To think that people who say diets don’t work aren’t really trying

[amijumping]

I’ve lost a stone since having A baby got another stone to loose. It’s Been fucking hard I felt hungry for my usual snacks and rubbish for ages and still do but I’ve had to really get the willpower out to actually loose some weight. At first I tried to just easy a hit healthier but soon realised it wasn’t working as I wasn’t actually reducing my calories. Science states time and a time again it’s calories in vs calories out I’ve managed too lose weight slowly and sensibly by tracking everything that passes my mouth it’s hard it’s boring sometimes not fun but it’s the only way it’s worked. Otherwise I’ll think I’m being healthy and low calorie but things seriously add up that extra bit of mayonnaise extra slice of toast eyeballing butter in mash for example all adds up. Surely if people have been actively eating less calories than they need they would loose weight

I'm post menopausal and have lost weight in recent years and kept it off, it was no harder than when I was young. I need to lose a bit more and know that I can do it quite easily. As OP says, it's just a matter of eating less.

However, I don't believe in "diets". I still eat the same food as I always have, just less of it.

Well if you’re a shortarse like me, you need to eat around 1100-1200 cals a day to loose weight. It’s fine for a week or two then it becomes bloody miserable.
My husband is bigger/taller than me and can loose weight on around 1800 cals a day.
He has 600-700 extra cals a day to play with. Thats snacks, mayo, a beer or two.

Guess which one of us finds it easier to stick to a calorie controlled diet.

People can fail at diets for many reasons, one of them being anxiety as feeling hungry can cause anxiety to soar and one of the only ways to calm down is to eat something.

I’m not overweight at all ( normal BMI) but I’d like to loose 5-6lbs as I think clothes would look more streamlined, however I’m finding it extremely difficult as every time I deprive myself of food my anxiety sky rockets so I end up eating to calm down

So why is such a large percentage of the UK population over weight if it’s soooo simple? Do tell us…..

The set-point theory is held by a number of 'scientists', but not supported universally. Specifically, data from randomized controlled pharmacological weight loss trials question the existence of a set-point theory - and there's many factors involved that make the set-point theory simplistic (at best).

Diets work but it’s the maintenance that people struggle with. We tend to be goal oriented: I want to lose X pounds by Y’s wedding/my summer holiday/to fit in this dress. If one get to that goal great. They then increase their calories and think they can have that second piece of toast or slice of cake or bigger portions in general as they are no longer in a diet. They stop tracking. Then the weight creeps back on.
Permanent changes to eating habits is what’s needed and that’s very very difficult.

Gotta love goady posts like this. I assume OP is in her 20’s/early 30’s.

Let’s wait until you have chronic health conditions or have hit menopause. (And this is me who was a fit size 8 and didn’t even have to try hard to lose weight until about 42. ).

If only people just tried hard enough 🙄. And all people with mental health issues like depression, they just need to think happy 🤣

I think genetics plays a part. I hated being 12.5 stone and have dieted to get to 10.5. Have slipped a bit and put on 3lbs in 2 weeks. I am either severely hungry or I put on weight, there’s nothing in between. But my partner would just cut back a bit and barely get hungry to lose.Sickening!

Well 50% of posters agree with you.

I could eat whatever I wanted up until about 42 ish. I was around size 8-10.
Even eating healthily doesn’t work for me anymore, I now do intermittent fasting and eating pulses, lentils, vegetables, around 1,000 cals, maybe 1,500 to lose anything and it’s bloody hard and very boring! No crisps, choc, cake, wine, breads, potatoes most of the time. Wall Pilates, my bike and walking for exercise. I would’ve agreed with you ten years ago, but not now.

I ate 1k calories a day, carefully weighed out and portioned and I kept it up for 4 months. I gained a pound. My TDEE is supposed to be around 2.5k.

I have several health conditions as well as severe hypothyroidism that isn't responding to treatment (TSH of 25 despite taking more than a full replacement dose of thyroxine).

It's not as simple as just calories. Burning fat requires certain conditions and requirements and it's possible to have your body messed up enough that it's not able to enter that fat burning process. All that happened for me is I was permanently exhausted, had awful skin and hair, and lost huge amounts of muscle and strength.

My late OH had a terminal lung condition. He had a TDEE of 1.8k and was rapidly losing weight eating 4k calories a day.

He'd often cook dinner and serve up two thirds for himself and a third for me, then eat the half of my dinner I didn't eat after polishing his off, along with constant snacking and lots of sugary tea.

