to think the diet industry is utterly evil?

[ICBINEG]

been watching 'The men that made us thin' and am simply overwhelmed.

So diets don't work....most people end up heavier than if they had not dieted at all...one guy was like "well duh! if they worked we would lose our customers"....another wrote a book aimed at teenage girls including the advice to " buy scales and keep them secret from your parents"

The constant stream of adverts aimed at middle aged women are seen by children who by age 6-7 have self-esteem issues and can quote the number of calories in most foods...

My evil-ometer is broken.

Looking back on it my consultant was supportive But where are these diet companies when you get ill Nowhere to be seen.
It was the SURGEON who told me that it was due to rapid weight loss An NHS qualified medical professional. Ten months of excruciating pain A and E hospital admissions. Doctors coming out in the middle of the night to give me morphine injections. Finally prescribed morphine pills for when ever i had an attack which i had to let melt under my tongue.
Im not posting to start a row ...honestly. I would HATE for anyone to go through this. I was SCREAMING with the pain. I wouldnt wish it on anyone.

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DarkesteyesFri 09-Aug-13 00:11:37

When i say consultant i mean slimming world consultant

The above posts are mine but pulled from another thread.

I do not own a set of scales. Never have.
I weigh myself once a week on the calibrated ones at my gym.

I started 5:2 last September and lost a steady 1.5lb a week till I settled at a weight where to lose more weight would mean giving up wine.
I've now been at my 'happy weight' since December and know exactly what I have to do to stay there.
And it involves no clubs, skipping food groups or 'products' at all.

Yes but surely if people owned (and used) scales they wouldn't have to lose more than a couple of pounds.

Because they'd be onto it before the weight crept on?

Worra
No. Absolutely not.
Because weight fluctuates. Mine by up to 4lb depending on where I am in my weekly eating routine.
And what we have seen on the 5:2 forums is that a gain is a "failure" and then a trigger to eat.

I would much rather people did the Diana Rigg ribbon around the waist trick than used scales
especially domestic ones which vary randomly because they are often cheaply made.

Upthread a poster mentioned about ppl wanting a quick fix A friend of mine is doing the Cambridge Diet.
She lost 10 pounds in the first week and was elated.
In the second week she lost 3 and was really down about it Im hoping to start WW on Wednesday and if i lose 3 in a week i will be bloody ecstatic.

Worra - that's a great idea in theory... probably works for some people.

According to the programme the men who made you thin, it was an insurance guy who decided how much everyone should weigh. And not particularly scientifically apparently.

It is probably better to go by how you feel, how tight your clothes are, the ribbon round your waist than what number on the scales you are.

Talkinpeace but they wouldn't be on the 5:2 or any other diet if they'd kept their eye on the scales...and gaining 4lb wouldn't bother them as long as it didn't happen every week because the'd have weight to 'play with'...rather than worrying about every lb.

TwoTears the problem is not a lot of us wear zip and button type clothing...so it often takes a lot of extra weight to make it tight.

Worra I'm on 5:2 for the health reasons. I'm not trying to lose weight and have not done so since last December. But I still fast twice a week.
Its about self discipline, and its the only thing that will put the "diet industry" out of business.

Worra its still all about will power and self control. And weight can fluctuate by pounds over the course of a day.
If you have the wrong mindset, then its just a couple of pounds, just a half stone...
Having your own set of highly inaccurate scales won't help if your head is in the wrong place.

Blaming personal behaviour on the diet industry, turning the diet industry into some 'human' evil thing is totally missing the point! The only reason they make money is because people are mugs enough to spend money on buying products and DVD's of previously fat and wobbly Soap Stars who temporarily starve themselves and quickly make a DVD before they turn up 6 months later in OK magazine stuffing McDonalds and 3 stone heavier.

The diet 'industry' isn't evil - it exists because people have more money than sense - the claims are always backed up with "as part of a calorie controlled diet", but people don't read the packet! There is masses of available information out there on how to eat healthily and have a healthy lifestyle, yet there is more obesity in this country because people choose to ignore common sense - that's not the "diet industry" being evil - it's people exercising their freedom of choice!

