itself, doesnt it?

  2. Jordan Says:
    April 9th, 2010 at 2:03 pm

    2, 3, 10, and 12 ring true for me. Possibly 11, hope not. ha ha.

    Upbringing is an important factor. I developed a lot of my bad habits as a child. I kinda wish my parents were more strict about my diet back then. Oh well. Who I live with is important, too. I have a lot more temptations around me because other people are bringing in food all of the time. Not that I’m blaming them,or that I would be perfect if I lived alone. But it adds an extra challenge, that’s for sure. And, of course, being a middle class American means having access to an enormous amount of cheap food. Bad habits wouldn’t mean much if there wasn’t any food around.

  3. Josh B Says:
    April 9th, 2010 at 2:25 pm

    I found the mention of family/relationship status interesting. Now that I’m living with my girlfriend I notice it impact my eating habits on occasion. not so much that we go out to eat a lot, but one example is she microwaved me a hot dog last night and gave it to me to eat. I had already eaten all of my calories for the day but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings or let the food go to waste so I ate it lol. Luckily I can make up for it today or whenever I choose since ‘low cal’ eating is flexible. But it makes me think of married couples where one person makes dinner and the other may eat it just because of all the hard work they put into it, despite how many calories are in it / if they’ve already eaten their allotment for the day (or if it tastes good or not haha). It’s like domestic peer pressure.

    Family upbringing. I’m glad my mom took the effort to buy fresh produce and whole foods to feed me and my brother and sisters growing up. Also we always had sizable dinners, but very little was pre packaged food so it wasn’t as calorie dense. I got chubby in my early teens because I loved junk food too much, but once I started exercising and just eating what was at the house I got pretty thin. My mom’s cooking habits rubbed off on me and now I cook at least 95% of my meals with the best quality food I can afford. I suppose that crosses over into socioeconomic status.

  4. Six Pack Abs Blog Says:
    April 9th, 2010 at 4:18 pm

    This is why I take all weight loss and exercise research with a HUGE grain of salt.

    Most researchers and scientists who are coming up with these conclusions frankly look like garbage. They aren’t even in shape, never mind being even close to having six pack abs.

    So I have to ask myself… if they know so much about exercise and nutrition, why don’t they use their superior knowledge to get into better shape than the rest of us?

    There’s no real answer to that, other than to conclude there’s obviously some component of weight loss and exercise knowledge they’re missing that guys who have achieved six pack abs drug-free have.

    It’s the same reason why I don’t listen to business professors who have never made any money in the real world about business, or relationship gurus who have been divorced six times about relationships.

    The fact is, you should only be taking advice from guys who are in great shape themselves. If you’re taking weight loss advice from fat people, it’s the same as getting financial advice from a homeless person.

    This is also why I listen to everything Mike (my partner in Six Pack Shortcuts) says and I treat it like gospel. He’s gotten in great shape by following his own advice and I have too, so it’s much more proven to work in the real world than some academic theories invented by fat people.

    Dan

  5. Should You Listen To Weight Loss Research? Says:
    April 9th, 2010 at 4:27 pm

    [...] Barban recently blogged about some of the problems with weight loss research. My partner Dan responded to the post with this [...]

  6. Jordan Says:
    April 9th, 2010 at 4:39 pm

    Six Pack Abs (I don’t know you’re name, lol,) so would you only take weight loss advice from someone who has lost weight, rather than someone who has always been thin?

  7. Jordan Says:
    April 9th, 2010 at 4:40 pm

    Oh, it’s Dan! I missed that! Duh. :-)

  8. Six Pack Abs Blog Says:
    April 9th, 2010 at 10:50 pm

    Yes, I would only listen to someone who was previously not in good shape, and got into good shape.

    And the bigger the transformation someone went through, the more I listen to them.

    -Dan

  9. Jordan Says:
    April 10th, 2010 at 11:30 am

    Makes sense. I bet there are a lot of “experts” who have never been significantly overweight. Perhaps they could give advice on how to *maintain* an ideal body weight, but not on how to lose the weight.

  10. johnbarban Says:
    April 10th, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    Jordan and Dan,

    Yeah it’s a bit strange because anyone can study and observe how someone else has done it, but it doesn’t seem that people care if you have a theoretical knowledge of how it happens, they want to know that you have experiential knowledge of doing it for yourself. This leads me to believe that people are more interested in know what the ‘experience’ of going through weight loss is like rather than the technical nuts and bolts of how it’s done.

    Any research scientist who has conducted a weight loss study can explain in detail the exact protocol they put their subjects through, but most people want to find out from the subjects themselves what it felt like.

    JB

  11. Jordan Says:
    April 10th, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    Yeah, I don’t know have any hard and fast rule on who to listen to (other than trying to avoid the loony scaremongering stuff.) I don’t mean to undermine anyone’s academic expertise, but I do understand Dan’s logic. I guess the real issue here is that weight loss requires the scientific/ physiological part (calorie deficit,) which an academic can fully understand and explain. But then there’s the personal/ psychological/ behavioral/ dare I say moral part: commitment, discipline, self-control. Not just talking/ writing/ reading about it, but doing it. That’s the difference.

    Interestingly, the people that I’m listening to are you and the Brad’s, obviously, and a couple of others, like Johnny Saloon and Martin Berkhan. I haven’t really thought about it until now, but all of you are in excellent shape.

