To think that people who say diets don’t work aren’t really trying

For 60 years, doctors and researchers have known two things that could have improved, or even saved, millions of lives. The first is that diets do not work. Not just paleo or Atkins or Weight Watchers or Goop, but all diets. Since 1959, research has shown that 95 to 98 percent of attempts to lose weight fail and that two thirds of dieters gain back more than they lost. The reasons are biological and irreversible. As early as 1969, research showed that losing just 3 percent of your body weight resulted in a 17 percent slowdown in your metabolism – a body-wide starvation response that blasts you with hunger hormones and drops your internal temperature until you rise back to your highest weight. Keeping weight off means fighting your body’s energy regulation system and battling hunger all day, everyday, for the rest of your life.

Well we all know that eating less calories than you need leads to weight loss. It’s not like it’s a secret, just about any weight loss program will tell you that.
It can be hard to stick to but it’s doable for most people in the short term.

IME, the real problem is keeping the weight off. It’s one thing to go on a diet for a few weeks / months to lose a few stone, but if that weight is going to stay off, then you’re looking at having to change loads of lifestyle habits around eating, exercise, etc for ever. And that’s really, really hard to do, especially if someone’s actively fighting hunger pangs to maintain the lower calories, and there’s often not a lot of support out there for making and sticking to those permanent lifestyle changes. Especially when things like emotional eating and food addictions come into play.

And I think that’s what people are talking about when they say diets don’t work. They’re talking about the way dieters tend to regain the weight in the long term, not about whether the initial weight loss is achievable.

So everyone is the same as you?

You can lose weight so everyone else can too?

Wait until you hit menopause. The weight will go on and it will be virtually impossible to lose it. You'll wise up then.

I think they believe they are trying. It’s very easy to lie to yourself about what you’re eating. In order to be truly accurate you need to measure and track everything down to the oil you use to cook and the milk in your tea/coffee. If you don’t, you can be 100’s calories out. I also think people are good all week and ruin their progress at the weekends, thinking they ‘deserve’ a cheat meal. They also eat back calories they think they have earned from exercise based on fitness trackers that are very inaccurate.

To be successful you need to be in a consistent calorie deficit which is largely down to diet. Exercise helps, but should not be counted in terms of eating extra calories.

You seem to be being intentionally obtuse. My point is that it takes more willpower to subsist on 800 calories a day than it does to subsist on 1500 calories a day - almost twice as much food. Yet some people can lose weight on 1500 calories a day - I could, when I was 20. Not since menopause, though.

Maybe both.

Yes, that's where the willpower comes in . . .

You’re not wrong, but suggesting all you need to do to lose weight is to eat less/move more, is equivalent to saying all you need to do to be a concert pianist is push the right keys in the right order.

its not exactly helpful advice, even if it’s strictly correct

I think you're looking at it a bit too literally.

Diets do work in terms of short term weight loss.

Diets don't work in terms of keeping that weight off (for a ridiculously high percentage of dieters).

I guess what they're trying to say is, ditching the faddy diets and making realistic changes for life is a better way of dropping weight.

I think it's worth remembering that many people abuse food in the same way others abuse alcohol and drugs. For those people, faddy diets never work because food is an emotional crutch.

Sorry, but it is. 800 calories does not go very far even if you cut out all sweet foods, fatty foods and UPF. You are almost constantly hungry.

Congrats sweetie x

I can appreciate what you’re saying. I might have said the same once upon a time but you’ll probably feel different once you’ve gone through menopause and the old metabolism slows down

Dieting makes you fat.

Losing it is the hard part... You need to change your whole lifestyle and way of thinking though.
This

I don't diet, but if I feel a bit heavier, I cut back for a few days.
My parents were chubby, my siblings are chubby. I'm not.
It'd because I eat differently to them.
I'm in my late 50s and weigh the same as I did at 40 years ago.

It’s true that diets don’t work if, having lost the weight, you revert to the lifestyle choices that caused the weight gain in the first place. However, if you make long term healthy changes then it definitely does work.

I agree with you logically but I did the Cambridge weight plan I lost 21 lbs in 6 weeks which was great then not 1 lb in the next 8 weeks of having 600 kcals a day so I disagree

I really do think that it's not about willpower. I would almost venture to suggest that there's no such thing.

What's needed is not willpower (ie not fighting against yourself) but the learning of a new skill. Changing from an unhealthy diet and lifestyle to one that promotes health and wellbeing is a skill. You can't do it by beating yourself up for not having the "willpower" to suddenly become a healthy person when you don't know how to be one. You need to learn how, taking it one step at a time, just as with any new skill.

I have been in the same work place for 10 years, all my colleagues that were slim/average build in their early 30s ,ten years on have all increased in size, they haven't all drastically changed their diets there is much more to it, even the ones who have very active home lives struggle 😢.

I kind of see where you’re coming from… there is obviously some truth on a surface level but when you look deeper it’s more nuanced.

Personally I found that pregnancy weight fell off really easily. I (and I can only talk about myself here, others may be different!) lost pregnancy weight, from 3 different babies, so much more easily than ‘too much snacking’ weight. I put on over 4stone with the last one! Genuinely most of it was water retention and fluids (as I was over 2stone lighter in a fortnight- that wouldn’t be possible otherwise!). It was only the last 1/2 stone that hung about till i stopped breastfeeding at 2.5years. I didn’t diet, I didn’t feel deprived. Occasionally I might ask myself, do I REALLY want that cake? But if I did I ate it! But I didn’t diet in terms of calorie counting. I’m sure there was a hormonal element to it.

I have found it so much harder when I’ve accidentally slipped into too much snacking - lockdown I’m looking at you! That required so much more disciple than pregnancy weight, even tho it was ‘only’ 1.5st i put on over 18m. It seemed as if my body got used to that being my weight and wanted to hold onto it far more than pregnancy weight.

I'm assuming (perhaps wrongly) that the OP means people who specifically state that dieting doesn't work for them. If they said they aren't losing weight because they can't stick to a diet, had a troubled relationship with food or a medical condition, that's different. But otherwise to put your hand on your heart and say you're sticking religiously to a diet but not losing weight is disingenuous.

I'd take some of that willpower you're so blessed with and put it into motivating yourself to learn about the complexities of our relationship with food, and the basics of hormone regulation and how it gets utterly fucked by cycles of yoyo dieting.

And then come back and tell everyone they just need to be as good as you and will themselves not to have eating disorders, disregulated eating or no ability to control satiety.

And it's only miserable if you have that mindset. We don't need sweet foods or high fat products, you're buying into the consumerism again that has become the food Industry.

In theory it should work like that, sure. I went on a calorie-counting diet when I was younger and the weight just fell off. Fast forward some years later + a PCOS diagnosis, doing the exact same thing produced almost no results. Age matters of course but we’re talking early twenties vs late twenties.

I’ve kept 6 stone off for 12 years. I had a twin pregnancy in that time where i gained 4.5 of it back.

loosing it is the hard part not keeping it off. You need to change your whole lifestyle and way of thinking though. Keep eating better and exercising and not go back to old behaviours. I know quite a few people who have lost weight over a period of time and kept it off.

Come back when you hit the menopause.