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.

using something like 5:2 and doing it carefully, its feasible to lose arounf 1 1/2 pounds a week and keep it off

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

That's an interesting comment and I'm glad you've mentioned this.

I think you started a thread a while back and I remember making a comment about how difficult it is for those of us that aren't overweight, due to the sheer amount of continuous discipline/exercise that is required to maintain.

This isn't a completion but I often wonder whether maintaining is less/more difficult than putting it on and getting it off.

As an aside, not all diets are extreme/crazy. Ian Marber's 'Food Doctor Diet' book is excellent and really makes a good attempt to encourage life long food choices for the better.

fascicle isn't being able to stick with diet plan an extremely key part of any diet?

I mean the drop out rate is important! You can't ignore the people that started your diet and couldn't keep it up and only measure the success of those that did?

Marathon running would be an excellent weight lose plan if not for the unacceptably high drop out rate.....

SW deliberately sells itself on the group warmth vibe that is supposed to keep you going. You are paying them for help with sticking on their diet...yet they have a 75% drop out rate over 6 months....so does it work?

I would say no. No it doesn't.

I have to say this and if I get flamed for it then so be it.

Some overweight people can quite rightly blame...

The 'evil' diet industry

Their parents

Having babies

The media

The Government

The food industry

Men in general

Women in general

The fashion industry

Not enough information

Too much information

Poverty

The fat gene

And Uncle Tom Cobbly an' all....

But the only answer is to realise that you are an adult. YOU are now responsible for what you put in your mouth and whether or not you choose to exercise it off, or weather you continue to enable your own body to be fat.

The buck stops with YOU...no-one else. No industries, not the government, no celebrities... just YOU.

Either sort it out or settle for what you have, but looking for a get out clause doesn't help YOU or anyone else.

Learn to accept being overweight or choose to change it.

The choice is yours and yours alone.

er okay worra...

I am an adult and I would not only like to do something for myself...but for others who may not have realised the kind of dirty tricks being played by the big players of the diet industry....

I would like to open people's eyes to how they are manipulated and set up to fail.

I would like to see adverts for diet products banned.

Is that okay with you?

Other people certainly need to decide to change their lifestyle for themselves. They have to decide they are worth the effort...

but I am allowed to try and make the choice easier for others aren't I? I (and the government) should be actively attempting to shut down people giving contrary and harmful advice?

It's ALL about the not giving up....

If you tell someone it's easy losing weight and then blame them for any failure that occurs...well that is certainly not an optimal way to help.

If you tell someone it's hard but worth it...and that set backs are to be expected...and actually yes - they specifically have it harder than anyone else because of their genes/childhood issues...if you show a little understanding and compassion...then maybe you help them get the weight gone.

Agree ICB Totally.

It's more than OK with me...except that "Diet industries need people to constantly use them, in order for them to make money", is not exactly breaking news for anyone is it?

It's bloody obvious.

But this thread and 100+ others over the years I've been an MNetter, seems to encourage overweight people to blame someone or something else.

Rather than encourage them to forget the futile finger pointing and either accept being fat or do something positive to change it.

Smokers could start threads lamenting the tobacco industry...the advertising they grew up with...the fact school teachers smoked in front of them...Government ads at one time recommended smoking...they had a bad childhood...their parents smoked in the house...etc etc etc etc

But at some point, as an adult we all have to stop pointing the finger at industry/our upbringing/the government/advertising/emotions/and so on....

And JUST.TAKE.RESPONSIBILITY.AS ADULTS.

I do feel this thread is somewhat of a 'get out clause' for overweight people...whether you intended it to be or not.

The fact remains...accept you weight or change it.

I know that sounds harsh and I do apologise

I know it's not as simple as 'accept or change'

But I do fee the OP is swinging FAR too much towards the 'No individual person is to blame for being fat...it's all someone else's fault'.

That's really not helpful imo.

well some people can use anything as a get out clause...but I started this thread because I really saw for the first time that the diet industry isn't merely cynical and money making (yes I knew that already), but actively undermining people's ability to take proper responsibility for their weight, and actively engaged in making people fatter...on purpose.

That did actually surprise me. I assumed the worse case scenario was you lose money and no weight...but of course it isn't.

