UCLA: "Better off not going on the diet at all"

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naomicnt

New member
I'm interested in your opinion on this: BBC NEWS | Health | Many dieters 'finish up heavier'

It says 2/3rds of all dieiters gain back more than they lost in 5 years and that weight fluctuations like that are linked to lots of the health issues we usually associate with being overweight.

Personally, when I was slim I was zealously fat-positive and a firm believer in HAES. I still am, but I'm dieiting now - I work out for health reasons, but don't fool myself about the diet. I'm trying to lose weight because I'm self-conscious about it. What do you all think about the study, HAES and the fat-positive movement?
 
depends how you define dieting....

let me explain.

I am not on a diet right now, but I am following a healthy "diet" in the sense I am making smarter food choices and being more conscious of my calories. When I think of the word "diet" I think of "The Grapefruit Diet" "The low Carb Diet" "The Miracle Diet" and things of that nature, and yes, I think they are dangerous because they offer quick fixes that are concerned more with rapid weight loss rather than the changing of eaing abits and education about eating healthy. I think we all know those people (including ourslves) that did lose 18 pounds in 10 days on the fad diet of the week, and put it all back on. And of course there must be some serious problems in shaking up a persons body so dramtically. Yo-yoing like that really cant be good at all.

I haven't had a chance to read the article as BBC is blocked at work (in China) but essentially I agree that diets are generally unhealthy and more accurately, lead to unhealthy expectations. I know several hardcore "Lose 18 pounds in 7-10 day" dieters back home, who follow the program, lose the weight and then revert back to thier old habits, knowing full well when they have gained back those 18 pounds, they can simpy go on the diet for 10 days and be thinner again. Horrible!

Diets in general are a bad idea in my very non-professional opinon. What will really make a difference is education. "If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life" Diets like many things follow this same rule. Dieting can achieve short term goals quite easily, but they are of little or no value if they do not teach a person how to never need a diet again. In fact it is bad for the diet business. If enough people caught on to the concept of a proper diet instead of an easy "diet" those companies would go bankrupt fast.

So long story short, I think diets are bad. Period. Do I think people should just give up and stay over weight? Hell no! But then thats why I am here. I am tired of the quick fixes and mircales. Now I want an education on how to change my entire life, so I never EVER even consider a diet again as long as I live. And by doing so I think I will live a lot longer. WLF has taught me more in 3 months than I ever learned in every diet I have ever been on. And thats a lot of diets!

I hope I can get to that article from home as it sounds quite interesting.

sirant
 
I read the article, and it basically confirms what many people on here already know. That, as sirant said, faddy diets dont work!

I think this excerpt sums it up:

Dr Ian Campbell, medical director of Weight Concern, said too many people approached dieting as a short-term measure.

"Keeping weight off is a life-long challenge. It is just like heart disease or mental health problems, if you stop taking your medicine you can get worse.

"People who are overweight often don't have a balanced lifestyle and after losing weight too many stop keeping active or eating healthily."
 
I'm one of those who is not on a diet. When I use the word "diet" I mean monitoring my nutrients -- paying as much attention to what I put into my body as I do to the gas I put in my car.

I think a big reason why diets fail is that people don't understand the concept of energy balance. They don't understand how exercise fits into everything. They don't understand a lot of things. And neither did I, until this time around.
 
The trick is going to be to continue eating healthy once we are down to our goal weights. Hopefully eating a whole bag of Doritos will lose its appeal. No forever to fast food joints. Hopefully we'll like being slender so much that we won't become complacent about it.

I think I will be able to maintain a lower weight because I maintained my higher weight for five years. My damage was done over years I took medications. I am trying to undo that damage and pray to maintain a lower weight.
 
naomicnt said:
I'm interested in your opinion on this: BBC NEWS | Health | What do you all think about the study, HAES and the fat-positive movement?
Click to expand...


Truthfully I don't think the study (or at least what the BBC reported about it) said anything new or surprising...heck just look around at the newbie introduction section of this forum - or even the first pages of most diaries and probably the majority of them make some reference to a previous weight loss. Yea, diets ultimately fail...because it's taking a short term approach to what is essentially a long term problem.

I don't have a clue what HAES is - so no opinion, but I have some (limited) idea of the fat-positive movement having seen a couple of interviews on it...and, to be totally blunt, I think it's a dangerous (health wise) mindset rooted in denial. When I was at my heaviest I had a routine check-up and was basically told that unless something changed soon I was heading for some serious, potentially non-reversible health risks - sorry but I just don't find anything "positive" about being pre-diabetic...
 
Cym: Thanks for sharing your experience. The fat-positive writers and activists that I respect generally subscribe to Healthy at Every Size, which is similar to what Sirant describes - eating healthier and exercising regardless of what the scale says. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the idea - getting out, being healthy, moving and enjoying life at any size. I did a Google search of diabetes, and the general consensus seems to be that the emphasis shouldn't be on weight loss but on proper nutrition, which doesn't contradict the fat-positive, HAES message.
 
I visited some relatives last week, and naturally the subject kept coming around to my weight loss. "My husband can lose weight easily on his egg diet, then he just puts it all back on plus more" Classic tale isn't it? "How long did you diet for? was another question. I hate this question, because 1) I never saw it as a temporary slimming diet, and b) I changed lifestyle. I have stopped trying to lose any more weight, but I still care about my nutrition and exercise.

For most of my weight loss, I didn't even count calories. I just ate good, and got off of my rear end. I still do. Before my weight loss I knew nothing about nutrition or exercise. I just had a passive attitude towards my health and fitness. A changed state of mind was what allowed me to take control. Before I knew it, I started to feel the benefits of adopting a healthier lifestyle.

Now that I'm post weight loss, I'm aware that I mustn't obsess about food. I do let go every now and then, have a few beers, a slice of cake, etc. However, I still control my basic diet - I make sure that I eat well - I eat my greens, fruits, flax oil, sardines, berries, nuts, wholegrains etc. I hope to continue living a better lifestyle for a very long time. I don't have to spend every spare minute of my time exercising either. Three or four hours per week (sometimes I have a break week with no exercise) are more than enough to not only maintain weight loss, but improve my fitness further. I vary my exercise to - sometimes I'm concentrating on weight lifting, other weeks I prefer cross country running, other weeks its hiking, cycling etc. The point is to enjoy exercise.

I just googled HAES and read a little about the approach. It sounds a very sensible approach. Eat and exercise for a healthier and fitter lifestyle, and for most people weight loss will follow anyway. It would be an approach with benefits for anybody who takes it. Yes, I like it!
 
Dieting without thinking is dangerous. But everyone here knows that you have to eat better and exercise. In my experience, the people that are successful in the long term customize the program to their liking. The one that are not just follow a diet blindly.
 
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