If some people have metabolic problems—and right now I’m not claiming they do, just creating a possibility proof, and if you agree it’s possible but don’t think it’s real we can get into that later—then they’re like the broken legged people.
In that case the interesting question is whether these people who will literally starve to death before losing fat are exceedingly rare metabolic freaks, nothing more than medical curiosities? If their prevalence is in single digits per million they are just a red herring in the discussion of obesity. I suspect that for pretty much any generally accepted and valid health advice there is some exotic medical condition which makes following this advice a horribly wrong thing for that particular individual.
In general, I think it’s highly useful to state that being in energy deficit through (usually) eating less or (less usually) spending more is the only way to lose weight outside of surgery. That’s not the final word on the topic, but it should be the first. Otherwise you get equivalents of alcoholics who believe they’ll fix their dependency by avoiding one particular kind of alcohol and drinking some other kind.
Yes, there are different ways to maintain energy deficit. In some cases you can just bulldoze through on willpower (or sufficient motivation). In some cases your personal biochemistry will be cooperative and in other cases it will not. Sometimes adjusting your hormonal and metabolic balance will do wonders, sometimes it will do nothing.
In that case the interesting question is whether these people who will literally starve to death before losing fat are exceedingly rare metabolic freaks, nothing more than medical curiosities? If their prevalence is in single digits per million they are just a red herring in the discussion of obesity. I suspect that for pretty much any generally accepted and valid health advice there is some exotic medical condition which makes following this advice a horribly wrong thing for that particular individual.
People have literally died of that mistake, so there might be some reason to want to avoid making it—like tracking what’ actually happening to people’s bodies when they’re trying to lose weight.
Also, disorders tend to exist in a range of intensity, so that’s another reason to keep track of the effects of dieting—even if people whose bodies don’t release energy from fat enough to avoid death are very rare, people who who have a lot of difficulty with losing fat shouldn’t be assumed to be lying, and may be losing more muscle mass than is good for them.
Of that mistake? Links, please, to cases where people actually bothered to control their electrolytes, vitamins, minerals, and other essentials—they just denied themselves calories and died from starvation still weighting a few hundred pounds.
people who who have a lot of difficulty with losing fat shouldn’t be assumed to be lying
“Have a lot of difficulty with” and “biochemically cannot” are very different things. A lot of people have difficulty with losing fat—this does not imply that they cannot do it, only that they are unwilling or incapable of paying the price to do it.
may be losing more muscle mass than is good for them
Alternatively they may be accumulating more fat than is good for them.
As a practical matter I am not a big fan of using weight as the target variable. I much prefer either the body fat % or getting naked in front of a full-length mirror.
In that case the interesting question is whether these people who will literally starve to death before losing fat are exceedingly rare metabolic freaks, nothing more than medical curiosities? If their prevalence is in single digits per million they are just a red herring in the discussion of obesity. I suspect that for pretty much any generally accepted and valid health advice there is some exotic medical condition which makes following this advice a horribly wrong thing for that particular individual.
In general, I think it’s highly useful to state that being in energy deficit through (usually) eating less or (less usually) spending more is the only way to lose weight outside of surgery. That’s not the final word on the topic, but it should be the first. Otherwise you get equivalents of alcoholics who believe they’ll fix their dependency by avoiding one particular kind of alcohol and drinking some other kind.
Yes, there are different ways to maintain energy deficit. In some cases you can just bulldoze through on willpower (or sufficient motivation). In some cases your personal biochemistry will be cooperative and in other cases it will not. Sometimes adjusting your hormonal and metabolic balance will do wonders, sometimes it will do nothing.
People are different. It’s complicated :-/
People have literally died of that mistake, so there might be some reason to want to avoid making it—like tracking what’ actually happening to people’s bodies when they’re trying to lose weight.
Also, disorders tend to exist in a range of intensity, so that’s another reason to keep track of the effects of dieting—even if people whose bodies don’t release energy from fat enough to avoid death are very rare, people who who have a lot of difficulty with losing fat shouldn’t be assumed to be lying, and may be losing more muscle mass than is good for them.
Of that mistake? Links, please, to cases where people actually bothered to control their electrolytes, vitamins, minerals, and other essentials—they just denied themselves calories and died from starvation still weighting a few hundred pounds.
“Have a lot of difficulty with” and “biochemically cannot” are very different things. A lot of people have difficulty with losing fat—this does not imply that they cannot do it, only that they are unwilling or incapable of paying the price to do it.
Alternatively they may be accumulating more fat than is good for them.
As a practical matter I am not a big fan of using weight as the target variable. I much prefer either the body fat % or getting naked in front of a full-length mirror.