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Weight loss chat

A space to talk openly about weight loss journeys and challenges. Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.

Healthy weight loss instead of Awful diet advice

94 replies

Cluelessmouse · 14/06/2022 14:45

Is it just me or is the diet advice here just awful.
every single thread someone’s suggesting a salad for lunch, like that’s going to make all the difference, or keep someone full after they’re used to eating well over their calorie allowance.
someone else suggests 800 or 1200 calories a day based on no other information than that is low or they’ve heard it before.
someone always tells the op to fast
often there’s a Cambridge diet ‘that definitely worked for me until I stopped and gained two stone back’ …so it didn’t work then.
there’s an op asking how many calories they’re allowed - but giving us no relevant info like their weight, height, activity level or diet
someone says ‘just drink water every time you feel hungry’ I would be peeing like a race horse!!!
and constantly there’s people failing at these awful diets or making themselves miserable or doing punishing diets like keto ‘that are ok after you stop having a headache’

no one ever seems to talk about how to eat lower calorie meals but still feel full. No one ever talks about the health aspects.
It’s all just how we can go through hell, to fit into a dress in 4 weeks, or go on holiday or whatever other goal we’ve left entirely too late.

i say all this as someone who also wants to lose weight, but I just find this board to be a fountain of misinformation and a lack of education on the body, nutrition and health. Which for me is really unsupportive and demotivating.

can we have a place to share healthy weight loss tips, how to eat nutritious filling meals that aren’t calorie dense, enjoyable ways to exercise, and generally healthy ways we may be trying to promote a healthy lifestyle instead of a gruelling punishment we must deserve for being chubby.

at the moment it all just reminds me of my mum doing a grapefruit diet or some other fad in the 90s and being miserable until she caved and ordered a takeaway.

OP posts:
PansyPetunia · 16/06/2022 13:49

How is chat harmful to others?

swifty1974 · 16/06/2022 13:51

if you really want some straight advice here it is.....

Do not do anything you cannot sustain for the rest of your life (fad diets etc)
Count calories and always maintain a small calorie defecit
Exercise regularly, start with low impact to reduce injuries (swimming, spinning, walking)
Do the above consistently over time and the weight will come of gradually
Dont stop, dont cheat, dont kid yourself and be patient

Its not easy but it is simple

swifty1974 · 16/06/2022 13:53

There are a number of website that will allow you to work out how much your body needs to maintain its current weight based upon age, sex, and size.

Just reduce this daily calorific requirement by 200-300 calories a day

swifty1974 · 16/06/2022 14:00

often there’s a Cambridge diet ‘that definitely worked for me until I stopped and gained two stone back’ …so it didn’t work then.

Basically this happens because youve starved your body drastically and its gone into storgae mode because it doesnt know where the next meal is coming from....this is the brains respone to starvation. You then stopped because it was a fad diet which was unsustainable. The when you start eating "normally" again your body takes a while to adjust and in the mean time you store lots and lots of fat....

Fad diets....not only do they not work but they actually encourage your body to store more fat....slow and steady wins every time

PansyPetunia · 16/06/2022 14:03

@swifty1974

Are you a dietician?

Resoluted · 16/06/2022 14:21

no one ever seems to talk about how to eat lower calorie meals but still feel full.

Every person who suggests keto / LCHF or drinking more liquid is doing exactly this 🙈 although not full exactly - that's something most people are better training themselves to find uncomfortable - but at least not in a place where they're still really hungry.

While I get your point, the vast majority of the things you've mentioned in your op and ruled out as being punishing etc are the things that have the best chance of actually working - gastric sleeves and surgery etc aside.

Many slim people I know fast to some extent - by either skipping breakfast or not snacking in the evenings. Or they just have a natural dislike for carbs and sugar (I have one DD like this and the other who is the opposite and the difference in their weights and shapes was apparent from the time they started school). Or they'll naturally eat about 1200 calories a day. Or they'll genuinely enjoy stuff like salads and not see it as some kind of deprivation.

I get your point that it can be demotivating but that's probably because they all sound hard. Which is sadly the reality of weight loss.

The reasons behind it probably aren't discussed so much because they're often either used as excuses or crutches, or they're obvious, or they've been done to death and the solutions are the same regardless. Wether you're overeating for comfort or convenience or because you are genuinely hungry the actual root cause is almost always a lack of discipline. And that is something every single human being on the planet struggles with, wether it's eating or getting out of bed or folding the laundry or running a business or studying for a test. And it's something that is making the people pretending to offer magical easy solutions a lot of money. When the reality is nobody really has the answer but we do all probably suspect it involves a lot of hard work.

I like to believe most people know this and that's why many threads focus on practical solutions that made the hard work easier for them instead of diving into the complex psychological reasons humans can lack discipline? The answers sadly won't change.

Youaremysunshine14 · 16/06/2022 14:24

PansyPetunia · 16/06/2022 14:03

@swifty1974

Are you a dietician?

You don't have to be a dietician to know that's what happens. There have been so many studies about the body regaining weight after it's been subjected to a vlcd, including the most famous one, the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. There's also this brilliant TED talk by the neuroscienctist Sandra Aamodt that discusses it.

