Comments on: The Oprah Factor

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:54:15 +0000

The metabolism changes every ten years, whether one diets or not. Some people, however, may be only 20 years of age, yet have the metabolism of someone 40 years of age — or even older.

The way to tell whether you’re one of these people is to do a two-day average of your calorie intake. If your daily average intake is less than 1200 calories, you can’t possibly lose weight on 1200 calories/day.

By: Lillian Mitchell

Lillian Mitchell — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:49:28 +0000

My doctor suggested if I wanted to lose weight that I should do it slowly and told me not to try to lose more than two pounds a month. I think it’s easier on the metabolism to adjust to smaller changes. I also think that slower weight loss would give someone a better chance of making changes permanent. Life isn’t a race.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:43:43 +0000

Actually, if you read more about the NWCR and how much folks eat . . . it’s more like 1800+ calories a day. People are notoriously bad at estimating caloric intake, and tend to under-estimate by about a third.

I’m a NWCR member, and eat 2300 – 2400 calories a day, on average, to maintain my ~80 lb weight loss. Some days I eat around 1800, and other days, especially when I’m active, I’ll eat 2500 or more.

Just so’s you know. :-) You don’t have to eat bird rations to maintain a healthy weight.

By: non diminisher

non diminisher — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:20:03 +0000

Pasta Queen, just because YOU have kept weight off does not mean dieting isn’t dangerous and counterproductive for most people. There is overwhelming evidence that yo-yo dieting makes our bodies more efficient at storing fat. If there was a study on MSNBC, it was probably sponsored by the diet industry themselves to confuse people. Also, the real bench mark is 10 years, not 3 years. When I was in my thin-is-better brainwash, I kept it off for 5 years and really thought I had beaten the odds. Finally, you could just be one of the 10%. There are many, many reasons why people are fat. Maybe in your case it was just lifestyle. That doesn’t mean it is for the vast majority of people. Every body is biologically different. I haven’t gotten the flu in the past 7 years. That doesn’t mean I can make a statement that avoiding the flu is possible for everyone just because I have an extrodinary immune system.

By: Sherie Sanders

Sherie Sanders — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:07:03 +0000

On February 8th, 2008, Sherie Sanders said:

As far as the clutter show goes, I see this as nothing but a marketing gimmick. Anything that features weight loss sells, so this jerk wants to jump on the bandwagon. Americans have been overconsuming for decades. They are also incredibly overworked. Lack of time and the insuing stress can contribute to both weight gain and messy homes. Sadly, successful marketing always has emotional appeal. U.S. sheeple will relate to feeling frustrated about the lack of perfection in both their homes and bodies. They will never fasten their critical thinking caps to see it is much more complex than sound bites on an “Oprahmercial.” (I borrowed KarenElhyam brilliant point!)

Despite all, I can’t manage to hate Oprah. It is not her fault she keenly realizes there is NO limit to the gullibility of the U.S. public. My one consolation is at least some of that $ she makes does some good in the world.

By: La Wade

La Wade — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:57:26 +0000

By the way, I totally agree that the question of “why don’t you just lose weight?” is unwarranted, but I wrote the rebuttals with MeMe Roth and her ilk in mind. Since MeMe seems to fundamentally believe that fat people don’t deserve equality because they have made a choice to be unhealthy, I think you could sit there all day and tell her that you deserve respect and I doubt it would ever get through to her. In this case, I thought that challenging her underlying assumptions (which happen to be faulty) would be more effective.

By: Meghan

Meghan — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:34:53 +0000

I have heard Oprah specifically mention that reason she “can’t keep weight off” is because of her “yo-yo dieting”, Karrigan. And there is apparently just as little scientific basis for her to make that statement as there is for everyone else.

This was back when Oprah was running all the time and Bob Greene was her best friend.

By: La Wade

La Wade — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:09:58 +0000

PastaQueen is absolutely right. The evidence suggesting that yoyo dieting damages your metabolism comes primarily from a handful of animal studies where they would do things like completely starve rats for a week and then overfeed them for a week…not a very good model for true dieting, in my opinion. Dozens of studies have also been done looking for this phenomenon in humans, and I am aware of only one that saw any effect of repeated dieting on metabolic rate, and that was in teenaged male wrestlers, who are, again, not representative of your average dieter. Also, other studies looking at male wrestlers didn’t see the effect.

That being said, there is evidence that yoyo dieting can contribute to gallstones.

By: jm

jm — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:35:22 +0000

‘Why don’t you lose weight if you’re not happy with how you’re treated?”

I really like the response you listed, but maybe there’s something that could be added about why people feel the need to even ask that question. I’m not quite sure how to articulate it, but something about how “why not just try to blend in” is really offensive. I’d never ask a drag queen, “Hey, why don’t you try to look a little more butch if you don’t like homophobes” or ask a person of color, “Hey, maybe if you look a little more white, racists wouldn’t treat you so badly?”

re: Oprah. I don’t think I’ve ever watched a full episode of Oprah, but her PR machine is amazing. It would be really cool if she picked up HAES and got more and more people to examine it.

By: AnnieMcPhee

AnnieMcPhee — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:25:23 +0000

She said the same thing when she was 40, Arlene. FWIW.