> It's that "I cut calories and I lost weight" is not anecdotal. It's factual.
It simplifies the problem though, because for many, that approach has side-effects that seriously affect quality of life, like sleep, concentration, mood swings, depression etc.
Speaking of depression, I often get a similar vibe in those threads, where undoubtedly someone will jump in and say "all you have to do is lift heavy weights and change your diet a bit". It feels like they haven't experienced what other people have, so their advice sounds tone-deaf, a version of "let them eat cake".
> Since it's hard to stick with cutting calories for many people, throwing drugs at it with Fella is not the right answer.
If it works, it's great. Because obviously the "just change your life to be like me and hope for the best" approach doesn't work for most people, or they'd do it.
If calorie restriction is causing those side effects, it is an indicator that the person is "doing it wrong" by either restricting their intake far more than is healthy or more likely their diet is very sub optimal (eg, 100% carbs causing blood sugar to spike and then crash when they "run out" of calories).
These are problems of application which are easy to fix with a food journal and perhaps a bit of research, not really a great argument against calorie restrictions effectiveness.
I've wanted to bring up how physicians treatment of depression has radically changed in the last few decades (to have a much greater appreciation of the medication-assistance), but I didn't want to bring it up myself as I thought it may be too confusion/controversial.
It simplifies the problem though, because for many, that approach has side-effects that seriously affect quality of life, like sleep, concentration, mood swings, depression etc.
Speaking of depression, I often get a similar vibe in those threads, where undoubtedly someone will jump in and say "all you have to do is lift heavy weights and change your diet a bit". It feels like they haven't experienced what other people have, so their advice sounds tone-deaf, a version of "let them eat cake".
> Since it's hard to stick with cutting calories for many people, throwing drugs at it with Fella is not the right answer.
If it works, it's great. Because obviously the "just change your life to be like me and hope for the best" approach doesn't work for most people, or they'd do it.