As a person within a normal and healthy weight range, I hope wiith all my heart that you become obese :) I mean that most sincerely and am not even remotely sorry to have said it :)

When you have the auto immune issues, inflammation and other health issues that so many people have who are fat, when you have had the sort of childhood that causes an ACE trauma in childhood Score that is 4 or more 6 or more which is linked directly and clearly to obesity, cancer, drug addiction and mental health issues as an adult, when you have experienced a severe illness and had to have a regime of drugs that caused you to gain weight, when you been abused into having a dysfunctional relationship to food, when you have any number of the dozens of factors that can cause obesity, then and only then do you get to open your privileged, disgusting, judgemental trap about how easy it is for fat people to lose weight.

With all my heart, I wish you the misery of being fat and being judged by arseholes like you. 😘

ChatGPT said:
Totally get where you’re coming from – it is bloody hard. People often underestimate how sneaky calories can be (the mayo/toast/butter examples you gave are spot on). You’ve done amazingly well to shift a stone already, especially after having a baby. That takes serious consistency and willpower.
I also think some folks say “diets don’t work” because they expect quick results, or they go too extreme, then bounce back. The way you’re doing it – steady, sustainable, actually tracking – that’s the stuff that sticks long term.
On a slightly different note, since I’ve been reading a lot about health recently, I came across this helpful resource on recognizing signs of dementia early.Obviously it’s not about weight loss, but it reminded me how much our overall health choices now can affect us later in life.
Keep going – you’re clearly on the right track, and the boring bit (consistency) is exactly what gets results in the end!

Because they're oblivious to the number of calories they're consuming and are couch potatoes

What does a typical days food look like for you? Hunger can be controlled when dieting by eating the right foods and drinking plenty of water.

If you eat a lot of sugar or carbohydrates the reason you're always hungry is your bodies insulin response.

OP, I could lose a stone. I did that almost every year after having DD2, and put it back on again. She's now 16.

Losing weight takes time. People don’t understand this. You may lose 5lb in the first week but that is fluid retention loss. Then it’s 0.5-2lb on average.

You can see how people give up on losing weight based on weight management groups (WW and Slimming World) I went to.

The worst time to start joining these groups is at the beginning of the year. There were about 70 odd in the group, about 25-30 of them were newbies. By end of Feb, those 25-30, half gave up. By end of March only about 3-5 of the newbies were still going. Numbers in the meeting were about 25-35. Some just weighed in and left.

Also those who started together with a friend or a sister. If one wasn’t well or unable to go to the meetings, the other one didn’t. Don’t go with someone.

Don't believe in "diets". I believe in eating healthy but not excluding anything. Like I have chocolat for pudding every evening but 50 g, not 200 g. And I exercice. You need to find something that will work for you every day for the rest of your life. So healthy yes, but not depriving yourself because it's not sustainable in the long run.

Agree totally.

If only the OP could try a bit harder to understand that it's 'lose' weight, and not 'loose' weight.... that really bugs me 🙄 (daughter of 2 English teachers here)

Looks like it’s hit a nerve with a few posters on her

i know a few people who “don’t eat a lot and tried every diet going “ and not lost anything
yet they’ve been on WL jabs that’s suppress your appetite and weights literally fallen off them

You’d lose even more weight if you lost all the extra letter o’s from the OP @amijumping. Also, it’s “would have.” But that’s easy, right? You just use the right words. We have all learnt this and it’s really basic stuff. I find spelling very easy! Why can so many people not spell when it’s so obvious how to do it?

Wait! Maybe our brains aren’t all functioning in the same way… Maybe some people can’t spell, maybe some are dyslexic. Maybe some people have brains that produce different levels of certain chemicals relating to appetite, willpower, how our bodies process food, weight loss etc. Genetics is a huge part of how easily people can lose weight. Science says so.

I personally found the main thing that helped me to lose weight and maintain it, was cutting out the abusive exh and his toxic family.

Being in the right headspace and away from a shit ton of negativity worked wonders.

Many people have stresses and situations in their life which make things extremely difficult that others may find easy. And that includes losing weight.

No, because I'm introducing a comparator into the argument.

OP is saying (to paraphrase) "People whose diets don't work aren't really trying. I have dieted successfully because I tried really hard."

I am saying - some people need to eat less than others to lose weight. Two people each on a diet of 1500 calories a day are 'trying' equally hard, but only one of them might lose weight. The other person might need to go down to 1000 calories or less, in other words 'try harder' than the first person.

@Comtesse , So why is such a large percentage of the UK population over weight if it’s soooo simple? Do tell us…..
Because they eat too much, and eat the wrong food.

Science has not said that. Increasingly the impact of blood sugar management and gut health are being understood. On the most basic level eating fewer calories than you need will lose weight, but the calories individuals need varies so much due to other factors and it's also just not sustainable or healthy for a body to be in a calorie deficit long term. I see many MNetters claim they can't eat more than 1000 calories a day without gaining weight. What a miserable way to live and I would wager there's something else going on with their bodies. I also believe you can not sufficiently keep your body nourished on that amount, considering how much fibre, protein, healthy fats etc we are thought to need to have a healthy body