Seth’s blog

As any reader of The Shangri-La Diet knows, I attribute the obesity epidemic to ditto foods — foods that taste exactly the same each time, such as factory food and fast food. We eat a lot more of these foods today than 50 years ago or even 20 years ago.

An alternative explanation of the obesity epidemic that many people believe is too little exercise. People who deal with childhood obesity, in particular, often say the problem is too much TV, too little playground.

If kids are fat due to lack of exercise, more exercise should be a good solution. A new study shows it isn’t. It turns out that giving kids more P.E. doesn’t cause weight loss:

In studies involving nearly 10,000 children, primarily in elementary schools, none demonstrated a reduction in BMI with those who were assigned to the most phys-ed time, compared to those who didn’t have as much.

Via Calorie Lab.

… continues:

The only person I’ve told about SLD is my wife, and she specifically told me not to tell her family about SLD.

I have never read a better description of the difference between being fat and not fat:

I had a gastric bypass and ate 750-1000 calories of liquid meal replacement a day.  I had complications and couldn’t swallow food.  I lost over a hundred pounds.  I regained it over a number of years.  Once I lost weight and was normal–my life did change for the better.  It’s the only reason I had my child.  For the first and only time in my life it was easy to have people in my life.  People wanted to be around me.  I had boyfriends who treated me well for the first and only time in my life.  I got married.  All this happened very quickly and easily with no effort on my part.  Being fat is completely different.  I think the way people treat a fat person is similar to being disfigured or in a wheelchair with your legs cut off .  In many instances it is better to be dead than to be this fat.

From an anonymous blogger who weighs about 280 pounds. She isn’t trying to sell anything, make a journalistic or academic point, appear to be this or that. The post goes on:

My daughter had a fat friend over for a sleep over the other day.  It’s the second fat friend she’s ever had over.  The difference between these girls and the thinner girls is striking.  The fat girls are obsessed with food.  They are more driven to eat, more interested in food, more hungry than the thinner girls.  The thin girls are interested in food far less.  It’s not that they are better than the fat girls, they are simply less hungry.  My daughter first fat friend got up all through the night to raid our refrigerator.  This child acted as if she were starving.  She ate until she was literally ill and threw up on the sleeping bags.  Then later she peed on my daughter.  My daughter is fastidious and she was completely revolted.   That was the end of the friendship.

I came across this because she is trying the Shangri-La Diet.

There’s a new diet called something like Fat Loss For Idiots or The Idiot-Proof Diet in which you lose weight by constantly changing what you eat. Here’s how the creators put it:

To lose weight your diet menu needs to be SHIFTED every few days –and this is something you’ve never tried before, and that’s why you’ve never been able to change your body when dieting.

Never tried before? When I go to a foreign country that’s close to what happens. And I do lose weight. According to the theory behind the Shangri-La Diet, this should work — because you are constantly eating flavors you haven’t yet associated with calories. Thanks to Tim Lundeen.

WheatenDad, a 70-year-old man who lives in San Carlos, California, started the Shangri-La Diet two years ago and  began posting his weight on the Shangri-La Diet forums. At the time, he weighed 300 pounds (BMI = 38). Now he weighs about 200 pounds (BMI = 26). He lost about 1 pound/week for 2 years:

He did SLD by taking 3 tablespoons/day of extra-light olive oil. In February 2008 he increased it to 4 tablespoons/day. In May 2007 he started walking 1-2 miles/day, eventually increasing this to 3-4 miles/day.