To think that weight-loss diets don't actually work

[AKMD]

SILs and MIL are morbidly obese. They have been on weight loss diets for years, SILs since they were early teens, and are still hugely overweight.

A group of women in a certain department at work are morbidly obese. For the first year I was there I noticed that they always got x + chips from the canteen for lunch, then they all switched to WW ready meals to heat up in the microwave. Three years after the switch they are still morbidly obese.

DH decided to lose weight about 6 months ago and got those stupid milkshake meal replacements. All that happens is that he gets very hungry during the day and overeats when he gets home.

Back in the days when I was into women's magazines I was always when the celebrity being interviewed raved about x latest diet and how great it was, then went on to describe how they did 2 hours of yoga every morning, then went for a run, then worked out with their PT for an hour or so, followed by a massage. Who in the real world has the time or money to do that kind of exercise regime?

AIBU to think that most weight-loss diets don't actually work short-term, none of them work long-term and the only long-term solution for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is to eat a balanced diet and do regular exercise?

Cote probably all of those things. I also think by the time you are morbidly obese the whole dynamic of weight loss is different. You've been slowly increasing in weight for years (often decades), you failed at more "diets" than most people have ever been on and are now officially "a failure", your ability to decide when you're hungry is shot to pieces, your stomach is larger, you may have an addictive personality or depression and you may have been raised with food substituting for open displayed of affection.

All very hard to ditch for the years it will take to take to get your weight under control.

I should also add (from experience) that the psychology of weight loss in very overweight people is so complex and ingrained that lots of hypnotherapists avoid treating it and prefer things like cease smoking programmes.

I think diets (ie something you do for a bit to lose some weight and then stop) don't work.

I think lifestyle changes do.

I was getting a bit porky so started usinf Myfitnesspal. Thought I was eating healthily, found I was scoffing 3-4000 calories a day!

Turns out my portion control was a tad over generous.

i loss 20 kg last 4 months . i take propper diet but not regularly

Just substituting "diet" foods is never going to work. Successful long term weight loss relies on changing one's diet in a sustainable way, but eating realistic portions of real (and satisfying) food and moving about enough, if possible.

Yeah. I should take my own advice on the portion thing. (glaring at belly)

YABU they're designed to work just food addiction or overeating needs to be tackled in a different way other than a slimming group.

Low carb is easy to sustain. Lots of vegetables and protein. No sugar. No cravings, healthy food.

It is a good and effective way of eating for many people.

Lean cuisine, and low fat foods are sewage and are the reason a lot of folk end up obese, I suggest you watch 'the men who made us fat'.

I lost and kept off 3 stone at ww (kept it off for well over 6 years!). Its only now I am pregnant that its gone back on so yabu and they do work it just requires will power and determination.

I agree, if any 'diet' worked then we wouldn't have a £multi-billion diet industry.

Eat less + Move more = Weight loss.

Also stop eating 'diet' food, so diet cereal bars, meals, even diet drinks. They are full of crap (I never thought I would say that about diet coke).

People want results yesterday, and the fact is that it took along time for me personally to put on 4 5 stone. It's going to take just as long to lose it. I need to retrain my body, re train my metabolism.

I am evangelical about My fitness pal, it's free and works, I'm not on a diet, I am just watching what I eat. I have lost 17lbs so far. If I want chocolate I will have chocolate, the difference is now that I wont eat a huge amount because I know I am not denying myself anything.

There is no 'I'll start tomorrow' or 'Ooh I've had half a malteaser I will start again tomorrow... where is the take away menu' no there is no tomorrow.

On The dietbestplans .com you are encouraged to eat real foods and lots of them. Isabel suggests you eat four meals a day and that you choose your food combinations wisely. The focus is not on eating diet foods or low calorie knock-offs.

I wish I'd seen this thread before I just posted mine. After 13 years of WW and SW I'm a lot bigger than I was when I started and haven't a clue how to eat without points and syns rattling round my head and making me guilty!

My advice is to take a look at the 5:2 diet thread here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/big_slim_whatever_weight_loss_club/1569497-5-2-Diet-Thread-Part-Four-Sit-down-have-a-cuppa

There is no celbrity endorsement.

No one is making money out of it.

