Advertisement: Researchers studied a group of people trying to lose weight and discovered that those in the group wh...
shafieiavaJanuary 13, 2020
Approach and answer choice D
Can someone explain how they approached this question and why answer choice D is correct?Is answer choice D correct because it is weakening the conclusion of the argument by showing a sufficient premise where there is no necessary premise?
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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.comMay 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?
