One of the cornerstones I have managed to drift away from over the past four years of my effort to improve my health is the simple idea of being a scientist on my own behalf.

I haven’t totally strayed from that concept; I know what has worked for my body in the past. I know how my body reacts to certain things. And I try to keep up with the latest information out there as it relates to my own particular set of circumstances.

For all the work I’ve done, I tend to get a bit defensive if someone suggests I should be doing something different, but when that advice came from a medical professional, I paid a bit more attention — and, albeit a bit begrudgingly, I decided that it wouldn’t hurt me to get back to embracing science. After all, the information I was getting was from someone I respect as a scientist, and he hasn’t led me wrong in the past.

He recommended a book, and I’ve been reading it. As a scientist on my own behalf, I’ve found myself agreeing with much of what’s been said. Enough so that I actually bought the second book from the same author, and I read a little bit each day, in hopes that this information might just be the key to breaking my weight loss plateau.

I’m gonna science the crap out of my body.

I’m not trying to tease you, but I’m not going to share the name of the book here; I may, in the future, if my own experiences in adapting my journey are successful.

I will share, however, some of the information that had me nodding in agreement; information that many experts have claimed as gospel, but has not worked for me, personally.

For instance — not all calories are the same. I have been convinced of this for a long time; calorie restriction, by itself, is not an effective method for weight loss, regardless of the common theme of “eat less, move more”. It’s just not that simple. What those calories consist of, and how my particular set of circumstances uses those calories, is of the utmost importance. This is universally true, and there are a number of authentic scientific studies that have backed up this idea, but they’re not the popular ones that support whatever the diet industry is trying to sell at the moment.

Another example: all diets eventually fail. Every diet out there will work — to a point — but many rely on basal metabolic rate (BMR) to stay the same, but it doesn’t. We’re evolved beings, but we’ve evolved for survival, and lowering food intake makes our bodies conserve resources when we’re hoping to expend them. Adding exercise makes no difference to this.

Related to this, large-scale studies have shown that the success rate of taking off weight and keeping it off, long-term, is very small; less than 1%, in fact. In 1995, no state had above a 20% obesity rate; in 2015, no state had below a 20% obesity rate. Times have changed, and in many ways, easy commercialism has added to our collective weight issues.

Knowing things like this might make anyone want to just trash their diet and jump off it for good. But not me. There are methods included that make sense, and it’s a small adaptation of what I’m currently doing, so I’m giving it a try. Even a 1% chance is enough of a chance for me to stick it out — because going back to where I was, yet again, simply is not an option I’m willing to consider.

That 1% chance is exactly why I’m writing this, today. All of us, in some way, can be exceptions to the rule; all of us are among the 1% of the population that has a certain characteristic, whether it’s a hobby, a career choice, a physical characteristic. For instance, 1-2% of the population has red hair, but just about all of us know someone with red hair. Short of coloring my hair (shhhhh!), I can’t change that percentage, but hobbies and careers are chosen, regardless of rarity, and physical characteristics, like weight, can be changed.

Being in the 1% — that’s my goal, and I will remain a scientist on my own behalf until that goal is achieved.