To ask how long you have been on diets?

[Musicforsnorks]

I was reading an old thread about diets not working in the long term, with many people saying that they felt deprived and that led to eating more intermittently.

There was also an interesting video with a woman called Aarnodt (?), a neuroscientist who said we have a set point.

I say this as someone who has never been on a diet, but I do think overweight people are judged with ignorance. I believe how someone eats is largely down to appetite, and that our lizard brain can encourage us to 'eat all the things'. Those of us who have been naturally slim may not appreciate that, and I think appetite and how we negotiate it is largely very personal.

If you have been on a diet, have you kept it off for more than 5 years?
And how many of you have been dieting for over 20 years?
AIBU to think there is much, much more to this than calories in and out?

I say this as a 'thin' person' who has a light appetite and never gained over 7 lbs. I read about those who diets have repeatedly failed and feel that it is cynically set up to encourage that. And before anyone asks why a slim person cares, well I do, because i am human. I feel that looking down on people who are larger is a band aid for insecurity. It has never made sense to me. So long as people can judge the overweight, I guess life is great, eh?

I think what i am trying to say is people go through hell starving themselves eating what I do, and this can not be greed or stupidity. I am tired of the ignorance aimed at people who are overweight considering most of them have more willpower and go through more agony to shift it than any thin person would understand.
There are so many glib and ugly phrases aimed at people who struggle to lose weight. I guess if there is someone to look down on (like ex smokers do), it serves a purpose that is not particularly genuine.

You lost me at the end with the ex smokers bit? Actually I'm a bit confused in general. So you're not overweight and have never been on a diet?

In my experience ex smokers are more likely to judge smokers that is my point. I t can become a bit evangelical. for the record, i dont smoke!

Sorry if you are confused, I cant explain it any better than that :)

I think dieting is a money extractor and a fools game, and only eating mindfully can help. That is my point.

I am not entirely sure about the emphasis on the fact that you are a 'thin' person' who has a light appetite and never gained over 7 lbs who has never been on a diet. I am not even sure what is your point.

People on constant diets don't need your sympathy or support or solidarity.

Is it that you want to criticise the diet industry?

I've dieted on and off my whole life (I'm now 35) but I don't think it's a fools game. No, diets don't "work" as in you do it once, then you are slim for life. But they can help you maintain/get back down to a healthy weight if you have a tendency to gain. It's all very well to say "eat mindfully" but that's just another way of saying diet isn't it? Same goes for way of eating, lifestyle change, etc. They are all diets.

If you eat less calories than you burn, you'll lose weight. If going 'on a diet' refers to any plan that involves this, then of course they work.

I lost 6 stone and kept it off (10 years) but no, I don't judge anyone who is overweight, I'm probably less judgemental.

I'm also an ex smoker and I don't judge anyone that smokes.

Is there someone in your life that's overweight and you feel they should eat mindfully and this has prompted your thread?

Currently about 2 weeks and I've lost 4lbs since last week.

I've gone from eating pretty much everything in sight and drinking a ton of wine to eating less, choosing better food and drinking a lot less wine.

I am sticking to calorie counting, approx 1500, before I estimated I was on around 3000 a day and slowly gaining.

I did the exact same thing in 2018, lost about 2 stone and kept it off until 2020 when lockdown hit, gained a bit more, lost it a bit when things opened and then early 2021 went into a downward spiral and ended up here.

Primarily my reason for calorie counting is losing weight but it also helps me eat better foods because I can't just eat a ton of cheese every day and stick to my calories but I can fit in a lot of vegetables instead.

It works because I'm eating less. I'm not paying anybody to do it for me, the only thing I pay for is my food and 3 pinch of nom recipe books. I get free recipes online and use the free version of myfitnesspal to track my calories.

I do pay for the gym because I enjoy going but I could do exercise for free if I wanted to.

Keeping it off is difficult and it does involve determination to not go back to shoving cheese and wine into my mouth every 5 seconds and some days I get grumpy because I can't but it's much the same as getting grumpy because I want to buy everything and I can't afford to. It's life and sometimes it sucks.

I dieted on and off for 20 years, from the age of about 14. All it did was give me an eating disorder (binge and purge) and led me to putting on more weight. I did every diet going through those years. I can't remember a time during my teens or 20s that I wasn't on some sort of 'plan'.

I gave up in my 30s and paid for a bypass. Best thing I ever did, just wish I had done it 10 years earlier.

I think dieting makes you fat. Most fat people who have been on a diet are heavier now than when they started dieting.

Diets are stupid.

just eat less, it really is that simple. I’m prone to getting fat but I stand on the scales once every few weeks and if I see my weight has gone up past a certain point I simply cut back a bit - get back to my happy weight and all is good again.

At a guess 45 years
if im not constantly watching what I eat then I gain weight
then have to lose it

just eat less, it really is that simple

While I agree eating fewer calories is the way to losing weight, there's absolutely nothing simple about it.

Simple connotes easy, straight forward; it's anything but. If it was simple, hardly anyone would be overweight.

I've been low carb/keto for about four years now, lost about six stone so far. I've had a few days where i've fallen off the wagon but i've always got back on it.

For a diet to truly work you need to think of it as a lifestyle change rather than a diet.