So if nearly all of us are going to put the weight back on again, is there any point in trying to lose it in the first place?

[Fingalswave]

Caught brief glimpses of TV progs on this subject recently. Apparently, only 20% of dieters succeed in maintaining their weight loss? If this is true, why are we encouraged by doctors to try and reduce our weight? Does anyone have any links to the science pls?

And as I was going to start trying to lose weight in Lent, is there any point?

Personally I think exercise is the key abc because exercise is "free" and means that people will need more leisure time, the government and food industry won't admit it. They can keep flogging low fat shit at 3 times the price.

I was aneorexic in my teens & 20's but the lowest weight I could get was still a BMI of 21. I feel so much better at a BMI of 27 than I ever did at 21. Energy, stamina, strength (male attention!) but I hate myself. Because I'm "fat".

The world is fucked up

OP, of course 80%+ puts the weight back on - they lost it with a diet. Diets are temporary. If you are overweight, it means your eating+exercise combo is wrong. It needs an overhaul, a permanent change, forever, for the rest of your life. The people who don't put the weight back on are the ones who lost it with a lifestyle-change and never went back to the eating-exercising they had had before.

I lost weight a year ago by slimming world and running more (I was already halfheartedly a runner, but would have to be in the mood to run which wasn't very often) due to getting onto the Great North Run.

I then discovered a local bootcamp class which I love. It has become more like a social thing than exercise now. Also have a PT session once a week weight training.

I have ditched the SW in about July time because I am now using my spare time and money on exercise. The plan was to follow the plan just not be a member. That didn't really work out.

I eat crap (too much crap) but exercise hard 4 times a week (3 hour long bootcamps and an hour long weights session with my PT) during the week plus run a couple of times too at the weekend (Parkrun and a long run at least 8-10 miles on a Sunday and have 3 half marathons this year which Im signed up to)

I did put on a couple of lbs over Christmas when I slowed down my exercise to a couple of times a week, but have now lost that again.

I can't get below where I am now with my current lifestyle, but I am maintaining. I know what I need to do to lose a bit more weight. TBH my heart just isn't in it ATM, but I know that by keeping up the exercise for a bit I can carry on maintaining. I just need to sort out my diet. I do only really drink water though where I used to have a can of coke for breakfast some days.

Im currently a size 10-12 which Im happy with ATM. I do realise that Im probably not doing my body too much good with the crap I eat. I think you have to WANT it to be able to do it. By that I dont mean Id like to lose some weight or I need to be healthier, but to actually WANT it from deep down. Right now I dont think I do. Though Im not going to beat myself up about it.

Id be fucked if I injured myself like breaking my leg or something, but then Id have money and time for SW again.

I think the other thing that happens when you exercise is that you tend to be a bit more aware of what you're eating so you don't undo all your good work. Plus you feel a bit better about yourself mentally, so have, perhaps, less need to comfort eat.
That's a good point that I never thought about. I dont comfort eat, but I do relieve a lot of stress by lifting heavy shit and sweating it out of me.

So for me, at the moment at least, exercise certainly is the key.
Whether I'll put on weight in the future, who knows, though I certainly feel like I have adopted a new lifestyle that I can maintain.

Really interesting to read all of these further responses, thank you.

Getting inspired for Lent now, thanks to everyone on here!

And I think the consensus is that exercise is more important than we have been generally led to believe, so definitely going to try and up my game (gently) on that front! Going to go from couch potato to counting steps, then daily walks, then power walks.

Yes, and that's a very good point about awareness and exercise.

CaptainBrickbeard it's so true that looking back in hindsight is not reliable because of fashion and one's own skewed perception. I remember looking at a photograph of myself an age ago and thinking that I looked huge and hippo-like and yet I was considerably less than the weight I am now. If only I had tried to maintain the weight I was then instead of aiming for an unrealistic goal and failing. But hindsight's a wonderful thing!

Oh that is hard to read about hating yourself FitFatty despite you being at a healthy weight. You obviously have great insight though and I hope you will be able to turn your perceptions about yourself around.

