Would you rather have an amazing figure by eating a restrictive diet and exercising or be slightly larger (not obese)and not ripped by eating whatever you fancy?

[malificent7]

Like most women i love food but would also like a leaner body. Is the slog of dieting really worth it?

I would liker to be the former, but I actually am the latter.

I have willpower - but what I don't have is won't power.

I've been both thinner and fatter. But then as I got older I started to get a bad back and then got cancer and have been through treatment. So I'm running most days of the week now and have cut added sugar out apart from special occasions. I have been enjoying losing the excess weight and most recently fitting into a size 10. I feel better for running. My aches and pains are less and what is more it makes me feel alive! I can't feel the same about over eating and sugar with having had cancer and read about the links with obesity and excess sugar intake. I feel better for eating more healthily. Virtuous circle really. Craving wise I have found once I have made a decision and carry it through I don't really get them. You just have to build a new habit and it becomes second nature.

Currently I'm the former. I have made dramatic changes to my diet (or try to) and I run, on average, 5km a day every day for the last 18 months. But after years of being overweight, literally my whole life, I am slim, toned, healthy, I look years younger, and I feel amazing. I remind myself of this every day when I say no to cake, chocolate, sweets, potatoes, bread all the carbs and drag myself out in the cold and driving rain. For me it was absolutely the choice you describe in the opening post. I can't have both- although with my running at the level I am now, I can have some treats now and maintain my weightloss

I definitely go with eating whatever I fancy!

Living on a restricted diet sounds miserable- especially when self inflicted and not due to medical need or something similar

My counter solution to eating whatever I fancy, would be to move more and do more exercise!

It's great to read these accounts of people making positive lifestyle changes 😊

Gain muscle! You won't become 'bulky' - you'll just feel fit. Plus you'll be able to eat 3000 cals per day.

Also, if you exercise properly, you should eat a massively varied diet (not restrictive!)

I love fashion, exercise, and don’t have a taste for sweets or overly processed foods so I would obviously choose A.

Also, if you exercise properly, you should eat a massively varied diet
Could you elaborate on this please Myfamilyand?
I'm not sure about what constitutes exercising properly and is the need for a varied diet greater if you do exercise compared to if you don't, and if so why?

Also, if you exercise properly, you should eat a massively varied diet (not restrictive!)

Well, it depends what you mean by restrictive. No one needs to eat lots of added sugar or processed food. No one needs to overeat. It's fine to do each of these things occasionally. However good nutrition is important which involves looking at in what ways not to eat as well as how we should be eating.

Appetite wise, good nutrition can make a vast difference. I have found satiety actually decreases with more sugar / processed food. I found this out years ago with a low carb diet. The first diet that I actually felt less hungry on. It was pretty liberating really. I still eat carbs but choose unprocessed ones and eat the really starch stuff in low quantities. Funnily enough with my running I have found I am pretty well fat adapted. I happily run before breakfast and have not found the need to carb load. My running is of the slower longer variety, though.

Duh! That should be satiety decreases with less sugar and processed food!

Gain muscle! You won't become 'bulky' - you'll just feel fit. Plus you'll be able to eat 3000 cals per day.

Unfortunately this would only happen if you gained enough that you could outlift The Mountain on game of thrones.

For me, I prefer to eat a few treats and be big. I'm a size 14 and bmi 25. That's good enough for me. Yes, I look a bit overweight and many people would be horrified to find themselves at this weight. But I'm ugly anyway so I could cut down to one apple per day, be a size 10, and looks wise still be a minger.

No it shouldn't! I was right the first time! Excuse me whilst I find my brain!

But I'm ugly anyway so I could cut down to one apple per day, be a size 10, and looks wise still be a minger.

Beauty doesn't necessarily have to come I to it. Health and fitness is a concern. I am a modern size 10 and eat three good meals a day! More than an apple. I enjoy my running. It is possible!

And treats don't have to be food. A good book or film are pretty enjoyable and last longer than a chocolate.

