Re-post (from 2009!): The Fallacy of False Causation
Original thread: http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/rny/3885471/The-fallacy-of -false-causation/
I see this on here a lot. Have probably committed it myself a million times in the last year. But I don't think we recognize enough how this thinking works and how destructive it can be.
Ok so what is it?
I have seen lots of posts that say "Wow! I started drinking protein shakes two days ago and my stall finally broke!!!" or "I gave up X and the scale moved!!!" Ok that's great. And in the full realm of life possibilities it MAY be why you saw movement on the scale. It is fully possible.
However, it may also be the process. You might have been in a stall period for your body and that week may have been the week you were due, through no effort of your own, to lose some weight because that's your body's rhythm.
Now outwardly one may think there's nothing wrong with attributing a stall break to some little action you took, but consider this. The further out you get the more you can stall (notice I say can and not will...not everyone is the same). By attributing stall breaking to giving up something or adding something when you don't know that's the case...it's sort of setting yourself up. Because if you find yourself in a situation where the scale just won't budge you begin to give up more and more, trying to coax it into moving again. In the midst of all this several things happen:
a) you kinda lose sight of the basics of your plan
b) you start to feel deprived and resentful
c) you allow all sorts of stress (and the accompanying biochemical changes that come along with stress) affect your life
So you do that and the scale still does not budge. I've seen it many times in my support group. So what do you do? You say to yourself "I've given up so much and the damn scale won't move...screw it, if I'm not gonna lose weight anyway, I'm going to have what I like!" Now while cutting out things may or may not cause weight loss, putting unhealthy food and habits back in has a great likelihood of causing regain.
So what do you do?
When a stall breaks, yes it may be because of something you added or took out of your diet or exercise plan or you it could be your rhythm. The only way to have some clue is to pay attention to that sort of stuff. OH provides a weight tracker and there are plenty of online food journals out there. There are ways to connect the dots. If you don't want to do that (as it can be labor intensive), I'd say just embrace the fact that stalls happen...weight loss happens...and (here's the important part)...stick to your plan! Concentrate on making changes you can live with and working toward the harder stuff.
There is no magic wand with this surgery. Weight loss is achieved through reduction of calories and increase of activity. Metabolism, stalls, BMI, everything else follows those two basic principles.
This post isn't to burst anybody's bubble but to get you thinking about your thought processes in hopes of being able to deal with stalls and plateaus without having mental breakdowns and regression.
I am, as always, open to all opinions--both in agreement and disagreement.
I see this on here a lot. Have probably committed it myself a million times in the last year. But I don't think we recognize enough how this thinking works and how destructive it can be.
Ok so what is it?
I have seen lots of posts that say "Wow! I started drinking protein shakes two days ago and my stall finally broke!!!" or "I gave up X and the scale moved!!!" Ok that's great. And in the full realm of life possibilities it MAY be why you saw movement on the scale. It is fully possible.
However, it may also be the process. You might have been in a stall period for your body and that week may have been the week you were due, through no effort of your own, to lose some weight because that's your body's rhythm.
Now outwardly one may think there's nothing wrong with attributing a stall break to some little action you took, but consider this. The further out you get the more you can stall (notice I say can and not will...not everyone is the same). By attributing stall breaking to giving up something or adding something when you don't know that's the case...it's sort of setting yourself up. Because if you find yourself in a situation where the scale just won't budge you begin to give up more and more, trying to coax it into moving again. In the midst of all this several things happen:
a) you kinda lose sight of the basics of your plan
b) you start to feel deprived and resentful
c) you allow all sorts of stress (and the accompanying biochemical changes that come along with stress) affect your life
So you do that and the scale still does not budge. I've seen it many times in my support group. So what do you do? You say to yourself "I've given up so much and the damn scale won't move...screw it, if I'm not gonna lose weight anyway, I'm going to have what I like!" Now while cutting out things may or may not cause weight loss, putting unhealthy food and habits back in has a great likelihood of causing regain.
So what do you do?
When a stall breaks, yes it may be because of something you added or took out of your diet or exercise plan or you it could be your rhythm. The only way to have some clue is to pay attention to that sort of stuff. OH provides a weight tracker and there are plenty of online food journals out there. There are ways to connect the dots. If you don't want to do that (as it can be labor intensive), I'd say just embrace the fact that stalls happen...weight loss happens...and (here's the important part)...stick to your plan! Concentrate on making changes you can live with and working toward the harder stuff.
There is no magic wand with this surgery. Weight loss is achieved through reduction of calories and increase of activity. Metabolism, stalls, BMI, everything else follows those two basic principles.
This post isn't to burst anybody's bubble but to get you thinking about your thought processes in hopes of being able to deal with stalls and plateaus without having mental breakdowns and regression.
I am, as always, open to all opinions--both in agreement and disagreement.
RNY Gastric Bypass 1-8-08 350/327/200 (HW/SW/CW). I spend most of my time playing with my food over at Bariatric Foodie - check me out!
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