Worra but if people think the diet industry is the answer and it doesn't work for the majority of people then they might well be doing something that they feel is "changing" to loose weight.

I don't know if it helps to locate 'blame'.

I certainly don't think it helps to blame fat people for being fat....

Maybe it is actually helpful in getting past the self-loathing (that so often gets in the way of actual weight loss) to blame someone else?

worra I wonder if you would be happy with telling people it wasn't their fault, it was all the nasty evil societal pressure, if that meant they all could magically stick to their diets and lose weight? I don't think you would tbh.

I think you feel there is an injustice of some sort involved in relieving even temporarily the burden of guilt from fat people, even if that was shown to be the most effective strategy in fighting obesity.

I think it IS a moral issue for you, that people take the blame. I don't think you are as focussed on 'whatever gets results' as I find I am....

but please don't take it personally if I am wrong about all that...I am sure you will set me straight if I am!

lets not forget that for alot of people food is tied up with cravings and compulsions, cravings are very difficult things to deal with, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that carbohydrates can be as addictive as substances like alcohol and nicotine.

Of course it is ultimately down to the individual who over eats but unless you experience cravings (for whatever thing or activity) it's difficult to appreciate just how compelling they are.

I have no idea what the solution is to the obesity epidemic, personally I can only see it getting worse.

Fat goes to fat just like money goes to money

i am over weight because i eat too much and do not exercise enough like most people

i do have a health issue that makes it easier to gain weight and makes it harder to loose weight but i can so easily and have used it as an excuse

i never used to put on weight i ate lots and never exercised but now i have to so i have made that choice to and i had to stop being so lazy and start being more disciplined

it is not easy but it certainly makes me more happy going without that having more and my clothes being too tight

eat better (everyones different i cut down on carbs but i still eat them) and less and exercise no one can argue that is not good for you

I can certainly guarantee from my own personal experience that it is far easier to lose weight when you aren't blaming yourself constantly than when you are....

It is VERY easy to go from "I am disgusting, it is all my own fault" to "why bother changing, I might as well die early"

A little rage at society and the genetic lottery can go a long way...and give you something to focus your anger on instead of yourself....

obvs that is only me..

Just stop blaming other people for what and how much you choose to eat.

Self discipline has somehow become a dirty phrase (unless applied to smokers and drinkers)

fat goes to fat just like money goes to money

That's utter rubbish and defeatist talk.

Take responsibility for your own body or don't

The choice is yours but stop FFS blaming everything else.

I wonder what I can find to make me angry enough to lose this last half stone...grrrrrrrrrrrrr

maybe I will order some random pills over the internet....apparently they are guaranteed to work!

yeah butworra why not blame someone else? If it helps you lose weight then surely it's worth it?

How on earth would blaming someone else help you lose weight?

because blaming yourself locks you into a mindset that leads to binging, and depression?

honestly, I couldn't lose weight till I dropped the guilt and the self-loathing.

I couldn't see the point in improving my health until I got some self-respect back.

I put the guilt away, made a conscious decision that I was worth saving and got on with it.

4 stones lost since this time last year after what 15 years of failed dieting attempts?

Seriously - you need a massive pile of self-respect to seriously engage with lifestyle change and that is hard to achieve while blaming yourself for being fat.

i think the only solution is not to get fat in the first place but for most people that is clearly too difficult, I presume because it involves depriving yourself of pleasure (ie food that you enjoy) and suffering the indignity of physical exertion!

Worra I do take responsibility for my (rather thin) body, I am speaking from my observations of other people.

Insulin resistance and other metabolic changes do create a positive feedback loop so that fat really does go to fat

I suspect the very LAST thing that the average overweight person needs is a stern talking to about personal responsibility and how they are a burden on society...

A much better approach would be, okay so the world is a bitch and has put you in a bad place, what are YOU going to do to get out of it?

mercury maybe a little with the lazy stereotyping there...

I put on weight playing sport at county level and training 5 times a week.

I made the mistake of eating when I felt hungry...

but yeah whatever...all fat people are unwilling to exercise and eat for fun.

It's late and I'm really not following the logic I'm afraid. To me, it sounds like you are saying you got on top of it when you did take responsibility for it.