Oh, CNN

November 16, 2010

Oh, CNN

This blog post got my hopes up with “Dieting gets you nowhere” and then dashed it with the “but it works for kids!” ending. No, people, turning off the TV or passing up a Happy Meal will not automagically turn a fat kid into a slender one. Sorry.

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Childhood Obesity, Dieting/WLS, News

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Living 400lbs

I blog about what it’s like to be live life at about 400lbs. :)

9 responses to “Oh, CNN”

Kelle

November 16, 2010 at 3:15 am

Hmm…I grew up near a small rural town where there was no fast food, crappy TV reception so I rarely watched it, I did farm chores instead. My mother basically cooked meals that would be an organic localvore’s dream. I guess I must have been getting fat from all those Happy Meals delivered to me through secret tunnels dug by Ronald McDonald.

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The Bald Soprano

November 16, 2010 at 3:48 am

um… you mean turning off the TV etc. …. will NOT automagically make a kid thin, right?

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1. Living 400lbs
  
  November 16, 2010 at 12:01 pm
  
  Oops! Thanks!
  
  Reply
Lillian

November 16, 2010 at 5:38 am

The comments are awful. They’re all talking about how it’s calorie in/out. They say that Americans are lazy. They say that one can maintain a weight loss if they try. It’s not easy to maintain a weight loss.

I lost thirty pounds when I started exercising and reduced the amount of junk food in my diet. To keep the weight off, I had to exercise more and more. Eventually, I got tired of exercising three or more hours a day. It didn’t take more than a month for most of the weight to return. The rest returned in the next few months. I still don’t eat junk food, but I don’t feel like spending my life exercising. I take long walks and do housework, but exercising three or more hours a day just to maintain a weight loss is too much.

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Twistie

November 16, 2010 at 7:54 am

You know, I’ve never seen a success for dieting rate as high as 20% given for the long haul, either.

And why the hell does she just assume that while dieting doesn’t work for adults, it just plain does for kids? At least she can name where she got the statistic for the adult futility factor.

It’s almost like someone told her she had to tack on some piece of diet-friendly commentary, so she just popped that in at the last minute (or an editor did it for her).

Or maybe she has drunk that particular Kool-Aid and didn’t question it.

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Regina T

November 16, 2010 at 11:30 am

Maybe what he’s implying about kids is that their metabolisms may not be “established” yet since they are not adults? Or is he saying that kids would have an easier time with adjustments in their eating habits?
Either way, the fact that this man, though not a medical professional, can derive from the plethora of data and research on “diets” has the ablility to ascertain that diets don’t work long term is a huge shift from the general meme of the masses.
The comments are just resistance to coming to that conclusion for oneself. Many spout off about having the mental stamina to stick to a diet regime, or not being lazy, or just eating less, or not getting fat in the first place. It boggles the mind the level of denial out there. It’s either simply eat less exercise more, or stop being lazy…..nevermind the data and research~!

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jaed

November 16, 2010 at 3:47 pm

Am I remembering correctly that having been dieted in childhood is a major risk factor for being fat as an adult?

(Of course, there’s some backwards causality there because fat kids may be more likely to be fat adults and definitely are more likely to get the diet treatment out of parents’ misguided concern, but still.)

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crookedfinger

November 16, 2010 at 10:39 pm

Dieting as a kid made me hate my body.

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Lillian

November 17, 2010 at 6:22 am

I second that.

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