There are major health benefits over and above losing weight.

celbrity celebrity

As an aside, AIBU to be at the isles in supermarkets labelled "everyday biscuits". I mean, when I was growing up these were treats, not something that was part of your everyday diet. If this is what people are eating routinely no wonder so many are overweight. And don't get me started on sweets and fizzy drinks

All weightloss diets work. But they don't work all the time for all the people. Mostly require 100% commitment to the eating plan, so if you're cheating, then its not the plan that's failing (other than to enable to feel satisfied) but the person who is.

I spent most of my adult life trying to find an eating plan that worked for me, that enabled me to feel normal and not deprived and that was healthy in the long term. It took a long time. I'm now on Slimming World and it only doesn't work when I don't stick to it. Its not easy to stick to anything, there are times when its very difficult indeed (meals out, birthday cake etc.,) but I've lost 2 stone and counting. When I hit my target I won't 'go back to normal' because this plan is for life, I will simply alter my plan to maintain my weight.

By the very fact that some of the members in our group have been at target for 8 years tells me that for many, 'normal moderation' will just pile the weight back on, there is no end. I'm happy with that.

I don't think diets like Atkins or Dukhan or the Blood Type Diet work for the long term. However, I'm doing really well with Weight Watchers and I'm keeping it off. I'm playing a bit fast and lose with it though, Mostly just using the online calculator to help me plan meals, and I tend to ignore it on the weekend. Also, I've started biking and walking for an hour and a half a day...so there you go.

Osmiornica I agree with you, but I do find Slimming Word helpful as it is quite simple. It works... but I AM interested in why it works, and concerned that there's no limit on some carbs yet no allowance for seeds, nuts and avodacos eq (ie they are 'high syn' so carry the same points/syns as cake and stodge in some cases).

The target members simply introduced healthier fats once they'd reached target.

Weightloss is not 'normal' eating, its not a normal healthy diet, because on a normal healthy diet your weight shouldn't fluctuate that much. What a weightloss diet should be is something that gives you steady week on week loss until you're AT a weight to introduce a normal healthy diet. Its when people reach the maintaining part of their weightloss journey that there is little help, so the varioud companies get that repeat custom when people fail at normality. Not sure if that makes sense? I didn't gain weight after the diet because of the diet, but because I didn't know what to eat to maintain my new shape.

Osmiornica I don't agree with you at all. Food is fuel. A calorie is a calorie. In terms of fuel it doesn't matter whether that calorie comes from refined sugar or quinoa. However, it is certainly true that certain foods fill you up more. So 200 cals from lean meat will be a lot more filling than 200 cals from chocolate. So it will be a lot easier to eat the right amount for you if you eat mostly bulky low cal foods that fill you up and release their energy slowly. I agree that carbs make you crave carbs but they don't magically multiply the calories in the food - you just eat more of them if you don't have self control to resist those cravings.

The only thing that works for weight loss is creating a calorie deficit. Full stop. There are many ways to achieve this and some are harder than others.

I think it is getting into the correct mind-set rather than the diet itself TBH.

I did WW about three years ago and I really went into it with the mind-set that this was how I was going to be eating forever rather than just for the duration of the ?diet?. So I started cooking from scratch, started exercising etc. Three years on I have kept the weight off because I still cook from Scratch, am mindful of the fact that I don?t need the same size dinner portion as my husband and I don?t cut any food groups out. I have carbs, protein and veg with every meal. I don?t calorie count or anything.

On the other side, my work colleague also did WW at the same time as me and she literally would go out and buy seven WW ready meals to last her the week. Of course they never filled her up so then she would over eat every three days to make up for it. It was madness as she couldn?t possibly sustain that but she used to say (and still does) that she couldn?t be bothered to cook from scratch. Now she still has not lost the weight, has done about six different diets since then and is currently spending a fortune on that diet where they drop off food every day at your house.

The cooking from scratch thing is interesting.

I wonder if people eat so many more cakes and biscuits now partly because it is zero effort to pick them up in the supermarket as opposed to making them by hand (without gadgets, a generation ago) and partly because if you make them yourself you see exactly how much fat and sugar goes into them! We hardly ever buy cakes and biscuits but if we are having people over or fancy it ourselves, sometimes at the weekend I will bake something. It works for us!

I've always cooked from scratch. The most I've ever bought the WW meals for is the occasional work-lunch. I still gained weight even when I cooked from scratch, mostly because I would always make the portions too big. Actually, buying the odd pre-made meal gave me a better idea of what my portion sizes should look like.