The Nutrition Grouch
The weight loss industry is, has been, and always will be a dumpster fire. People like to say health & wellness (of which weight loss is a part of) is “broken” or full of “misinformation” but that is being too generous because it implies that some of it is good or that it is actually fixable. It is damaged beyond repair. If it were possible, I would burn it to the ground and start over.
While it is impractical to try to summarize what’s wrong with the industry in one podcast description, my premise is this: there is a truly astronomical amount of information that neither our media nor our professionals are able to communicate to you in a meaningful way without losing all context, applicability to real life, and/or the ability to see how all of the pieces fit together.
The media should just stop covering health & wellness because their soundbites explain nothing and are little more than headlines and talking points. They may raise awareness but not understanding, leading to the illusion of explanatory depth. Academics actually know what they are talking about and could help educate us but are too busy with their work and only some are engaged with the public. Most academics look down on and laugh at the quacks and zealots in the field but it’s the quacks and zealots that have the real power.
Businesses do not have the right people in place (PhDs or medical professionals) to drive product and service development (that’s left to the MBAs). After the brand is established, the number one rule is that you must protect and promote the brand no matter how myopic, self-serving, or unimportant that brand is. Healthcare is for the (already) sick and public health is so surface level.
When it comes to their health, the public is lazy. They want the most entertaining, convenient, and positive information available, even if it is at the expense of achieving their goals. Hard work, I think not. Let me take the path of least resistance and “do it on the side”. There’s no reason for real change.
Instead of being stuck in pedaling the news of the day, disconnected factoids and tidbits, overly reductionist, cliché, idealistic, magic cures, easy fixes, secrets, tips, tricks, hacks, fads, gimmicks, cherry-picked, binary, good/bad, flashy, insanely optimistic, exaggerated, fantasy land, sunshine and rainbows, theoretical, testimonial based weight loss information -- let’s come up with a more comprehensive, systematic, sustainable, realistic, semi-automated, results-oriented, pragmatic approach to weight loss with a slice of common sense.
I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time (years and decades) thinking about the thousands of nuances of weight loss (just Google Energy Balance Nutrition Consulting, The Paper Database, or The Science of Dieting). I’ve also spent thousands of hours trying to understand why the health & wellness field isn’t actually science based despite the information being readily available.
I am so fed up and exhausted by it all. It is so broken that on many days I want to say forget it. I’m done with this. It can’t be fixed. I’m a smart motivated guy that can take my talents elsewhere (LeBron). But something keeps drawing me back. It’s like a sickness or a bad relationship. I just can’t get out of it. At my core, it’s who I am. In this podcast I want to offer you truly science-based weight loss advice, critiques of the weight loss industry/diet culture, and thoughts on my experiences and failings in the profession. And with that, I bring you The Nutrition Grouch.
The Nutrition Grouch
Everyone is Lying to You About Weight Loss
Diets aren’t sold with facts; they’re sold with testimonials. And the reason diets are sold this way, is because if you actually knew how little weight you were going to lose on a diet or how hard it would be to maintain your weight loss, you probably wouldn’t even bother. You would think the effort wasn’t worth the reward.
But when you’re told that you can easily lose 50 to 100 pounds, with relatively little effort, by changing just one thing (i.e., don’t eat carbs, don’t eat after 6pm, eat a big breakfast, have a “cheat day”), of course you’re going to try it out.
The problem is most people will never lose as much weight as they would like to or achieve their goal weight, losing weight is really hard, and losing weight takes a considerate amount of change (an entire lifestyle change) but no one wants to tell you that, because that’s not good for business.
In an effort to sell you a weight loss diet, people bend, twist, and contort the facts so much, that they’re essentially lying to you about the diet. Instead of lying to one another, let’s have an honest conversation about weight loss and chart a different path.
Some of the topics in today’s episode include:
- What people are lying to you about (0:16)
- 41 different diet types and the power of persuasion (4:38)
- The is no “best” diet: all diet types are created equally ineffective (5:06)
- Choosing a diet type based on your preferences doesn’t increase weight loss (5:56)
- People are okay with being lied to if it makes them feel good (8:55)
- Identity: when an attack on a fad diet is an attack on you! (10:53)
- Hard work equals success, right? (14:59)
- Why I’m a relative failure in the health & wellness industry (17:52)
- Social media and subject matter expertise are incompatible with one another (24:42)
- 41 different diet types and 80 types of diet interventions (29:54)
- The magic isn’t in the diet, it’s in the “process” (30:35)
- The list of the 80 different types of diet interventions (33:44)
- We’ve literally tried EVERYTHING!! Nothing is new, everything is recycled (36:51)
- All 41 diet types actually fit into just 8 different categories (38:26)
- Cultural rot and its effect on health (39:32)
- Don’t you dare challenge the almighty power of nutrition (45:20)
- The drastic difference between weight loss expectations and reality (46:15)
- Social media, the disconnected factoid and tidbit selling machine (49:01)
- The weight loss variation within any given diet is absolutely incredible (52:39)
- Fad diets, cults, and religion share so much in common (55:10)
- The myth of failing on a diet being your fault and not the diet’s fault (1:01:26)
- The myth of finding the “right” type of diet for you (1:02:38)