Watchkeys · 16/06/2022 14:30

I think that anything other than eating lots of carbohydrate and fat in the addictive proportion known as 'the bliss point' (only available naturally in breast milk) is going to be difficult for us. You only have to walk around the shops. You go into any of the major supermarkets, and trying to find something that isn't carb-heavy to grab for a snack is impossible, unless you have fruit. It's either fruit, or 6 million other more appetising things made to look healthy, made to addict us, wrapped to tempt us. You can see why Granny Smith struggles. She didn't used to, when fruit was the sweetest thing we could get our hands on, other than a quarter of sherbet lemons each week and perhaps a cake made by Mum on Sundays for us all to share. Granny Smith did a lot better in those days.

Availability and advertising is the issue. Otherwise it's like telling people they are failing to look after themselves properly because they were washed away in a tsunami. There's simply too much crap available.

When's the last time you saw an advert for McDonalds? When's the last time you saw an advert for broccoli?

VastQuantities · 16/06/2022 14:56

I think people just post about what has worked for them. I've never read a thread and thought I HAVE to do this or I HAVE to do that. I just read other people's very varied experiences of what has or hasn't worked, and see what I might consider manageable in my life.

swifty1974 · 16/06/2022 15:20

PansyPetunia · 16/06/2022 14:03

@swifty1974

Are you a dietician?

Im not, Im just a massive fan of common sense and straight talking

Onlyrainbows · 16/06/2022 15:24

I lost 4st through calorie counting and exercise. I regained some when pregnant, but have kept most of it off. I one to lose 1st and I'll be a happy bunny :)

WouldBeGood · 16/06/2022 15:46

I would just like to say that my weight loss has not been “awful” or difficult!

I actually eat much more than before, just different amounts of things. Loads of protein, it’s so filling! Still eat bread, drink alcohol, eat everything, just do it all within a deficit.

Weight loss isn’t all doom and gloom!

PansyPetunia · 16/06/2022 15:54

@swifty1974 so what do you class as going back to eating 'normally' then? I'd say it's not normal eating

And the Cambridge diet is up to 1450 cals a day so how is it 'starvation mode'? How many calories is this starvation mode?

Hardtofindafreename · 16/06/2022 18:57

@WouldBeGood sounds like I used the same as your method. I stayed eating sandwiches for lunch but I changed to a healthier bread filled with loads of salad fillings. I still had rice or potatoes for dinners but again filled up with lots of different types of veg I'd never eaten before, & I had desserts every weekend, usually fruit and icecream. I even kept my treat of 2 biscuits with my cuppa every night. It definitely wasn't hardship eating, I was rarely if ever hungry once I got over the habit of snacking and and it has become a very much sustainable long term diet. I don't need to weigh my favorite of now, I know by sight what a proper portion. I've enjoyed a big wedding, a sun holiday and Christmas and only put on a lb or two which was easily shifted afterwards. It was an eye opener to me how much good food could be consumed and still remain in 1800 calories, just as it was an eye opener how many calories were one treat vs another.

PansyPetunia · 16/06/2022 19:09

I think snacking culture is at the root of it, and the social aspect

Cinema...almost a full meal these days with nachos/pic n mix/popcorn

Meeting for coffee....cake
A drink...tapas

Girls night... family packs of crisps and 'nibbles'

Baby showers...themed cakes
Weddings...canapés/main meal/midnight fish and chips as well as cake with 3 flavours

Work...constant cakes/biscuits/sweets for well-being

Trip to park....takeaway coffe/hot choc and take along snacks
Collect from school...snack for journey home
Get home...pre dinner snack
Movie night....snacks

Our lives revolve around food outside of mealtimes

swifty1974 · 16/06/2022 20:22

PansyPetunia · 16/06/2022 15:54

@swifty1974 so what do you class as going back to eating 'normally' then? I'd say it's not normal eating

And the Cambridge diet is up to 1450 cals a day so how is it 'starvation mode'? How many calories is this starvation mode?

By normally I meant not starving yourself which for most 9vetweight people I'd actually over eating....hence the fatness

swifty1974 · 16/06/2022 20:23

swifty1974 · 16/06/2022 20:22

By normally I meant not starving yourself which for most 9vetweight people I'd actually over eating....hence the fatness

Try that again....By normally I meant not starving yourself which for most overweight people Is actually over eating....hence the fatness

PurpleDaisies · 16/06/2022 20:25

.By normally I meant not starving yourself which for most overweight people is actually over eating....hence the fatness

No diet will work if you just go back to exactly whatever you were eating before, even a long slow and sensible one. There’s always an element of reevaluating what you eat when you reach the maintenance phase. Surely that’s common sense?

swifty1974 · 16/06/2022 20:32

PurpleDaisies · 16/06/2022 20:25

.By normally I meant not starving yourself which for most overweight people is actually over eating....hence the fatness

No diet will work if you just go back to exactly whatever you were eating before, even a long slow and sensible one. There’s always an element of reevaluating what you eat when you reach the maintenance phase. Surely that’s common sense?

My original response was as follows...........

if you really want some straight advice here it is.....

Do not do anything you cannot sustain for the rest of your life (fad diets etc)
Count calories and always maintain a small calorie defecit
Exercise regularly, start with low impact to reduce injuries (swimming, spinning, walking)
Do the above consistently over time and the weight will come of gradually
Dont stop, dont cheat, dont kid yourself and be patient

Its not easy but it is simple

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