You can eat whatever you fancy. Just not too much of it.

If you need to starve to be skinny, you are naturally not skinny so why fight it. If you are naturally not skinny, you will also need botox and fake boobs to keep some kind of woman's shape.

I love being slim (I’ll never be thin, I would look awful as I’m naturally curvy) and I love feeling healthy, so for me, I’m ok with making the sacrifice of eating well and consuming (generally) sensible portions. I have the most ridiculous appetite so it really is hard for me, but my health is very important, especially now that I’m mid forties, I want to continue being fit and strong into my dotage. I love looking good as well, call me shallow but it makes me feel good psychologically. I want to be like Jessica Lange in my seventies, she is still so beautiful, I could look at her face all day

Isn't it a bit sad that eating healthily and being fit and well is seen as imposing standard on women?

I partly agree, but then I also think the issue is highly affected by the 'ideal' figure. The conflation affects both sides.

You get perfectly healthy, fit, and sensibly eating women unhappy because their body is still the 'wrong' shape.

You get women unhealthily living happily with the 'right' shape.

You get overweight women (like me) resisting the idea that there's a RIGHT shape, but also accidentally sliding into unhealthy territory as part of the rejection of those ideals...

You get races of women told that the shape of their figures isn't right - too short, too curvaceous, too dark etc.

It's all a mess. I think the normalisation of different healthy shapes is the way, but it's a slow process. I certainly don't think a figure that demands excessive exercise or dieting to achieve is right - after all, there are multiple reasons our bodies naturally store a certain amount of fat.

I've opted for the first option. I carefully watch what I eat and exercise as much as I can. It's worth it for me. I'm not naturally slim but am happy to put the effort it. I have been bigger, and less fit. I prefer being fitter and stronger. I don't pretend I don't have to put the effort it.

I go to the gym a lot. I also eat whatever the hell I want. It’s healthy and usually home cooked, but I eat what I want. I came out of the gym yesterday and bought a bar of Lindt hazelnut chocolate and ate it on the way home. It was so delicious, and I felt full of power and energy from the gym, so a perfect result for me.

As I’ve started to get to know the people who go to the gym at my time, I’ve realised that most of them barely eat. They’re cutting all their calories, having half portions and skinny versions of everything. But when I look at us all in the giant floor to ceiling mirror, I’m happier with the way that I look, and don’t envy them their skinny bodies at all. Im absolutely not saying that in any kind of mean way, I just mean that I don’t get why being tiny is something to aim for particularly. I’m curvy still, but as fit (I think), as they are. I’ve still got boobs and a bum, yet toned - but I eat butter and chocolate and sauces on my food. I really am happy with this balance, and would rather enjoy my food and work out, than eat very little and then do no exercise because I’ve got nothing to actually burn off.

I. Six feet tall, 59 and twelve stone. Lost a stone in the last few months through PT and sensible eating. I don't eat chocolate, biscuits or cake...don't like them.
Love gin which I enjoy regularly.
Prefer being healthy with muscle definition.

I am very sadly neither

Both Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn could believe they have the "wrong" shape if they each compare to the other. You have to be realistic as well.

You can still be very slim and healthy, but you have a natural body shape, shame to fight it.

Neither extreme thanks. Just healthy. Which for me means exercising at least 3/4 X week and eating a range of healthy, fresh foods with the occasional less healthy food thrown in. That puts me at a healthy BMI but not particularly ripped/skinny physique. I feel good though which is the main thing for me.

A good baseline for 'Exercising properly' would be moving to increase heart rate and sweating for at least half an hour, multiple times a week.
As @tinylittlebird suggests, wholefoods should be the basis of everyone's diet, for satiety and health.
But if you're exercising more intensively, (think climbing/trail running/mountaineering) you should increase the number of processed foods you consume in order to not lose weight.

@Myfamily, are you saying that processed foods are the only way that those who exercise intensively can maintain their body weight, would it not be better to eat healthy alternatives but just ones that are high in calories?