[atomical]

The poster above linked this: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-...

Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, says that while the 10,000 people tracked in the registry are a useful resource, they also represent a tiny percentage of the tens of millions of people who have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight. “All it means is that there are rare individuals who do manage to keep it off,” Brownell says. “You find these people are incredibly vigilant about maintaining their weight. Years later they are paying attention to every calorie, spending an hour a day on exercise. They never don’t think about their weight.”

That just described reddit subs focused on weight loss.

[npsimons]

> they also represent a tiny percentage of the tens of millions of people who have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight.

They also represent an unknown number of people who do keep off weight successfully, but never report in, for whatever reason. As just one example, I asked for an application and when it came I realized I did not qualify for the registry as I don't have a before photo.

> “You find these people are incredibly vigilant about maintaining their weight. Years later they are paying attention to every calorie, spending an hour a day on exercise. They never don’t think about their weight.”

Anti-dieters love to trot this out, but they have no evidence to back it up. There are plenty of people who log in MFP, check to see if what they are contemplating ordering fits their budget for the day, then go about the rest of their lives. It takes all of a couple of minutes. There are other people who just more carefully mind what they eat, listen to their body, have changed habits (eg, cutting out soda) and never even track calories. I'm one of them.

As for spending an hour a day on exercise, that's not unreasonable. Most people spend multiple times that amount of time on things like TV or web browsing. It's also not mandatory for weight loss.

[reitanqild]

Broken record strikes again:

Why was this downvoted?

[grzm]

Rather than just positing the question, share with us why you think it shouldn't have been downvoted. And explore reasons—even if you don't agree with them or think they're groundless—why someone might downvote it. Of course there are those out there who downvote for reasons we think are frivolous: they're not likely to respond to your comment anyway.

The guidelines ask us not to comment on being downvoted: I think in general this should extend to commenting on other's downvotes as well: it makes for boring reading. You mention this yourself—it's a broken record. If you are going to do so, put some effort in to make the comment worthwhile. It's also a good exercise in improving discourse, if that's something you're interested in.

[reitanqild]

I kind of agree with you but doing that would turn a a genuine question into a high school hand-in complete with a discussion of the results.

I will likely consider your opinion next time I'm tempted to point out that someone is downvoted for seemingly no good reason and with no explanation.

But I am not sure of the outcome - I would like others to defend me when I am accused or picked on for no good reason. Basically I'm doing to others what I hope they would do for me.

[grzm]

But I am not sure of the outcome - I would like others to defend me when I am accused or picked on for no good reason.

Right, and by providing a explanation than just posing the question, you're doing a better job of doing exactly that—showing why you think it shouldn't have been downvoted—while also contributing to the conversation. In my experience, the people who are responding to such questions are not the people who have downvoted—they're doing some version of what I've outlined above. If you have no idea why something might be downvoted, it likely would be good for you to stretch a bit and imagine how someone else might read or take the comment you're referring to. It'll likely make you a better comment writer and reader.

[reitanqild]

Ok, you convinced me, thanks for taking the time.

I'll try that next time I guess.