Mindful Eating - not falling for this
 

I'll start off by saying that I don't believe that Mindful Eating is wrong. On the contrary I think it's the final destination of where I want my eating habits to end up. I just can't do it now that's all. I ran across this TED Talk on mindful eating and was really surprised that it had the opposite effect of what the speaker was intending - it turned me off.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sandra_aamo...ally_work.html

You'll have to judge for yourselves but what I came away with from this is.... don't bother trying to lose weight because your body has a set point, diets don't work, anybody who has every lost weight will just gain it back anyway and just go ahead and eat what you like and only focus on health which will probably not include weight loss at all.

Boy is this depressing.

Hi,

Well as evidenced by the many,many people who have lost over 100 pounds and kept it off, I would say there is considerable evidence that it is possible.

What is her point in being such a downer?

Interesting buy flawed theory in my opinion.

Good luck and keep at it . It isn't easy but it is possible.

Sheridan

Very interesting video; thanks for sharing it.

It is a somewhat depressing video, I agree.

What I found interesting is that she did NOT address a phenomenon some of us have experienced (read, ME!). I was an intuitive eater until I went on my first diet at 18 (and another one in my early 20's). BUT...after the birth of my first child at 28 I was at a normal weight and returned to intuitive eating without even thinking about why I was doing it. When the normal menopausal weight gain started coming, I started gaining just a little weight. I think this is what she was referring to as the body re-setting its set point. Most people DO gain weight as they get older. Had I left well enough alone, I'd probably be between 135-140 right now. Unfortunately I'm about 25 lbs heavier.

And I blame that all on dieting.

I wonder what the difference would be for people who have NEVER been intuitive eaters (except for early childhood, when virtually all people eat intuitively)?

I'm finding it easier to move back toward intuitive eating because I spent about half of my life doing that. What about others who have no memory of EVER doing that? Can they succeed at it?

Unfortunately I do not have the answer to that. But I do hope that as this idea becomes more mainstream that we focus on making sure our children don't fall into the diet trap; rather, to develop the healthy habits she outlined and let their bodies be their guide as to when and how much to eat - not a number on a scale.

I watched that myself yesterday and it is depressing but it is also a way that many can help make peace with themselves and their bodies. I read something a few months ago that it is expected that we'd have people of all different body shapes and sizes. Of course our modern world of too little activity and too much food, especially processed foods, has skewed it so overweight bodies are the norm vs just one of many 'natural' body types.

Newsflash!

Dieting doesn't work. Establishing healthy dietary habits does.

We are not all going to have model thin bikini bodies.

Ok got it. :D

All joking aside, I thought it was a good video. I wish she would have taken a moment longer around the 3:50 mark when she talks about the study that shows dieters who have lost 10% of their weight have slower metabolisms by 250 calories because it is mostly SPA and NEAT that decline, not BMR. This is good news because it means you can make up the difference by a small amount of activity. (Regular moderate exercise even brisk walking)

Great article on this.

Also, for our current environment, there are like a bazillion factors that contribute to the obesity problem. Well, not that many but it's amazing how many colliding factors there are. Check out this cool graph.

I think most people could maintain weight loss by mindful eating if they get rid of modern processed food. How many apples can a person eat? Mindful eating plus potatoe chips will never work. Ever.

I will watch this. And I have come across the set point argument before. A BBC hour long documentary I watched where healthy people all upped their calories and some gained a lot more than others. But there is a lot of evidence to say people can loose significant amounts of weight and keep it off for, well, ever.

I think bodies want to be healthy and will shed weight given the chance. Sure there can be some medical complications for some.

And there are the success stories here. There are the success stories in the National Weight Registry. There are a lot of success stories at Huffington Post weight loss success stories.

I will agree though that diets overwhelmingly fail. I also think we might all have a range of weights our bodies want to be out. For sure. I might not get to 170 or even 180. I might find 190 is where I end up with. So diets no, lifestyle changes, yes.

Lifestyle changes succeed. And to me that means being ok with the time it takes for your body to shed the weight. It means plateaus. It means changing exercise routines. But if you are eating 'clean' and moving. Especially if you weren't like I was before then weight will come up. That weight wasn't a 'set point' it was there because of my previous lifestyle choices.

JohnP great post. Agree completely.

I think there is a lot of wisdom in what she says but also some things that aren't quite justified by research. Set point theory not very well supported at this point. Remember that a theory is just one possible explanation for a set of data. People who are overweight have a hard time getting and staying thin. That's the data. Set point is only one explanation for that. An equally valid explanation is that old habits die hard. Remember that the brain is infinitely plastic- but change is difficult.

I don't know john, I can eat a lot of apples... I've gained weight on eating a whole foods diet myself.

I also don't know how you would do a study like this. But if would be interesting to follow a 'dieting' group versus a 'lifestyle' group.

I don't know the criteria you would use to separate them. Maybe you could come up with it, have everyone journal and then based on what people actually did separate them then.

Because at the start everyone is going to say this is a lifestyle change.

Just the other day there was a blog post on Refuse to Regain about this talk - http://www.refusetoregain.com/2014/0...on-tedcom.html

From Refuse to Regain

There was an article response on Psychology today about the NYT article, The Fat Trap that I found interesting.
Personal anecdote, but I know quite a few people who used to be fat for years, but I never knew because they never mention it and they have maintained for years.

Sign me up. I'm a dieter and pretty cool with it.

re:
 

I think the one thing that can be inferred from John's graph link that he posted, is that there are MANY things can influence weight loss and maintenance. That's why it's so hard for one of us to say, "Do X thing and you'll lose X amount of weight."

Regarding diets... Personally I think that diets can lead to lifestyle change. For me, I didn't say, "I'm changing my habits and lifestyle." when I first started. When I first started, I said, "I'm dieting." Over time, those behaviors have become a lifestyle change.

For those people who can make instant, lasting lifestyle changes, I'm envious.

Well I can say that my initial weight loss was a lifestyle change of exercising regularly and eating better foods. I was still well over 100 lbs overweight though... I then had to increase exercise and carefully watch my portions. That worked for a while but I have never been able to get under 200 lbs no matter what I've done. Whether it was carefully monitoring calories, exercising a lot, etc, etc. I think on some levels, I should've just been happy where I was at but I wanted that elusive under 200 lb number. This time around, I don't care if I don't get under 200. I'm just eating well, portion controlled and exercising regularly. Wherever I settle is where I'll stay. I'm fine with being overweight, even obese, as long as I'm now where near my original weight.

Personally...I couldn't finish the video not because it was depressing or it made me angry (actually, it made a lot of sense out of why I regain so easily compared to other people). But she kept making this tsk'ing or smacking sound that I just couldn't stand. Like when someone's eating with their mouth open. Can't stand it.

I'll try again when I don't have to listen with earphones. Sounded interesting.