To think I should give up on diets and go back to eating crap as it worked better??

[MsRamone]

Frustrated.

I have tried several diets in the past - calorie counting, weight watchers, slimming world, atkins ... I always lose a couple of pound and then gain it all back (and more) despite still sticking to plan.

This past month I'd lost 8lbs on slimming world. All of a sudden, yesterday I've put 5lbs of it back on despite no change in diet.

When I used to eat crap (coco pops for breakfast, pot noodle for lunch, chicken kievs and beans for tea etc) I weighed less than I ever have since I tried being healthy. I snacked less, enjoyed my food more and weighed a stone less than I do now!!

When I was younger, everytime I tried to eat healthy I started putting on weight. I'm starting to think this is the same issue I'm having now.

AIBU to think I'm just one of those people that puts weight ON by eating "right"?

AIBU to go back to my own ways of eating and maybe take vitamin supplements to make up for my lack of 'healthy' food?

Are you Esther Walker?

Your post is almost exactly her column in today's Times!

really? do you have a link?

It sounds weird and like you should be BU. But, I don't know. If it works for you ...

AIBU To think I should give up on diets

No, YANBU. You're the poster child for why diets don't work. If a rehab programme had the dismal long-term success rate of dieting (something like 5%?) would you still get all the people blaming it on willpower, or would they admit the programme was flawed?

Can't link as Times is behind a pay wall.

Exactly! I'm sick of feeling guilty everytime I eat white bread.
I'm sick of looking longingly at colleagues as they tuck into cake because slimming world tells me it's a million syns to touch it.
I'm sick of half heartedly nibbling on my zero fat veggie curry which basically tastes like water with spices thrown in.

Most of all I'm sick of standing on the scales getting excited because I've lost 1lb and then the next day feeling depressed because I've gained 2lbs.

When I ate crap - none of this was an issue!

YANBU to ditch the diet. You might be unreasonable to consider eating crap over healthy food. (BTW calorie counting, WW, Slimming world and especially Atkins are not necessarily healthy). Taking vitamin supplements is not an alternative to eating good food. You may weigh more if you eat healthy food, but at least you will be healthier, especially if you get some exercise.

You may have weighed less in the past while eating those things because you were younger and your metabolism and muscle mass were better.

I have struggled with my weight my whole life and my experience of 'diets' mirrored yours.

I recently stopped 'dieting'. I eat what the fuck I want. Proper butter, full fat milk, thick creamy full fat Greek yoghurt. I am losing weight (or at least I assume I am, my clothes are too big and my belly is shrinking, but I threw out the scales).

What I HAVE done is a) concentrate on eating delicious foods that I love that are wholesome and nutritious, like full fat Greek yoghurt and fresh raspberries and a drizzle of honey rather than some insipid runny nightmare, because they satisfy me. I let myself have treats if I really want them. I just ate a bag of prawn cocktail crisps and they were lush.
B) concentrate on my body's signals that tell me I'm full, and stop eating. I never used to leave food on my plate, now I often do, even when dishing up smaller portions to start with. If I'm hungry I eat, when I'm satisfied stop, if I want a treat I have it. Food is becoming less of a battleground.

I'm still fat but I'm a lot less fat than I used to be!

Well today I've had a bowl of coco shreddies.

Normally I'd have boring weetabix, a muller light and fruit.

Funny how today I was satisfied with the cereal alone! about 200 calories saved there.

Lunch I've had my old favourite pot noodle and feel full.

Normally I'd have some weird home cooked shite that looked a total embarassment, fruit, "allowed crisps", maybe another bleeding muller light ... Today I was satisfied with the pot noodle so I stopped there.

Ok so I've not had any fruit today or any bleeding muller lights but I'm full and have REALLY enjoyed my food.

I'm going to eat like this all week and see what the difference in weight is at the end of the week. If I've put it on, I'll admit that my theory is bollocks. If I've lost weight it's goodbye slimming world.

Couple of potential factors - are you due or on your period? That can make me suddenly balloon in weight, and then next week it's gone again.

Are you already a healthy weight? Is your BMI quite low?

Hun ditch sw. I used to be overweight And now follow a natural unprocessed diet (10+ years) And look and feel amazing on good days.

You will lose weight because you're eating less. However, what you're eating isn't very nutritious.

You seem to be eating a lot on the diet?

There's no way you gained 5 pounds overnight - did you have something really salty?

Equally, if that's how you feel about Muller lights then you're not going to be happy on a regime that has lots of them on the menu.

I'd be worried there weren't sufficient nutrients in a cereal + pot noodle diet. What are you going to do when your hair starts falling out?

