Cannon 2006
New member
Two Important Studies
Jules Hirsch and Pete Ahrens at Rockefeller University Hospital in New York were studying heart disease. They got obese volunteers and put them through a rigorous 8 month program where they lost about 100 pounds a piece. Hirsch was shocked to discover that after they left the hospital all their weight came back so he replicated the study several times and shifted its focus to weight loss. They studied these patients' metabolic change, psychiatric condition, body themperature, and pulse and came to a startling conclusion--"Fat people who have lost weight may look like thin people, but they in fact by every measure seem like people starving."
Their bodies had changed so that they clung to every calorie. Their metabolisms which had been normal before the experiment were burning about 1/4 as many calories per square meter. They also suffered from a psychatric problem labeled semi-starvation neurosis. They obsessed about food, dreamed about food, secreted foods in their hospital rooms and above all they binged. The funny thing about us dieters is we are so quick to blame a lack of willpower. In fact, I've seen the people on this forum exhibit amazing willpower in so many ways--from fighting horrible exes for their children to pulling very high grades in difficult universities. However, we are very quick to balme ourselves. I'm not saying we can't control it, but I do think we need to look at what goes on in our bodies to be prepared for it and to have a chance to fight it.
Another study, was done by Ancel Keys at the University of Minnesota. He invented the K-Ration and was one of the foremost public health researchers of the 1940s. He took the healthiest men he could find both physically and psychologically and put them on a regime to lose 25 percent of their weight over a six month period. Then they were studied for another year. The results apply to us I think. They exhibited the exact same behaviors as in the people in the other study--they hoarded food and obsessed about it and they binged. They gulped food down ravenously or ate it excrutiatingly slowly to savor every morcel. They drank so much tea and coffee that researchers had to limit them to 9 cups a day. They chewed gum constantly with one man chewing 40 packs a day. The men reported periods of binging followed by self-reproach and feelings of guilt. One man stole food and another man while working at a grocery store started openning up packages and eating food from the shelves. The men's metabolism slowed to 40 percent of what they were before the study, their body themperature and heart rates dropped, and they started consuming 8,000 to 10,000 calories per day. A lot of the behaviors that some of us have sufferred--that complete loss of willpower, binging, and inevitable guilt very much mirror these starvation behaviors.
Jules Hirsch and Pete Ahrens at Rockefeller University Hospital in New York were studying heart disease. They got obese volunteers and put them through a rigorous 8 month program where they lost about 100 pounds a piece. Hirsch was shocked to discover that after they left the hospital all their weight came back so he replicated the study several times and shifted its focus to weight loss. They studied these patients' metabolic change, psychiatric condition, body themperature, and pulse and came to a startling conclusion--"Fat people who have lost weight may look like thin people, but they in fact by every measure seem like people starving."
Their bodies had changed so that they clung to every calorie. Their metabolisms which had been normal before the experiment were burning about 1/4 as many calories per square meter. They also suffered from a psychatric problem labeled semi-starvation neurosis. They obsessed about food, dreamed about food, secreted foods in their hospital rooms and above all they binged. The funny thing about us dieters is we are so quick to blame a lack of willpower. In fact, I've seen the people on this forum exhibit amazing willpower in so many ways--from fighting horrible exes for their children to pulling very high grades in difficult universities. However, we are very quick to balme ourselves. I'm not saying we can't control it, but I do think we need to look at what goes on in our bodies to be prepared for it and to have a chance to fight it.
Another study, was done by Ancel Keys at the University of Minnesota. He invented the K-Ration and was one of the foremost public health researchers of the 1940s. He took the healthiest men he could find both physically and psychologically and put them on a regime to lose 25 percent of their weight over a six month period. Then they were studied for another year. The results apply to us I think. They exhibited the exact same behaviors as in the people in the other study--they hoarded food and obsessed about it and they binged. They gulped food down ravenously or ate it excrutiatingly slowly to savor every morcel. They drank so much tea and coffee that researchers had to limit them to 9 cups a day. They chewed gum constantly with one man chewing 40 packs a day. The men reported periods of binging followed by self-reproach and feelings of guilt. One man stole food and another man while working at a grocery store started openning up packages and eating food from the shelves. The men's metabolism slowed to 40 percent of what they were before the study, their body themperature and heart rates dropped, and they started consuming 8,000 to 10,000 calories per day. A lot of the behaviors that some of us have sufferred--that complete loss of willpower, binging, and inevitable guilt very much mirror these starvation behaviors.
