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SoullessAutomaton comments on The Unfinished Mystery of the Shangri-La Diet - Less Wrong
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To expand on this:
Imagine a counterfactual organism that always preferentially stores X number of calories per day as fat, where X is equivalent to the calorie expenditure of running at top speed for over 24 hours, and does not increase muscle mass.
If the organism eats more than X calories, it gains weight. If it eats less than X calories, it will experience crippling lethargy and eventually die.
Obviously no such organism would be produced by natural selection, but assume the Least Convenient Possible World. Would advising such an organism "eat less, exercise more" enable it to lose weight?
Of course not, but you've contrived an odd corner-case that, in fact, doesn't exist in reality. I'm not sure what that goes to show.
Except that my counterfactual organism seems to more strongly resemble Eliezer Yudkowsky than does whatever model you're working from.
Oh come on. If Eliezer eats fewer calories than he expends, he's not going to die of hunger. I fully buy that will-power is a legitimate issue, but bringing up extreme cases like this to make your point doesn't enhance the conversation.
But he may spend large amounts of time in a state where physiological and psychological responses are screaming "eat more food!". This state is not conducive to a happy, productive life.
I won't dispute this. For some people, a calculated decision to remain overweight in today's world in order to focus on other things may be the best course of action.
Alternatively, if losing weight is that important to you, you can alter your environment so "today's world" doesn't make it so tempting to eat crappy foods. Your body can be screaming out "eat more food!" all it wants, but if you're living in a cabin in some remote corner of Alaska, there's only so much damage that can do.
What part of "None of the simple cute little solutions that seem like they really ought to work and do work for the metabolically privileged actually work for me" do you not understand? I've lived in a carefully crappy-food-free apartment and gained weight, and back when I was "losing weight thanks to willpower and exercise!" I ate Little Debbie's poison nuggets and lost weight.
You are ignorant of the governing laws. I don't know how to make it any clearer. Your mind is full of things that sound like good and virtuous truths of a fair and sensible universe where diligence is rewarded and laziness punished. These things are lies.