... to tell you that diets don't work for everyone

[Wroxie]

Today is my 9 month anniversary of tracking every bite of food that's gone into my mouth, with the exception noted below:

My birthday (one day in which I had, as I remember, pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, no lunch, and fish and chips + a couple of donuts for dinner).

And that's it. I don't drink alcohol. No takeaways. No restaurants. Nothing that I didn't weigh, portion, and track faithfully. Even when I bake or make something from a recipe, every ingredient is weighed and the calories per serving calculated. I skip breakfast during the week and have normal, healthy food and smallish portions for lunch and dinner.

I eat, on average, 1,100 calories per day. I have a desk job but I walk for 30 minutes to an hour nearly every day.

Before this, my diet was pretty bad - takeaways 3-4 times per week, pastries for breakfast, sandwich with crisps and chocolate at lunch, biscuits whenever I felt like it- probably more than 2,500 calories most days (I'm 5'3" so that is A LOT).

And now, nine months later, I have gone from 13 stone to 12.3 stone. That's a grand total of ten pounds lost on an extremely restricted diet- and it was all within the first two months.

Please don't give me diet advice - no, I'm not in 'starvation mode' (because that's a complete myth). No, I don't need to 'cut carbs'. Seriously, I do not want your advice. What I want is to point out that, the next time you're tempted to say something asinine like 'it's just about calories in vs calories out' or to dismiss or vilify or judge someone based on their weight, to realise that the human body is not a two-stroke lawnmower engine and weight, food, activity, hormones, age, genes, and a million other factors are at play. Losing weight isn't simple and even with all the willpower in the world - which I have demonstrated - it isn't always possible.

I'm not giving up. I have gotten used to eating this way and I actually feel like my blood sugar is more regulated (no 'sinking feeling' a few hours after eating a big lunch, for example) and I know that as I get older, it will be better to, at the very least, not get any fatter. That, at least, I can probably do. But nothing short of eating less than 1000 calories per day or surgery or medication are going to get me to a 'normal' BMI.

Systemic inflammation does affect weight loss, I definitely remember reading something (a paper, not in Cosmo 😄) about it. Same with chronic stress.

How do you think cancer patients lose weight when their guts are one big inflammatory mess?

Because the cancer metabolises the fat in order to grow (as I understand things). Plus people can lose their appetite completely. I have had cancer. Didn't lose weight significantly even gained a bit at one point. But my tumours hadn't gone into significant metastasis.

Gosh you sound frustrated OP, and no wonder. I think the responses you're getting are because we have all met someone who routinely claims to be on a diet, moans about having just a salad for lunch, raids the vending machine/tea trolley each afternoon and then complains about why they're still fat when they're working so hard on their diet. There's a lot of willful and other ignorance at play in diets/weight loss, so when someone comes along and says they know exactly what they eat yet they aren't losing weight, the first response is skepticism.

You likely don't need or want more advice but I think the two broad options are a) stop letting your weight/your perception of other people's perception of your weight matter to you (you say "dismiss or vilify or judge someone based on their weight" when really I don't think most people do), or b) change tack in your approach with medical investigations or a different approach to eating. I can wax lyrical about how I lost weight, but really it won't bring much.

. The point is that the received wisdom about weight loss doesn't work for everyone or even for most people, it's not simple OR easy, and fat people don't have less willpower than other people

Bollocks. For almost all people, eating less calories than you use will result in weight loss. That's how human bodies work, they aren't that complicated. A tiny minority, because of specific issues, will not fit into that.
Diets do work for most people, its just that most people don't stick to diets. And yes, for the majority, fat people do have less willpower. I'm fat. It's because I eat too much and drink too much and don't exercise enough. I know exactly how to lose weight, but I don't have enough willpower to do anything more than try not to get much fatter.

It IS simple. It's not easy. You, like most people, lie to yourself, and make excuses. We all do it. You're not a scientific oddity, you're not a medical marvel, none of us is as complicated as we like to think ourselves.
If you don't have a specific medical condition that prevents you losing weight, you can do so with the right diet and enough exercise. Keep telling yourself that it's not you though, and you'll get nowhere.

mscongeniality

I'm 5'1 and 47kg, I want to lose 5lbs to get to my goal prebaby weight and I can't unless I eat 800 calories or less.

Can I ask why you want to lose weight? I'm 47kg at 5ft 4" and desperate to put some on!

@Eckhart
Years of research and reading around the subject,
Google it find out for yourself

You've crash dieted, reducing your calorie intake by more than 50%. Look up the results of crash dieting.

I believe you OP and I also understand your frustration at the constant parotting of eat less and move more. Whilst on a general level its true that a calorie deficit will cause weight loss this doesn't take into account the effect a specific macronutrient has on the body, hormone release, glycogen and fluid retention and how your body is able to access its fat stores.

