Diets, why can I only ever stick to it for 2 weeks

[Feellikeafailure45]

Every single time. I do 2 weeks, lose a few pounds, then fall off the wagon. So cross with myself. I desperately need to lose weight but food is my comfort. Its so hard to break bad habits.
Any advice?

I have had the same issue for the last 15 years and have tried every diet under the sun and am now at my biggest after having my Son 5 months ago. The issue is dieting altogether and restricting foods and calories, I have signed up with a professional nutritionist 5 weeks ago and is going well I have lost 10.5 inches all round in totally and had 4 day and nights out and a treat meal every week, I still have a long way to go but have been learning to cut out high sugar foods and saturated fat and still eating carbs and have not binged or been hungry once!! My day typical is 3/4 weetabix in the morning, a Salad with either new potatoes or eggs as fat source then chow mien with protein and 2/3 low calorie snacks a day most days I don't have the snacks because I'm so full it is really changing my mind set about good nutrition, portion control and the amount of sugar in things that I previously though was health ! Maybe follow a few nutritionists on social media if you have any or look into working with one to cut the diet cycle.

The older I get I realise most standard diets are a bag of shite. You have to find something that works with your life but reduces calories. This can be a number of things such as
Eating fewer meals a day but enjoying those you do eat and changing the foods slightly to include more protien and veg/salad to carb ratio.
More exercise but it can be walking or swimming or home free online workouts
Educate yourself on nutrition and changing your diet for your health and looking after your body not just a lose weight concept
Lots of free advice and podcasts online
It has to come from a steady change and not something you will drop as you get fed up. BUT you do need to really want it more than the pull of the comfort aspect.

Are you trying extreme or strict diets. Maybe instead of a diet you need to do small gradual life style m/diet changes that you can sustain over time.

It's all about will power and being in the zone. It takes more than 2 weeks to get there but once you are you generally get on a roll (occasional blips!).

How about making meal plans and ensuring you've got the ingredients in?
You might be less likely to go for something off-script then

Thank you. I've tried meal planning, (drives me mad cos everyone eats different things), tried fast800, low carb boot camp, weight watchers, slimming world, calorie counting worked with a therapist, had hypnosis.
I will lose a few pounds then fall off the wagon and quickly gain back those few pounds then struggle to get back in the zone.
Restriction.leads to bingeing.
I was very tiny until my early 20s then weight has gradually crept up.

My husband has easily lost a lot of weight but he doesn't have all the hang ups around food that I do.

Hopefully bump!

Can’t you try just changing one teeny tiny thing a month and see how that goes. Eg stop the pre bed snack for a month, then in the next month swop to a lower calorie milk, then the next month cut out/swop a high calorie treat you usually love with a lower calorie alternative!?

Might be more sustainable than changing your whole diet.

You say everyone eats differently in your family. Are you making multiple variations on meals each evening?

The problem is in order to start losing weight, keep losing weight and then keep it off, the changes you make need to be sustainable. Things like fast 800, low carb boot camp etc are fads which are not sustainable because they're extreme / hard / not good for you. As you've found, they'll get you started but they won't get you to your goal weight.

You need to make healthy, long-term, sustainable changes to the way you eat. Forget "diets", just think about being healthy. Be mindful of what you eat. Eat healthily, cut down processed foods.

I'd suggest the following:

For breakfast - eggs and toast, porridge, fruit, or yoghurt.

For lunch - homemade sandwiches, wraps, salads, jacket potatoes, or soups

Dinners - protein (chicken, salmon, steak) with plenty of vegetables / salad, stir frys, homemade pastas, homemade curries. Basically anything that's not highly processed, and make sure the bulk is usually vegetables, greens, or salad.

You need to fill up on foods that aren't calorie dense, like fruit, vegetables, greens etc, while maintaining a varied diet elsewhere so that you're getting all the nutrition you need. Natural fats in things like full fat milk or butter aren't bad for you.

In all cases, watch your portion size. Stick to two sausages instead of three. Two sandwiches (two normal slices of bread) instead of three or four.

You can still have things like pizza, chocolate and all the other stuff - there's no need to cut them out entirely! But think about how much you're eating that compared to how much you're eating fresh vegetables, for example.

Above all, don't expect changes overnight. The weight didn't appear that quickly and it will take time to come off. The important thing is that it comes off slowly, because that is what's sustainable.

If you have hangups about food then you need to fix those to stop yourself needing to self-sabotage. Find a good therapist if you can, read some books, understand what your brain filing cabinet has stored away about yourself/food that won't let you do what you want, break those cycles.

It’s just about mindset and pure willpower.
You know how to eat healthier I’m sure. Just less processed foods and more healthy protien (eggs chicken beef nuts natural youghurt etc) to fill you up.
You just have to save the treat for once a week or literally just a occasional treat.
No one can do it for you- you have to say no to yourself. No amount of fad diets or therapists are going to be able to stop you reaching for the wrong foods - it has to be that voice inside your head, the buck stops with you. You wouldn’t believe the amount of times I open the snack cupboard in the kitchen and then say ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ and close it again. Multiple times a day!

Change the way you think about food. Eat loads of healthy unprocessed (but still tasty) foods. Look up easy recipies / healthy protien snacks online.

