To ask if you know diets very rarely work in the long term?

[purplefig]

Lately I've heard so many people (on here and offline) beating themselves up about not being able to lose weight.

It's led me to wonder: do most people still think that diets work?

If so, this talk by a neuroscientist is well worth a watch: https://www.ted.com/talks/sandraaamodttwhydietinggdoesnttusuallywork/details

eating pretty mindfully though, rather than dieting

One and the same if you ask me.
Haven't got time for videos -if someone can summarise the key points I'll read them!

I lost weight and haven't put it back on. Most people who say diets don't work go back to overeating. It's kind of obvious that if you go back to your old ways it's not exactly the "diets" fault if you gain.

What do people mean by "diet" when they say "diets don't work"?

I’m on keto, have been for almost 5 years. It’s worked for me for weight loss (8 stone) and I’ve kept it off. I think diets that try to use moderation fail because sugar is addictive. Someone like me, a recovered sugar addict, can’t moderate carbs. I have to stay away from them.

Places like slimming world telling you to count all those chocolate bars as syns are doing you no favours. It's a lie. I actually saw someone with a massive box of chocolates with numbers against them, and she ate like 5/6 a day. That's never going to help you lose weight. But she was told to use all syns.

Is she sure she got her numbers right, I am pretty sure (been a while since I did it) but something like a mars bar would be most of your points for a day, it's pretty difficult to gorge yourself on chocolate on those sort of plans.

It's because we take on too much and we also don't learn about root causes/behaviours and how to manage them.

Once I gave up on the idea of losing 2 or more pounds per week, exercising all the time and eating like a rabbit, the weight started coming off. Slow and steady, no food restrictions, and finding a pattern of eating that facilitates me sticking to a calorie allowance. Eating 1700 calories a day instead of 1200, i.e. a realistic amount that doesn't feel overly restrictive. Light and enjoyable exercise. Basically what we hear all the time - making it a lifestyle change rather than a diet.

They don't work because people do it short term, then revert to their bad habits. It has to be a permanent change. Hitting 50 & being overweight & always ill when I'd always been slim before, made me change my lifestyle. Chocolate is once a week now, not daily. Exercise is every day. I eat proper meals now, not junk food. My weight,skin ,hair & health have all improved hugely.

‘Never having seen her full diet, I have no idea if she changed it up or not. But encouraging 5-6 chocolate bars a day is not a healthy suggestion, it's just plain stupid. People are paying for that kind of advice.‘

You can’t eat 5-6 bars of chocolate a day on slimming world. You have 10-15 syns a day. That’s one and a half flakes. Syns are about 200-300 calories in total a day. 6 chocolate bars is about 2,000 calories a day.

So she’s not paying for that advice from slimming world.

I think the "diets don't work" thing is because most often, not always, you need to fix the reason why you overeat long term. Some people do lose weight and keep it off and I would guess that this is a lifestyle change rather than diet.

For me, I've yo-yo'd for 30 years. I finally lost some weight by reducing calories and have kept it off by switching to a vegan diet. The weight stabilisation was an unexpected bonus. I eat alot but the foods tend to me less fatty so over time I've managed to keep to a good weight. This is a drastic change but demonstrates the lifestyle long term approach.

I lost a substantial amount of weight (6 stone) and have kept it off for almost a decade.

People yo-yo, losing weight, then they go back to over eating and put it back on, and tell themselves excuses (like I used to) and have unhealthy thinking trends like 'I need a treat/it's Christmas/I had a bad day' to let themselves overeat.

I've often heard overweight friends/family say 'I couldn't possibly give up cheese/cake/crisps, life is too short!' But the irony is they are at risk of shortening their lives being so unhealthy. You don't have to go totally without, just be mindful and not eat those things every day. They have no balance.

A lot of people have lost sight of portion control too and are totally uneducated when it comes to calories and nutrition.

There's no special secret to weight loss or maintaining a weight, you just need healthy habits, stop the excuses and take responsibility for your wellbeing.

@rosiethehen
Yes xylitol, that delicious laxative.

Diet just means what you eat. Everybody has a diet.

To be clear, intuitive eating is NOT a diet.

Intuitive eating can go wrong because there are lots of social cues that cause us to over eat. We lose sight of an appropriate portion size. Appetite changes according to habit, expectation and the kind of food eaten (sugar triggers overeating in a lot of people.) Personally I live with people who have a higher calorie requirement than myself. I found myself eating the same portions as them. I ate out and the portions were bigger than I needed. I got used to these portions. I adjusted my portions, lost the excess weight and now wouldn't want to eat my previous portions.

I can manage by eating less than I used to for the rest of my life. And that’s a diet.

I don't think that is what the OP means by "diet". To me that is not a diet, it is a change of eating habits for life and that is the way to lose weight and keep it off - but it's not dieting if it becomes your normal way of life. I eat less than I used to, have not put the lost weight back on, but I eat whatever I want - how can that be a diet?

Any diet can become your normal way of life.

Amazing how many people are chiming in without watching the video

The video is 12 minutes, no one can be bothered with that. I have a max attention span of 3 minutes when it comes to linked videos.

I watched 5 mins of the video then switched off. 12 mins is too long to listen to waffle.

For me, I put in a stone from sugar binging in the space of 4m last year, eating as much as you can of good stuff is what has helped me lose it and not feel it as a restriction. I don't feel I'm starving myself but I do have to keep an eye on portion sizes especially for say pasta which I find too easy to eat too much of. Reading Allen Carr was a massive help with the junk/emotional eating.

It’s a discussion board. If you have a point to make - make it.

You don’t need to link to a video.

A diet worked for me & 7 yrs on it's still working. I lost 7 stone & have kept it off, (within 5lbs either way). I low carb & weigh all of my food. It's made such a huge difference to my life I will stay on this diet forever

Every diet has a reason why it "isn't a diet". From it's natural, it's easy, it's how our ancestors ate, it's just being healthy, it's just cutting back, it's just listening to your body, it's a lifestyle change. In fact these days you'd be hard pressed to find a diet that is called a diet.

A diet is what you eat and how you decide what to eat.

okay the video link is old 7 years. there is more recent info.
right off the bat she is selling a book...so a vested interest in promoting her concept.
she twists the truth about the decreased metabolism associated with weighing less which is temporary and if weight loss is accompanied with exercise will after a short period increase your muscle mass and increase your metabolism (mayo clinic info from 2018).
i'm sure some people produce more hunger hormone than others (either developed or genetic) which makes it much harder for some to limit their consumption. add in cheap quick foods available 24/7 and you have a societal problem.
as for failure rates, well no one has asked me or my dh or friends who have successfully lost and kept weight off. just not sure how those numbers would be captured (not everyone see's a dr.) it is something people can do on their own without outside assistance.