To be pissed off about the so called healthy eating advice we've been given for years ?

[Scarletohello]

I did the Atkins diet about 8 years ago when it was considered faddy and dangerous. Low fat was the healthy way to go. I got so much hostility about it, almost like I was a climate change denier. To my surprise,I lost 2 stone easily and quickly. Unfortunately I got scared by all the health warnings about how bad it was for you so eventually went back to a ' normal' diet. And put it all on again. Am currently watching the C4 doc about how sugar is bad for you. Of course it bloody is !!

Why can't the authorities wake up and realise its not fat that makes you fat? It's sugar and fast acting carbs.

It's time we had a major overhaul in our thinking about what really makes us fat...

1200 a day isn't enough for the vast majority of people.

My TDEE is something like 2100. BMR (the calories I burn if I do absolutely nothing all day) is 1508.

So it would be a very unhealthy way to do it, you would feel crappy all the time, and it would be unsustainable.

Nothing about being overweight is as simple as it looks to the "get off your arse" gang! Yes, the raw maths work. But you are dealing with people, who have all kinds of thoughts and emotions wrapped up in the consumption of food, body image, etc etc.

I wish the "get of your arse" gang would actually develop some empathy. Some of the comments on this thread are actually pretty rude. Just because you can eat what you want as long as you exercise doesn't mean everyone else can.

Struggling - again, why do you assume we don't know that. Do you assume that fat=thick?

It isn't that rare at all to not lose weight when calorie counting - wander over to some of the low carb threads and you'll find plenty of us.

For reference. At 5ft6, weighing close to 14 Stone, going to the gym 6* a week for at least 90 minutes and working very hard, plus walking at least 3 miles a day. On 1300 calories (Gross, not net) I did not lose weight. That was eating a diet that was supposedly "balanced" and followed the various typical healthy eating guidelines.

Keeping all else static, I switched to low carb. Same calories. Same exercise. Just different macronutrient ratios. I lost weight.

YANBU. At all.

Bit of background - I'm 6 foot tall, and played rugby in school/college until a knee injury put the kibosh on that. So I'm never going to be "skinny" by any stretch.

After my Dad passed, I put on weight. Lots of weight. Ben and Jerry were amazing therapists, but terrible fashion stylists.

I tried a couple of variations on low-calorie diets, and sure enough, had some success, but never anything lasting - I was always too hungry on such restrictive diets. I'd plan for the day, eat well... and then gnaw my fingernails off, desperately trying to avoid "just another nibble". I failed. Massively.

In November 2012, I discovered the ketogenic diet (aka Atkins). The basic principle is less about lowering carbohydrates, but lowering insulin. Insulin tells the body that sugars and starches are present in the body. These energy sources can be converted to energy faster than fat, so insulin processes the sugars and starches, and tells the body that any fat eaten isn't needed right now, so store it somewhere. Like the tummy and bum (grr).

A study by Stanford University confirmed more efficient weight loss was obtained from low-carb diets as opposed to standard diets - subjects on the low-carb diet ate as much fat and protein as they wanted, whereas the standard diet was calorie-controlled and lower in fat. The low-carbers lost nearly twice as much weight, as well as lowering triglycerides (fat storage molecules) and blood pressure levels twice as much as the standard dieters.

I read up, did my research (infographic linked), and put it forward to my partner at the time as something to do together. After a quick browse, I stocked up the fridge, and then in what felt like the blink of an eye, went and lost 78lbs in under 6 months. I started being able to exercise again, I got back in to my old clothes, and then some (my new wardrobe looks magnificent, by the way).

The widespread dissemination of Atkins falseties is cute. Dr Atkins died in hospital with an obese BMI, true - after slipping over on ice, cracking his head, and putting on 4 stone of fluids while in hospital, in intensive care. My former partner's mother (OH JOY ANOTHER MIL-BASHING!) told me she thought the diet was unhealthy and would damage my (read: DD's) health. I pointed to my waist and said "I've taken 8 inches off there. I get a feeling I've made up any 'damage' I might have done to my life expectancy".

I'm not saying standard dieting doesn't work - quite the contrary, standard dieting works, if you can stick to it. Therein lies the problem.

My current DP has joined me in going back to the ketogenic diet, "on a trial basis". I drew up a meal plan for the fortnight - curried chicken breasts with mushroom, bacon and eggs, roast pork belly with cauliflower cheese and spinach, Caprese salads, low-carb breads - gathered supplies, and started cooking. At the end of the first day, I heard the magic words, "I tell you what, lunch was great, and I feel really full. I'm not sure I'll want anything else till late tonight!"

Mission accomplished, I'd say.

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend! I was overweight myself - I'm 5 foot 4 and used to weigh 150 lbs (nearly 11 stone). I'm a comfort eater by instinct so I do understand the emotional power of food.

I lost 50 lbs by eating 1200 net calories a day and running a 10k 5 times a week for about a year. I was pretty healthy by the end of it, and my body looked extraordinarily different, but it was really, really hard work! It was as much a mental shift as a physical one: I had to dissociate food from emotions, which was a lot tougher than the physical pain of learning to exercise. So I have a LOT of empathy for how hard it is to diet and how difficult it is to be obese. I am quite a bit heavier now, because I have been ill and sat on my ass all day doing nothing. For the last month I have been following the same regime as before, and I've lost 10lbs.

