Why "eat less, move more" don't work no more.

I say this in defence of fat people.

The reason why is: this mantra is mostly said from a place of arrogance or contempt for fat people.

It is said to 'wake' or shame overweight people into compliance.

While the truth is that the rote repetition of these words without context, does nothing more than shed light on the gaps in the knowledge of the person saying it.

What the person is really saying is, "I don't understand weight loss physiology and the hormonal basis of weight gain".

If you are overweight and you are looking for expert advice, you should run the other way if the person you are seeking advice from, thinks that there is nothing more to weight loss than calorie counting and exercise.

Any results you get from a calorie reduced plan and an unnatural and undesirable exercise regime is guaranteed to be temporary - so why waste your time, energy and money?

Let's take a look at 7 problems with the 'eat less and move more' extremely oversimplified approach to weight loss:

1. It only works for healthy young people - and people who already have optimal muscle mass (if you have sarcopenia, low thyroid, adrenal exhaustion, hormone imbalance or other diagnosed disease - dieting in the conventional sense is just going to make your health worse and weight loss harder).

2. Even if eating less and moving more works for you today - tomorrow your results will be TEMPORARY - because realistically you can't work the plan forever - deprivation and exercise require willpower - and willpower eventually runs out.

3. If you are lucky, you may lose a few pounds, but inevitably you'll gain them all back (and more) since dieting slows down your metabolism. Sadly, when you are done the diet, the same amount of calories you used to eat result in a higher weight set point.

4. Your metabolism becomes damaged from the stress of repeated dieting - so that no matter what you do - it becomes harder and harder to lose weight. You may now have to diet just to maintain your weight - actually losing weight becomes next to impossible.

5. Calorie restriction creates nutrient deficiencies that result in uncontrollable cravings that lead to binging.

6. Your body interprets the extra stress of calorie restriction and aerobic exercise as a source of chronic stress. This blasts your cortisol through the roof, and thus stimulates insulin (your fat storage hormone). Your body is doing this to protect you from famine (your body doesn't know you are starving it on purpose) - and after that, you basically end up gaining weight eating 'thin air'.

7. You haven't learned anything that would actually transform your life, so you go back to doing and being whoever you were that got you fat in the first place. You end up back in the same boat you started - except worse - you weigh more - and now you are more susceptible to dis-ease (because you've deprived your body of nutrition and stressed it simultaneously).

It's true that calorie restriction and excessive exercise may result in temporary weight loss, but never in permanent results. The reason why is that 'dieting' in the conventional sense works in direct opposition to our health and our nature as human beings.

Eating less and moving more does not result in permanent weight loss because it does not address the real root causes of being overweight - reasons that are varied and individual.

There is no one size fits all approach to weight loss and you don't have to diet in the conventional sense.