Weight. Today I was reading an article by a 74 year old woman that has been heavy, overweight, her entire life. She is fat, but she is still alive. She has finally quit worrying about it and has decided to just accept that she is fatter than average and enjoy the time she has left. Twenty percent of overweight people are like her, they are heavy but they are healthy. She is 74 and she is one of the people that were heavy even before food makers started putting sugar in eight out of ten processed foods. She was heavy before low-fat food was ever invented. There have always been fat people and there always will be, and there is nothing wrong with being above average weight for your height.

If there were a way that I could guarantee to you that you could get to the normal weight for person your height and build, if that way worked on every single person that did it, of course you would do it, you would get to normal weight, you would be happy and healthy. That way does not exist. The way that I espouse here works for people that are overweight because they do not tolerate all of the excess added sugars in processed foods. For most people added sugars create a cascade of health issues, and over a lifetime the issues become quite dire. If they all were to quit eating all carbs tomorrow, if they ate real, single ingredient foods from now on, they would gradually return to their ideal weight. It would work for everyone that has a problem with added sugars.

Everyone is not overweight because of added sugars. Some people are overweight because they do not eat enough insoluble fiber. Some people needed to eat the natural fibers in fruits, vegetables and greens in order to keep the bacteria in their large intestine and colon healthy. They did not, that colony of beneficial bacteria are gone. For them eating natural foods right now will not hurt them, but it will not bring them to their optimal weight range, either. For them, if I attempt to convince them that “my way” works for everyone, then when it does not work for them they will be discouraged, disgruntled, and they will be examples that I, like everyone else who has tried to help them, am wrong. Alternatively, they will blame themselves, like they are used to, for not doing it right. Lots of heavy people go around loathing themselves for being weak, lacking willpower, for somehow not being good enough to be thin. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is this: Every body is different. One size diet does not fit all dieters. Not eating processed foods is very difficult to do in the US. Not eating natural foods that contain fiber is really easy to do in the US. We are surrounded by food experts, none of which is qualified to deliver a customized picture of what your ideal diet should consist of. It’s tragic, but true, that when you are in need of weight loss and try to follow a one-size prescription and fail to keep it off, you are going to assume it’s you.

Look at any diet book title. Here are a few…an Amazon.com search for diet books yields a search result of 20,089 results. I am sure that the number of weight loss books is actually bigger than that, but Amazon carries 20,089 different ways to lose weight, as documented by legions of dedicated doctors, nurses, dietitians, celebrities…the Gravy Train is long.

The Negative Calorie Diet: Lose Up to 10 Pounds in 10 Days with 10 All You Can Eat Foods

How To Lose 10 Pounds In A Week – The Ultimate 7 Day Weight Loss Kick Start

The Fast Metabolism Diet: Eat More Food and Lose More Weight

Bone Broth: Bone Broth Diet -Lose Up to 18 Pounds, Improve Your Health–and Your Wrinkles!–in Just 21 Days (Bone Broth Diet, Lose weight, fight aging, Beauty remedy, anti aging, health diet)

Always Hungry?: Conquer Cravings, Retrain Your Fat Cells, and Lose Weight Permanently

I could go on and on, indefinitely, because by the time I got to the 20,089th title, there would be one hundred new ones issued to put on the list. Apparently the American appetite for sugar is only exceeded by it’s appetite for advice on how to lose weight.

Every single one of these diet books has one thing in common. They do not work for everyone. Some of them hardly work for anyone, long term. Any diet that wants you to count calories is a lock to fail you, long term. You might lose it in ten days, but go back to eating to satisfy your constant hunger and regain and add to your weight. That is how the body works. Losing weight is a not a physics experiment, you are not a simple machine. You are a complex system of interlocking systems. When this one goes down, this one goes down, that one goes up, the rest of them react to those changes. Cause and effect for weight gain are horribly complex, almost more complicated that the weather.

Nobody is helped by lying scientists in the pay of the food industry, nobody is helped by diet books that spread the “wisdom” contained in books based on this faulty, wishful science. Nobody is helped by well-meaning friends and doctors that claim to know that “this way works for everyone”. That is just not true. It is true to say that you will quit gaining weight when you die. That is verifiably true. It is demonstrably true, as well, that no diet plan works for every body. From the link at the top:

My mother, however, did not consider plumpness pleasant. This was the 1950s when her generation of Jews was desperately trying to fit into the American ideal of slimness. I’d inherited the short, big-hipped and thunder-thighed Eastern European body that she despised. Since she spent her life on diets, she assumed I should do the same. Dinners at home were strictly supervised by Mom, controlled for carb content. I could see her add the calories up in her head as I served myself. Meat and veggies were OK, but second helpings of potatoes were not allowed. Dessert was not on the menu. I longed for street pretzels and ice cream cones like the other kids got, but Mom nixed anything but low-calorie treats. French fries were off-limits. And despite all these restrictions, I shopped in the “chubby” department at the store. My childhood taught me that my body was the enemy, an enemy to be subdued at all costs. I went on diet after diet, but they all led to an equal but opposite binge. At 16 I got really skinny with the help of amphetamines, but luckily I hated the way they made me feel so I didn’t get addicted.

Heavy before everyone was heavy, counted calories for scores of years. Nothing worked. Heavy but healthy. For some people it is like this, it is complicated. I will not say YOU can lose weight by eating real food. I can say that you will stay healthy if you do so. Why you are heavier than me is not as easy as “you eat too much,” or even “you eat the wrong things”. I don’t know why my way does not work for you. Try this, it works for some, try that, it works for others. Don’t quit trying, but 2 out of 10 fat people are perfectly healthy being above the ‘normal’ weight. If you are having health problems because of it, your joints hurt, you are diabetic, you have NASH then you need to do something, you aren’t healthy. Giving up will lead you to a declining quality of life. You are not the woman above. If you are the person who just never could get a handle on weight, you still should quit eating processed foods. You should still quit drinking soda pop, that wont hurt you, even if it does not help you.