What is with the exclamation point? don't just assume people are throwing out fake things and yelling at them for it...seems rude to me as the person you were saying that to. You can find tons of research all showing various %'s of diets failing...some report <50%...some 70%...some >/= 80%. I lean towards the high percentages b/c of my past careers in the inpatient hospital setting working with patients with various diagnoses. many of which are linked to be overweight/obese and poor diet. I was an RN. And now i still see it just as much working in preventative medicine with my focus on weight management and postural strengthening. Many things affect weight more so than just the choice of what people have to eat. socioeconomic status is a big one b/c people living in locations of those low socioeconomic status never learned what high quality food is b/c it is nowhere to be found in their neighborhoods. their known as food deserts... a place where it is nearly impossible to find fresh produce. but this a long subject all on its own. The one glaring thing I notice most is that many people think what they are eating is healthy b/c it says lean cuisine and low calories on it or commercials tell you they are healthy when in fact it is just processed and has a huge list of ingredients on it with words no one understands.
there are many variables at play..nothing is set is stone.
no one said less calories in, more calories out doesn't doesn't work.
it's just not as simple as saying , "calories in calories out you will lose weight" as you said. calorie deficit diets will work but they don't focus on improved health...just weight loss which doesn't inherently mean health. and people often times gain the weight back b/c maintaining a caloric deficient diet is not sustainable for most people..energy loss, chronic fatigue, food cravings etc.
there was a guy who ate just twinky's and convenient store snacks and lost weight. he even had health markers improve such as cholesterol, triglycerides, BMI. he did take a multivitamin, a protein shake and eat vegetable as well as eating a twinky or twinky like snack every 3 hours for over 2 months. he was limited to 1800 calories/day. i wish they would have taken markers of inflammation and organ damage (but they didn't). I'd be most interested in the markers that are indicators for heart disease/issues as well as pancreatic workload/damage. a person can be a picture of great health but if those markers are off it is bad news but unfortunately they are not a part of routine check ups. these are the people you hear about who were healthy people that exercised regularly then drop dead randomly of a stroke or heart attack. luckily this is not as common b/c they were still doing many healthy things for themselves.
many variables at play.
there was another guy who only at fast food and lost weight... here is the link to that
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/about/ - it was a funny movie. one thing that is clear in his movie was his only goal was to go against the health movies that say the opposite and use info that supports his bias. seems like he was in it just to make money. now of course bias can be found even in documentaries and studies that promote information i tend to believe. it takes time to weed through everything and find out what works best for an individual and the people around them who they may be helping if that is their line of work.
i wish i could find the study done back in the 1950 on American soldiers after the the Korean War. bodies of 30o soldiers with an average age in the 20's were autopsied and the hearts examined. over 70% of the hearts were found to have substantial evidence of heart disease. none of these soldiers had shown previous symptoms or been diagnosed with heart disease to any extent. this just showed what can go on in the body men who are seeming in the prime of their health. exercising and physical activity regularly and a diet that was perceived as being well balanced/nutritious fed to our soldiers. i think 5% of the hearts showed over 90% occlusion of a major coronary artery. Our bodies are very adaptable and doing everything they can to survive...especially when we are young and our bodies only biological goal is procreation with the purpose continuing on our own lineage. collateral circulation is what the heart does/creates to keep blood flowing to all tissues of the heart when clogging of a major coronary artery is occurring.
you can find tons of research showing weight loss being achieved with
calorie surpluses. these calories surpluses are achieved using very high quality whole food diets that are practically 100% void of processed food. this is the type of lifestyle I maintain b/c it makes me feel best. it also comes with decreased chances of succumbing to many of the issues plaguing our populations today...cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. a diet that doesn't focus on quality but just weight loss has it's health advantages but doesn't do as well of a job at preventing disease.
