liftsiron said:
There is a reason that these people are fat, its because they eat like pigs, not because they consume diet soft drinks. Its the dozen or so donuts that they gorge on before they wash everything down with diet coke. Think how often have you see a fat slob order two big macs a large order of fries, four macapple pies or what the ever the hell there called and a diet coke. Nine times out of ten they choose to blame the diet soft drink for making them fat. Another thing unless a fattie is being observed 24/7 they lie about how much they are actually eating, this is true of all lard asses.
In general, I agree that obesity in the US is a disease of self-indulgence and opportunity. The persons you are describing above we can all normally agree follow virtually none of the principles of healthy living. That they would expect a diet drink to be a free pass to eat whatever they like without consequence is shameful. As Confucious might say, "fast food speed way to grave". If we outlawed fast food restaurants we could probably cut obesity rates severely. But then again, we would still have those who don't care to cut back or do what is necessary to achieve a better state of health. For those people, I would agree with the above description.
However, this is not the case with the majority of people whom I was describing. Usually they ask my opinion after many other methods have failed. While it is not absolute for all of them that they are or are not lying to me about intake, I do have certain requirements that make it harder for someone to cheat without being caught. When possible I like to involve loved ones who will support the individual in their attempts. When I set up the plan with a person, I do not initially espouse the negatives regarding diet sodas containing aspartame, so I have not given prejudice one way or the other. That is because I have not made my mind up about aspartame diet drinks or foods as of yet...even though I am beginning to see the trend. So I leave them to try and abide by some the principles set forth; not too many rules in the beginning, so they don't lose hope or willpower. I set up an example diet plan as well as recommend certain recipe books from which they can select foods to eat at home and occasionally when they eat out. But the most important aspect is exercise addition and increased cardiovascular activities. As they keep a journal of their progress, as a general rule, when they are not losing weight as they normally should, I question them further about their specific methods and make suggestions to support their endeavors. It's not impossible, but it is somewhat difficult to have both the patient and their supporting family member to have identical lies filled out on their questionnaires. When they show dismay at not having lost weight after a given amount of time, then I specifically question them as to their methods. This is often when I find out how much diet drinks containing aspartame they are consuming. Sometimes they fail to mention in their journals that they consume aspartame products in between meals. When they remove these products there is a central tendency for weight loss tends to occur more easily and as expected. I normally don't like to jump on the conspiracy bandwagon, nor do I believe 90% of the internet rumors about aspartame. However, it is an interesting finding to me that more than a few bariatric physicians have also outlined the same concerns in the absence of any real studies to find out if aspartame is a potential culprit. So my findings are not unique
Obese people who are going to lose weight must have the following criteria:
1) they are sick of being obese
2) they know they need help
3) they are really ready to do something about it
4) they are realistic about their weight loss goals
If they don't have these things, then they aren't ready for my help. I'm not a miracle worker so I can only work with a person as long as their willpower is not exceeded by either their expectations or their ability to see a goal and stick to the plan. So the people you described above really don't fit the type of clientele who I tend to try and help.
Not all people who need to lose weight fit the description you speak of. A few of these people, believe it or not, may be able to do cardio longer than you or many other people can. Some of these few may even be in better cardiovascular shape than you and me both (since I don't do tons of cardio, this is not all that hard). Being in shape from a clinical standpoint is not just a function of bodyfat percent. It is defined partially by how fast your heart rate among other things returns to normal following some measure of exercise. I've even seen people with 40+ pounds of fat to lose who have better returns-to-normal rates than myself. That is usually both a confidence boost and a reality check for them when I tell them, "look you're cardiovascular system is in very good shape. Now it's time to make it even stronger by reducing the amount of tissue your heart is having to circulate blood through."
Not that that is of ultra importance, but the bottom line from my experience and observation is that if the diet contains either an average or above average amount of carbs (nearly regardless of quality) that addition of aspartame products has appeared to hamper efforts, nearly regardless of amount of cardio. So for those who go on CKD diets, or sustained low carb diets, addition of aspartame may inhibit weight loss for just a small percent. This is interesting. This may or may not be true in the long run for the rest of diet methods, but from appearances of 6 months to 1 year maintaining a few varied weight loss schedules it appears that aspartame might play a negative part in weight loss efforts.
Not the rule, just my observations.
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