What side of the health/weight loss argument do you sit on?

[Flopsy145]

My Instagram algorithm seems to be largely animal based diets, featuring meals such as beef mince, avocado, blueberries and raw honey (all mixed in together). I see a lot of bone broth, raw milk, obscene amount of eggs and cast iron skillets. No calorie counting, but definitely tracking protein. All weight training and pilates.

A few years ago I would be seeing skinny syrup and slender blend shakes, huge calorie deficits, lots of tracking. Cardio, light weight high reps etc.

For me, I eat a lot of meat, mainly beef and chicken. I eat at least 3 eggs a day, and try and eat lots of fruit and veg. Will eat bread, ideally sourdough but also love a bit of tiger bloomer. I don't like sweeteners so will use agave or honey, like to avoid additives but will eat the odd takeaway or cake. I CBA to calorie count but will eat mindfully. I love Jersey cow milk but won't drink raw milk. Don't have phosphates or sulphates in my hair care but will use Clarine eye cream rather than beef tallow 😂

Ideally I'd have a beehive and my own cows and chickens and allotments but sadly that's not the case.

There's plenty more out there, I'm just curious to see where other people sit on this spectrum?

I felt exhausted just reading your post! All those daft rules and dads!
I make my own food, vegetarian for ethical reasons, eat when I am hungry and stop when I am satiated. So eat what I want, when I want.
I enjoy being active, and do things I enjoy.

Since starting a desk based full time job I am stiffening up so trying to get more informal activity into my day, and more mobility stuff.

I am a size 6/8.

I'm pescaterian, I get Riverford recipe boxes X3 or 4 per week which means we eat really well and either vegetarian or vegan for those evenings. Other evenings are lazy dinners and sometimes processed (battered fish fillets, pizzas) but always with a side or 3 of veg/tomatoes/salad so hopefully that balances a bit. I'd eat less processed if just me but eldest is quite fussy and I am done battling. I bake salmon, veg and homemade chips/potatoes once per week as an easy dinner that everyone will eat. Often batch cook Bolognese and things like that to be served with pasta.

Breakfast for me is porridge with oat milk and frozen fruit, sometimes eggs. Lunch is jacket potato, soup or sandwich. Black coffee and green tea first thing, then just water or occasionally smoothies.

I had an ED as a teen and I probably tend to orthorexia now if I'm not careful, but I am ok at the moment and more about eating mindfully and fuelling my body.

I have a penchant for pain au chocolat and croissants dipped in good coffee. I run and exercise quite a lot and that helps with the feeling of eating to appetite and enjoying food, while also encouraging healthier eating because I want to be fit for exercise. My main barrier to eating well all the time is my energy levels when preparing food. If I get hangry and I'm tired, that's when I'll end up with a bowl or 3 of cereal just to give me a quick boost.

Does it have any side effects? My 19st son could do with it

Oh and I also have borderline high cholesterol which knocked a lot of my previously high fat (real butter, full fat milk etc) diet on its head. I've switched to skimmed or oat milk. Can't bring myself to buy veg spreads but I'm trying to eat less butter or replace with olive oil instead.
Cheese is probably my downfall 😁. It's good though.

My mum was super morbidly obese from age 40. She died of a heart attack at 70 after years of health issues (I'm surprised she lasted that long) so I'm hello bent on never getting fat. My bmi is 24.9 so I'm dangerously on the edge of overweight but I've had a baby 2 months ago. My weightless go to is normally lots of berries. Yogurt, seeds, nuts, veg and grains

I've lost 12kg over the past three months (and am now into a healthy BMI) by cutting calories and eating a higher volume of healthier food - salads, soups etc - so I don't feel hungry. A typical meal is a grilled chicken breast plus 2/3 different salads x2 two a day, and treats in moderation.

I think health/weight has to fit the person, people will do well when they aren't having to fight themselves every step of the way. That may mean vegan / whole foods / Mounjaro / carnivore / 5.2 / 16.8 / whatever.

