...I'm picking on two MDA posts in one week! (and i made the mistake of reading comments again -- i know better than that)
It just goes to show how bloody CLUELESS male jocks can be, about women's fitness issues. Sorry, guys -- i know some wonderful men read here, and i hate tarring all of your gender with the same brush ... but some of the bros (who i'm sure do NOT visit my blog) just need to learn to say "i don't know; ask a female trainer." AND A LOT OF WOMEN NEED TO STOP SUCKING UP TO MALE FITNESS AUTHORITIES.
[sigh... It's amazing to me that there is STILL so much male-authority-worship by women, out there. Is it because Bro is so confident that he has the answers, and it gives them faith that he can help them? Or is it just the attraction that "successful" men wield over women with beta-husbands/boyfriends ... if they have any men in their lives at all?]
I don't even know where to START in my critique of today's Dear Mark article! ...Rather, yes i do know the first point i'll pick apart!!! It's the profound ignorance of thyroid issues in otherwise sensible individuals.
Does a woman have trouble losing weight and/or fat? Get her thyroid checked! Ignore the fact that her energy is fine, that she's not exhibiting the pre-testing-days symptoms like puffy face and eyes, swollen mucus membranes and tongue, inappropriate chilliness, bad digestion and so on. No, make her take a half-day off work to go to the doctor and talk him into ordering what might be a totally useless blood test (because a lot of them think the TSH is all you need)! And when the test comes back "normal" then go through the angst of "is it REALLY normal or is it old-paradigm normal".... I've come to the conclusion that the worst thing that ever happened to thyroid-troubled individuals is laboratory testing! It CREATED the problem of treating the numbers, not the patient.
There are a lot of reasons a woman might have a hard time losing weight, and unless she had trouble with it before, assuming a brand-new thyroid disfunction should be much further down the list than other hormonal possibilities. What about cortisol? All the exercising that the bro-sites recommend is quite simply evolutionarily ridiculous for a woman. A person who LIKES exercise will do a lot of it with no encouragement. Those of us who DISlike running around and getting all sweaty are not going to achieve good results from it. Maybe you've heard of people who claim to be allergic to their own perspiration -- thus expressed it sounds absurd, but if you know anything about histamine reactions you'll recognize the symptoms. Malaise after exercise is a real thing, and it doesn't get better by sucking it up and yanking on your boot-straps -- it gets worse, and raises stress-hormones as well. And raised stress-hormones will defeat the best efforts to lose weight.
"Maybe she's not eating enough!" We hear this a lot. Is there an actual RCT that shows this is possible, or is it just more made-up-because-it's-plausible-science? Honest -- if anyone knows of any solid DATA that this is sound, i'd love to know about it! So far, all i've heard are hypotheses and anecdotes.
When we start eating more nutrient-dense foods, we DO tend to eat less overall. But if the postulators are right, and we need to eat more, it puts us in the uncomfortable position of trying to eat more than we really want, which is reportedly as miserable as trying to eat less than our bodies demand. Before i make myself gorge on superfluous foodstuffs, i want to be damned sure it's going to do some good.
"Maybe she really needs to be carrying more weight! Women are healthier at higher BF%s than men! And besides, curves are GOOD!" ...IS THIS THE BEST YOU CAN DO? Yeah, SHE wants to lose more weight, but who gives a shit what SHE wants! She's just vain, wanting to look better in her clothes (or naked); and she's STOOPID cuz she's been looking at models in magazine and thinks they look good. ...That's disgusting. BAD advice.
Mark did NOT call her on the carpet for heavily indulging in "paleo baked goods," though it looked as though her husband (and commenters) were quick to point those out. If she WANTS to lose weight those need to be the first to go -- even if she is eating more nutritiously than she ever has before.
