"...what should i DO?"

Almost daily, a certain ZC group on facebook sees a version of the above question.  I rarely answer them anymore.

Probably half of them say "I've been faithfully eating nothing but meat and drinking nothing but water, and i haven't lost any weight."  Others list a variety of symptoms strongly suggesting they need supplementation.  Some complain of constipation or its opposite number, and still others tell of a really troubling reaction to whatever it is they're doing.  Then come the comments.

I worry that the western world really is getting significantly stupider.  It's definitely worse in the US, but i see some pretty dumb stuff from all over.  COULD it be "chemtrails"?  <--joke

Let's start at the last thing -- if you are getting those really scary symptoms, get thee to a doctor, GO.  Honestly, people....  Some things are stoopid to take to the doctor's office, like a cold;  some things are stoopid not to.

As far as the poop-question goes, "it's complicated."  Please pay the receptionist on the way out.  Thank you.  [sigh]  That question could be discussed to the end of time and nothing definitive come out of it.  As a matter of fact, of all the questions i see, this one is LEAST annoying....

I have to admit finding the "to supp or not to supp -- that is the question" comments some of the most infuriating.  People who were overweight adolescents and who found LC in their twenties, lost fat and got healthy, are some of the WORST offenders ... because they ARE healthy.  There's not one thing wrong with them, save that at one point in their lives hormones got the better of them and they put on too much adiposity.  They could go on eating like everyone else in America and they would STILL be healthy, for awhile anyway.

They belong to the if-i-could-do-it-so-can-you club.  Everyone can cure every ill by eating nothing but muscle meat and water, and by doing an hour's heavy interval routine every day.  They remind me of the people who were "born on third base and then brag about hitting a home run" and of http://twentytwowords.com/what-will-you-do-with-your-privilege/ -- they can't seem to understand that a damaged body or bad digestion makes some people REQUIRE supplementation.

But the question that most often makes me want to run screaming into the night is the "i can't lose weight" club, when they're trying to do so on anything but a tried-and-true regimen.  They invent a system of their own which doesn't work, and they wonder why.  Something similar worked for their colleague's mother-in-law's first-cousin's roommate, of the opposite sex, after all!

I want to take them by the shoulders and look deep into their eyes, and tell them "LOOK -- how much do you REALLY have in common with those runway models?  How much, with college athletes?  How long have you been fighting to lose weight on diets out of magazines, and how successful have you been?"

"Who do you suppose can give you the best advice, a lab geek who only works with mice?  A naturally-slim person who lives in New York or Paris?  A professional weightlifter of the opposite sex, who is young enough to be your child?  Or maybe -- just MAYBE -- a clinical practitioner who specialized in obesity for decades, and who has a record of success?"

"Choose one:  take your choice of Atkins or Protein Power or Dr. Donaldson's Strong Medicine regimen*.  Read the book from cover to cover.  Do EXACTLY what it says -- do not change one blessed thing."

"Do not fail to measure.  Do not say (like one friend of mine used to) that you don't need to, because you're just THAT GOOD at eyeballing stuff (my friend's recipes often turned out poorly and she just didn't understand it).  Measure yourself while you're at it -- why do we CONSTANTLY have to tell people that they could be losing fat but gaining muscle?  Do not substitute.  Just because you had good luck tweaking it twenty years ago does NOT mean you can now."

"Do NOT follow your favorite guru's version -- go to the horse's mouth.  Do not get hung up on how much fat or protein a RESEARCHER thinks you ought to have -- do not follow the advice of gimmicky people like the ones who are courting longevity or make up cute acronyms.  You want efficient, in-the-trenches advisors who have succeeded with THOUSANDS of patients, not 'led hundreds to better health.'  WTF does 'better health' even mean?"

THAT is what i want to tell all those people who AGAIN AND AGAIN carry on about their weight-loss struggles on a bastardized plan which seems to be a cross between Donaldson and CICO, with a little IF thrown in.  At first i'd suggest snippets of those basic ideas, but not anymore.  The information is out there, and the main reason these people are failing is because they're being sloppy, or lazy, or not serious enough.

Sometimes, people ARE "doing it wrong."  It isn't "blaming the victim" when you tell Little Red Riding Hood not to diverge from the path, but she does, and whines about being eaten by the wolf.
_______
* there are more of course, but i know these best.