In the speed awareness course that I was at on Tuesday, there was, shall we say, a variance in how open people were to learning and changing their behaviour.
I fully accepted that I had done wrong and was looking forward to it as a opportunity to help me do better going forward.
As were some others.
But some……. not so much.
Two particular attendees were relatively argumentative.
Not feeling that they had done wrong, but that the system was at fault.
And, you’ve guessed it, their particular ‘contributions’ have inspired a few blogs.
Here is one of the earlier interactions between one of said attendees and course host (or, at least, my approximate recollection of it);
“I’ve heard they’re getting rid of repeaters?”
“Er, no. That’s not the case”
“We’ll, I’ve heard it is”
“Ok. But I can tell you that’s not right”
“Several people have told me that it is”
“Ok. I’ve been working in driver safety for over 20 years and I’ve never seen that happen. You can look on the government website and check”
“Hmmm”
“Do you have any evidence that this has ever happened?”
“I’m just telling you what people have told me”
“And I’m just telling you that that’s provably incorrect”
“Hmmm”
Which, for me, was a useful reminder that people will tell us stuff as absolute fact despite it being provably incorrect,
There’s nothing to stop anyone passing on anything as “fact”.
The internet, and social media particularly, are awash with this.
But well meaning friends do it too.
So, here’s a few things that you might have heard that are (at least as it stands right now) provably untrue.
“Calorie counting doesn’t work”
Calorie deficits provably do lead to weight loss.
Until someone can be contained in a sealed energy environment and not lose weight when in a 100% verifiable calorie deficit, then it’s fair to stick to this statement.
So, if calorie deficits do work, then calorie counting that doesn’t lead to weight loss is either;
– Accurate calorie counting in a calorie surplus (or maintenance).
– Inaccurate calorie counting.
Neither of those things mean that calorie counting doesn’t work.
Ultimately, it’s not the only way.
We can pick a method that works for us.
But that doesn’t mean this method doesn’t work, if done properly.
“You might be losing body fat, even though you’re not losing weight”
Lovely as this can be to hear when the scales haven’t gone in the direction that we would like, if we have any reasonable amount of body fat to lose, we will end up weighing less having lost it.
Now, clearly, our weight is affected by more than our body fat levels.
The amount of food and drink in our system.
Muscle.
Retained water.
Other energy stores.
And so on.
But, if we have two stone to lose, these are not going to increase by two stone to mask that.
The weight of food and drink in our system will vary but, on average, will stay fairly similar over time.
We might get a small increase in lean muscle mass from exercise but, for most of us it will be very negligible.
Retained water will probably go down if anything.
Other energy stores’ contributions to our weight will also vary, but stay in a rough range.
If the amount of body fat we want to lose is only a couple of pounds then, yeah that might not reflect on the scales.
If it’s more than that, then we will end up weighing less having lost it.
If, over time, we’re not weighing less, then we’re not losing body fat.
There’s probably more I could come up with.
And I hope that you know that none of these things are said to be mean.
Like the course leader, I just want you to have accurate information to enable you to make informed decisions.
And part of that is letting you know that stuff that other people tell you is provably incorrect.
Much love,
Jon ‘Jon’ Hall
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