Willpower, Determinism, and the 4-minute mile of Fat Loss

On the bizarre public conversation.

obese robot eating cake

There’s been an old debate that seems to have reignited recently, when the “Miracle Drug” GLP-1 antagonists came into the public eye. I’m talking, of course, about the old willpower vs. determinism debate in fat loss.

Willpower

The willpower people believe that obesity is quite simple to defeat, obese people just don’t apply themselves hard enough. Usually, things like CICO, eating less, avoiding cake or “junk food”, eating “clean” or “healthy” are brought up. Also advised is working out a lot.

Willpower 2.0: the Poor Dears theory

There’s a modern version that takes out the moralism, but doesn’t change the mechanism. The idea is, again, that weight loss is very simple, yet it’s impossible for obese people: modern food is just too delicious, their brains are wired wrong, they just can’t help themselves. Personally, I think this theory is as wrong as the moralistic one.

Obesity Determinism

This is an idea I find just as bizarre as the willpower one: that obese people are somehow predestined to be obese, and that there’s literally nothing they can do to change it. Genetics, food environment. Those evil food companies. If only they made the cookies less delicious!

I think this idea is mostly borne out of the inability to lose fat. If you try all the diets and exercise, you follow the “scientific consensus” and you still can’t lose weight, eventually you just convince yourself that it’s impossible. Most everyone you know is overweight, and you don’t know anyone who’s lost more than a few pounds and kept them off. Losing the fat is just impossible!

The Princess is in Another Castle

I’ve been overweight since I was a teenager. When I first started looking into fat loss in my late teens and early 20s, I believed that if only I had a personal chef following me around, cooking healthy food with lots of vegetables, I would obviously lose the weight. It was just too darn difficult to stick to eating healthy!

But now, 20 years later, I know for sure that eating vegetables and “sticking to it” aren’t the factors. I’ve stuck to diets better than anyone I know. I’ve tried pretty much every diet out there, and most types of exercise. I haven’t had soda in nearly 2 decades. I haven’t had alcohol in one decade (not that I drank regularly before). I haven’t eaten regular candy in about a decade (only keto-compatible candy like low-carb protein bars or dark chocolate). I’ve home-cooked about 95% or more of my meals for most of the last 2 decades. I’ve gone to the gym an average of 4.2x/wk for about a year, including sick days and vacation.

The princess is in another castle.

You can’t solve a problem by going harder if you don’t know what the actual solution is. Eating more vegetables didn’t make me lose weight. Eating less junk food didn’t make me lose weight. Working out like a maniac didn’t make me lose weight.

As long as we don’t know the mechanism that causes obesity, it doesn’t matter how hard we try, how much we apply ourselves, or how much willpower we have. It’s not going to make a difference.

Processed foods are a mirage

The cause of obesity: a food processor.

Some people seem absolutely convinced that the source of the modern obesity epidemic is that darned “ultra-processed food.” As much as I love hyperlatives, I think this theory is just smoke and mirrors. What about processing makes foods obesogenic? Is it the cutting into small pieces? Is it the heating/cooking?

Everybody imagines oreos and doritos when they say processed foods, but nearly all food is processed in some way. There’s even a classification system, and this neatly shows how absurd the idea is. It’s called the NOVA classification system, and it separates foods into 4 groups.

1. Unprocessed or minimally processed foods: fresh or frozen vegetables, meat, whole grains, eggs, dried fruits, nuts (without salt/oil/sugar), ..

2. Processed culinary ingredients: oil, fats, salt, sugar, including honey, butter, lard, soybean oil, olive oil, coconut fat, salt ..

3. Processed foods: canned or bottled legumes or vegetables if canned in salt (lol) or pickled, tomato extracts, beef jerky, bacon, salted nuts, canned fish, salted or dried meats, coconut fat (again!), freshly-made cheeses, freshly-made bread, ..

4. Ultra-processed (dum dum dum dum!) foods: fatty, sweet, savory, or salty packaged snacks, cookies, ice cream, frozen desserts, chocolate, soda, energy drinks, canned/packaged/dehydrated soups/noodles/sauces, sweetened yogurts/milks/juices, margarine, spreads, packaged meat/fish/vegetables, breakfast cereals, pastries, ..

Just looking at this makes me chuckle. Not only did I just lose over 50lbs mostly consuming a “processed culinary ingredient” (heavy cream) and “tomato extract” nearly daily, I also mainlined energy drinks (ultra-processed! but sugar free) every day for a 1-2 month period during that time.

