In one of those "fat acceptance" articles published at an online journal, some writer lists things that people should understand and stop doing when it comes to fat people. One of the points listed, which I see repeated over and over, is this:
Well, duh! Of course dieting works. It's even admitted in that very text: "they put the weight back" means that they lost the weight. So the dieting did work. Rather obviously if you stop dieting and go back to your old habits, the way you lived when you original gained all that weight in the first place, the weight is coming back. Of course it's coming back. A diet is not some kind of magic spell that forever stops you from gaining weight while stuffing yourself with food like you have done in the past. If you go back to those bad eating habits, rather obviously you will keep gaining the same weight as before.
What they don't understand nor want to accept that "dieting" is not something that you do for a year and then stop, and go back to your old lifestyle. If you want "dieting" to work and have a permanent effect for the rest of your life, you need to keep doing it for the rest of your life. You have to change your eating habits permanently. There is no going back to the old habits. If you go back, then obviously you are going to gain all the weight back, duh. Dieting is no different than eg. weight lifting: It's not something you can do for a year and expect permanent results that don't go away. You need to keep doing it for the rest of your life if you want the results to remain for the rest of your life.
The only tiny correct point that can be inferred from that sentiment is that if some company is advertising their custom "diet" as something that you do for a while and will have permanent effects on your weight, or they claim that "you can eat whatever you want and still lose (or not gain) weight", then you know they are full of BS. But those are just charlatans and snake oil salesmen.
What the writer should have written is "understand that most people are unable to permanently change their diets, and will eventually go back to their old habits and gain all that weight back". But of course you can't say that, because it sounds too much of "victim blaming". It puts the blame on the person, rather than on the diet.
But that's just the harsh reality of things. It's the person's own life choices that determine that person's weight.
"Understand that diets don't work and are the evil child of capitalism and body-shaming culture. Over 95 percent of people who lose weight through dieting put the weight back on within five years. If diets worked, the diet industry would be financially unsustainable."This is the most idiotic thing I have read in a good while. It's no different from saying, for example: "Weightlifting doesn't work! When I stopped weightlifting I lost all that muscle mass in five years."
Well, duh! Of course dieting works. It's even admitted in that very text: "they put the weight back" means that they lost the weight. So the dieting did work. Rather obviously if you stop dieting and go back to your old habits, the way you lived when you original gained all that weight in the first place, the weight is coming back. Of course it's coming back. A diet is not some kind of magic spell that forever stops you from gaining weight while stuffing yourself with food like you have done in the past. If you go back to those bad eating habits, rather obviously you will keep gaining the same weight as before.
What they don't understand nor want to accept that "dieting" is not something that you do for a year and then stop, and go back to your old lifestyle. If you want "dieting" to work and have a permanent effect for the rest of your life, you need to keep doing it for the rest of your life. You have to change your eating habits permanently. There is no going back to the old habits. If you go back, then obviously you are going to gain all the weight back, duh. Dieting is no different than eg. weight lifting: It's not something you can do for a year and expect permanent results that don't go away. You need to keep doing it for the rest of your life if you want the results to remain for the rest of your life.
The only tiny correct point that can be inferred from that sentiment is that if some company is advertising their custom "diet" as something that you do for a while and will have permanent effects on your weight, or they claim that "you can eat whatever you want and still lose (or not gain) weight", then you know they are full of BS. But those are just charlatans and snake oil salesmen.
What the writer should have written is "understand that most people are unable to permanently change their diets, and will eventually go back to their old habits and gain all that weight back". But of course you can't say that, because it sounds too much of "victim blaming". It puts the blame on the person, rather than on the diet.
But that's just the harsh reality of things. It's the person's own life choices that determine that person's weight.
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