In the post you replied to I said “What about my counter-arguments that you keep on ignoring such as the one I just used in this post”
In that post I wrote:
“What about the 100+ Amazon reviews where the first one was voted as “helpful” by 200+ people and the reviewer had 1000+ reviews?”
So did that first reviewer find the book helpful?
Well obviously I would have some muscles. When you said “in order to show off your muscles, you have to have muscles” I was assuming you meant that I needed a significant amount of muscles. Otherwise I could reply that I do have muscles.
No idea. Don’t care.
I never claimed that each and every single review was fake. I merely claimed that using Amazon reviews as a primary source is a pretty dumb idea, because there are many ways in which they could contain misleading or untrue information. Critical thinking would tell you to rely on unbiased, objective information.
Well yes, you are a human being and you are alive, so you do have some musculature. Correct. But do you engage in any sort of physical activity on a regular basis that would develop these muscles enough so that a relatively low-fat body percentage would be able to reveal them, without a sickly appearance? Didn’t you say one of your main priorities in life was to chill and relax? Chillin’ and relaxing is nice, but unless your job is physically demanding, making such endeavors a priority in your life will prevent you from building muscle.
Ok, since you’re making me do this, lets look at the post Nero emperors:
Galba was thin, Otho was thin, Vitellus was fat, Vespasian was stocky, but not fat, Titus was thin, Domitian was thin, Nerva was thin, Trajan was thin, Hadrian was hefty, Antonius Pius probably was too, Marcus Aurelius was thin, Commodius was thin, Pertinax was stocky, Didius Julianus we don’t know, Septimus Severus was thin, Clodius Albinus was fat, Pescenius Niger we don’t know, Caracalla was stocky, Geta was not, Macrinas we don’t know, Elagabalus was fat, Alexander Severus was thin, Maximinus Thrax was stocky, Thrax’s rival emperors I’m not worrying about because they weren’t around long enough to matter, Gordian was thin, Phillip the Arab was thin, Decius was kind of heavy, I guess, and so was Gallus, Valerian was heavy, Galenius was heavy, Claudius Gothicus was thin, Aurellian was thin, Tacitus was thin, Probus was thin, Carinus was thin, dunno about Numerian, Diocletian was heavy. So was Maximian and Constantius Chlorus and Galerius. So were Constantine and Licinius. Constantine’s various sons ran the gamut, and I’m stopping here even though I have a century or so left.
But you get my point? Some of the Roman Emperors were fat, some were thin, most were kind of in between. And Nero didn’t really eat anything significantly different than his predecessor or successor. The Roman diet did change over time, but by the time of the Empire, the Roman diet was pretty much set…grains and beans, some vegetables, meat if you could afford it.
Why did you write “Which “arguments” have you used that I have ignored? Just give me a list.”? Perhaps you never had any intention of responding, after all that argument was in the post you half replied to.
What if what I am trying to determine whether people found the diet helpful? Surely their reviews on Amazon would be reasonable signs of that.
So then what would be an “unbiased” and “objective” source of that? Even if people swore on their lives and the Bible that they were telling the truth and not being misleading, they still might be lying… :rolleyes:
Thanks for that… though it seems that the book was technically correct when it said “(Until Nero, there wasn’t one emperor who was obese).”
It’s amazing that we have the records to know all of that… BTW is it true that some emperors would make themselves vomit so they could continue to eat?
Maybe my belly would look like this:
http://us.cdn281.fansshare.com/photos/christianbale/max-machinist-1726469590.jpg
Except it looks like he went beyond the point of a flat belly. I’d stop when my belly is flat. BTW I walk for at least 30 minutes a day for about 10 minutes at a time. That would involve exercising my belly a little.
Probably not. I mean, it’s impossible to rule out that any of the emperors were bulimic, but that whole myth really comes from a misunderstanding. See, what happened was, there are some references in Roman works to some buildings having something called a “vomitorium”, which later historians interpreted as meaning a room where Ancient Romans threw up after gorging themselves on food, or so they could eat more.
The problem was, that wasn’t what a vomitorium was. It’s an architectural term. If you’ve ever been to a football stadium or something like that, did you ever notice that there’s a passage onto the field in between or in the middle of the raised seats? That’s a vomitorium, and its purpose is to make sure people can enter or leave an arena or stadium quickly.
You provided an example of an argument I had ignored, and that was my response to that argument. That wasn’t me saying “I’m not going to respond to this argument”; that was me saying “this is my response: this wad of argument is irrelevant, and here’s why”. I explained, quite clearly, what that particular argument was irrelevant, and did not demonstrate you using rational, critical thought. If you have other “arguments” that you think I’ve ignored, feel free to repost them.
Rational, critical thought would tell you that while Amazon reviews might be a good place to start, it would be a mistake to trust them implicitly, as you seem to be doing. Objective, unbiased information may or may not be available - I would start by doing a PubMed search, myself, or a good authoritative source like WebMD - but if it’s not available, that doesn’t mean that you should go ahead and trust untrustworthy sources.
Again, this should all be self-evident to anyone with the critical thinking skills that you claim to possess, and which I claim that you have not demonstrated in this thread.
Why don’t you try these diets and report back in 5 months.
StG
That’s basically what I plan on doing…
Smeghead:
From WebMD:
“In one month, she lost: 5 pounds”
“My weight plateaued during the third week—I felt like my body was storing fat rather than burning it, as if it was holding on to whatever I ate at night because it didn’t feel like the next meal was ever coming”
“I wasn’t sad; I just felt blah”
That is just one person though for a short term try.
Eating 6 times per day:
“In one month, she lost: 5 pounds”
Eating 3 times per day:
“In one month, she lost: 10 pounds” (The French Don’t Diet Plan)
Hey, he said FIVE Months, not six hours.
Now, go away, and we’ll see you back in this thread in March.
I meant when I’ve tried it for a while I’ll report back saying how it went. But in the meantime I’ll still post a bit.
So, out of everything that I said, what you absorbed was, “I need to go find some quotes on WebMD and that will make me right.”
I’m increasingly sure that I cannot offer any thoughts or ideas that would be of any value to you at all.
Smeghead:
You said “I would start by doing a PubMed search, myself, or a good authoritative source like WebMD”. I put a link to a WebMD webpage!
The reason I used quotes is so I could summarize the information. You’ll notice that two of the quotes aren’t favorable for the diet! Though like I said it was just one person for a short term.
Do you see that I didn’t just pick and choose the most favorable quotes?!
My point is that WebMD has some info but it isn’t really in depth enough to make a case either way so I’m not “right”.
Yes. Exactly what I said: what you took from everything that I and other have been saying was “I need to go look at WebMD and post some links”. The fact that THAT is the lesson you learned - apparently the ONLY lesson - is what I commented on.
This whole thing got started because you didn’t like the fact that I impugned your ability for critical thinking and rational logic. How, exactly, does adding a couple of WebMD links prove that you have actually been thinking rationally, critically, and logically all along?
I thought it would at least show that I currently have been thinking rationally. You said WebMD is a “good authoritative source”. So when I used it as a source I thought you’d think that was good. So are you saying that WebMD isn’t good enough for you?
No. I’m saying that posting a couple of WebMD links, while it does perhaps demonstrate that you are learning, does not prove your initial claim: that you have been thinking logically and critically all along.
You’ll note that I’ve already explained this several times.