It was the second letter's response that put me over the edge, though -- five paragraphs of smart-ass idiocy. He thought he was being funny. The commenters (mostly male) thought he was very humorous. But the letter-writer wrote, "I am depressed by.... Is there anything i can do about it?" When a person feels bad enough to write that they are depressed, THE LAST FUCKING THING you should do is make a joke about it. The next last-fucking-thing-you-should-do is probably what he did -- say that it's probably hereditary but btw go get your thyroid checked, and make sure you get plenty of consistent exercise with sprints and heavy-lifting and burpees ... and also keep your stress down (see above)! And yadayada sleep and yadayada all the rest of the things i usually say....
"Maybe this" and "maybe that" is what women have been told for a goddam CENTURY, the last half of which i've personally heard it and tried it, and it's mostly bullshit. It's male-oriented science that is scaled down and back for us weaker vessels and physiology is physiology and the-first-law-of-thermodynamics and....
Listen: the male body and the female body are DIFFERENT. Hormones are important to how our bodies burn glucose and fat, and make muscle, and produce neurotransmitters and NO END of small but important metabolic processes. The differences are even huge between young female bodies and older ones.
Mark, if you don't KNOW how to solve the ladies' problems, falling back on generic conventional advice is not the best way to deal with the situation. Unless she's young and sheltered, you can bet your ass she's heard it all before, anyway. If you don't KNOW something that's been shown to be helpful, she's wasting precious time and energy chasing rainbows instead of looking for someone who CAN tell her something useful. No, if she's depressed ENOUGH, your pathetic jokes and platitudes may be the last straw, driving her to the sofa with a carton of ice cream.
And trust me, it doesn't HURT to say "I don't know" ... unless you're a beta-male.
I don't know, Tess, but surely more butter will do the trick. (JK)
ReplyDeleteI think Woo has written some amazing blog posts over the last few weeks. Her comment section doesn't load on my computer, so I can't comment or read any, but there's some info and ideas there I haven't read elsewhere. Makes me think anyway.
Wooo has been a ball of fire recently! i get so much out her stuff -- even the stream-of-consciousness tweets she pours out. :-) you probably recognized her influence in the paragraphs above where i insisted "men and women are different"...
Deletei understand your frustration with her comments section! i can't access it on my laptop, but i do on the pad -- do you have an "intelligent phone"? i'd imagine it can see Disqus....
I especially appreciate that Wooo doesn't see the world of health as a simple one-fits-all universe.
Delete:-) i don't always agree with her, when she speaks from her textbooks instead of from her experience ... but what she has made a point to learn about and understand, i think she MASTERS.
DeleteI must say, I do like the ranty Tess.
ReplyDelete"It CREATED the problem of treating the numbers, not the patient."
Exactly how I feel about LDL. A person could be in fantastic health, but that particular number is 'high', so they must do something about it. Weird. I don't get it.
:-D i tend to feel a bit guilty when i rant -- i'll bet my family does NOT like the ranty Tess!
Deletei do so agree about cholesterol. these correlative values may hint at problems, but to treat them as though they ARE the problem is just plain ignorant.
Then rant on-line!
DeleteUghhhhh...Paleo baked goods. The article doesn't list the age, menopause status, and carb ranges... Really, it has to be the person themselves- making those tweeks and decisions. Husband might be wanting to be helpful, but if she's not motivated to n=1 the results probably won't come.
ReplyDeleteWilling to part with the cookie for the leaner? Only she can decide...IMO. Tough addiction to break.
I can tell you that post-menopausal me- my carb window is super tight. There is NO room for paleo treats. NONE! (exception 85% chocolate) I've got a 10-15 gram carb window between loss, maintain, gain. My body and my hormones keep perfect track.
That being said, I feel great inside the window, looking out at the articles... Thanks for the 411...
there's a lot of missing information in that post! if someone asked me the questions that were answered there, i'd have a LOT of questions of my own, in response, before venturing a comment!