Thanks for book tip Flapinko

SleepwhenIdie I like the sound of that 80/20 food approach.

Thank you everyone else for all of your input and wise words!

And thanks for Tedtalk link too Don'task

and for daily mail link busyboy which I missed earlier (never thought I would be writing that sentence tbh !)

And congratulations to everyone who has lost weight and managed to keep it off or for those who have reached a healthy happy compromise!

I've also found this thread really interesting - I watched the programme and initially found it rather depressing. But, on second thoughts, it was very 'fluffy' and didn't examine the psychological aspects of management at all. I also think that it would have been more interesting to see whether a group of average dieters had kept weight off, rather than it being 'super' slimmers.
I'm currently losing weight and am determined to keep it off...so, I'm genuinely trying to overhaul my lifestyle. I have to say that I agree with other posters who think that exercise is really the key. I know we're told that losing weight is 80% food and 20% exercise, but, actually, I really don't agree. Since I started running and cycling regularly, I have noticed such a massive difference in how my metabolism works. Yes I have made changes to my diet, but they're relatively small and I've found that, since exercising regularly, I can have a few treats at the weekend and still lose weight and it's a way of living/eating that I genuinely feel that I will keep to for ever. I'm not on a diet, so there'll be nothing to 'come off' when I reach my target weight - I really think that is probably the only way to lose weight and keep it off permanently.

I would also chip in here with my own and my mum's experience with weight watchers.

I've just gone back for the umpteenth time as has she as neither of us seem to be able to rein it in on our own.

However its not all bad. Basically when i was getting married 20 years ago my mum wanted to lose 2 stone so I went along with her for moral support. i only needed to lose 10 lbs to get to my goal weight and we both managed to get to goal quite easily.

This meant we were now gold members and as long as we were within 5lbs of our goal weight we could go free.

Everytime I've stopped going I've put on those 10 lbs but then I can rejoin and rein it in again when I want to do so. Mum has done the same. So really it has meant that out weight has never got massively out of hand and we always know what to do to fix it. So I guess it has kept us on a fairly even keep over the years really.

So many people put on weight again because they "diet", and then go back to their old ways afterwards. Just as getting and staying fat involves overeating on a permanent basis, maintaining a healthy weight involves eating the correct number of calories on a permanent basis. Too many people want to believe there's some quick fix rather than accept maintaining a weight loss requires a moderate amount of effort over the long term.

People who understand weight loss (which is actually very simple), stick to their new lifestyle and decide it's worth putting in the effort to maintain it on a permanent basis will certainly have far more success than your average weight-loss club member or fad dieter.

I’ve been a yo-yo dieter my whole life since I was about 8 years old until a few years ago. I came to the conclusion diets didn’t work for me and later read a great book which confirmed the science behind this. I’d really recommend ‘Secrets from the Eating Lab’ by Dr Traci Mann. She was one of the scientists on the C4 doc ‘Super Slimmers: Did they really keep the weight off’. The book is easy to read and the science is very clear I’m afraid. 90-95% of diets don’t keep weight off long term and going on a diet is a predictor of future weight gain.

For me, feeling good in my own skin is the key. I've had to look long & hard at my relationship with food because I had serious emotional eating and bingeing tendencies. No diet will ever address these problems - they need a completely different approach. It all starts with self compassion.

Yes SMWylder That's why the Paul Mackenna "I Can Make You Thin" way of eating (it's not a diet ) actually works for me, it offers ways to 'cope' with cravings and how to overcome emotional eating.

Most importantly how to accept yourself.

Absolutely SMW - the problem with diets and our glorification of one type of body means the approach is almost always based on hate, punishment, deprivation. It's not an approach that works long term for anything! You can't hate your body into something you love, start with acceptance and nurturing and learning to enjoy moving your body and the chances of long term success are much higher, it's a miserable, unsustainable way to live, constantly criticising, battling appetite, fighting your own body

A fellow rebeller here nell15. I found the Gillian Riley approach really helpful, to notice why I was rebelling and what I was rebelling against: eatingless.com

I would 't say I was completely cured, but if i ever catch myself overeating, i know how to 'talk myself round'. Hope you fund what works for you.

