Do you consider yourself "on a diet?"

bbinoa
bbinoa Posts: 493 Member
in Motivation and Support
No right or wrong answers here, I'm just curious. I know when I started out on MFP, I felt like I was on a diet, but now I feel like I'm just eating smarter, making better choices and I use it more to track what I'm taking in and exercise. If someone were to ask me "are you on a diet?" I would say no. If there's something I really want, I'll have it, but it fits into everything else I do.
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Replies

  • Owlie45
    Owlie45 Posts: 806 Member
    No. Diet means there's an end. I can't go back to the way things were.
  • Jennloella
    Jennloella Posts: 2,286 Member
    not even a little bit. I eat a lot.
  • rhoule76
    rhoule76 Posts: 217 Member
    Lifestyle change...I've changed my mindset of what foods to eat and to exercise regularly. No more diets!
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Nope.
  • BethClicks
    BethClicks Posts: 61 Member
    When I started last year, I would have said yes. Now it's just the way I live my life everyday to stay sane and feel good.
  • dakotababy
    dakotababy Posts: 2,407 Member
    No - I just eat. Diet to me refers to restrictions, "i cant eat what I want because my diet tells me so" as opposed to "i just dont want to eat because i can control my instincts and dont feel hungry". Diet to me also means there is an end, it is also implied negatively...what I am doing lasts a life time and it is a positive thing.
  • chelsy0587
    chelsy0587 Posts: 441 Member
    When I started this I'd say yes, but like others have said now its more of my lifestyle. Even when I don't actually track my food intake I am always looking at the calories in it and the protein content so I feel I'm just eating smarter.
  • thinnforever
    thinnforever Posts: 8 Member
    yes.
  • slpsally68
    slpsally68 Posts: 1 Member
    no. I am working on losing weight to avoid surgery (due to joint issues from a severe accident in my youth), reduce the chances of stroke/heart attack/diabetes that have felled my father and just to feel better. But dieting? Nope. I'm taking control of me and working to improve my body, just like taking continuing education courses is improving my ability to do my job better.....
  • iLoveMyPitbull1225
    iLoveMyPitbull1225 Posts: 1,690 Member
    Nope, just always striving to be more fit.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    edited July 2015
    I am purposely eating for weight loss, so yes, that is pretty much the definition of 'being on a diet".

    And there will be an end to my dieting. At some point I will eat for maintenance.
  • patrikc333
    patrikc333 Posts: 436 Member
    edited July 2015
    super good point - I really get very annoyed when after 5 9 months of maintenance people asking me "how's your diet?"

    having a normal BMI, controlling myself, not wastig calories making stupid food choices but having instead a balanced diet, and exercising is not dieting, it's being smart and adopt an healthy and more importantly normal life style.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,148 Member
    Yes.

    Diet = what I eat

    Others subscribe to a different definition.
  • rugbyphreak
    rugbyphreak Posts: 509 Member
    Eh... saying that I'm on a diet gets me out of things that I don't want to attend, so yes, then I'm on a diet.
  • agaraffa
    agaraffa Posts: 27 Member
    Absolutely not! When I started I was a few months away from turning 45 and weighed around 320 lbs. I guess it was 45 staring me in the face, but one day I just came to the realization that if I didn't do something about my lifestyle it was going to kill me. Once I came to that reality, it was really quite simple for me... I just decided to abandon my self destructive ways start being healthier. I never looked at it like a temporary thing that was just a means to an end, because I understood that if I looked at it that way, I'd inevitable end up back where I started. It's 14 months later and I've lost around 133 pounds (currently weigh 184 pounds). I have set my goal at 160 pounds but we'll see where I end up, all I know is I'll never "stop dieting" and end up back where I was.
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    edited July 2015
    No, but mostly because I am in maintenance. I still count calories/macros and work out, which people seem to think means I'm "on a diet," but that's just people's ignorance.

    I think it's kind of funny when people who are eating at a deficit to lose weight refuse to call what they're doing "dieting." No, they may not be doing a specific fad diet like Atkins or whatever, but they ARE dieting. Then they say, "a diet is temporary" - well, yes, and eating at a deficit is temporary. Even if you plan to track calories and/or macros forever, if you're cutting calories to lose weight, it's not something you plan to do for life. Eventually you'll get out of your dieting phase and go into maintenance or bulking.

    I also think it's funny that people are okay with the term "cutting" but not "dieting," as if they're not the same thing. They are - both mean eating less in order to lose body fat.

    Some people diet or cut for a really long time, while others do it for a short time because they have less to lose. Some people then maintain long-term. Some of those people will either gain weight back on "accident" or on purpose through bulking. Once the bulk is over, you either return to maintenance or enter another cutting or dieting cycle. This is mostly for people that lift weights and hope to gain muscle.

    Call it whatever you want to make yourself feel better, but if you're eating at a caloric deficit, you're dieting. It's not a bad word - it simply means you're trying to lose body fat. People give dieting a bad name when they go to extremes, but that doesn't mean the meaning of the word changes.

    Plus, saying "I'm dieting" is a lot easier than saying, "well, it's not a diet, I'm just eating less food and exercising in the hopes of losing weight, and then once I reach my goal weight I'll start eating more of the same foods so my weight loss will stop." Come on, no need to complicate it.

