So I was given a lecture on Saturday by a consultant Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist about the whole problem of snoring. Unwillingly, for I was there for something else. The main problem it seems, is obesity, and how this causes all sorts of the strangest things you can think of. I can't quite remember what it meant, but "metabolic disease" sounded really cool.
Anyway, you will be glad to know that
1. The medical community's understanding of bodyweight is way more primitive than ours. He kept talking about absolute bodyweight. There was no awareness of bodyfat percentages. He kept referring to medical studies that made use of shirt collar measurements or abdominal girth as measures of obesity. Don't they have Tanita scales?
2. His prescription in losing weight is this: Atkins + aerobic exercise. No concept of skinny fat. No mention of resistance exercise. Oh and of course: Reduce fat intake!
3. He said a survey found that the average woman will go through 360 diets in a lifetime.
4. No awareness of the fact that more muscle mass increases metabolic rate permanently and thus helps in fat burning.
5. They are very primitive about how to go about losing weight. I think BB'ers are absolute pros in this field.
6. Incredible inventiveness has been invested by university hospitals in creating symptomatic cures to the problem. This doctor invented a surgery to enlarge the cavity at the back of the throat to make breathing easier for the obese. He sells it for RM 8k. About 30 mins work for him.
(Now you know why they are primitive at helping patients lose weight. They don't make any money off that!)
Doctors, don't sell health. They sell drugs to "better" your health. I honestly think they're the wrong people to go to for absolute health discussions. Even my friend from Harvard admits that. He says that medical journals say massage and protein is the devil, but even he says you can ignore their ideas. After all, medical reports say that steroids doesn't help improve muscle and strength, until 1985. Steroids have been around since the 1930's. That's about a 50 year period of time, they took to figure something that bodybuilders and weightlifters have proven.
There's a saying; "Science, just goes further to prove what the coach already knows."