Sorry I don’t have the research at hand, but consider the two following points (I suppose some point soon, if I keep citing this, I’ll have to look up sources but to the best of my knowledge, these have also been consistent findings for over 50 years)
- In dozens of experiments around the world, it has been shown that when people learn to become sensitive to the difference between what the body needs and what the mind looks for in terms of pleasure, without knowing ANYTHING about calories or “nutritional” makeup, people will eat within 4% of what their body needs; will gain, maintain or lose weight as the body needs. So actually there is the POSSIBILITY of knowing just what the body needs, however rare that is in ACTUALITY.
Notice here a HUGE caveat — I think even people who claim to be “intuitively eating” have mostly not gained the discernment between bodily needs and the mind’s search for pleasure. no judgment here — just a scientific fact.
2. Rate of success in losing weight. You know, I quoted that 95% failure rate of “diets” for a number of years when someone challenged me. So I looked it up and found thousands of references to it, but not a single scientific study. Some of the references even honestly admitted they had heard this endlessly repeated themselves but didnt’ know of research. The national weight loss registry has about 15–20% of people who try to lose weight maintaining it. The other numbers I found say close to 30–40%. In any case, the 95% number is bogus. So something like 1/5 to 2/5 of people who want to take off weight succeed.
Here’s my two cents.
The single biggest problem in losing weight is the failure to distinguish WHAT to do from HOW to do it.
WHAT to do is endlessly confused because people insist on the diet that worked for them: LO CARB IS IT EVERYTHING ELSE FAILS. no, Vegan is it, you need the satiety factor of beans. Etc etc.
Well folks, the liquid diet I mentioned should be enough proof that nutritional make up is NOT what it’s about. And I think if I boil down what I’ve seen in your books and articles, Steven, the difference since the 50s is more and more and easier access to highly processed junk food.
Turns out, if you lower or eliminate junk food, and maintain appropirate intake of good quality healthy food, it doesn’t make any difference (past the first 1 or 2 months, where Keto has a VERY slight edge) whether it’s paleo, keto, vegan, DASH or whatever. But that’s for large populations. For individuals, like yourself, it may be that Keto or low carb or whatever form you do it in works. There are others who religiously followed keto, didnt’ lose weight and got sick. There are those who do strict vegan with 2 portions of grains and beans who easily lost and maintained weight loss, and so on
So that’s the WHAT — cut down or eliminate junk food, and eat a reasonable amount of high quality food.
HOW: I’ll tell you the how in one sentence.
If you can allow, mindfully, allow the presence of the apparently unpleasant sensation of being hungry (which is mostly a mental state and not what your body is actually needing) without acting on it, you can then very easily “cut down or eliminate junk food and eat a reasonable amount of high quality food.”
I’m going to write this again just to show that the entire food thing is extraordinarily simple:
WHAT TO DO: cut down or eliminate junk food, and eat a reasonable amount of high quality food.
HOW: mindfully, allow the presence of the apparently unpleasant sensation of being hungry (which is mostly a mental state and not what your body is actually needing) without acting on it,
Nothing more needs to be written about the WHAT.
I presented the HOW briefly, but I would say, for myself as well as everyone I’ve ever met, this is the challenging part.
The thing is, 500+ million years of evolution as well as our entire modern society is built on seeking the pleasant and avoiding the unpleasant.
The reason mindfulness and meditation has gotten so popular is that simply surrendering to this basic biological imperative (which is not really so imperative but just conditioning) is a recipe for a miserable life.
It turns out it is quite possible to “shift” from our ordinary state of being pulled by this pleasant thing and pushed by that unpleasant thing, to a state of calm, happiness, ease, joy and contentment for which insulin resistance or sensitivity, genetic factors, media conditioning, etc are there but secondary. That “open heartful awareness” remains calm, quietly happy, etc no matter what apparent catastrophe, craving, illness, pain, betrayal, injustice, etc is present.
Not that it leads to complacency. Rather, it leads to a spontaneous outpouring of love and care, in words and deeds, not just “inwardly.”