That theres a point in life where you should give up diets

[Yipitsme]

And just bloody enjoy every delicious food you like and not give a damn?i feel like this after a lifetime of exercising eating carefully to look a certain way
And now nearing 50 ive had enough!the way I see it by my age most people have had their youth, met a partner be it that they are with or without,had their kids ,done all the big life things.i was thinking to myself after a lifetime of keeping up appearance and restricting and stopping myself eating what I'd like ,id like to stop and enjoy with wild abandon.Anyone else???

50 is a bad time to do that - diabetes, heart disease etc. You put on weight so much easier with the menopause too.

Can’t you do wild abandon at weekends and be sensible during the week?

I think I'll be more concious as I get older as illnesses related to older age will come into play. When you are younger you think you will love forever.

*live

Yes and no. You need not to overeat. Why do something that can cause pretty serious health problems that have a huge impact to life?

Yes, indulge in moderation. If something is to be seen as a 'treat' , rarity is part of that. It becomes mundane if eaten too often and ceases to be a 'treat'.

You still have pretty much half your life to lead at 50! Hopefully. I am 48 and am not over yet! I exercise. Moderate my diet to my needs. I like looking and feeling good as well as enjoying food and drink. You can have it all! You just need to pace yourself!

I actually dont care about the weight,I've maintained a trim figure for so long and I dont care about looking a certain way anymore!as for illnesses,I'm healthy and active and the active part would always remain as its part of my lifestyle.

I don’t think YABU. I am the same age and a stone or two overweight. I haven’t got the drive to reduce my weight now. I don’t think I will balloon but I’m so confident in myself now and think I’m a goddess. Thin beauty is a young woman’s game!

Wild abandon just becomes recklessness if you are forever trying to pick yourself up from over indulgence. I like the rhythm and routines of life. I like to have balance. This includes some self discipline because forethought means that you won't always feel like doing or not doing something but will be pleased you did or didn't afterwards. On a winter's day you'd hardly want to leave your bed or leave your house but then you'd never do anything!

I've always tried to eat fairly well and take regular exercise just to maintain my health rather than look a certain way, so that would make you U in my books. But if you've been doing it just to keep thin, then YANBU.

And I've been overweight before (bad back then cancer) and am now slim. I am stronger, look much better and feel much much better. I want to enjoy my food rather than feel like it rules me.

I don't know... I am actually currently losing weight but I still enjoy the food I like. You can do that, just be sensible.

I intermittent fast so still have lovely food and wine just don’t binge snack on biscuits etc like I was doing

There's a point (which really should come earlier than 50, and in an ideal world be the starting and continuing, permanent standpoint) at which people should eat and exercise for health and happiness not because of external appearance, numbers on a scale or other people's opinions, yes...

People damage their health following unhealthy diets trying to be skinny and peopke damage their health by over eating. From personal experience the kind of over eating which leads to being seriously over weight isn't about enjoying food so much as about self medicating to deal with stress or exhaustion, and is similar to alcholism in some ways. Obviously that's not to be recommend!

Enjoying food and enjoying life and not caring about what other people think of your body is certainly a benefit which often comes with maturity.

50 years of feeling deprived in the name of keeping trim? Oh Dear God.

I've been "trim" for 50 years but I love food. Real food, food that fuels and cares for my body and tastes amazing, not the crap that the marketing people have taught us is a "treat".

By 50, yes, we should have learned that refined sugar and hydrogenated fat is nothing of the sort and that feeding our body stuff that does it harm is the complete opposite of treating ourselves.

the way I see it by my age most people have had their youth, met a partner be it that they are with or without,had their kids ,done all the big life things.

Yes to savouring food but it should be at all ages anyway. Starving yourself at 20 years old is tragic! It's nothing to do with age. What you wrote here sounds too much like giving up. Positive change and experiences shouldn't be necessarily behind anyone at 50, 60 or 70- not whilst there's life in them!

On the contrary, I think an old age of ill health is to be avoided as far as possible and being overweight/obese (which I would be if I let go and just ate what I wanted) wouldnt help that.

Only if you don't expect the NHS to treat your obesity-related illnesses and have adequate savings or private cover.

I actually dont care about the weight,I've maintained a trim figure for so long

Well then it's probably easy for you to talk blithely about not caring about the weight. People who have actually been significantly overweight know that it's not as simple as just somehow deciding that you don't mind what you look like. It's also a question of discomfort, health issues and the way you are judged and treated by other people.

my god, you make it sound like your first 50 years have been a real misery!

I fast, so I enjoy plenty of healthy food, but still stay at a good weight for me, I don't deprive myself of anything.

Also, life does not end at 50...

I agree with pp it depends what your starting point is and how far you’re going to push it. I already decided in my early 30s that I’d rather be a shapely 12-14 and not deprive myself than be a smoking size 10 but always watching what I ate. But that’s all about vanity pounds. Completely different decision if your weight is such that it can affect your health, particularly as you get older.

Thing is, indulging with rich food and booze isn't as much fun as it sounds. It leaves you bloated, sluggish, and feeling out of control. You wouldn't be leaping joyously round the kitchen, you'd be shuffling to the fridge to ram another Mars bar into your face because you're too tired to cook.

I actually dont care about the weight,I've maintained a trim figure for so long and I dont care about looking a certain way anymore!as for illnesses,I'm healthy and active and the active part would always remain as its part of my lifestyle.

It’s not about a ‘trim figure’ (that phrase makes me laugh, it sounds like something from the 1960s).

It’s about health. I think that your fifties is the time when stuff really catches up with you. I’m 49 and I don’t want to become diabetic, so I’m eating far fewer sweet things than I’d like.

You should read ‘sweet poison’ or one of those books that will put the fear of God in you about diabetes in people who are not even overweight.

I don't think eating well and looking after one's physical health should be considered a diet, it's just good sense, surely? If you're generally ensuring your body is well looked after then indulging every now and again will cause no issue, but that shouldn't replace taking care of your health overall.

YABU because you're conflating exercise and eating well with appearance instead of health.

Well, yes, we'd all like to stop worrying and enjoy ourselves with wild abandon. Unfortunately most of the illnesses that start to trouble you in older age are made worse by carrying excess life. In particular, your knees will not thank you for extra weight, and pain in the knees doesn't just stop you from walking, it even stops you rolling over in bed.

Dont do it OP. In July, I realised I'd put on so much weight that it was painful to get out of bed. Bloody hell. 10k less now, another 10k to go. This will be my last weight loss effort. It's staying off after this.