Dieting advice FAIL page 2

[ElaineC]

By the way, if labeling certain foods as "forbidden" supposedly increases desire for them, wouldn't all of us here be cravings grains and corn and canola oil?

Personally? Nope. They aren't forbidden, go ahead and eat them if you want to. I view them as toxic to my body, and know that the end result will be severe pain. I stay away from these things, my Fibro behaves. I choose to eat them, I know the consequence.

[jenn26point2]

Ergh. Explaining to people with metabolic dysfunction that they should eat until they feel satisfied and then stop eating is like explaining to a blind person what the color blue looks like.

It is totally futile to try and tell someone what their software should be doing (and making it seem like they're making a willful personal choice to fuck up, or they're not trying hard enough) when their hardware is completely messed up after a lifetime of eating high-grain/low-fat (like pretty much everyone in the western world). I literally did not know what it was like to feel satisfied during a meal and feel like "Oh, I don't want any more" and put the fork down until I started eating Primal. I ate until I was uncomfortable and went away still hungry, because my leptin didn't work. You can tell someone a million times what they SHOULD be experiencing, but they can't force it to happen if it's not happening.

And yeah, telling someone to give in to cravings because that'll take the wind out of its sails? Great idea. That's how I ended up 300lbs.

I am just not convinced that a "fake it til you make it" attitude is at all useful for people with longstanding metabolic damage. "Eat like a theoretical normal person who can get away with eating chocolate cake sometimes and feel completely satisfied with a small slice and you'll lose weight! If you want a cookie, eat a cookie! Because a normal person would feel satisfied after 1-2 and so if you eat 1-2 you totally won't want to binge on the entire box!" This isn't a matter of binge foods being psychologically lusted after because they're "forbidden", even though that's what everyone thinks. It's about the body CRAVING FOOD.

Once again, it's suggesting that people with damaged bodies just aren't trying hard enough if they can't make it work. "Come on, cripple, normal people walk with one foot in front of the other, so if you just walk like normal people you'll be able to walk normally!"

It's just like Choco and his gang telling the older women on MDA that they should be able to eat 300g of carbs in the form of sweet potatoes every day and they'll still achieve a healthy weight. Yeah right. It might work fine for people who are already in good shape with working metabolisms, but it's going to backfire hard for anyone else because the system is different. Same with this advice.

I love this whole post. Thank you.

[onalark]

I love this whole post. Thank you.

Agreed.

[magicmerl]

Just reading the second page (the one on 'normal eating'), I think it's pretty good except for the part about eating the whole plate of cookies if you want to.

[lotusberries]

The chances are that after three days of chocolate cake, you will want shredded wheat again.

LOL! Yeah right. Pre-primal I could have eaten a chocolate cake for breakfast every day for years with no problem.

And yeah, telling someone to give in to cravings because that'll take the wind out of its sails? Great idea. That's how I ended up 300lbs.

Exactly. I was always amazed at people around me who could just eat one or two cookies or whatever and be satisfied. I never had that. I could eat a couple, and then tell myself not to eat anymore, but I would still want more and before i knew it i would have eaten them all. Give in to your cravings is stupid advice, especially for people whose bodies are always craving something junky.

[RitaRose]

I ate chocolate malt Carnation Instant Breakfast every freaking morning for, oh, about 20 years. And a Del Taco Egg and Cheese Burrito each morning for about 10 years after that. So... no, you don't just get tired of foods from eating them repeatedly.