I’m right there with you sleepwhenidie. I think the sad thing about diets is that they disconnect us from our body’s natural cues about food. To the point where we can’t trust ourselves to be near anything ‘bad’ for fear of bingeing on it. Or feel confident that we know how to feed ourselves properly because we’re thinking about the plan rules rather than what we want and need.

People put it back on because they "diet" not change their diet.

What an intelligent, well observed remark.

I weight 18st 12lbs - the fattest I've ever been. I thought 17st 7lbs was big when I weighed that much 20 years ago. I've dieted on and off since my teenage years. I'm middle aged now. At 5'3" my BMI will put me in a coffin.

It was interesting to watch that programme. The lady that had lost 8st on a diet but put 3st back on when her marriage broke up. She went back to Rosemary Conley which is how I assume she lost the weight in the first place.

Rosemary Conley was very encouraging and said sometimes something comes along that knock us off track. She also said it's not to late, welcome back to class. Well that was the gist of it anyway.

I lost a significant amount of weight on a Rosemary Conley diet. Unfortunately I comfort eat and life got stressful for a few years. (Join in if you know the words) I put the weight on and more besides.

Apparently 95% of dieters put all of their lost weight back on. Also, I know Rosemary Conley has all but gone out of business and is pretty much only available online except for her own diet class. A lot of franchises bailed out at the end.

So, like the Rosemary Conley dieter from the t.v. show, I'm back on the wagon.

For exercise I do boot camp once a week.

I am anti-diet for any 'diet' but IMHO ToEarly, RC diet, being low fat, is very hard to sustain (because the sense of deprivation is so strong for most people) and more importantly, unlikely to be particularly healthy, there's so much nutritional evidence now to show that fat is not the problem..indeed, we need it, there's a reason for the term 'essential' in EFA's . That's not to say we should eat any and all fats (only hydrogentated fats should be avoided) but cutting them all out for any length of time is likely to cause health problems at some point.

The No S Diet is the best approach I've found to this. It is, essentially, eat 3 plates of food a day, Mon-Fri. Any food, so long as it fits on a plate. No snacks, no sweets and no seconds during the week. On S days (Saturdays, Sundays, special days and sick days), eat whatever you like. That's it. No calorie counting, no cutting carbs, nothing complicated, no deprivation. It really calmed my head down and cut my sweet tooth. This is how slim people eat. It is very slow weight loss but very sustainable.

And how long have you been using the no S diet? As that is the issue not whether it works at the start.
I'm pretty sure if a slim person (I live with one) is hungry and wants an apple or piece of toast in the evening they just have one, and don't wait for their "breakfast plate" time.

But therein, I think, lies the problem. None of the naturally slim people that I know follow any rules as they have a different relationship with food and don't need to.

But, without some 'rules' I know that I will probably put back what I have lost. And that is backed up by watching people that I know - the ones that have lost weight and kept it off are all very aware slightly obsessive about their diet and the need for exercise.

kneesupfatty the problem is that hypervigilence around food and how much you exercise isn't a sustainable way for most of us to live. And if your metabolic rate has fallen through the floor due to dieting, you're probably fighting a losing battle anyway.
One of the key differences between 'naturally slim' folks and the rest of us is that they are in touch with the natural cues from the body. That's why they don't need rules.

I totally agree, SMWylder, but I think that most ex-overweight people, even if listening to natural cues from their body, have to commit to being 'very careful' for life, particularly during times of stress/upset, which I know, through personal experience, is when old eating habits tend to resurface. I don't believe in 'diets' and am losing weight through healthy eating and exercise, but I do realise that, if I am to keep the weight off, I will have to make a continual conscious effort. I wish I could learn to eat like a 'naturally' slim person, but I'm not sure it's realistic.

Does it matter though if at certain stressful times your eating reverts and you go back to old ways as long as you quickly notice this and stop it becoming a permanent change. A lot of dieters have the "I've messed up so may as well eat the contents of the fridge" approach, rather than a "gosh I've overeaten during MIL's visit, better sort that out this week".