两个人的对话3分钟题目是Talking about health and health problems_百 ...
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发布时间：2024-07-08 12:19
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时间：2024-07-18 22:43
This dissertation is composed of three essays that examine the behavior of dieters regarding diet choice, intensity, and maintenance. In the first chapter, a rationale for the weight cycling phenomenon---sharp weight loss followed by weight regain---is put forward. Using a three-period utility maximization model, the chapter examines a weight loss program in which the dieter is required to follow rules regarding the amount of food consumed.
The health benefits of the diet plan are uncertain and may be revealed after it is implemented. I find that the agent never follows the plan exactly. But since following the plan more strictly yields stronger signals concerning the health benefits of the diet, the dieter does follow the diet plan more strictly than he would in the absence of learning, i.e. the dieter experiments with the diet program.
Under certain conditions, for instance, having found out that the health benefits are inadequate or having not learned and found that the cost of dieting is too high to continue, the dieter relapses in the second period by not following the prescription as strictly as in the first period. This helps explain the high dropout rates in some diet programs and the weight cycling phenomenon as an outcome of experimenting and learning since the dieter changes the amount of food consumed from one period to the next.
The second chapter investigates how a dieter chooses among competing diet programs which are characterized by different entry costs and their corresponding effectiveness. It examines how this choice affects the effort put forth in losing weight and the amount of weight loss. It also provides an explanation of the growing revenue within the weight-loss industry despite poor weight-loss outcomes. Before purchasing a diet plan, the agent faces uncertain diets' effectiveness. The diets' distribution of effectiveness can be stochastically ranked with regard to the entry costs. Once the entry cost is paid for the chosen diet, the true effectiveness of the plan is revealed.
The agent then puts forth effort to lose weight. I find that the greater the initial overweightness, the more expensive the program chosen. Moreover, the initially less overweight agent is more likely to quit the diet after the purchase than the initially more overweight agent due to the smaller marginal benefit of weight loss. As a result, weight losses among the less overweight agents tend to be minimal.
This helps explain the aforementioned growing revenue in the presence of poor weight-loss results. The third chapter allows a time-discounting, infinitely-lived agent to switch back and forth between two diet plans. It examines how well the agent adheres to a diet plan which promises certain weight loss but becomes boring with repetition.
Two types of agents are examined: those with long memory and those with short memory. I find that the short-memory agent abandons the superior plan more frequently if the plan produces greater boredom. The switch to the inferior plan occurs even if that plan has a zero success rate. Under the assumption that the agent chooses to be on the diet plan or off it, I also establish that the long-memory agent is on the diet plan only every other period if he finds the plan sufficiently boring.
In comparison to the short-memory agent, the long-memory agent fares worse in terms of adhering to the diet plan. This helps explain the low adherence rates among fad diets and the weight cycling phenomenon.