Deleteas we've all discussed before, those nut-flour treats are valuable to people who are new to LC/paleo who miss their conventional goodies and are in danger of backsliding ... but they're "dangerous." they're high in questionable carbs, fats and "calories" which can derail weight-loss efforts. i have to wonder if this lifestyle adjustment was her idea, or if she just went along with her husband's wishes....
I often see little room for LC treats - where to squeeze it? Should I eat less meat and vegetables, have more meals, exchange eggs with butter with almond-based cake? All of above options look less desirable. I wish I could have a wedge of a LC cake in a Starbucks once in a while, but no, I have to make the whole cake , cut that wedge and then try to figure out how not to waste the rest. I will do it for my birthday and when visiting mom, + gluten-free staff for my son during holidays and that is it.
Deleteit's a rare situation that i make more than a couple of servings of any dessert sort of food.... the Fat Fast cookbook has a number of sweets, usually dairy-based, that make nice small treats that we enjoy occasionally -- especially to top off dinners that are naturally lower in fat, like white fish, poultry, or lean pork/beef. i really hate having things like cookies around, because they're too easy to over-do!
DeleteThe column rubbed me the wrong way too. Between the husband asking (why didn't the wife write in herself if she wanted Mark's take?) and the lack of pertinent info (height, age, etc...) there wasn't really a good way to answer it. Also, why did the husband feel the need to throw in there that his wife's weight was getting too close to his own? Just weird. Or maybe I'm just bitter that I wrote in with a question a couple of years ago and never got an answer(!)
ReplyDelete:-) i once asked something that never got answered either, but i'd forgotten, till you mentioned your experience! i've generally considered Mark's site as a good middle-of-the-road source of information, and USUALLY pretty reliable, but sometimes it's annoying, and i definitely don't enjoy reading the comments of his followers....
Deletei too got some vibes from the husband's note.... i get the impression that it was the result of some disagreements between them, and the guy was soliciting Authority to back himself up! the weight comment WAS significant, surely! yeah, i doubt that she is as interested in Mark's point of view as he is.
Ugh, curvy. Some of don't put on weight in attractive areas. I wore the same bras at 118 as I did at 140.
ReplyDeleteand i'm top-heavy. :-( to be nicely-balanced, we need butts AND boobs, and my butt is shrinking with age!
DeleteLori, your butt may surprise after you turn 52. I am a B-cup wearer for most of my life. I am sure it makes my life less complicated. When I just came to US, I went to work in a lingerie department at Dillard's and was trained as a bra fitter. It gave me an interesting experience and to allowed to became more fluent in a language. I also discovered the degree of suffering some females get from their "girls".
DeleteI put weight on my waist, neck and face. So extra weight doesn't make my curvy, just thick-looking.
DeleteI actually look curvier when I'm thinner. My bra size stays the same, but with a thinner neck, waist and face, my bust looks bigger by proportion.
Someone being surprised by their butt reminds me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU4_Gmcr7yw
You can take up dancing to improve your figure. Ever see a dancer with a flat butt?
Delete[sigh] i tried a dance class a couple of years ago, and re-injured my bad knee. since then i tried taking up fencing again (i used to compete back in the '80s) ... and hurt it again. i do nothing more strenuous than walking and stair-climbing anymore! :-(
DeleteFlat-assed fencers are even more rare than dancers with a flat rear. They have good glutes, but when fat migrates up north (not always to breasts) due to hormonal changes, it is as difficult to fight as puberty-related changes.
DeleteI don't read Mark's blog with the exception of a Sunday post. It is enough for me to have "the second law of thermodynamics" husband at home.
ReplyDeletei don't read him regularly anymore, but when the title sounds interesting on others' blog lists, i sometimes look in. yes, Sundays are definitely his best!
DeleteHi Tess! My name is Cameron Von St. James and I had a quick question for you! I was wondering if you could email me at your earliest convenience at cvonstjames AT gmail DOT com :-) I greatly appreciate your time!!
ReplyDeleteunless your question is on-topic -- which your profile causes me to think is unlikely -- no, i won't.
Delete