There's no way you gained 5 pounds overnight

I do if it's the week before my period. I retain water like the Titanic.

I'm the same OP. When I eat what I want I don't spend time obsessing, rarely bother with snacks and occasionally (very occasionally granted) even forget to have a meal. When I'm being 'good' (Slimming world at the mo) I am literally counting down the seconds to every meal and stuffing as much as I am allowed into myself...

You can't gain 5 pounds of fat overnight. It can't be done.

You can retain water, usually in the form of glycogen stores which are suspended in 4 times their weight in water. Hormonal fluctuations also call water retention of course but we all know that.

The trouble is you can give up on a healthy eating plan due to these water weight gains when its the consistency of following the plan, over a year or so, that gives a truer reading of whether or not the plan works, for you, or just anyway because over a year it should in theory work for any overweight person if its a good plan.

That said, I don't really rate Slimming World. Ultimately I get to a point on it where I'm not creating a sufficient calorie defect, because it doesn't put a total limit on the calories you eat. After a few weeks of weight loss, I get to the point where I am still eating too many calories to create a deficit. Mullerlights and fruit and things like that, for instance, are "free foods" but still have calories.

They are counting on the fact you will get sick enough of free foods that you won't overeat them but that doesn't always happen.

It makes sense a bit - eating a bowl of plain pasta with nothing on it may be free, but its not fun if you can't put something on it because you've used up your Syns or Healthy Extras.

Anyway, doesn't work for me, does work for others so its about finding something that works for you...

Yanbu. I eat whatever I like and have been a slim size forever. By that I mean pain as chocolates for breakfast, chocolate in the evening, steak in creamy sauces etc etc. I don't have huge portions but enjoy my food very much

Slimming world sounds horrendous.

I avoid large quantities of carbs (never white anything and only small portions of brown) and consume vast quantities of veg but also eggs, nuts, fish meat, whatever really so long as it's not processed. It's cheaper and more effective than 'diets' and I've never hit over 9 stone

I eat whatever I like and have been a slim size forever

Genetics?

Try not to weigh yourself obsessively.

I started 'eating healthily' at the beginning of September - I have not weighed myself but have clearly lost weight as I have dropped a dress size, have tons more energy and people have noticed. .

I use my experience of all diets (WW/SL/Rosemary Conley/Soup diet etc etc ) to eat a nutritiously balanced diet, generally about 1400 calories a day - I don't stuff myself full of muller light yogurts & 'free food' like SW say you can, but I do use some of the SW recipes for ideas; I only have a 'treat' if I really, really want one. I recognise that I need to eat like this for the rest of my life.

I've got out of the mindset of 'being on a diet' and I just accept this is my new way of eating, and I managed to drastically cut down my alcohol consumption. Easier said than done I know, but good luck.

I have just started 5:2. I did it very half-heartedly previously - as in I stuffed my face on NFDs. This time I am using MFP to keep an eye on my general eating and some of the little things like grated cheese on pasta are incredibly high in calories. I'm also amazed at how many calories there are in pasta, which SW always said to eat freely.

If you put all your 'crap' food into MFP you would probably find it's very low in calories overall which is why you lose weight. The problem is it will be having other less positive effects on your body too.

I think there's something in what you're saying OP. I have lost 3 stone recently (post baby weight) and its been down mostly to eating less but initally I did try eating whole foods and lentils but was miserable so now I allow myself to eat what I really like but try to be sensible and I'm a lot happier.

I find it easier to restrain myself this way, whereas I can eat a whole plate of wholegrain rice, then feel like I've been punished so I eat a biscuit to cheer myself up :-). If I have a ham sandwhich that I really enjoy then I don't long for a treat afterwards. I am loosely doing the 5:2 as well though as I find it easier to eat nothing than eat healthy food I hate.

I'm sceptical of most diets that are for sale tbh.

But living on coco pops and pot noodles isn't going to be very good for your general health either.

If I were you, I'd focus on getting 5+ portions of fruit and veg a day, some protein with each meal, sensible portions of complex carbs, some dairy. Cook as much of it as you can yourself so you know it's not full of hidden crap. If you do that then there's less room in your diet for less healthy foods. But don't totally deny yourself anything - have a piece of cake but make it a sensible piece, have a packet of crisps. Just not every day. Treat yourself in other ways than eating.

I really like this saying:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants

I've always eaten what I like and not been overweight, but imo that's because I don't eat too much of it.

With the best will in the world there is no way I could eat weetabix, and a muller light and some fruit for breakfast.

If I ate breakfast at all, it would be only one of those things.

If you're losing weight with a shit diet, it's probably because you're eating less.

So why not mix it up with some healthy stuff, and continue eating less?