Advertisement: Researchers studied a group of people trying to lose weight and discovered that those in the group wh...

Ravi on January 14, 2020

@shafieiava,

Let's look at the question and (D).

This is a flaw question. We're looking to identify what's wrong with
the argument.

Based on the stimulus, we know it's true that this diet does work for
some individuals. However, the stimulus never establishes that every
person who followed this particular diet was able to lose weight on
it. It is true that the people who lost the most weight followed this
particular diet, but it's possible that they could have also been the
ones who exercised the most or slept the most. Without having the
knowledge that everyone who went on this diet lost the largest amount
of weight, as well as not knowing whether or not these folks were
doing anything other than diet to lose weight that the rest of the
sample group was not doing, we cannot make the conclusion that this
diet is going to work for absolutely everyone who tries it. This is
the big flaw in the argument.

(D) says, "some people in the group studied lost no weight yet got
more calories from protein than from carbohydrates and ate their
biggest meal early in the day"

(D) looks great, as it points out that the group of the largest losers
may have had some other factor going on. (D) shows us that other
people followed the same diet and failed to lose any weight, so this
really weakens the argument big time. It now seems highly doubtful
that anyone who follows this diet will definitely lose weight. Thus,
(D) is the correct answer choice.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any other questions!

jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com on May 15, 2020

Could you explain why E is incorrect? I thought E is correct because it shows some people are following other health regimes such as exercising so that's the real reason they lost weight, not that they had a dietary regime. Like you mentioned, maybe the people who lost most weight just happens to have a dietary regime which may not help them lose weight unless they are doing something else, like exercise. Thank you. Please clarify why E is wrong?