I do think there are people for whom calorie restriction doesn't work (leptin problems, for instance). I just think it will work for the majority.

It is not always that simple to 'get off your arse and move'

Exercise and keeping active is very important but it's not something everyone can do

Eat less? Yes I can do that (with a bit of willpower) move more? No chance

Going back to the main point now, I've always thought the absolute best diet is the one that suits you. Almost all diets work, even the faddy cabbage soup or grapefruit ones, and yes eat less move more is very sensible but none of that matters unless it's something you can live with. I think that's why a lot of people get so evangelical over diets, because once they have found something that is perfect for them they assume it will be great for everyone else and they want to spread the word

The fact that the food industry has been permitted to sell foods which imply that they are healthy or a
good option for those on a diet really drives me crazy. For example a low calorie cereal bar seems like a healthy choice as the emphasis on the packaging is on 'low calories'. However it is loaded with sugar and not at all healthy and probably has more calories than a digestive. Food companies should be banned from selling products like this by implying that they are healthly unless they meet strict guidelines. It is a huge con and need to be stopped.

5'4" and 100lbs is unrealistic unless you are beyond petite and take a size 2 shoe.

I'm 5'4" take size 6 shoes and size 8 gloves. I reckon I'll hit 100lbs about six months into decomposition.

Exercise actually has very, very little impact on weight loss per se. It's important for health and wellbeing, and can of course make you look better by toning, but weight loss depends predominantly on what you put in your mouth, not by how many miles you run.

I find that exercise has a big impact on weight loss. I have just been skiing for a week and I can eat whatever I like when I am on my feet like that for the entire day and still lose weight.

I think that's fairly true tea - I'll never forget the period where I was exercising bucketloads, gym every single day. Looked the best I'd looked in ages, folk coming up to me asking how I'd lost so much weight etc etc.

Then stepped on the scales for the first time in months to discover that while I'd dropped about 1.5 dress sizes, I'd gained half a stone!

Sorry meant to say that's true for me - suspect other people are different!

Exercise is great for weight maintenance rather than weight loss in my experience.

Exercise has helped me lose weight in the past, though I would agree that it doesn't have as much effect as you might think

But some of us don't have the option of factoring it in at all (or in a very minor way) where's most people, even with medical conditions do have some control over what they eat

I think by definition a diet that causes you to lose weight is not a healthy diet in the long term. Perhaps that is where a lot of the contradictions come from?

That's a really good point merrymouse

Exercise helps me lose weight BUT i wonder if that is as part of the more positive, healthy attitude rather than the exercise itself. If I don't exercise I feel sluggish and shit and want to eat more, exercising makes me want to eat better and since taking up running I have made a lot of effort to get my diet right to help that which has made me healthier overall.

I think that is very true Sirzy. Exercise can give you the feeling of well being that you might otherwise try to get from a chocolate biscuit.

From Jake I think they way sugar is added to food has made us crave it.

Yes, for example, Pringles. Millions is spent by food companies looking for the next addictive salty/sugary/fatty shite to pedal to us. They wouldn't do that if it didn't pay. bitter, me??

Exactly Merry, when I am stressed now I run rather than eat which is a massive change for me

Muscle building AND regular intense cardio will help you lose weight. The more muscle the body has, the more effectively it processes food, and the more brisk exercise you do, the better your body deals with sugar and insulin resistance lowers.

As another person doing a shed load of exercise while being obese and eating healthily, I also find the move your arse brigade tiresome. I'm very pleased some of you can eat buckets of carbs and run and be slim. Others can't.

I think it probably does help Sid - it's just that for me it definitely doesn't have the massive weight loss impact that people say it does. And it sure as heck isn't a nice mathematical "burn 3500 calories of exercise and lose a lb"...I wish!

Makes me look a crapload better though!

Oh yes, help is the word. Although I have read that it's absolutely key to controlling PCOS symptoms as it helps insulin resistance so much. Since I started exercising 6+ times a week my fasting blood sugar has gone from 6.1 to 4.7 and I've lost a dress size, but only actually lost 7lbs with another 3.5 stone to go until I'm at a healthy BMI.

I tried the Atkins before, my skin was shit, had terrible carb cravings, constipation, had no energy and felt horrible. It's good for losing weight in the short term but not much else.

You can't get fat if you swap white bread, wraps and pasta for brown (and not too much), fill every sandwich/wrap with a pile of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, scallions etc...., pile up on steamed veg, homemade veg soups and eat small amounts of lean meat and fish (preferably steamed).

If you're getting enough nutrients you will never have cravings for bad foods and don't feel the need to overeat.

Exercise actually has very, very little impact on weight loss per se. It's important for health and wellbeing, and can of course make you look better by toning, but weight loss depends predominantly on what you put in your mouth, not by how many miles you run.

It really depends on your initial weight. If you are several stone overweight, then exercise (combined with healthy eating) will definitely help you shift some weight. But people do underestimate, just how much exercise you have to do, to burn off a pound of fat (not just water).
Exercise is also good for you metabolism.