by ssoosay
40 Years Of U.S. Nutrition Data Is “Fatally Flawed” and “Physiologically Implausible”
[Via | Popular Science]
A new study from researchers at the University of South Carolina took a closer look at the numbers from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES. NHANES surveys Americans to find out what they’ve been eating, if they’ve been sick, that kind of thing. It’s used mostly to learn about diseases and health risk factors throughout the country–and this new study says it’s wrong. And has been wrong since it began. In 1971.
[More]
Now we have researchers calling fat people liars with no proof, only conjecture.They know that if some states they ate 1500 calories and they are overweight it must be a lie. Because if anyone at 1500 calories regularly, one would not be overweight.
This is a bunch of crap. Because calories are not the whole story and to think is, well, stupid.
I have news for this guys – I have data showing that they are incorrect. I lost 25 pounds over a 5 month period and the number of calories I took in had little to do with it.
I kept very careful calorie records for 5 months (using the app LoseIt), along with details of my weight (thanks to my Aria scale). I wanted to lose a pound a week or 52 pounds in a year. Based on my height, weight and age, it takes over 3000 calories a day to maintain my weight.
The app suggested a daily calorie intake of about 2500 would let me reach my goal. This is what would be expected as a pound of body fat equates to 3500 calories. So 500 calories a day less should equal one pound lost a week.
I substantially kept under that calorie intake of 2400. I had many, many weeks where I averaged over 1000 calories less than 2500 every day and still gained weight.
I only exceeded 2500 calories 7 days those entire 5 months (and that just barely), I ate less than 1200 calories on 49 days out of 150, essentially a third.
My best week I lost 5 pounds. I was 7100 under my calorie budget (I ate an average of 1500 calories a day ). My worst week I gained 6 pounds and was 6100 calories under budget (eating about 1650 calories a day).
There is no way 150 calories a day makes an 11 pound difference.
I had one week where I ate 7200 fewer calories than needed and It had no effect on my weight at all.
And, finally, one week I ate 8500 calories less and gained 3 pounds!
Think of that – i ate 1300 calories a day for a week and I gained 3 pounds. This is 2200 calories a day lower than needed to maintain my weight. I should have lost 4.5 pounds, if calories were all that mattered. That is over 7 pounds different than expected if one only followed the charts like these guys used..
There was no correlation between the amount of calories I took in and weight loss. And it did not even come close to matching what was expected from the logical calculations. Yet, these guys would call me a liar.
So how did I lose 25 pounds over those 5 months?
It was not how many calories I ate that made any difference. It was how much I exercised.
For 2 months, I ate this way but did not exercise regularly. I lost little weight. For 3 months I exercised 3-4 times a week but did not change my diet substantially. I lost 25 pounds. On pretty much he same diet!
In fact, I have stopped keeping detailed tracks of my diet the last few months because it does not matter how little or much I eat. What matters is how much I exercise.
Sure, this is just me but then, it is just me I care about. However, if these guys want to come over and call me a liar, I have a lot of data to show them otherwise.
Until then, I will simply ignore these researchers who call fat people liars.
A Man With A Ph.D. 