If you had a blood test on current diet and blood test months ago then I’m sure you would get better results from your healthy eating test. It’s what is going on inside that is important - hormone regulation, sugar levels, cholesterol etc. You may not be a slender size 8 but you will be healthier and surely that is good as that would be the aim of your healthy eating?

OP I know you didn't want advice but I have starved myself so many times to lose weight, my metabolism tracks down to how little I am eating. I very dubiously joined Team RH after watching videos on FB. I am losing weight on 1800 calories a day, it's a revelation! It's been slow and steady, the first stone came off in 7 weeks and even slower since then, around 1 pound a week. But I can have the odd treat and I am eating BREAD. Some people on there are on far more calories than that, I am 5ft 7 and had 2 stone to lose (1 lockdown, 1 that I constantly lose and gain back through severely restricting calories then stopping and eating properly)

Stress affects our ability to control inflammation. Inflammation is caused and exacerbated by the NHS/professional dietician guidelines. Systemic inflammation (rather than localised inflammation, @bluebluezoo) plays a heavy part in most non-communicable diseases.

Jason Fung has the science and presents it in a straightforward way.

It's terrifying that the advice being given to us by professionals is what makes us fat and unhealthy, and then we are blamed for it.

The obesity crisis started when the government food guidelines were introduced.

Oh some of the stealth boasts advice on here though....

Zoe Harcombe is really good too. She does analyses of meta-studies so she's very clued up.

The obesity crisis started when the government food guidelines were introduced

Oh yeah, its definitely their fault

At 5ft 3 & relatively sedentary I would not consider 1100 calories a day an "extremely restricted diet". That's a bowl of porridge for breakfast, soup & a slice of bread plus fruit & a small yoghurt at lunch, and something like a healthy chicken curry at dinner if you dont go overboard on the rice. For many women over 30 who are quite slim that is just ordinary eating.

I know what you mean though OP. I suspect you are like me - you find that surprisingly you don't gain that much even when you eat loads, so assume that your "maintenance" level of eating is quite high, but I unscientifically believe that when I'm eating too much my body just shits more of it out! So my true "maintenance" requirement is quite a bit lower, and I have to drop to a lower than expected intake to really lose weight.

I have always found I lose little unless I significantly up the exercise - 2-3 runs of between 5-7km per week, lots of walking, an "active" mindset (staying on my feet not sitting watching tv).

@iftherewereahorseyinthehouse

I too started Fast800 online plan, on week 6 now and it has revolutionaised my eating and cooking.
I only needed to lose a stone so the plan suggested me the 5:2 plan rather than the 800cal everyday course.
I’ve lost the stone now and 11cm off my waist line. I haven’t gone hungry at all, even the fast days on 800 cal have been a breeze. I thought I’d struggle to give up my beloved pasta and bread but it has been surprisingly easy. Don’t really miss them at all now.

I still have sugar cravings but I’m kicking a lifetime habit of eating sweets when needing comfort and buffer to everyday stress.

There’s a 20% discount code for the 3 month plan in my Fast800 book, no idea if it’s still valid though! Sadly for me I didn’t see it until I had paid for my course. The code is: F800SUPPORT20

@andtheHossyourodeinon

Have you actually looked at any of the relevant science, or did you just come in to hoist an individual eyebrow without foundation? If you've not done your research, there's 2 perfectly viable scientists I've named that you can google. They're both very well qualified (more than you are, I suspect)

If you have done your research, can you name some names so that I can read what you've read?

Who do you think is at fault for the obesity crisis?

I'm only 5ft so I know how hard it is to lose weight when your a 'shortie'. However saying that's it does sound like you need advice from a health professional. I can maintain my weight on about 1500cals a day (average), but I do, do work out 4/5 times a week (HIIT/weights). I defo can't lose weight eating 1500 Cals....but because of the exercise I have dropped inches.

How do you explain that weight loss is a main symptom of coeliac disease then, when it’s the very definition of an inflammatory reaction?

Who do you thinkisat fault for the obesity crisis?

Personally I think it was when fat was demonised and extra sugars were added to food to make all this 'low fat" shite

I agree, Pahrump. 'Extra sugars' including the increase in carbs which is now recommended as 'the right amount'.

The obesity crisis started when the government food guidelines were introduced

I never followed it. I am fat.
It's a combination of sedentary lifestyle, convenience of convenience food and denial.
And thinking that 30 min of walking is an adequate exercise for body able adult.

Well that should be ablebodied. Apologies

@bluebluezoo

How do you explain that weight loss is a main symptom of coeliac disease then, when it’s the very definition of an inflammatory reaction?

Most people lose weight with untreated coeliacs, not all.

And I'd presume it's similar to a stomach upset but long term. Intestines are irritated so massively compensate with osmoregulation (to get the irritant away quickly)

@Pahrump

Who do you thinkisat fault for the obesity crisis?

Personally I think it was when fat was demonised and extra sugars were added to food to make all this 'low fat" shite

God yeah. It should really be made much ckearer that full fat is healthier