I always find if I stick to it for a few weeks my cravings for sugar do greatly reduce.

Feellikeafailure45 Read the book Ultra Processed People and it will give you insight into why you keep failing. It has changed my perception of diet and massively changed my eating habits.

Perhaps look at the Zoe diet too? I'm reading the Tim Spector books at the moment.

Because you are seeing it as a diet.

I struggled too, all my life. Yo-yoing from a size 8 to a 24.

Six months ago (age 43), my whole mindset changed. I didn’t want to live my life like that anymore.

I cut out everything. Sugar, alcohol, all processed foods, most dairy (didn’t have to cut out wheat etc as I am coeliac anyway, but I cut out all the over processed gluten free crap I was eating). Also all chemicals I used, face products with chemicals etc. Started intermittent fasting. I now eat nothing I haven’t cooked myself and only use meat, fish and veg. My only “vice” in life is white rice 🤣

My eldest called it a midlife crisis.

But I’ve never felt better. I glow. The turn around in my health has been drastic. I was told all my symptoms were peri menopause. They all disappeared, it was the shit I was putting into my body making me feel so awful.

The difference is, it’s not a diet. It’s not a short term goal. It was a total life change. I haven’t ever craved a thing, I’ve not wanted to “cheat”. This is just who I am and what I do now and I’ve enjoyed learning.

I’ve honestly struggled since I was a child, always on and off some diet. It was only one day, I don’t know what happened, it was just a shift in my head. I was so fucking bored of the struggle.

Putthatdownsteve what do you eat on a typical day?

@putthatdownsteve I feel exactly the same. I think what made the difference was cutting out upf. I don't count calories but rarely feel hungry. I am losing fat and have so much more energy. 4 months ago I was tired and achy with no energy to exercise, I now wake at 6am and do half an hour of strength training.

I eat a largely protein/fat based breakfast, massive salad for lunch which has nuts, meat and cheese on rye crackers and early family dinner (normally fish or meat, veg and some carbs) Anything starchy like potatoes I make sure I pre boil before frying etc to minimise the sugar. I rarely feel hungry enough for snacks but when I do it is usually berries, a sqare of dark chocolate or nuts.

I recommend listening to ZOE Science & Nutrition https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VSvk8JFw0Y15KZdDAupNr to understand the science behind this approach.

I do omad most days (23/7 fasting). That’s not for everyone. I feel fantastic on it, other people might not, It’s not something I would advocate to anyone else.

Fresh lemon juice in water when I wake up.

I eat around 11am over an hour. I start with a huge green juice, loads of spinach, celery, cucumber, and either red or green cabbage with spirulina and turmeric. I mix up the variation of veg in those, sometimes add apples and pears.

Then I have nuts. Almonds and walnuts, a big handful.

My meal is always a variation on meat/fish/veg or lentils.

I make curries and dal from scratch, or I will have chicken cooked in lots of indian herbs and spices, or some salmon. I eat a lot of good fats, cook with coconut oil and olive oil.

I usually have basmati rice with that or roasted cauliflower, or stir fried spinach and peppers.

Or a massive salad with boiled eggs and a few roasted baby potato, and some salmon depending on shopping budget that week.

A few times a week I will have a dollop of greek yogurt with a couple of tablespoons of flaxseeds.

I only drink water and green tea.

I know that will sound horrendous to most people and they would say it’s not sustainable, but for me it is. I feel wonderful, look ten years younger than I did when I was existing of processed gluten free food, fizzy drinks and sugar, and I have so much energy now.

I make my own mayo and hummus too. I buy nothing pre prepared any more.

Controversial opinion: there’s no such thing as willpower. The key is wanting to eat things that are more interesting and better for you than processed fatty carbs. To get there, most people need to make time for buying ingredients and cooking them. But once you’re in the habit of spending more time and effort on food, you’ll be less inclined to rely on convenience food, and the occasional take away won’t throw you off your usual eating habits. A diet should be a way of life that works for you, not a struggle against your basic instincts.

Thank you, I do cook from scratch, it's very rare I don't.

I really think keeping everything you eat, home made and simple is the answer.
Very much like the Mediterranean diet I guess. Simple meats, veggies and salads. Keep dressings to olive with lemon juice, simple balsamic vinegar. You really can eat a good portion of grilled fish/ meat and a huge salad on the side without blowing any calories!!
If you can keep full on simple health meals, ( homemade curry etc…) you really shouldn’t feel the need to snack.

Haven’t read the whole thread but this is all the advice you need

Have you tried Weight Watchers? It worked well for me and has been sustainable for around three years plus. You don’t need to go to meetings and can do it purely through an app and weighing yourself at home.

You tweak your normal diet gradually and permanently. It's not a diet is a changed way of eating.

One or two healthy swaps. Then a few more. Think of it as nutrition and health changes rather than a diet.

People who eat healthily will lose weight if they are carrying excess.

Op, I know you've probably heard it all but now, but have you tried Intermittent fasting? It's really straight forward and it works well for most people. Also you don't have to do it every day for it to work.
There was a thread here a couple of days ago that went into lots of different experiences with it, maybe worth a go?