4 ms·
Observations from Figure 1, "Responses of a sample of doctors, dieticians, and personal trainers to the question “When somebody loses weight, where does it go?”
by pwinnski 9y ago
Observations from Figure 1, "Responses of a sample of doctors, dieticians, and personal trainers to the question “When somebody loses weight, where does it go?”"
0 doctors were willing to admit they didn't know.
0 dieticians thought sweat was involved.
Those results seem unsurprising.
Only dieticians correctly answered CO2.
- arkades 9y agoOverstating the case about “0 dietitians ... only dietitians.” It looks as though about 2 people thought sweat was involved, and only 1 dietician answered co2. Pretty much everyone answered “heat.” The question itself is shit, too, which is what happens when you dont have survey epidemiologists eyeball your questions. In “losing weight,” you’re doing a number of things - chucking the actual carbons (mass), and removing the potential energy stored as carbon-carbon bonds (heat). Given the widespread colloquialism of “losing weight,” people failing to interpret it as regarding the removal of carbons specifically isn’t unreasonable. Sweat and urine are also correct answers, for that matter. Some of the carbon is used to create bicarbon and carbonic acids, via co2, which are lost in urine and sweat. Whether you want to count that as co2 or not is an argument about semantics - it goes through co2, but isn’t lost -as- co2. Of course, from the perspective of “it’s all breathed out as the result of perfect oxidation,” it’s wrong... but why let biology get in the way of undergraduate chemistry, right? This isn’t a reflection on docs, PTs, or dietitians. This is GIGO.
- eeZah7Ux 9y agoI'm pretty aghast at the ignorance of the survey participants and how they failed to admit it. From doctors, this should not happen.