  12. Logic Police Says:
    April 10th, 2010 at 2:13 pm

    Six pack abs Blog said this: “Most researchers and scientists who are coming up with these conclusions frankly look like garbage. They aren’t even in shape, never mind being even close to having six pack abs.

    So I have to ask myself… if they know so much about exercise and nutrition, why don’t they use their superior knowledge to get into better shape than the rest of us?”

    This is a logical fallacy for 2 reasons. First of all, knowing something does not necessarily translate into acting it. Scientists that spend their whole lives studying these stuff do so because they are interested in the biochemistry of metabolism and the science itself. It does not necessarily translate into their desire to achieve a 6 pack ab. Second of all, someone who gives advise based on their own experience does not necessarily translate into the truest and most correct form of advice. If this were so, then doctors would have relied on their experience and treat patients based on that. The best doctors are those who rely on the evidence while practicising their medicine, not merely what works for them. A fitness instructor who gives advice based on evidence and proof is likely to be more sought after than someone who has experience with his own body.

    This is why John’s blog is successful.

  13. johnbarban Says:
    April 10th, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    Logic Police,

    I agree with you that a scientific understanding of the facts and the ability to disseminate fact from fiction is the more relevant skill for understanding and teaching to others truth and knowledge…but if you look around in the health and fitness/weight loss industry you’ll see quite the opposite going on.

    I think this is because many people are still caught up in their own personal lie and their cognitive dissonance is difficult to overcome. People get very emotional about their bodies and they have a hard time accepting that we are machines that can be easily studied and predicted. This is why many people get caught with emotional sales pitches and fall for illogical and unscientific explanations for diet and fitness strategies.

    People just don’t want to admit they are very predictable, measurable and similar to each other, people seem to want to believe they are ‘special’ and that their personal weight loss journey is unique.

    Although I agree with you 100% that it’s a fallacy to suggest a person must have lost weight in order to be able to explain how it works to someone else…most customers don’t care and would rather see that the person themselves has lost weight, and then they’ll be open to the explanation of how and why it works.

    But there are marketers out there who have never been fat and never actually had to lose weight who sell successful weight loss systems. It’s more a matter of confidence and conviction in their opinion rather than proof that they can do it for themselves.

    Look at it this way…a great football coach doesn’t have to be a great player, he just has to know exactly what the players should do in order to win. Some of the best professional and high level collegiate coaches never even played the game, but they study it and understand it better than anyone else. I think true understanding is what makes a good coach/teacher. Having experienced it yourself just helps you relate to the person a bit and gets them to believe in you a bit faster.

    Keep in mind that most people are usually functioning out of emotion rather than logic.

    It’s completely backwards, but it’s the way things seem to be in this industry.

    JB

  14. Jordan Says:
    April 10th, 2010 at 2:43 pm

    But John has both. He has the information, and he’s lost weight.

    I agree that personal experience isn’t enough by itself. A “guru” could have lost a lot of weight with a low carb diet, but he could mislead a lot of people by preaching that LC is necessary to lose weight. That personal experience needs to be tempered with facts.

    Ultimately, every person needs to apply commitment and discipline to lose weight. Advice, information, and expertise are the starting point. Then one has to put in the *work.* No scientist, academic, trainer, guru, or expert can do the work for us. The actual weight loss *effort* is a psychological/ behavioral issue. It’s not just scientific knowledge.

    I’m not disagreeing with anybody, it’s just an interesting topic. :-)

  15. johnbarban Says:
    April 10th, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    Jordan,

    Well said. And as you stated earlier it is difficult to know who to trust. I can see how someone would be skeptical about taking weight loss advice from someone who has never lost weight (even though it wouldn’t be required at all for someone to know how it would happen)

    I guess we’re actually talking more about relationships and building trust.

    How much would you trust your doctor’s advice on how to prevent heart disease if he is overweight, drinks too much and smokes (even though he has a medical degree)? Theoretically he would be a good person to listen to, but from an relationship/trust and emotional level it just doesn’t seem to fit (no matter how well versed he is in the research)

    We’re all social beings and we’ve learned to become so skeptical of claims and advertising that many people would rather believe and trust in a person’s story rather than scientific facts, reason or logic.

    I’m starting to think that we are either inherently not very logical (I doubt)…or our school system is miserably pathetic at teaching critical thinking skills (which I believe to be the real answer) combined with massive scientific illiteracy (which is also true) and that is why most people are simply gullible and fall for BS claims and have very little ability to use logic and reason to see through something that is implausible and false.

    JB

  16. Shea Says:
    April 10th, 2010 at 5:48 pm

    i agree with jordan that this is quite an interesting topic/thread. what it brought to my mind is the coincidence of the nature of this discussion and forum and the origins of the philosophy of scepticism which began from ancient Greek medicine in disputes between the academic dogmatists and the skeptics who believed that, in a nutshell, because we don’t know what we don’t know, suspension of judgment combined with pragmatic experience are our best bets for feeling our way around this world.

    to anyone who might be so inclined, i strenuously recommend reading Outlines of Scepticism by Sextus Empiricus (the translation by Annas and Barnes which i have is a good one). it is a little technical, but fascinating if you can work your way through it, and i think very applicable to the cacophony that surrounds fat/weight loss and all the other issues raised here.

  17. Tol Says:
    April 11th, 2010 at 5:53 am

    Subconscious is before science, no subconscious no science. Science is learning from it, and not the opposit.

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>