Some of the progressions are just hilarious. What about dehydrating meats or noodles makes them obesogenic? Why are canned (in salt) vegetables a “processed food” when frozen vegetables are not? Drying means processing? Salting means processing? What if I added salt to my food by hand? Does drinking a glass of water with my beef jerky make it unprocessed and unobesogenic?

What makes chocolate ultra-processed? The grinding? How does packaging make foods obesogenic? We’re not eating the packaging.

I see some patterns in those lists, too. Let’s look at the bottom 2 categories again.

• Processed foods: canned or bottled legumes or vegetables if canned in salt (lol) or pickled, tomato extracts, beef jerky, bacon, salted nuts, canned fish, salted or dried meats, coconut fat, freshly-made cheeses, freshly-made bread, ..

• Ultra-processed foods: fatty, sweet, savory, or salty packaged snacks, cookies, ice cream, frozen desserts, chocolate, soda, energy drinks, canned/packaged/dehydrated soups/noodles/sauces, sweetened yogurts/milks/juices, margarine, spreads, packaged meat/fish/vegetables, breakfast cereals, pastries, ..

I will say I appreciate the mentioning of margarine and spreads. Seems that these seed oil abominations are at least getting some consideration.

But does it strike anyone else that category 3 (“Processed foods”) just means “drying & salting?” Is anyone seriously arguing that dried & salted versions of the same foods are more obesogenic?

Is it really the water that makes meat satiating? If anything, butter is dehydrated heavy cream, and it is way more satiating! And how putting sardines into cans makes them more obesogenic…

And category 4, the dreaded “Ultra-processed foods,” are largely those containing sugar and seed oils. Could we just say “avoid sugar and seed oils?” Seems that this would get rid of nearly the entire “Ultra-processed foods” category. Honestly, are “packaged meats, fish, and vegetables” on par with doritos, cookies, pastries, and so on?

The whole idea of “ultra-processed foods” seems like an excuse
to go low-carb and avoid seed oils without having to admit to it.

Now I’m not saying that you should chug sweetened chocolate milk, eat margarine and industrial cakes, or wolf down a package of breakfast cereals. But let’s not wrap this in a mystery ultra-processed with an enigma: foods seem to be more obesogenic when they contain seed oils and sugar. Combining them is especially potent, it seems. So let’s just say that: avoid seed oils and sugar, especially when mixed.

Hyper-palatable just means “I don’t know”

Another great supralative! Hyper-palatable foods are a category very similar to ultra-processed foods, in that they sound very scientific without saying anything.

What makes us fat? We overeat hyper-palatable foods. What does hyper-palatable mean? That the foods make us overeat. Let me store that circular argument in my graph database.

The fabled “obesogenic environment” belongs to the same family. We do know it exists because we’re all obese, and we live in an environment! QED.

All of these scientific-sounding terms just mean “I don’t know.” If you knew what made people obese, why not say it? Instead, these wraparound terms to hide the truth: you don’t know.

Personally, by the way, I think canning and packaging must be the true reason for obesity. I bet that food just used to rot all the time, and nobody would eat it. Darn you, Big Can & Big Package! Who could resist canned food?! Truly diabolical.

The 4-minute mile of Fat Loss

In running, a mile in 4 minutes or less has a somewhat mythical status. It was first performed (in a confirmed environment, aka race) in 1954 by British runner Roger Bannister. There are various anecdotal accounts that it might’ve been done earlier, but none were confirmed.

Since then, over 1,600 runners have done it. That’s not to say it’s easy - it is an extremely difficult task. The record for a mile currently stands at 3:43, only 17s faster.

But once it had been done, people knew it was possible. It’s a lot easier to work toward something if you know it’s possible.

In a sense I’m fortunate, because I’ve run my own, personal 4-minute fat loss mile: I’ve lost over 100lbs before, completely without effort.

How could I believe in Obesity Determinism (or willpower, for that matter)? I know I can lose it all again without struggling. I just don’t quite know how I did it last time. But I’m halfway there again. Ever since then, I always knew there was a button I could push. I just didn’t know which button it was.

If you know somebody who’s lost 100lbs and kept it off, it’s much easier to keep trying. And if you know a few people, you might just copy what they did until it works, maybe adjusting a bit along the way.

Hopefully, we’ll soon have enough examples of people beating obesity to prove it’s possible for practically anyone. Citizen Science will make it possible.