I think we just stick to what works. If I put weight on I want to strip fat and not muscle. So I do a light fast for a bit. Just water until 12 pm and just water after 8pm making sure I track the protein I need because I weight train. Extreme fasting (or starving yourself) strips muscle, injections strip muscle. So the scales will show that magic number but your body is swearing at you.

But NOTHING is the enemy. I can have what I feel like to eat in moderation. I don't want to spend my life thinking about food.

I use scales that give you readings for everything. Bone mass, muscle mass, fluids, protein etc. they're not an exact science obviously but they're good for monitoring overall.

I eat 800 calories a day, the same foods every day. Protein bar, vegan cocktail sausages, vegan lasagne ready meal. Once in a while, I may have a an 85calorie pack of baked wotsits after dinner. My BMI is overweight, and I don't appear to be losing anything.

I know my diet isn't healthy but I can't be bothered to change anything when as a society we seem to know duck all anyway. I'm staying fat on 800 calories a day, that should be impossible, but it's happening. So I just continue with it. I did try to eat better last year by including loads of veg, but just made me feel sick and didn't feel better even after 6 months of sticking with it. Got tired of it in the end.

I have been diagnosed with anorexia a few years back , but that was because I wasn't eating at all 5 days a week. I certainly had lost weight because of that and was very slim (but not extremely underweight, BMI of about 16 by the time I got medical care, but I was very sick). None of them believed me when I told them the "healthy maintenance diet" (after weight restoration) they gave me when I left hospital was too much. I was wrong they said. That is what I should be eating. And oh look at that, got super fat from it - almost obese.

We don't know anything about nutrition and we should stop pretending we do. I don't trust anyone to tell me how I should eat, they don't listen to me when u relay my lived experiences and it's wrong.

Let people eat how they like, and get off people's arses about being too fat or skinny because no one knows shit.

I don't know what sides you mean.

I'm interested in supporting local producers, in food security in a time of climate change, and the environmental impact of food, food production and food waste. I'm interested in preventing hunger and particularly child hunger in the 6th biggest economy in the world. I think perfect nutrition and perfect health is an illusion with suspiciously eugenic origins. I think that both weight loss and environmentally aware living have replaced religion for many people, including me. I'm also overweight, usually obese but currently doing better there thanks to (environmentally damaging) injections. Every food decision is make is shot through with a million different calculations.

I used to be very much about perfection, making sure every single thing I ate was 'clean' and that I was within my calories every day. Trouble is it wasn't sustainable, I became obsessed with food and started having binge/restrict cycles.

Now I'm much more balanced. The vast majority of my meals are balanced with fresh ingredients but I also have chocolate, dessert, crisps etc when I fancy it (as I'm no longer banning these its not that often tbh as I know i could have them whenever). I have found physical activities i enjoy doing so exercise feels easy because it's no longer a chore or a punishment because I hate my body.

There's so much out there when the answer is different for anyone; generally though I do believe striving for perfection rarely works.

Dunno but obesity DEFINITELY has multiple and many adverse ‘side’ effects, in many domains of health and mortality.

I have insulin resistance, due to complex endocrine problem, as a result my best diet is low carb. I hit 60 last year and with a combination of major stress, hormone blockers ( breast cancer) and being post meno/age, I hit my top weight.
I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and following the premature death of my little sister ( who lived a very healthy active life compared to mine) from pancreatic cancer, I decided to sort my diet out.

I cut out unnecessary carbs, I love bread, and chose calorie deficit diet. I’m now nearly 10kg down. We eat a lot of chicken and plant based meals, DH had a stroke 3 yrs ago and his taste has changed along with mild dysphagia so avoids most red meats. He had a few choking episodes early on after the stroke so avoids it.

I really notice the difference. I had a piece of cake , my birthday treat, and literally fell asleep within ten minutes when my insulin surged. It just reinforces the fact that refined carbs are not good for me.

I cook from scratch, I don’t do low calorie stuff, still use cream, butter etc to provide flavour but just eat less. We avoid convenience foods with all the hidden sugar, you can really taste it if you haven’t eaten any for a while.

I think that it’s about finding the diet that suits your body. And accepting that as you age your BMR drops, so you can no longer eat as much as you could in your twenties.