to think that if you want to lose weight you need to stop eating all the time?

[OrmIrian]

There are some women in my office who are always talking about losing weight. Always. And at the same time they never seem to stop snacking. But it?s all low-fat, low-cal snacks, branded stuff like Weight watchers, Go-Ahead and their ilk. Never an apple. Or some carrots. Or anything that is actively good for you, just stuff that isn?t fattening. And then lunch will be more low-fat over-priced crap. Or a lettuce leaf with reduced fat cottage cheese. And then ten mins later a low-fat yoghurt. Are they really really that hungry that they need to stoke the fires all the time? Any if so why not just eat a normal meal with more calories and taste and then STOP SNACKING?

Or alternatively walk to work sometimes .

It's OK I am being sooo unreasonable even I want to tell myself off but for some reason it winds me up...

its syns for synergy. not sins.

Oh. Sorry. But what does synergy mean in this context?

Oh low fat and low sugar just does my head in.

My sister buys everything reduced sugar and it really frightens me to think of the amount of aspartame she must be consuming.

Mind you I am very overly concerned with weight and diet issues. Every morning when I wake up I almost immediately think do I feel fat or thin today? Even before I get out of bed. I really hate that it such a major part of my psyche and will affect how I feel for the rest of the day really.

with slimming world, you eat as much 'free' food as possible. which on 'red' mean lean meats most fruits and vegetables (i think peas and sweetcorn are a no no), on green days, pasta rice potatoes are free foods, and then you have 'healthy extras' for your fibre choices (wholemeal bread, jacket potatoes on red, lean meat on green, then 'syns' which arent free and contain things like choc, crisps (packet of skips are 6 syns for example) which are basically the foods you shouldnt eat too much off anyway.

I think that weight is subjective though.

I'm 5 ft2 and weigh 9 st 12. Was 10 st 4 until I've lost 6 lb in three weeks through dieting and exercise (although I've lost more than that in mass because have toned due to exercise) and I am a size 12.

Now some would say I'm not overweight. (according to the BMI index I am though). And my mum says I am obese. (although she weighs three stone more than me and is the same height ).

But I used to be a size 8 until an overactive thyroid sent my metabolism loopy and the medication they gave me to rectify it caused me to gain weight and never lose it again.

So compared to what I used to be, I am overweight, although I realize not huge, but would like to weigh less, and have the figure I used to have (naturally).

But I don't obsess over food - I have simply cut all the crap out of my diet and I exercise regularly now.

Also, often the more weight you have to lose, the easier it is to lose it. Because when you have a lot to lose you can often lose 5/6/7 lb a week initially, whereas if you only have a few lb to lose you lose it 1 lb at a time.

I see. Thanks misdee. My SIL used to talk about sins all the time when she was dieting a few years back. The way she talked made it sound very 'naughty but nice' ifswim.

its just things that you really shouldnt eat much off. like butter, things with fat in, (but you get healthy extras like cheese etc, and olive oil).

i liked to save my syns up for an evening with a mini flake or if felt like it a take away chow mein (7 syns)

Societally-induced self-loathing by numbers....that's all this stuff is.
It's unhealthy and hateful and (i'm a size eight) believe me, thinnies bear the brunt of it when these weight-bores start.
Hate it big-time. One of my bugbears.
Was at a kiddy drop-in centre in town a couple of weeks ago, got myself and DS a baked potato each, and a couple of little fairy cakes (one for me, one for chum). Big table, 3 other mums sitting there.....the "catch" in their convo when i picked up a cake and started chowing was really unpleasant.
So i stuffed it in my gob, then picked up my friend's and scoffed that too, looking right back at them.
The way they reacted when i picked the 1st up- you'd think i'd given DS a fruit shoot laced with cola.
I replaced my chum's cake, BTW.
It's like they think you've reached some shangri-la, or holy grail of body-dom, and you're personally offending them by existing, and eating.
Get off your self-obsessed arses and eat properly, already, and stop lining the pockets of these diet companies.

That's aimed at weight-bores who can't break out of this binge/starve/lo-fat snack cycle, BTW.

i just don't understand why people feel the need to diet.

i'm not fat and i'm ^perfectly healthy

Dieting makes you fat. Dieting fucks your metabolism. Dieting is a life sentence that gets harder and harder because your metabolism slows and slows with each stupid unhealthy self-punishing diet you go on, and the minute you start to eat properly you gain more weight.
The whole slimming industry is one big woman-hating con, because it's always women that it's shoved at, always with the message that women mustn't be big, mustn't take up too much space, mustn't eat more than men. And a considerable part of the so-called obesity crisis is DIRECTLY the fault of the slimming industry.

