Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Mid-Week Reads: Sexism and Other Things

3 comments:

The Soul of Alec Smart said...

You've probably picked up the weakest line in that "Is Fat Gain.." article. The claim that weight loss is more likely to lead to premature death is quickly followed by explaining this with only weight loss through liposuction - the worst way to lose weight. It goes on to say that other exercise-associated methods and even bariatric surgery to lose weight improves cardiovascular profile.

In the benefits of fat gain, it openly states that the problem with it is that the "energy expenditure" is not as high-quality and metabolism-friendly as when expended with exercise.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that such articles are fraught with these misleading little trinkets hidden in between the lines. In this one, the benefits are not really benefits (if they went on to explain what low-quality energy expenditure really means, one will be very put off) and the disadvantages are not only disadvantages. It's like saying that running increases your chance of falling and therefore, death.

Unmana said...

Alec: "The claim that weight loss is more likely to lead to premature death is quickly followed by explaining this with only weight loss through liposuction."

Yes, but "given that intentional weight loss is generally accompanied by a change in dietary and physical activity behaviors, it is not known whether or to what extent the improvements can be attributed to the weight loss per se." Which is why looking only at weight loss through liposuction makes sense.

The Soul of Alec Smart said...

Not necessarily. Bariatric surgery is an invasive weight loss tool as well. And anyway, the main issue is that if there are two equally popular ways (though liposuction is still much less popular) to lose weight and one cannot be said anything definitive about (though the reason given is quite simply not understandable), the conclusion with the other way cannot be generalized about the term Weight Loss as a whole. That's misleading.