Diet Or Lifestyle Change-Temporary Or A Lifetime?

BarbaraR5563

Do you diet to lose weight and then go back to your old way of eating? Then find yourself on a diet again? I have found through my own experience that "diet" is temporary. There is a great article that supports my thinking. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/changepower/201010/why-diets-dont-workand-what-does

This article describes how it is your mindset and instead of going on a diet or a temporary program that if you really choose to change your mindset and lifestyle and pick foods that are healthier but ones that you can live with are a lifestyle change. You are more likely to succeed and maintain long term weight loss. They say about 95% of people that diet gain back their weight within 1-5 years.

I strongly believe in making a lifestyle change for my overall healthy. That includes my (HEP)-Healthy Eating Plan, exercise, and having balance in my life. After almost 13 years and trial and error, I found my niche' and that is what I said above.

Read this article. It is brief and describes my beliefs and may click with some of you. I hope this helps!

dubird

It needs to be a lifestyle change. If it's just a 'diet', that's temporary, and as soon as the diet is over, if you haven't changed your eating habits, you'll gain it all back. Granted, I don't have the best eating habits, but once I retrained myself to what a normal portion of food is, it's been much easier!

Mistapholeezkat

Do you think that this is why folks that do Medi-fast or such programs often fail and put weight back on?

WBB55

For me, the biggest "lifestyle" changes I made permanently (well 99.9% permanent...) was to give up sugary drinks, cook/prepare most of my own food, don't lie to myself about what I'm eating. I feel like I could never be 100+ lbs overweight again because of those 3 things. I KNOW that that fried chicken fast food meal is 2000 calories. I can't un-learn that.

BarbaraR5563

Absolutely. I believe anyone that goes on diet programs that do not prepare one for real foods that fit into one's lifestyle are being set up for failure. I know more than I can even guess the number of Weight Watchers going through the revolving door. It is a long life change goal. It is hard at first but it is worth it and my life is so much better.

loulamb7

@BarbaraR5563 First off congrats on maintaining for 17 years. I'm glad the writer qualified what they meant by the term diet as "diet" ... as "a temporary and highly restrictive program of eating in order to lose weight." I think these are the types of diets that cause the high failure rate.

BarbaraR5563

loulamb7 wrote: »

@BarbaraR5563 First off congrats on maintaining for 17 years. I'm glad the writer qualified what they meant by the term diet as "diet" ... as "a temporary and highly restrictive program of eating in order to lose weight." I think these are the types of diets that cause the high failure rate.

Thank you Loulamb7! I agree that diets cause a higher failure rate. I thought this was an excellent article. It does talk about diet for people with medical problems like those with diabetes etc. and that I agree with. I refer to the average person that is healthy other than over-weight and in my case morbidly obese. Thanks for your input!

pzarnosky

It's a lifestyle change for me. At some point I realized I'm never going to have the skinny victoria's secret model body that I always wanted. Once I accepted it I realized I'd rather be strong and healthy anyways. I've been doing body recomp for 6 or 7 months now. I absolutely love the gym part. I love lifting heavy weights, I lie and tell myself I love to run. I struggle with the eating part. Because all of the high calorie junk food is delicious. But lifestyle changes are supposed to take baby steps. That's what I've learned

lemurcat12

Yes, it has to be a change that you expect to be permanent, I think. If you just do something temporarily and then go back to the ways that led to the weight gain you'll gain again.

I'm not wild about the phrase "lifestyle change" as my lifestyle involves a lot more than just eating and activity and some things have been modified and some have not, but the concept of a broader, permanent change is a good one, IMO.

That said, people can be weird about the term "diet." I think it simply means "way of eating" or "cutting calories below maintenance." I have created a permanent (I hope) change in my approach to exercise and eating, but I'm also currently dieting in that I'm trying to eat below maintenance, which I don't plan to continue.

BarbaraR5563

pzarnosky wrote: »

It's a lifestyle change for me. At some point I realized I'm never going to have the skinny victoria's secret model body that I always wanted. Once I accepted it I realized I'd rather be strong and healthy anyways. I've been doing body recomp for 6 or 7 months now. I absolutely love the gym part. I love lifting heavy weights, I lie and tell myself I love to run. I struggle with the eating part. Because all of the high calorie junk food is delicious. But lifestyle changes are supposed to take baby steps. That's what I've learned

Great for you! With your mindset, you will keep your weight off and exercising will seal the deal. I take it a day at a time. Thank you for your insight!

BarbaraR5563

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Yes, it has to be a change that you expect to be permanent, I think. If you just do something temporarily and then go back to the ways that led to the weight gain you'll gain again.

I'm not wild about the phrase "lifestyle change" as my lifestyle involves a lot more than just eating and activity and some things have been modified and some have not, but the concept of a broader, permanent change is a good one, IMO.

That said, people can be weird about the term "diet." I think it simply means "way of eating" or "cutting calories below maintenance." I have created a permanent (I hope) change in my approach to exercise and eating, but I'm also currently dieting in that I'm trying to eat below maintenance, which I don't plan to continue.

I can appreciate that "lifestyle change" is a bigger picture than change of eating and exercise. For me, it meant changing my mindset, changing restaurants, some of the people I associated with, behavioral changes, etc. So in my case I made overall changes in my life.

I appreciate your take on "diet' in the sense of eating below maintenance. I guess my concern was with people that diet to lose weight and then yo-yo diet. Thank you for your points of view!