Bravo MZ!
You forgot to mention the impending doom of the NHS, too, because it's in the post, folks.

Ok.

Some people delude themselves utterly when it comes to portion control, and don't have the self control not to clear everything from their plate..

They will 'guess' at how much a table spoon of grated cheese is, and end up chucking a handful of the stuff on their plate - but really, a table spoon of grated cheese is only a pinch - 10 grams.

But once it's there, they eat it.

It is very very difficult to convince them that it's just as wasted as fat on their arse than as food in the bin.

The only way around this is to give them some digital scales, and tell them to calorie count and weigh everything - hence weight watchers working.

It is a psychological or behavioral thing, it's not as simple as "Stop putting things in your mouth" - because they then don't know how much they are allowed to put in, and will feel guilty for every bite - and will be hungry - and will hit the vending machine hard.

People who are very overweight did not get that way because they were too lazy not to - I have been a size 20, it's not nice, it's not fun, and I absolutely hated being "The big girl" - I wanted to be a p[retty little princess. It's no use having "Nice hair and a lovely personality" if nobody wants to stroke your hair or talk to you!

It's because they just don't know where to start. They are thinking "Eeek got to lose 3 stone, eeeek I can't do it, sod it, I'll go to Evans."

And (full on autorant in progress) it really does not help that shops are pandering to everyone's wish to be 2 sizes smaller by cutting their clothes 2 sizes bigger. It allows the illusion of - Oh, I must be the same weight as 5 years ago - I'm the same size.

Newsflash - you're not. YOu could be 2 stone heavier.

God madamez. i fucking love you.

Will you marry me?

It's no coincidence that obesity has soared in tandem with the rise in the low-fat industry. I utterly despair at seeing people munch on these types of snacks. I follow a low-GI diet and it has utterly transformed my life. I am rarely hungry and rarely overeat. I just wish I'd done it 20 years ago.

Good lord!
We await your answer........

Agree with Madamez's last post. Also linked to that is the way one of those diet regimes (cannot recall which) refers to foodstuffs as 'sins or syns'. Food is not a sin FFS.

No! Wait!! I was high on cheese!

Wanna get thin? Put less in.

Three meals a day, smaller portion sizes and exercise more.

End of.

SD: DO you do the housework ?

I must admit, I have a lot of fat and protein in my diet, along with loadsa veg (not much fruit, though), and I'm a natural fidgeter.
I've hardly ever eaten carbs on their own (as it were), as half an hour later i'm shaking and sweating, and this is why i've never put weight on.
but....you try explaining than to someone who is stck in this lo-fat thing.
a friend of mine is always complaining about her ballooning weight, and what does she do....check this for odd behaviour....brings two big cakes and a bag (yes, a kilo bag) of fucking sugar for her tea when she visits.
makes me very sad.
Her idea of savoury (ie, to her, protein-y) food is a marmite rice cake.
she might as well be eating MORE sugar with a splodge of marmite, eh?
and still, i have to put up with the thin comments, as if i'm doing it on purpose.

madamez...

um

sometimes.

I'm house trained, does that count? and i do eat a lot of cheese.

baited breath, here........

I can absolutely pig out on a low GI way of eating (refuse to say diet) as it's the right food at the right time with the right stuff to level one's insulin and therefore stopping the high/low fluctuations which makes you crave more food and then eat it, which goes straight in as fat - even if it's an apple, because your insulin has opened your body to just accept anything and store it instead of use or burn it.

Low GI is remarkable; I'm NEVER hungry unless it's first thing in the morning and I have yet to eat breakfast!

This coming from the woman that is HUGE and needs to lose weight without pain (am not good at feeling hungry) is statement itself...

My nutritionist said it this way, once: Slimmingworld allows as much pasta as one can gorge on a green day; but would you eat flour, oil and water if it was seperated on a plate? No! It's vile... definitely put me off a plateful of pasta for tea, thinking "oh well, it has no calories so must be ok" as it's all long-release energy that doesn't get burned off so stores itself as fat.

A lot of obese people have more wrong than just eating too much, but rarely do you find people willing to accept that. I think mental health needs looking at - clinics much like those for anorexics where their head gets sorted as well as their health... but I doubt it'll happen.

Colditz - agree entirely that lots of people seemingly have no clue as to portion size or what a balanced diet looks and feels like (on the plate and in the body) and that WW type diets can be good at teaching that.