I thought I’d say a few words about TYK’s so-called weight loss programs. They were uninformed at best.
A few years ago I got tired of yo-yo dieting and decided I needed to learn about weight maintenance. I joined Weight Watchers. There are other similar programs, such as Overeaters Anonymous and Take Off Pounds Sensibly, so I’m not recommending WW as the only way. What WW offers is basically information and skills. The information is about food, portions, exercise, and metabolism. The skills involve everything from lightening recipes to handling relatives who urge you to eat. The basic program is more of a budget than a diet. WW simplifies calorie counting using a point system.
One of the things I’ve learned is that eating too little can be counterproductive. The body responds by lowering metabolism, and the result is that the weight just won’t come off. Sure, you can push through this by starving yourself, but you can lose muscle and suffer nutrient deficiencies. At one point when my weight wouldn’t budge, I got weight loss going again by increasing my intake by about 100 calories a day. This boosted my metabolism and got me back on track.
Nutrient deficiencies can make weight loss hell by causing fatigue and hunger. Unfortunately, the hunger signal is not specific, so what you crave has nothing to do with what you need. Taking supplements helps, but there’s no substitute for a balanced diet. Some nutrients are almost impossible to get in easily absorbable form from non-meat sources, such as iron, B12, and zinc. Vegetarians have to either take supplements or eat weird things like spirulina. Deficiencies in iron or B12 cause anemia, and zinc deficiency causes fatigue and lowers immune response. Anemia is more common in women for obvious reasons, but zinc deficiency isn’t. (A sign of zinc deficiency is cloudy white spots in the fingernails, and at least one of the COL men had these.)
COL members ate meat when we went out to dinner or had special parties and events, but their everyday diet was different. COL had a grocery budget off and on, but more of the money went to COL1 and later SG. Meat is expensive, so often the other COL households did without. I got most of my protein from eggs and tofu, which I think was typical. A doctor told me I had iron-deficiency anemia and recommended that I eat more meat, especially beef, which is the best commonly available source of iron. Even when following the “normal” COL diet I couldn’t do it.
COL members on special diets usually avoided meat even on special occasions. More than other members, they were caught between the hunger their deficiencies caused and the crazy diets that caused the deficiencies. Who wouldn’t be weak and hungry eating just soy milk, or just fruits and veggies, or just rice and kimchi?
The diets TYK ordered were not just crazy, but unnecessary. Most COL members, both men and women, were in the normal range. I can think of only three women in COL who were obviously obese. Maybe TYK wanted everyone to look like exercise video mavens but couldn’t admit she didn’t know jack shit about nutrition. Or maybe this was just another way of weakening and punishing us.