Can AI tools make meal plans that help us lose weight the right way? In a new study, a team of researchers compared AI’s meal planning abilities to those of a dietician. The results showed that AI-made meal plans – when compared to dietician plans – severely undercalculated the needed amount of calories and macronutrients like carbs and overemphasized other macronutrients like proteins and lipids. The team cautioned that teens should not solely rely on AI to make meal plans for weight loss, saying that the consistent deviation of five different AI models from nutritional guidelines recommended by health organizations could have negative effects on growing bodies.

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[–] 34 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I wonder how much of this comes from dieting nonsense on Reddit and blogs.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago*

    intermittent fasting seems to the current trend, considering how body image/gym obssesed people are on reddit subs. r/gym will ban you for even mentioning "peds' in any form, they dont want get called out for cheating and using shortcuts for thier weight loss.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    Well, since over 40% of the world is considered overweight … maybe we should have fewer calories.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    I've been thinking about this lately in regards to how shitty food is getting, with shrinkflation a lot of stuff now has smaller portions sizes but the calorie count usually remains the same, presumably due to adding more sugar to mask the taste of replacing ingrediants with cheaper alternatives, fresh produce isn't spared either as most meat and vegetables turn a lot sooner and are sometimes already beginning to turn the same day you buy them. The result is a decreasing ability to have more than a day or twos worth of fresh ingrediants on hand and frozen food (or worse) just getting simultaniously less health and less filling.

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  • [–] -2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    If that 60% of people who aren’t weren’t occupied with working hard not to starve they might take offense to your use of “we” (Satire)

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Food isn't expensive - high quality food is. Junk is cheap which is why obesity is especially issue with low-income families. Nobody is starving.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    I am not talking about people who have easy acces to processed foods.

    I don’t have exact stats nor know how big% of the world that is but people going to bed hungry and being underweight is absolutely still happening.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (2 children)

    I don't know where you live, but where I live junk is stupid fucking expensive compared to veggies, and an increasing number of people are still overweight. A single 300-350g frozen pizza will set you back at least 6EUR, I can easily buy fresh veggies for a meal to feed a family of 4 people for 12EUR, less if you try to save money. I simply don't buy in to the whole cost premise being the reason.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago

    Time and energy to prep meals is also a cost. I don't know how it is in Europe, but in North America, the poor-but-employed segment of the population is often working multiple minimum wage jobs to stay afloat. Even if they know how to cook and have the tools to do so, they may be too tired when they get home to do more than pop a pizza in the oven.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    3 euros worth of vegetables almost definitely doesn't have the same calorie content than 3 euros worth of any junk food. This is true independent of where you live in the western world.

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  • [–] -1 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Exactly, so obesity is not a cost issue

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah because poor people are famously known for switching to home cooked vegan meals which naturally decreases their calorie intake.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    No if course not, but that is something entirely different than cost being the issue

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Cost isn't the only issue but it plays a big factor and this is a well established fact I didn't think I'd even need to debate.

    High calorie and low nutrition food (processed snacks, sugary drinks, fast food, refined carbs, and added fats/sugars) are cheaper per calorie than their nutrient-dense higher quality counterparts (fresh vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, whole grains, etc.).

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago*

    It is not "well established", your own link only lists it as one possibility out of several, and is by no means conclusive.

    also from your source:

    Limited time and resources: Another theory suggests that people with low food security have limited time, knowledge, and resources to engage in healthy eating and exercise.

    This is a highly complex issue, and cost doesn't seem to be the main driver at all, definitely not conclusively.

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  • [–] -3 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    Losing weight too fast can destroy your organs, so this is a very stupid take.

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  • [–] 22 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Lemmy logic on full display again. A user merely mentions that almost half the world's population is overweight and could stand to lose some weight - and the response is "stupid take, losing weight too fast can destroy your organs."

    And people are actually upvoting that. Great. Just great. Good job, guys.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago

    ..... this is a fake problem

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    If they live in America skipping meals here and there might not be a bad thing tbh

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    Can AI tools make meal plans that help us lose weight the right way?

    No. Don't use it for that.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    i mean there's a lot to be said about using GenAI period, even more to be said about this specific usecase of it. but also, is that not the point of diets? if they aren't strictly medical it's just an eating disorder. people who starve themselves to be skinnier are also going "well i think you should at least try to be healthy." u can demonise whatever trendy collection of molecules makes u fat this month all u want, spending so much energy on how much body fat you have isn't healthy at all.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    undercalculated the needed amount of calories and macronutrients like carbs

    What's the needed amount of carbs? Proteins and fats are essential nutrients. Carbohydrates are not.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago

    Just realized you're the same person who was doing a weird defense of AI companies generating CSAM and revenge porn the other day... Now you're taking AI's side by Just Asking Questions about nutrition.

    Do you actually have an issue with the article, or is this just a knee-jerk defense of the companies?

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  • [–] -3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Carbohydrates are required to break down proteins and fats. They're very much an essential nutrient, just not in the quantities the old food pyramid would have you believe.

    If carbs weren't essential, a pure protein and fat diet wouldn't outright kill you from kidney failure.

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  • [–] 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 child)

    You're confidently incorrect. You don't need to eat carbohydrates to break down fat and protein, and a diet consisting of healthy proteins and fat has not been proven to cause kidney failure.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

    Actually.... High protein diets can cause de novo kidney disease. De novo means it's causal, from the new. Out of nowhere! Not even with pre-existing conditions, although if you have those pre-existing conditions then this applies even more.

    I'm not aware of any direct links to kidney disease from dietary fat. But extremely high protein has strong causal links to de novo (along with comorbidities) kidney disease.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    High protein diets can cause de novo kidney disease

    I'm not suggesting that you overdose on protein, if you're referring to rabbit starvation. If you aren't, would you care to provide more information?

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago

    Here's my thoughts.

    Hyperfiltration exhausts (overworks, think of it like high blood pressure?) the kidneys.

    This causes acceleration and perhaps inducing(de novo) disease.

    I know the evidence is quite weak. But there's so many studies that show it's making it worse for people with even minor kidney impairment and it just gets worse as it gets worse showing an accelerated momentum effect.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 child)

    Your body can synthesize all the carbohydrates it needs through gluconeogenesis. There are no "essential carbs" the way there are essential fatty acids and amino acids. You can absolutely live on a diet of just fats and protein - and plenty of people do. The Inuit mostly did, and so do folks on carnivore diets today.

    It might not be the healthiest long-term option, but it won't kill you from a lack of carbs. You're probably thinking of "rabbit starvation" which happens when you eat too much protein and not enough fat.

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  • [–] -2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Braindead comment.

    I say that because brains demand carbs to function optimally.

    Sure. You're gonna survive. But you'll have brainfog and your red blood cells aren't gonna be happy either.

    Plus you need micros....

    Don't get me twisted. IMO, you gotta balance your diet. Extremes aren't doing you any favors.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    The human brain can use ketones for its requirements, and your body is able to produce all the carbohydrates it needs via gluconeogenesis. Including the needs of all your erythrocytes.

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