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| I chose a happy photo to counter the vibe of the extract at the end. |
We provocatively begin
by calling the statement, “Diets Don’t Work”
complete and utter bullshit.
As a matter of fact,
the statement is historically insulting. [Stay with me, we’ll get there.]
Now, some who follow
the fashion of a this or that “Well, here’s how I eat” regimen “And
it w-o-r-k-s!” will likely agree with me and perhaps hold their breaths to
see if by the end of this essay I wind up giving a yea or nay vote to their
current food religion.
Maybe I will.
Maybe I won’t.
Yeah, likely I won’t.
Let us begin by
deconstructing the erring statement: Diets Don’t Work.
If we consider it for a
mere five-seconds, long enough to allow the absurdity of it to dissipate we
realize Diets Don’t Work is one of the most mind-numbingly silly
things that can be uttered by a sentient being.
If you are reading
this, I presume you are alive.
If you can decipher
the words on the screen—then we have evidence that one is receiving enough nutrients
to the brain to process information.
The state of being
alive and engaging sensory systems in the world requires fuel—that fuel is your
food intake, be that rice cake or carrot cake.
Whatever you consume
over the course of a day is your diet.
I repeat, a diet is
what you consume to remain a living, breathing, functioning human being.
If you stop consuming
sustenance—be it protein smoothies, porterhouse steaks or Atkins bars you will
waste away and cease to be.
So, apparently
diets do, indeed, work.
“OK, Mark, I see
where you’re going, you got me on a technicality. What we all mean is, reducing
diets don’t work.”
Assuming you agree
with the imaginary rebuttal, let us define further.
If by “Reducing
diets don’t work” we presume that to mean something along the lines of…
“I did keto, I did vegetarian, I did the
sauerkraut diet [insert swallow-this-not-that fad du jour here] and,
sure, I lost a few pounds up front and then I gained it all back, so whatcha
got to say about that, Brother?”
To that I would
respond, the initial loss was during the time of greatest dietary attention—the
plateau or gradual re-gain commenced when attention/discipline flagged.
When we reach plateaus
or regain weight there is often a temptation to “Get back on the horse”
and that often takes the form of doubling down on the current attentional diet
or switching to a new swallowing superstition to see “If this one is the
one.”
After a few cycles of plateaus
and/or regaining weight, we find research to support the contention “That
diets don’t work” and allow that to salve our souls, to eat into our
resolve like a rational acid that excuses a state of health that is simply scientifically
beyond our control due to the vagaries of the Hormonal Gods.
I get that
frustration. I get that disappointment. I get the turn to the evaluation that
Diets Don’t Work and it is simply out of your hands. Those love handles are
simply luck of the draw. It’s not my fault.
Curses, Universe!
Curses!
But,
again, does this assertion hold evidentiary water?
Let us look to the
most horrible unethical natural experiment ever conducted to show that the
statement “Diets don’t work” is utter bullshit.
Not only is it bullshit—it
is insulting bullshit.
First—Calories
in, calories out.
This is fundamental to
how weight-loss occurs.
Decrease the caloric
intake, increase the energy expenditure and reduction WILL occur.
No ifs, ands, or buts.
Now, there will be
some who will say, “Not me man, I’ve tried everything, and I simply cannot
lose any weight, or at the most I can lose 5 pounds and then I simply get
stuck.”
I hear ya…now, on to
that horrible natural experiment.
[I will not provide
photos here, they are sadly too easy to find but search them out if one is unconvinced.]
Dredge your memories
for images of the survivors of Nazi Concentration camps.
See the cadaverous humanity
that stared hollow-eyed at cameras in Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald and all the
other locations that are shames on humanity.
I challenge you to find
the “hormonally challenged” figures. Find the big-boned ones. Find the figures
still plump with baby-fat.
Camp internees came
from all over Europe, from many cultures and statistically the representation of
human variety would have been imprisoned. That is, tall people, short people,
men, women children, and, of course plump people.
And yet…the photos
reveal no persistent plumpness despite the “ineffectual” reducing diet.
Picture yourself saying
to an individual in one of these images, “Diets don’t work.”
[The following is from
“Experiences in a Concentration Camp” by survivor Viktor Frankl.]
“During the latter
part of our imprisonment, the daily ration consisted of very watery soup given
out once daily, and the usual small bread ration. In addition to that, there is
the so-called “extra allowance,” consisting of 3/4 of an ounce of margarine, or
of a slice of poor quality sausage, or a little piece of cheese, or a bit of
synthetic honey, or a spoonful of watery jam, varying daily. In calories, this
diet was absolutely inadequate, especially taking into consideration our heavy
manual work and our constant exposure to the cold and inadequate clothing. The
sick who were under “special care”-- that is, those who were allowed to lie in
the huts instead of leaving the camp for work-- were even worse off.
“The last
layer of subcutaneous fat had vanished, and we looked like skeletons disguised
with skin and rags, we could watch our bodies beginning to devour themselves.
The organism digested its own protein, and the muscles disappeared.”
Although it seems churlish
after that example allow me to repeat, if you decrease the caloric intake,
increase the energy expenditure reduction WILL occur.
It was not
vegetarianism—sausage in the diet. Cheese in the diet.
It was not carb
avoidance—Jams, synthetic honey.
It was caloric
reduction coupled with energy expenditure.
Notice, that those
left to “lie in huts” were worse off.
Evidence that the organism
seems to require exercise even in the most punishing of conditions.
Now, of course, none
of us--NONE wishes to repeat this experiment but…
Surely, we can give up
the insulting nonsense of “Diets don’t work.”
“OK, Mark, I hear
ya. I reckon diets do work, but short of starving myself to death is there a
diet I can use to sensibly drop pounds and keep them off? Hell, it’d be nice to
be happy while I was doing it, ya know, not feel like I’m depriving myself.”
Well, there is great
news—the Answer, there is a way.
[In Part 2, we move
from the somber to the joyous where we learn how to reverse-engineer our own
idiosyncratic diets into wise weight reduction, and we do so not by adhering to
some restricting “Eat this, not that!” nonsense.
We will do all this
with The Warrior Feasting Ethos in mind that allows us to “Take care
of the Baby” and “Show up for work” all while enjoying your life. Part
2, will be released only to our free newsletter subscribers.
Don’t have a free subscription,
well, hell, you correct that error here: Follow the link and scroll to the
bottom of the page.]
Why merely
read about it, when you can live it? Consider joining The Black Box Brotherhood
The Black Box Combat & Conditioning Training Warehouse
The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast
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