In thinking that diets don't work?

[Alfieisnoisy]

Okay this post is a bit of an obvious question because the science backs up the fact that n 95% of cases diets fail. The 95% figure is about how many will gain back all their weight and some will gain more in top.

This is relevant to me as I have lost three stones since January and have found a new love of exercise....am very slow but setting goals and achieving them.

If the science shows that diets don't work...and that the goal should instead be fitness I wonder why the NHS etc is still advocating calorie deficit diets which put the Brain into starvation mode and ensures it has a hissy fit which sends you to the biscuit tin.

Most of all I wonder if anyone here can tell me they have lost a large amount of weight and maintained that loss. As someone who has lost weight...and is an apple shape this is important to me.

I am running 3-4 times a week....unthinkable back in January. I do a yoga class once a week too plus fitting in a swim as well sometimes.

Am I going to keep this weight off?

I am still overweight....I want to lose another stone at least bit am wondering g if I am doomed to failure.

Am off out for a few hours in a bit ....so not posting and running off...I will be back because I want to understand more.

Yes you will and well done! That's a huge achievement. Also remember it's hard to outtrain a bad diet, but big believer in everything in moderation with the occasional treat day thrown in.
It's a lifestyle change which sounds like what you have done.

Diets don't work - lifestyle changes do. It has to be long term. I've gained and lost, gained and lost more times than you can shake a stick at.

Well to keep it off you need to maintain the same eating pattern for life, you can't go back to what you did before.

I was chubby in my teens and at 20 went from about 13st to 10st7. I'm now 40 and weigh 10 3/4. But I stopped eating biscuits/ rubbish in front of the telly after dinner for life. It's interesting because everyone sees me as naturally slim these days . (I'm 5'10 btw)

Starvation mode is bollocks.

I lost 5.5 st with Weightwatchers and have kept it off 10 years. I occasionally gain but nip it in the bud straight away.

Diets do work but you have to change your whole way of eating forever. If you revert to eating the way you did previously, you will regain.

You've changed your lifestyle, eating a lot less and moving more. That works. That's what the NHS says to do.

All else is babbly bollocks unless you have an illness.

I was 16s6 when I was weighed in 2011.i think I'd already lost some by then so had probably been over 17s.
I lost weight fairly quickly and at my lightest was below 11s. I have put some back on, and am currently about 12s6 but have never been anywhere near that big since and don't plan ever to be. My habits have changed, my lifestyle has changed. I no longer wake up in a cold sweat that I'll have a heart attack in my 40s and will keep it that way. I want to lose weight at the moment but its purely so I feel and look better in my clothes, so less urgent to me.

I agree with what you say, but am I right in thinking that there is some emerging evidence that if you maintain it for a year your body adjusts to it? Also I think there are huge differences between people, and that it may be easier to maintain weight loss of excess weight that was gained through sedentary lifestyle/sugary drinks/excess eating than to maintain a weight lower than you are predisposed to (so if family are all large, despite differing lifestyles, for example, but you want to be 4 sizes smaller).

Exercise as a way of losing weight seems like an impossible way for me to keep the weight off. I simply don't have the discipline to keep exercising 3-5 times a week forever. Recently I've moved to a LCHF way of eating, lost 2 stone, reached my weight goals. But I don't crave to eat all the junk, sugar, carbs that I've given up. If I keep eating what I do now, I will keep losing more weight - which I do not want. So I guess I have a window to have the occasional carb as a treat, which is sufficient for me. I have done zero exercise for this weight loss, for the above mentioned reason that it creates a false story for me which I cannot keep at. Hoping this new way of eating will help me stay where I am with a few highs & lows..,fingers crossed.

Diets work in that you lose weight. The problem is that many people think this is the end point and stop being on the diet. Few overweight people are ready to accept they aren't going on a diet until they weigh their goal weight but need to change forever. This is why many diets that include cutting out various foods don't work because many people aren't prepared to say "I'll never eat chocolate again", just until they can fit that bikini.

Diets work when it's an acceptance of a life long change (and the change is something that's sustainable beyond the goal weight). Diets don't fail, it's the failure to stick at a diet long term that causes the fatness.

No one has regained 3 stone they've lost while still exercising and eating the way they did during the losing weight stage.

'Diets' are simply different methods for consuming less calories.

#captainobvious

If you can't eat that way forever, the diet is an unsuccessful one.

As others have said, dieting never works because you haven't changed, just temporarily deprived yourself of your usual habits.

Lifestyle changes are a different thing entirely.

I do believe in the theory of a set point weight. I gained a lot of weight in pregnancy (3 stone) and both times managed to get it off fairly easily down to the weight I tend to hover at which is around 10.5-11 stone. To get it much below that, (my ideal weight is 10 stone) I have to work at it. If I don't work at it I will tend to gain up to 11 stone tops but not more than that. I have to really work hard at eating a lot to go over 11 stone and stay there.

Have you changed your eating habits since January?

Amazing weight loss

I saw some research on this a while ago. The conclusion was that the people who keep the weight off make it the number one goal in their life. I can see this in a close family member who has lost about 6 stone. He is now evangelistic about nutrition and plans his life around what and where he can eat.

I agree with people saying that lifestyle changes are what works but it was the diet that kick started those lifestyle changes for me. I had a hugely messed up idea of what was normal when it came to food and a 'diet' made me realise what was normal and be able to identify when I was eating more than normal (even if I was choosing to do so)

I have lost weight and regained some weight 3 times in the last 20 years
However I never regain as much as stop before it gets that bad
I eat healthy and exercise 3 times a week and am currently slowly losing weight
This time I'm determined to keep it off by doing the same and just reintroducing occasional treats until I find my personal maintenance level
I've just got to accept that I will have to weigh myself once a week for the rest of my life
It's definitely got to be a whole lifestyle change

Diets do work but you have to change your whole way of eating forever. If you revert to eating the way you did previously, you will regain

^^ This. people regain the weight because they go back to the eating habits that made them gain weight in the first place. If they ate well most of the time, they would keep the weight off.

The odd meal out/massive portion/chocolate binge won't hurt, its when it becomes routine again. It's the 80/20 rule - what you do 80% of the time has the most impact and eating well at least 80% of the time will allow people to keep the weight off.

Yes. I used to treat my myself to those supermarket deli cookies and I'd eat a bag of four in the car on the way home from the supermarket. Sometimes two bags. Each cookie has about 500 calories. I still love them and bought some the other day, but have one at a time. I also buy them very infrequently now. I still eat stuff I probably shouldn't but I will never go back to the old ways of eating.

There is evidence that if you have always been a healthy weight you can eat more calories and stay that weight than if you were once larger and lost weight to be that weight.

It's quite hard always eating less not just than you did at your bigger weight, but than someone else your weight who has never been bigger.

I think this is a factor.

Erm not sure what that is but I'd suggest not clicking the link

Yes, it has to be a 'diet' that is actually a healthy lifestyle and maintainable long term. Otherwise you give up because it's too difficult/fiddly/expensive to maintain.

Exercise definitely helps as muscle needs more calories to maintain, you burn more etc. But diet longterm will make the most difference.

Thank you thank you thank you.

You are all making me feel so much better.

I attend SW ...i don't eat Mugshots or shite. I eat fresh food with the occasional no guilt evening off.

Been a bit despondent about what I have been reading recently regarding set points and body adaptations.

I do the opposite of SW and have had amazing results.

There's some scientific research that shows that if you lose a lot of weight after being bigger for a long time your brain will panic and try to get you back to your pre-diet weight. (They did research of the BIggest Loser contenstants.)

you can reset your body's base weight through fasting.