I don't have to personally agree with every word that another person says
to appreciate and enjoy their viewpoint. 
And, every so often, I run across an article in someone else's blog that is so amusing and clever,
that despite any minor points with which I might personally disagree,  I wish I'd written it myself.
Here's an example that I find worth memorializing at DietHobby:

........QUOTE.......
  "The weight loss conundrum

Disclaimer: this post expresses my personal opinions. Fancy that. On my personal blog too. And guess what, this opinion may even be different to yours. You can let me know if you agree or disagree with the views expressed here. You might even go as far as to tell me that I am wrong. I may or may not care about that. Enjoy reading.

Phew. Now that we got that out of the way let’s talk weight loss. Everyone on the internet knows that the best way to get traffic is to tag your pearls of wisdom “weight loss tips” and “Jessica Biel’s diet secrets”. I have neither. Sorry. But this post was mostly brought on by the frustration that the topic of losing body mass is still a priority not just in conventional women’s magazines but in the ancestral health community.

You know the one: “Yes, I’ve given up grains because Robb Wolf told me to, I don’t eat refined carbs after reading Gary Taubes, I stopped sugar after watching that Lustig’s video and I force down a tablespoon of fermented cod liver oil since attending Weston A.Price conference. I feel great but… How do I lose another 10kgs?”
And of course there is no shortage of available experts on the interwebz:

- eat less carbs
- eat more safe starches
- introduce interval training
- stop HIIT to salvage your burned out adrenals
- eat sauerkraut for healthy gut
- calories don’t matter
- calories matter
- start IF
- use FitDay to track your daily intake
et cetera.

It’s all very sad.

In the meantime the average long term success of most weight loss strategies is around 1%. Yeah, sure, most people do it wrong. They choose the wrong diet (Lemon Detox, anyone?), they choose the worst possible exercise (if you are a female with a cup size C and above, for god’s sake stop running). And they just don’t have the willpower that the new dieter has (sarcasm font). Because the new dieter knows that he/she will be different. I will be in that 1% who does it right and stays skinny ever after. The End.

There are numerous reasons why weight loss strategies fail. And there are numerous reasons why they succeed. Temporarily. You can lose weight in literally thousands of different ways: Paleo, low fat, low carb, low calorie, ketogenic, vegetarian, aerobic exercise, HIIT, IF, bariatric surgery, liposuction…

That’s why the to and fro arguments on which approach is better for weight loss is kinda pointless. YES! YOU CAN LOSE WEIGHT EATING MARS BARS AND DRINKING COKE! (feel free to leave this page at this point and celebrate).

We have this love and hate relationship with a number that determines our body mass. Lily Allen famously said: “And everything’s cool as long as ...

A strange and all too common phenomenon is the way a person, who is has never been very far beyond the borderline of the obesity range, loses around 20 to 30 lbs and suddenly becomes an expert on dieting and obesity.

These people take their personal experience with minor weight loss.. (which of course, might be MAJOR to them personally)… and decide that whatever worked for them ought to work for everyone, and that clearly the solution to the weight issue is easy, because “hey, if they can do it, so can anyone”.

This is like someone who has just finished their first piano lesson telling others about how to become a concert pianist.  It’s like asking someone without cancer how they prevented cancer in their own body, and then using those lessons to treat cancer patients.

I say to such a person:

"Congratulations on your weight loss. I'm sure it's significant to you. But you do not have the same issues that a person with 100 or 200 pounds to lose frequently has."

It’s almost amusing how everyone feels they have an “expert” opinion to share with someone who is trying to lose weight. Even people who have never had a weight problem tend to assume that they are doing something that fat people aren't doing, and therefore they also know the solution to obesity.

There are many naturally slim people (some of them who are even doctors or nutritionists) who truly think obese people are just ignorant, greedy, and lazy. After all, they, themselves, have slim bodies which stay slim by "occasionally taking walks and not eating entire gallons of ice cream in one sitting."  Especially, those who have mediocre processed food diets, and are borderline sedentary, are very quick to assume that obese people must have VERY bad habits.

Anyone who truly believes that people who continually struggle with weight issues are simply missing the information, personal desire, and sense of personal responsibility it takes to succeed, is showing that they don't have a grasp on what it really is, to struggle with a great deal of excess weight, nor an understanding of obesity’s difficult issues. The "eat-less-move-more formula," for a morbidly obese person, is frequently far more complex than even the majority of medical professionals make it out to be.

The habits as outlined in the National Weight Registry Control research – which appear necessary for the majority who succeed at weight-loss maintenance, …. such as daily weighing, calorie counting, lots of exercise etc….. are the same behaviors that are castigated by those medical professionals who involve themselves with treatment of “Eating Disorders”. And yet there is an immense amount of proof that if a reduced obese person stops self-monitoring and making immediate corrections, the weight comes back on without fail.

Many people find it easy to lose a bit of weight, but the body fights back, so very few are able to do what it takes to keep it off.  Invariably when I read "inspiring" weight loss stories in the popular media, 99% of those profiled haven't even made it to the 5-year maintenance mark. When .. and if ... they get there, I’d ...

                                            
I am certain that there is NO One-Right-Way to lose weight.
However there are plenty of wrong ways,
and what's right for one person is almost certainly wrong for another.

My body doesn’t provide me with the ability to eat intuitively. I put every bit of food that goes into my mouth into my computer food journal. I also use my food journal to help guide me in my decisions of what to eat. I see looking at the calories ..and other nutrients…when I eat as like looking at price tags when I shop. Just like price isn't the only consideration when shopping, neither are calories the only consideration when eating. Food is also in my life to celebrate and comfort, and therefore knowing the amount of calories doesn't always lead to low-calorie choices.

Brian Wansink is a brilliant researcher based out of Cornell whose life's work revolves around mindless eating. His recent research study determined that consuming crackers from 100 calorie packs vs. large bags, cut consumed calories by 25%.

I’ve noted that tracking in a computer food journal protects me against mindless eating by allowing for the use of calories in decision making. There are people who feel that you don't need to count calories to eat mindfully, and that there are other ways of journaling, and that one is better served by paying attention to how one’s body feels, and/or to one’s psychological state.

So who's right? Should one eat intuitively, or should one count calories? And looking at an even larger picture, should one do low-carb, slow-carb or low-fat? Should one include cheat days or no-cheat days? Should there be forbidden foods, or should everything be allowable? These questions could go on and on.

I’m a member of The National Weight Control Registry … which is the world's largest prospective study of people who have been successful with long-term weight management. It tracks how people have lost weight before they register within the program. The average registrant has lost about 65 pounds and kept it off for more than five years. The Registry’s records indicate that while there are some behaviours which are shared by a large majority of registrants, …such as eating breakfast and exercising, … there is an enormous variety in the way each of these registrants' manage their own weight.

As of today, Amazon.com has more than 71,000 titles with the word, "diet" in them. And truthfully, each of these diets probably all 'work' for someone. However, many of these diets will probably provide a temporary result only, because one needs to actually like the way one lives in order to keep living ..or weighing .. that way.

I agree with Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, MD when he says :

“It's about living the healthiest life that you can enjoy, not the healthiest life that you can tolerate, because if your life is simply tolerable, you're not likely to keep living that way. To take an extreme example, while becoming a teetotaling, vegan, shut-in, marathon runner might well help you to manage your weight, is that a life you'd be willing, or even able, to live with forever?”

One’s...