Do you consider yourself "on a diet?"

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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
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    No. Diet means there's an end. I can't go back to the way things were.
  • Jennloella
    Jennloella Posts: 2,287 Member
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    not even a little bit. I eat a lot.
  • rhoule76
    rhoule76 Posts: 217 Member
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    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
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    Nope.
  • BethClicks
    BethClicks Posts: 61 Member
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    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: 2,406 Member
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    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
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    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
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    yes.
  • slpsally68
    slpsally68 Posts: 1 Member
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    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: 1,691 Member
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    Nope, just always striving to be more fit.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
    edited July 2015
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    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
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    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: 9,134 Member
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    Yes.

    Diet = what I eat

    Others subscribe to a different definition.
  • rugbyphreak
    rugbyphreak Posts: 509 Member
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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: 868 Member
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    I agree with the first two posts. It is an ongoing lifestyle change.
  • kat_princess12
    kat_princess12 Posts: 109 Member
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    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.

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