Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Failure of Low Cal Diets
 

Pictured above is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which many of you may remember from your psychology classes from way back. When I was lurking through the forum, I found that many of us try to lose weight to fulfill the Social Needs, a.k.a. Belongingness and Love Needs (aside from obvious health benefits).

If you are not familiar with the Hierarchy of Needs, this shows the basic needs for a human being, with the bottom layer needing to be fulfilled before going on to the next level. For example, it’s hard to have a high self-esteem when you are disliked by everyone (unfulfilled Social Needs), and it’s hard to be social or loving when you think that everyone’s out there to get you (unfulfilled Safety Needs).

Problem with the low cal diet is that while the person is trying to fulfill the Social Needs while neglecting the Biological and Physiological Needs by depriving the body of food and nutrients. Sure, that person may be motivated enough in the beginning to ignore the most basic needs but unless that person is anorexic or bulimic, the need to fulfill Biological and Physiological Needs will override the dieters’ want for the Social Needs.

I believe that this is also the reason why many overweight people suffer from low self-esteem since they are having problems meeting the Social Needs. Unfortunately, it seems that the society is harder on overweight women than men, even though men usually can lose weigh quicker then women.

This is also the reason why low carb, normal cal are easier for the people to do, since this WOE fulfills the Biological and Physiological Needs by avoiding starvation.

What a crock!

I am really impressed by your debating skills... Seriously, I don't mind people disagreeing with me since I'm not always right but at least state why you disagree.

What an interesting way to look at it. I find my main motivation is esteem- I worry on job interviews I'll be perceived as less of a performer because I'm overweight.

I am really impressed by your skill at summing things up very succinctly... especially this thread! :thup: :lol:

Make sense. Animal's life is centered around food. People are just another kind of animals with some brain fuctions upgraded.

From my personal experience and of others on this forum I find that society in general perceive overweight people to be lazy and lack will power. Many people on this forum prove otherwise, but unfortunately, chances of skinny people coming to this forum to see how overweight people try lose weight is pretty slim (no pun intended).

While Dr. Akins wasn’t the first person to come up with LC WOE, he was one of the first that brought it to the general public and also explained in detail why it works. In fact, in the DANDR, majority of the text is devoted to why LC WOE works and diseases associated with high-carb WOE.

Just like how Dr. Akins explained LC WOE, I want to explain to people, who think that overweight people are just lazy and have no will power, the actual reason why most overweight people can’t lose the weight. It’s not that they don’t do anything about their weight; they starve themselves, spend money and time in gym, and even resort to taking dangerous diet drugs (remember Fen-phen?) just so that they can be accepted by the society (Social Needs) and improve their self-esteem (Esteem Needs). Problem is that by following the popular high-carb/low-cal diets, they are either starving (Biological and Physiological Needs) or killing themselves with drugs like Fen-phen. I don’t see it as being lazy or lacking will power. No normal person can physically neglect the basic needs in the long run, no matter how much of will power they have. I can, as well as many others in this forum, who were on high-carb/low-cal diets, can tell you that.

If you believe my theory to be true, I hope that you can use it to convince others and the overweight people are not lazy and do not lack willpower.

Facinating.

A big factor for failure in many people I know.

Mazlow or not, it's certainly true for many of us that insulin is more compelling than good intentions.

Wyv

I like this thread. I once had a therapist tell me that counting calories was like trying to hold your breath forever. It works for awhile, but eventually you will take a big gulp of air. Most overweight people have a history of chronic diet. Many are successful in careers and family life, but still think they have no "will power" since they have failed to maintain a healthy weight. It makes no sense when you think to say someone has no will power, because they are fat when they have had the will power to work two jobs or go to grad school or whatever. Good post.

bull999999,

I can see what you trying to do, but I think it has little to do with psychology and more to do with nutrition and physiology.

I've always had strong will power, much stronger than most people, I was just trying to put the wrong fuel in my body.

It's my personal opinion that the people who 'hate' fat people, don't want to understand, and won't care about the 'real' reason.

Because it's all about hate, evil and ignorance.

Which is the opposite of love, goodness and open mindedness.

It's very hard to open a mind, that doesn't want to be openned!

I was inspired to come up with my theory based on reading threads like the one below.

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=32103

Majority of the posters had/has social and self-esteem issues as they are often picked on for their weight issues. Therefore I believe that in order to be more social and raise their self esteem, many overweight people try many useless and sometimes dangerous fad diets or pills.

I do agree that the actual weight gain may be attributed to nutrition and physiology since physical needs must be meet before anything else or people will be setting themselves up for failure. That’s probably why many end up yo-yo dieting, they may have the willpower, but in the end, by starving themselves of nutrition their body overrides their will and they end up binge eating.

I really haven’t covered the nutrition and physiology issue much here since others in the forum already did a great job explaining it.




Very true! Couldn't have said it better myself. I created this thread to come up with something that I can use to education others that never had weight problems. Thanks for finding a weakness in my theory, I will do more to bulk up the physical nees portion of it.

Bull999,

Just a query, but why do you talk about people with weight issues as 'they' ?

I don't think you mean to, but it sounds slightly .objestifying'.

We are not lab rats, and science will not solves this, neither will politicans or government.

What will solves this ? I have no hard and fast rule, I do applaud your motivation to help and find a solution.

My belief is that it will be solved by 'Self Empowerment'.
It requires people to abandon the belief in 'everything in moderation', identify carbs as the trigger of obesity, and overcome obesity through superior nutrition.

What the low carber battles is: Big Business, Big Pharma, Big Government, and Big Ignornace of everyone around them.

This is just my opinion, I think what you are doing is good, but it will need some work (I suppose).

:thup:

Actually that you say is true but not in a bad way. I should've made this clearer but my focus of the theory was based on the stories of people on this forum (like in the link above and many others like it). Their stories are quite sad and I was starting to get mad at the fact that how much of jerks (to put it mildly) some people are. Even many of their friends and family picked on them for their weight. Perhaps I subconsciously “objectified” them so that I can analyze their stories without becoming too emotional.

Another reason for using the word “they” is that I never have been picked on like what they have experienced, and it may be misleading to use the word “we” as that may imply that I also suffered insults like they have.



The problem is that natural solutions cannot be patented so the drug industry will continue to work on the next "magic pill". I am hoping to lose the weight naturally and help others to do so, like many of the members of this forum are doing.

I like your use of the pyramid, Bull999999, but for different reasons than you state. Once I began meeting my physical needs by eating the right food, my life began to feel (if not actually become) more ordered and stable. As far as belonging, I noticed that some people paid me a lot more attention after I lost weight, and although this was nice, I could recognize it as superficial and I learned to respect and appreciate people who liked me for what was inside, which helped me develop greater self-confidence. Thus, I also developed greater self-respect and a stronger sense of integrity and tried to do things that would increase people's respect for me (if I thought it was worth it and not superficial!!) and thus my needs for esteem were better met. Now I can see the self-actualization phase in myself -- focussing on things that give me an inner pleasure and personal sense of accomplishment -- and then the whole thing goes round in a circle because that inner sense of fulfillment makes me feel more ordered and secure and other people respond to that and so on...
This has been really interesting to think about -- thanks, Bull999999!