On Sun, 8 Jul 2007, Jerry Monaco wrote:
> 2) She gives the range of weight as 20 pounds and says it is possible
> that people are now at the top range of their weight, but that range is
> invariant and cannot be changed by dieting and exercise.
Well, in that strong form -- "cannot" and "invariant" -- I seem to present a clear counter-example. I lost 50 pounds a dozen years ago by counting calories and it's still gone and that's still how I do it.
Admittedly, this is rare. But it's not unique. I was actually recently part of a NHIH-funded study of people like me, where I filled out a 2 hour questionaire, kept a food diary and wore an accelerometer to study what makes us different from the average run, where indeed it is rare for anyone to keep as much as 10 pounds off for as much as a year.
The study is still ongoing, but so far their conclusion is that the extreme difficulty of losing and keeping the weight off by dieting can be explained by social pressures. And I have to say, I find it convincing, not only because it make perfect sense in my case (I'm unusually unmoored from social pressures because I both live and work alone, and have used that to slowly craft a very singular set of eating and exercise habits) but because after I worked my way through their very very long questionnaire (and compared it with my personal experience, which it evoked), I realized at just how many myriad points social pressures and rituals come to bear. You don't notice it like a fish doesn't notice water, but lord, it's everywhere -- and it doesn't just wet you, it baits you.
Michael