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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think the diet industry is utterly evil?

385 replies

ICBINEG · 11/08/2013 13:16

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.

OP posts:
BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 13/08/2013 16:15

11 lb in one week..say the first week.....would be ok if you have a shed load of weight to lose - it is mostly fluid the first week anyway.

The perfect weight loss is 1 lb per week which equates to 4 stone a year - not to be sniffed at.

Original poster
ICBINEG · 13/08/2013 16:17

I did 4 stone in 9 months 1.5 lbs a week....

but I don't know if it will be staying off....

OP posts:
BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 13/08/2013 16:18

the slower you lose the longer it stays away....well done and yes, of course it will stay off if you stay on track :)

Original poster
ICBINEG · 13/08/2013 16:18

I need to get with the exercise.....but I'm currently suffering labarynthitis (sp) and the though of moving my head more than necessary is frankly horrible.

OP posts:
Original poster
ICBINEG · 13/08/2013 16:21

I'm definitely finding maintaining more mentally taxing than losing...

because I am NOT on a diet...

It also seems like there is a convenience drift....

I basically didn't eat snacks of any sort for a year...and I find they are creeping in... also I had a year of coking different things for me and family...which is isn't a long term strategy. I am finding that the two streams are merging which is good for my DH's health but not so much for mine...

OP posts:
Original poster
ICBINEG · 13/08/2013 16:22

cooking not coking...well there was quite a lot of coking tbh...diet coking...and yes I know diet coke is evil as well...it is next on my list of bad habits to kick!

OP posts:
DontmindifIdo · 13/08/2013 16:26

ICBINEG - to be fair, I watched that too, they didn't say they were fatter than if they'd not dieted, they said they were fatter than before they dieted, there was no comparassion group eating whatever they wanted and checking if they gained a similar amount of weight over the same period of time...

I suppose with all diet plans, it's a bit like debt consolidation loans. some people who get themselves in a financial mess can use consolidation loans, pay that off and stay debt free for the rest of their lives, some people will treat their credit cards being clear as they now can start again running them back up again and getting back in debt on credit cards, except now with a big loan to pay. Some will clear the loan and all personal debts, be totally 'changed' yet within a decade be in the same boat again. It's hte same thing really, it's not the fault of hte consolidation loan that people run up debts again afterwards, in the same way that it's not the fault of the diet industry that some people regain the weight and then some.

The people who stay debt free are the people who change their long term spending habits. The people who stay thin are the people who change their long term eating habits. People know this really, but it takes self control, self control not to buy that new top/DVD/holiday, and self control to know you can not have the food you want again.

Darkesteyes · 13/08/2013 16:26

ICB i was way too ill for confrontation and in far too much pain It was only later on that i reaslised ....errr hang on!
I know there are ppl who say SW is one of the less evil ones but after my experience there have decided to do WW instead.
Also SW dont seem to teach you portion control.
Having bought a WW magazine last week i know they do so i think that will be better for me anyway.
Betty i totally agree One pound a week is not to be sniffed at. A friend of mine is doing the Cambridge and seeing her big losses come down my fb page makes me feel like a failure . Which is fucking stupid because after what ive been through i know how dangerous and unhealthy it is.
I havent commented on her fb threads though because i know what ppl will think "oh shes just jealous" But i hate to think of her risking the same thing that i went through She did moan about only losing 3 pounds in her second week and was not happy about it. Some are just too impatient and expect instant results.

Original poster
ICBINEG · 13/08/2013 16:32

don'tmind that was short timescale though...so if you ended up over your start weight it was pretty likely that you wouldn't have gone up that much without the intervention. Also they bit each other....all bad.

There have been more up to date RCT's that duplicate the finding.

Including one that shows that drinking diet coke makes you fatter than drinking normal coke.

Yes it is only an average.

I would hate to be starting SW with another 9 people and looking at the group of 10 and thinking...2 or 3 of us will lose weight and keep it off for 6 months...1 of us will lose weight and keep it off forever. The others...should turn around and leave now.....so whose feeling lucky?

OP posts:
Darkesteyes · 13/08/2013 16:33

ICB that was another thing We were told diet coke was a "free food" and we could drink as much as we liked.
One time a member was going to a party and got told to fill up on diet coke to resist temptation

I gave up diet coke a few months ago. I feel better for it. Im not weeing as much as i used too ( apart from when im on my period for some reason) and i did say to the consultant at the time that to fill up on diet coke in my case would aggravate my stomach. Especially if ive not eaten as much. I was appalled at this too.