    ^ Wow, that was quite a rant, but I needed to say it.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    edited July 2015
    Yes. When I got serious about losing weight 1/1/14, everyone on here says there are ways to eat fewer calories and be satisfied. During the past 18+ months, I've tried a lot of different suggestions for how to do this. None of them have worked. I'm just going to be hungry forever, occasionally eat as would satisfy me, then diet for several weeks or months to compensate for a normal day or two. I can be fit or I can be full, but not both. Maybe you can be fit and full, but I can't. For now, I'm choosing to be hungry.

    I consider myself on a diet because I'm restricting myself from what I would like to eat and what would keep me satisfied. When I hear diet, I infer "restriction" because that is what it is to me.

    **Note: "Diet" does NOT imply restriction or short-term or finite, but you can infer it (as I do with restriction, but do not with finite). Don't confuse implying with inferring... it's all about how you see it.
  • Liftin4food
    Liftin4food Posts: 175 Member
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I am purposely eating for weight loss, so yes, that is pretty much the definition of 'being on a diet".

    And there will be an end to my dieting. At some point I will eat for maintenance.

    This for me too.
  • BasicGreatGuy
    BasicGreatGuy Posts: 857 Member
    I agree with the first two posts. It is an ongoing lifestyle change.
  • kat_princess12
    kat_princess12 Posts: 109 Member
    I'm restricting calories in order to actively lose weight, so that's a diet. But I'm also learning how to incorporate healthy balanced foods and exercise into my daily routine, so that's a lifestyle change.
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
    The word diet feels negative to me (it's a personal thing), so I tried to avoid using it when I was trying to lose weight. I'm in maintenance now though, so :)
  • yusaku02
    yusaku02 Posts: 3,472 Member
    No, I just consider myself aware of what I'm eating.
  • KenziesFrenzies
    KenziesFrenzies Posts: 1,014 Member
    Nerp. Diets have expiration dates. Lifestyle changes stick for good. :)
  • gonettie2015
    gonettie2015 Posts: 52 Member
    yes, i'm eating at deficit. it's not any fad diet, but i consider the restriction to be healthy dieting.
  • bbinoa
    bbinoa Posts: 493 Member
    Good stuff! I find our own interpretations interesting. I guess to me when I think "diet" I think old-school stuff like the cabbage soup diet, etc. So even though I may be cutting calories to decrease body fat, it's still not a "diet" in the old school sense (again, just my thoughts). I'm not following a book, with 3 weeks of meals planned out, or saying certain things are off-limits.
  • jlahorn
    jlahorn Posts: 377 Member
    midwesterner85 wrote: »
    Yes. When I got serious about losing weight 1/1/14, everyone on here says there are ways to eat fewer calories and be satisfied. During the past 18+ months, I've tried a lot of different suggestions for how to do this. None of them have worked. I'm just going to be hungry forever, occasionally eat as would satisfy me, then diet for several weeks or months to compensate for a normal day or two. I can be fit or I can be full, but not both. Maybe you can be fit and full, but I can't. For now, I'm choosing to be hungry.

    I consider myself on a diet because I'm restricting myself from what I would like to eat and what would keep me satisfied. When I hear diet, I infer "restriction" because that is what it is to me.

    **Note: "Diet" does NOT imply restriction or short-term or finite, but you can infer it (as I do with restriction, but do not with finite). Don't confuse implying with inferring... it's all about how you see it.

    I'm with you. I've been at least slightly hungry for about 3 years, except for the days or weeks when I just can't take it anymore and say, "Screw it, I want a goddamn cheeseburger AND fries AND TWO, yes, TWO delicious beers." (That's all my calories for the day).

    I've tried more protein, I've tried more fat, I've tried high-volume, high fiber foods, I've tried more water... there is just no way for me, personally, to be full on the limited number of calories at which my body maintains a healthy weight. You know what works? Multivitamins that make me nauseated for a couple of hours. Also the flu :)

    So, yeah, I'm on a permanent diet. If my day was not a constant succession of internal "No, you can't eat that" messages, I'd be 200+ lbs.

  • jalarson23
    jalarson23 Posts: 62 Member
    edited July 2015
    A friend of mine asked me if I was dieting the other day and I told her, "more or less, yes". I don't know, I have such a huge aversion to the word. The word implies that I am excluding something or it is only temporary. No, I'm in this for the long haul. I don't care if it takes me an entire year to get where I want (although I wouldn't mind it if I get there sooner), but more so to reinforce healthy habits and to live a healthier life style. At the same time though, it is easier to say that I am on a diet. Simply for the sake of moving the conversation along.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    Yes, no, no , sometimes. Lifestyle change blah blah blah smug zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
  • Danixkm
    Danixkm Posts: 114 Member
    No. Diets are temporary and I'm wanting to get fit and healthy for life.
  • LAT1963
    LAT1963 Posts: 1,375 Member
    edited July 2015
    Yes I am on a diet. I will consider myself to be "not on a diet" when I reach my goal weight and can eat to maintain rather than to lose weight.

    Likewise if I were eating to build muscle (in the weightlifting sense, not basic health level), then I'd consider myself to be on a diet.

    That's not to say that good eating shouldn't be a habit or that my food choices should no be consistent with establishing good eating habits. But because I am restricted from what my current weight wants to eat to maintain itself, I feel like I am "dieting". When I'm maintaining and allowed to eat ~300 cals more/day than my current diet, then that will be "not dieting"--the amounts will shift slightly but allowable choices of foods will remain the same--I still won't be able (for example) to eat a donut every day--maybe once a week would be okay though.

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