At first sight, an amusing juxtaposition of signs, and businesses:
But second thoughts, it’s not so funny for anyone who’s got an unhealthy relationship with food.
Apropos of this, there is a growing body of research suggesting diets don’t work:
. . Whether you try to reduce your body size through intermittent fasting or a standard energy-restricted diet, the same issue remains – are humans actually able to consciously control their body weight? Weight set-point theory would say no.
Decades of research suggests that although we can lose weight in the short term, it is invariably regained within two to five years, and for as many as half of dieters, more weight is regained than was originally lost.
US obesity and neuroscience researcher Stephan Guyenet says there is no evidence to suggest intermittent fasting – cutting normal calorie intake by about three-quarters for two days in seven, say – is more effective for weight loss than daily portion control for the average person. “Another way of putting it is that neither strategy is very effective for weight loss,” says Guyenet.
The difficulty we have tricking our body into downsizing itself comes down to neuroscience, he writes in his book The Hungry Brain. Weight set-point theory, which explains why repeated dieting is unsuccessful at producing long-term change in body weight or shape, was developed in the 1980s.
The theory supposes that we have an inbuilt control system that dictates how much fat we carry and we can’t consciously or permanently change our weight because our subconscious will drive us to regain it.
It’s a bit like someone else having the remote control for your television. You can try to manually change channels, but the remote’s invisible force keeps switching it back.
The central controller of our weight is thought to be located in the hypothalamus, which receives feedback from around the body on fat and activity levels. The hypothalamus then influences our eating habits and energy expenditure to maintain our weight set-point.
The controller does this by increasing hunger (as every dieter knows, the more weight they lose, the more persistent hunger becomes), increasing food reward value (making high-energy foods more appealing) and by slowing our metabolic rate. Within days of starting a self-imposed famine, the body adapts to conserve energy by slowing the metabolism down, making weight loss increasingly difficult. . .
Apropos of this, my favourite quote on diets from Anne Lamott:
. . . I used to start diets, too. I hated to mention this to my then-therapist. She would say cheerfully, “Oh, that’s great, honey. How much weight are you hoping to gain?” . .
Some resources for non-dieting:
If not dieting then what? – Dr Rick Kausman
and another Moderation Movement which focuses on intuitive eating.
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