Stupid Questions, 2nd half of December

Bound_up

The most recent post in December's Stupid Questions article is from the 11th.

I suppose as the article's been pushed further down the list of new articles, it's had less exposure, so here's another one for the rest of December.

Plus I have a few questions, so I'll get it kicked off.

It was said in the last one, and it's good advice, I think:

This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.

Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.

The most recent post in December's Stupid Questions article is from the 11th.

I suppose as the article's been pushed further down the list of new articles, it's had less exposure, so here's another one for the rest of December.

Plus I have a few questions, so I'll get it kicked off.

It was said in the last one, and it's good advice, I think:

Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.

Generally, my claim is true.

Lumifer stated my opinion on why people don't lose weight pretty well: "the real reason is that [people are] unwilling to pay the various costs of losing weight."

It's difficult to achieve in many cases (dieting isn't fun), but we should be happy the formula for weight loss is pretty simple. People just choose not to do the things necessary.

More importantly it's irrelevant to the empirical fact that the success of the intervention of having people attempt to diet and exercise is mediocre. It's rational to chose interventions that work for other people.

I think there are some life hacky ways to approach fitness and weight loss. I, for instance, have very low will power. I'm lousy at moderation. My solution is to, as a zero tolerance policy, not eat certain foods. I also have a policy of working out 5 times a week, with no exceptions. I've used commitment contracts from time to time to aid me.

These are pretty simple measures. And all they do is allow me to (1) eat less and (2) exercise more. People just don't wanna.

Not every kind of calorie burn is due to exercise.

Your example is just a play on the word "exercise". Shopping is exercise. Walking, moving.

Your statement is trivially true in regard to metabolism, however. ~65% of basal metabolic rate (or resting metabolic rate) is, IIRC, based on the amount of lean muscle an individual has. In this way, it seems the fit will find it easier to stay fit and those with small amounts of lean muscle will always be fighting an uphill battle.

It's rational to chose interventions that work for other people.

I think the way LW talks about diet and weight loss is among the most irrational I've seen. It's not nearly as complicated as it's made out to be here. I'd imagine it's discouraging to many people.

You could create a weight loss book from all the knowledge and insight offered in the history of LW and it would be less valuable, in terms of its instrumental rationality to dieters, than a fortune cookie slip that said "Eat less, exercise more".

I think the way LW talks about diet and weight loss is among the most irrational I've seen.

What other discussions of diet and weight loss have you seen?

5Richard_Kennaway10y

The difficulty and the costs vary enormously from one person to another. Some people eat and exercise as they please, without making any effort to control their weight, yet stay thin [1], while others blow up like balloons if they do that. For some, deliberately limiting their intake is a minor inconvenience; others find they cannot function. Does "you just aren't willing to pay the cost" make any more sense about dieting and exercise than it would about buying a house? (1) Me, for example, but I've known others. I don't know what proportion of the population this is true of. People without problems don't need to talk about them, so the impression from public discourse that everyone struggles to keep their weight down is biased.

6ChristianKl10y

A while ago I was speaking at a conference for people who were professionals at the subject of teaching people to lose weight. They generally also considered the topic to be complicated. Seeing the topic as being complicated is not a contrarian LW opinion but the opinion of the relevant professional field. [...] That has little to do with anything given that the amount of will power isn't predictive of diet adherence. See Baumeisters book on will power. [...] We do you talk about that instead of talking about a more relevant metric of success such as a long-term reduction in BMI? (Or another metric for being overweight) [...] So you are saying that going shopping would fall under your 5x times exercise per weak? It very likely isn't. If you look in the dictionary exercise is defined as: : physical activity that is done in order to become stronger and healthier : a particular movement or series of movements done to become stronger and healthier Shopping is not done to become stronger and healthier but is done for another end. Therefore it's not exercise. Even if you don't look at the purpose of the activity, when you define any moving as exercise everybody exercises 24/7. That's very far from what most people mean with the term.