Darkesteyes · 13/08/2013 16:52

Just been on fb My friend on Cambridge has lost another 4 which brings it to 15 pounds in 3 weeks. Got 15 likes including from her partner who is very into his keep fit.
She did Cambridge last year too. She has a three month old dc

TallulahBetty · 13/08/2013 16:58

well, Slimming World is working for me. Horses for.courses.

tb · 13/08/2013 17:05

Robert Lustig has written a really interesting book - he's a paediatric endocrinologist. He puts the blame for the outbreak of obesity firmly at the doors of the food processing industry. He said that in the 60/70s they re-tooled to produce low-fat foods, and in the process loaded them with excess modified starches, sugars etc. He talks about leptin resistance, a hormone that controls the feeling of fullness. His research was also published in the Lancet.

It's quite interesting that until the 1960s, all doctors recommended reducing carbohydrates to lose weight - think about John Yudkin's book 'Pure white and deadly' about the evils of excess sugar.

The thing that really annoys me is that Heinz make shedloads of money from over-processed shit, and then even more from weight watchers which is also one of their companies.

Darkesteyes · 13/08/2013 17:10

I may be going to WW but im not planning on eating their products.

fascicle · 13/08/2013 18:02

ICBINEG
have been checking out slimming world....you have to do some maths but it looks like 25% of their members have maintained at least a 10% of body weight loss at 6 months. So that's 75% of people whose money they took who aren't more than 10% of their body weight lighter at 6 months....and of course the majority of them will be heavier than if they hadn't handed over the money.

Without knowing whether or not people stick to the diet (and what they do if they don't), I'm afraid that information is pretty meaningless.

Someone was asking where they were lying....can you spot it yet? They also bang on about it being 'easy'...which seems highly unlikely...

Again, it is vital to know whether or not people stick to the plan. Presumably they mean it's highly effective if used as designed. Or do you expect off the shelf diets to work unconditionally?

Bakingtins · 13/08/2013 18:55

I did SW for 3-4 months to lose 1.5 stone of XS baby weight. It worked really well for me, I lost 1-2lb a week consistently and did find it "easy". The class was full of people who would lose 3lb one week and then regain it the next, and then when asked why would admit they'd been eating pizza/sausages/been on a drinking binge/ troughed a whole cake etc. Most of them were no lighter when I finished than when I started, but they were not sticking to the plan and it was completely pointless them shelling out the money.
It is just bloody stupid to think that merely signing up to one of these plans will magically make the weight disappear, you have to actually stick to it too.

Darkesteyes · 13/08/2013 20:33

A lot of people who did the Red or Green plans at SW find it hard to get to grips with Extra Easy.

Darkesteyes · 13/08/2013 20:34

It worked well for me the first time too. I lost ten stone It was the gallstones i objected too and it was an NHS surgeon who told me that losing the weight so rapidly was the cause.

EagleRiderDirk · 13/08/2013 20:45

dark You're worrying me now. Ive lost 50lb in just over 16 weeks. I've not even been trying to lose it this rapidly. I'm on a plan that should lose me 1lb a week, and am throwing in exercise but still. Just hoping that a lot of that was fake bloat from some nasty pills I was on before...

I'm sorry that happened to you though

RonaldMcDonald · 13/08/2013 20:46

The answer is looking at why you eat and thinking about things before you start to snarf

I read the Judith Beck Diet book and it made masses of sense to me.
My mother has used it and her workbook to get rid of her 'impossible to lose' post menopause 10 lbs (my mother has always been a strict diet loon)
It shows you where your actual problems are..it's kind and helpful

Darkesteyes · 13/08/2013 20:56

YY Eagle i was the same I just couldnt control how fast it was coming off I wasnt excersising because i was working nights.
The only thing i can put it down to was i was young (29) so maybe the weight came off quicker because of that and i also went from eating 3 takeaways a week and choc/crisps every day straight into the SW Green plan overnight.
I reckon you might be ok Eagle I had my first gallstone attack after id hit the 3 and half stone mark.

EagleRiderDirk · 13/08/2013 21:12

dark I reckon some of mine was shock from not constant crisp and chocolate eating into having more rounded meals. The speed has completely slowed, though I'm losing about 1.5-2lb a week now. It may be genetics though, as soon as my father eats sensibly he loses stones - not even calorie counting, just swapping crap for better options. Sadly though it will mean if I don't control my crap eating I'll keep getting fat, which I am finally getting now.

EagleRiderDirk · 13/08/2013 21:13

*finally understanding even

Darkesteyes · 13/08/2013 21:37

Eagle it was probs the same with me The shock from going from crap eating to sensible eating overnight. SWs Green plan is carb heavy though. It worked at 29.... after i got past 35 though not so much.

Darkesteyes · 13/08/2013 21:41

A stone and a half by Christmas would be nice though.