Originally Posted by
pgjackson
No it really is that easy. Of course there are medical issues that should be taken into consideration, but for the huge majority of humanity eating less and exercising is the best way to lose weight if that is your goal. We have an obesity problem because of the amounts and types of food people choose to eat. Self control is difficult. I assure you more people have been helped through what you call moralizing than by overcomplicated, touchy-feely weight loss fads.
And winning a baseball game is as easy as scoring more runs than the other side. All that worrying about hitting, pitching and fielding is so besides the point.
The point is there's nothing simple about that when people have varying access to healthy foods, time and facilities for physical exercise, family and job commitments that pull them in different directions, varying genetic traits that make metabolizing of food a different equation for pretty much everybody, and possible physical infirmities that make both exercise and the acquisition of healthy foods difficult for people.
What you're demonstrating here is that it's possible to state the issue at such a high level of generality that it sounds simple when the issue is that there is no cookie cutter formula for how to achieve that balance that keeps a person at a healthy weight over time.
And trust me, I don't believe in "fads", touchy-feely or otherwise. I'll avoid the topic of whether I think cross-training is actually a fading fad, btw, but I think even you would have to acknowledge it isn't a good fit for everyone.
I have lost nearly half my body weight and kept it off for about 5 years now and I assure you I was never helped by anyone's moralizing. I certainly didn't do it through the use of any fad diet, I basically made up my own regimen as I saw what would actually allow me to maintain a slow but steady weight loss, then to keep it off when I actually exceeded my original weight loss goal. Frankly, I do know a fair number of people who have lost and kept off some serious amounts of weight, and I don't believe any one of them ever told me that someone scolding them about their lack of self-control was ever helpful to them. Some egoists like to think they're being helpful, I guess, but it usually is just claptrap from people who claim to have it all figured out for everyone else.