I Disagree With You, Turdface.

The email I just sent:

Dear Rob,

I was sent your article by a friend published in the 07/2007 edition of Buzz News, page 37, who was hurt deeply by what you wrote. When I went back and read your article I found myself appreciative of your intent, but annoyed by your assumptions. I would like to see the scientific support for your assertions. A recent study reported by the New York Times refutes your theory directly.

It seems that, in fact, fat people are eating merely until they "feel full", just as thin people do. Unfortunately their systems report that they are full much later than those of naturally thin folks. Also, that those who are naturally thin will remain so, and those who's genetics encourage a higher weight will fight the forces of starvation to remain slim.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/health/08fat.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin

"So Dr. Hirsch and his colleagues, including Dr. Rudolph L. Leibel, who is now at Columbia University, repeated the experiment and repeated it again. Every time the result was the same. The weight, so painstakingly lost, came right back. But since this was a research study, the investigators were also measuring metabolic changes, psychiatric conditions, body temperature and pulse. And that led them to a surprising conclusion: fat people who lost large amounts of weight might look like someone who was never fat, but they were very different. In fact, by every metabolic measurement, they seemed like people who were starving.

“Those who doubt the power of basic drives, however, might note that although one can hold one’s breath, this conscious act is soon overcome by the compulsion to breathe,” Dr. Friedman wrote. “The feeling of hunger is intense and, if not as potent as the drive to breathe, is probably no less powerful than the drive to drink when one is thirsty. This is the feeling the obese must resist after they have lost a significant amount of weight.”

Thus, the more weight you lose, the more your body insists it must eat. Rather than overcoming a "hurdle" of initial correct eating, a person who is genetically disposed to a higher weight must battle a constant insistence from the body that it's starving, and such a bodily demand increases over time, rather than diminishes.

While you are correct that diets do not work, and in fact are harmful:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070404162428.htm

there is zero scientific evidence published to show that any but the smallest portion of those who either diet or make lifestyle changes, such as yourself, retain their weight loss over the long term.

I applaud your personal weight loss, however, I would like to suggest that perhaps you were merely blessed with good genetics and had to learn how to eat to fit your personal genetically-created appetite. For others it is a constant struggle with very little chance of success; no matter what form of diet or life philosophy the attempt may take.

I also would like to state that the t-shirt you've chosen to make your point may have been intended to be humorous, but it is, in fact, juvenile and pedestrian.

I do not expect to alter your personal perception of The Way Things Are. Like those who are devoted to one kind of diet or one belief about the cause of weight loss, your article implies slavish devotion to believing you've discovered the One True Way. I would like to go on record as someone who disagrees vehemently, who feels that you are lacking in anything other than anecdotal evidence to back up your claims, and who would feel deep embarrassment on your behalf if I saw you and your colleagues in public with those crass, juvenile t-shirts.

When balancing the problem of discrimination and degradation toward those who are overweight with the issue of the health problems of the obese becoming universally accepted, I must say that to my mind discrimination is far and away the more prevalent. I cannot fault those who are overweight for seeking equal treatment and acceptance in society. Many are overweight due to illness, genetics, or emotional trauma. I find nothing offensive in a group of individuals attempting to band together to support one another in a society that consistently tells them that they are sub-class citizens. I find your attitude toward those individuals alarmist, degrading, and reflective of a social attitude that states that if you are an overweight individual and are not constantly apologetic for such, and constantly locked in a struggle with the scale, you do not show enough repentance and are deserving of public ridicule.

Were you not on a personal crusade to shame fat people further into thinness (and there is also no historical evidence of this approach being effective to reduce the weight of the general populace) I would merely assume you were a misguided individual with the next great craze that will go nowhere and delete buzznews.com from my inbox. However, your intention to stake out and shame the fat folks is reprehensible and I felt a responsibility to write to you and let you know that, not only are your assumptions incorrect, but your actions are offensive.

From one human being deserving of respect to another, please reconsider your plans.

Sincerely,

Krissy Poopyhands

If you're interested in reading the article, it can be found here:

http://buzznews.net/pdfs/072007Springfield.pdf

On page 37.

Please feel free to email the author with your thoughts.

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EDITED TO INCLUDE ROB'S REPLY:

"Thanks for the note. I don't need scientific evidence. I am living proof, as well as the hundreds of people who have lost weight on my program. Why would you go to the medical community and ask them if you are hungry, do they know? The medical community only make $$$ of fat people. If they new something we would be getting thinner and a nation not fatter. NAFBR is popular for the people taking responsibility and offensive to those who are taking the easy way out. Survey results 29% strongly agree with NAFBR and 2% strongly agree with NAAFA (fat acceptance).

Comment posted from my survey:
I am morbidly obese and I agree with your mission statement completely. People, myself included, need to be responsible for their own actions.
Anonymous

I'll keep pushing for people to become healthy and you keep looking for scientific data.

Best,
Rob"

MY RESPONSE TO ROB:

"I don't need scientific evidence."

Thanks for the reply! This is a perfect summation of your program. I will be getting the word out.

Sincerely,

Krissy Baker

*******************

Let us review: People don't like fat people. His program works because he says it does. He doesn't believe in scientific evidence. NIH is apparently making money off all fatties. His program approval is an anonymous comment from someone who is morbidly obese.

Great. Let me get right on that train! This is sure to work!

Jagoff.