The company to give a hard time to is W H Smiths - every time I buy a newspaper they ask "can I interest you in one of our confectionary special offers" - NO!!! bugger off, I don't want your massive bars of Cadbury rubbish chocolate so STOP ASKING, I'm not going to buy it no matter how many times you ask !!!! They must account for more tooth decay in Britain than any other shop. urghhh

Worra I take your point re clothing. I wear baggy clothes.

I think still that it is really a question of getting your body to do something that it doesn't want to do/is not programmed to do, and that really is difficult to fight. Especially in the long term, with everything else going on around us.

Talkinpeace you talk a whole lot of sense.

Talkin I wasn't talking about you personally...I was talking about people in general who need to diet.

"Oh the weight just crept on and now I have XXX stones to lose"

If they'd weighed themselves weekly/monthly, it might not have happened like that.

Saggy I kind of get what you're saying but I still think the average family should have a set of scales to keep a record of their weight.

Unless the scales are wildly inaccurate, it shouldn't be a problem.

daisy, but the "choice" is so stacked against us. Not the diet industry's fault. Its not only W H Smith, its all the food that is being pushed at you all the time.

And then all blame is absolved from the food industry because we choose to put the food in our mouths. The very very cheap and bad for us food.

It's an industry, it exists to make a profit, same as the tobacco industry and the alcohol industry, why would you expect it to care about people?
People are just fodder for the capitalist machine

Wow, no. I would never have scales in my house. That just sounds like the road to neurosis.

Weighing yourself, counting one or two pounds lost or gained (it's normal to fluctuate!), going on diets, going hungry...this is what my DF does.

And he's fat!

Um..... some diets DO work. Mostly the ones which aren't a short term diet, but a lifestyle change you stick to for life, e.g. Slimming World. The only thing that "fails" on these kind of diets is the person's willpower and willingness to commit to a healthy lifestyle that they maintain.

Really Twotears? We are really being forced to eat crap? I don't think so.

Daisy I disagree.
The fault does lie with the diet industry. At least in part. That and food suppliers. Oh, and the media.
People are generally uneducated about food, and get no help. And look at life today in general. Everything has to happen now. We live in the age of instant gratification.
People are encouraged to buy 'quick' 'cheap' processed food. Encouraged to buy low fat, diet food. Encouraged to undertake dieting regimes which are a quick fix and totally unsustainable. Everywhere people look they are bombarded with adverts, 'advice', pictures of skinny models...
Nowhere do people get a proper grounding in basic nutrition. Food tech in schools is a joke. The Nhs encourage slimming groups.
What we really need is a WW2 style rethink. A bit of rationing. Dig for victory. Make the best of the plain simple ingredients provided.
Ditch TV, supermarkets, advertising and re educate people.

Worra
you are absolutely right and don't worry - I take very little personally

Because the media do not admit that weight naturally fluctuates, people see their weight go up one day and assume they have failed and put the scales away.

Also the whole weight loss industry does not like to admit that the weight people put on over Christmas and holidays is not actually fat.
Its water and undigested food and it vanishes almost as quickly as it appears.

I lost 7 lb in two weeks when I stopped eating New York deli food after my holiday ....

What we try again and again to reinforce on the 5:2 threads is that fluctuation is normal and that the body physically cannot lay down 7lb of fat cells in a week
so after a holiday, getting back on the wagon as quick as you can will have great results

))))))))))) Elasticated waistbands (((((((((((((

And worra, the average family scales are wildly inaccurate. And children don't need to be ecouraged to weigh themselves on a regular basis. That is how issues begin.

I like the saying 'one bad meal will not make you fat, and one healthy meal will not make you thin.'

We live in a world of instant gratification. If we don't see results from diets immediately, we lose interest, our willpower wains, we fail. It's the same with exercise. People think that by going to one or two classes they will lose weight and then moan when it doesn't happen. Alter your expectations.

I am not saying that people are forced to eat crap, but there is so much food all around us that it is unfair to lay it all at the door of your own willpower and shoulder the entirety of the blame.

If your body is telling you that your fat cells need to be filled, and there is food all around you (crap or otherwise) you have to have a super mind to push yourself over all that matter for the rest of your life.

If your body is telling you that your fat cells need to be filled
But your body will never, ever give that message.
Its not one of the feedbacks in the digestive tract.
That message is all in your head.