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Scared at what I am reading
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Everyone needs to learn in their own time, in their own way. Nothing to be scared of. You own your body, they own theirs, eventually they learn what is best for their own body - but it takes time to learn. Be patient and kind, because everyone fights a battle you know nothing about.3
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RockPrincess080 wrote: »I agree with OP. For me, the word "diet" means temporary. It's a temporary fix to a way deeper problem. You have to completely change your lifestyle to change yourself.
First, "diet" has an actual meaning. And you can't assume that people who use the term mean "I am making a temporary change." Context matters.
Second, it's NOT always a lifestyle change. I lost a bunch of weight in 2014 (really by getting back to old habits, not by changing my "lifestyle" or "changing myself" but let's set that aside). Since then, I've been active, eating well, watching how much I eat, etc. I'd like to lose a little more, so have recently decided (well, sort of, I've yet to get that focused on it) to cut calories again and eat at a deficit (not a huge deficit, as I'd like to lose at a reasonable rate for my size and activity). I'm not really changing my lifestyle at all, as I am happy with how my current lifestyle works with my fitness goals, for the most part (I am working on some non fitness related lifestyle changes).* Is there something wrong with calling what I am doing "a diet" or acknowledging that it is temporary? -- I don't want to eat at a deficit forever, of course.
*One of the reasons I dislike "lifestyle change" is that it seems to make lifestyle all about eating choices or -- slightly better -- eating and activity/fitness choices. That's not really what defines my "lifestyle," to me. Certainly my life is better when I'm active and pursuing fitness goals, but there's so much more to a lifestyle.1 -
In 2015 dieted by eating a reduced-calorie diet for 16 weeks and lost my first batch of weight. I took a diet-break and ate a normal-for-me diet for a month. Then I resumed my reduced-calorie diet for 16 weeks and lost the rest of my weight.
This was not a lifestyle change for me.
I had been slender and active up till fairly recently.
Then a series of "lifestyle changes" stepped in. I got married, moved to another country, had some medical issues, travelled a lot, moved some more, had some more medical issues. Those are lifestyle change things. Eating slightly less ... not a lifestyle change thing. Eating slightly less is just a minor adjustment I make from time to time when my weight goes up a bit.
And I did gain some weight during those lifestyle changes.
I was still fairly active ... walking lots, cycling quite a bit ... but not as much as I had been. I was still eating a reasonably healthy diet ... just a bit too much. I did the calculation. In order to gain what I gained, I ate about 80 calories a day more than I should have. Woo. 80 calories. That's like an egg.
When I went on my calorie-reduced diet, what I ate from when I got up in the morning until I arrived home after work didn't change at all except for one thing. I used to eat a handful of cashews mid-afternoon on some afternoons. I stopped doing that. When I got home after work, I used to eat a large chocolate bar ... I switched that for cottage cheese, raw veggies and a couple whole grain crackers. That gave me a bit more energy for after work exercise. Dinner ... was just a bit smaller. And my evening snack was also just a bit smaller.
With the reduction in weight, I became more active again and have resumed my long distance cycling again. That's much more of a focus than my diet ... it's part of the lifestyle I've had most of my life.
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lemurcat12 wrote: »RockPrincess080 wrote: »I agree with OP. For me, the word "diet" means temporary. It's a temporary fix to a way deeper problem. You have to completely change your lifestyle to change yourself.
Ironically, to me, lifestyle is just the new buzzword to get away from the term diet.
Yes, same with way of eating (or WOE, sigh).
Reclaim "diet"!
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I believe each person has unique calorie needs and that those calorie needs change for that same person daily, depending on what he/she is doing and how she/he is feeling on any given day. For example, I didn't do much yesterday except for a little housework and a little bit of walking and swimming. Therefore, my caloric needs were low. Today I've already run 5.6 miles and planning to go swimming for an hour later, therefore I'm going to need to eat more today than I did yesterday. If MFP is giving me the goal of 1,200 calories/day to get me to my weight loss goal, I try to hover around that. However, on days when I do a lot I will eat a lot more than 1200 calories, and on days when I'm mostly just walking/doing housework I'll eat less than that. It's common sense. The OP doesn't need to stand in judgment of any given person's weight loss strategy. We are all unique and our needs vary from day to day. As long as we are all listening to our bodies and eating a healthful high-nutrient diet most of the time, we'll be fine.0
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I strongly believe that the best diet for you is the healthiest diet you can have within your lifestyle. It's not realistic for me to be in the gym 5 times a week, but it is realistic for me to take long walks in nature and alternate my workouts around my shifts. It should IMO be a lifestyle, not a short term thing.2
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lemurcat12 wrote: »RockPrincess080 wrote: »I agree with OP. For me, the word "diet" means temporary. It's a temporary fix to a way deeper problem. You have to completely change your lifestyle to change yourself.
Ironically, to me, lifestyle is just the new buzzword to get away from the term diet.
Yes, same with way of eating (or WOE, sigh).
Reclaim "diet"!
I prefer Ocelot./Update%206/mgs2.5_75_c63.jpg)
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What the hell is even being debated here?1
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cwolfman13 wrote: »
All debates end up being about keto.
It's like all tapes if left long enough turn into Best of Queen...9 -
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lemurcat12 wrote: »RockPrincess080 wrote: »I agree with OP. For me, the word "diet" means temporary. It's a temporary fix to a way deeper problem. You have to completely change your lifestyle to change yourself.
Ironically, to me, lifestyle is just the new buzzword to get away from the term diet.
Yes, same with way of eating (or WOE, sigh).
Reclaim "diet"!
I prefer Ocelot.
This ocelot already took back his/her diet.
It was yummy.9 -
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You are absolutely right! Research is now beginning to prove that dieting can lead to being overweight, and in some cases be the cause of eating disorders. I've been on MFP for 6 years now. I've lost weight (50 pounds), been at goal, and gained it all back TWICE in that period of time. Not only that, but all my MFP friends either gained all their weight back or have been struggling on the losing, gaining crazy cycle. I have not known ONE person here who lost weight and maintained. Yes you can lose weight on a diet, but if you can't maintain the loss, then diets don't really work. Research is now beginning to prove that the old "calories in-calories out" is garbage. In fact, it may not even be calories that determine weight loss or gain. I've been hearing the buzz about this for the past year or so and it's becoming louder. Unfortunately, MFP is calorie-based (you can't log food without calories on MFP, nor can you log exercise without a "calorie burn.")0
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cwolfman13 wrote: »
All debates end up being about keto.
It's like all tapes if left long enough turn into Best of Queen...
More keto debate is the more cowbell of MFP.9 -
FitGirl_Running wrote: »You are absolutely right! Research is now beginning to prove that dieting can lead to being overweight, and in some cases be the cause of eating disorders. I've been on MFP for 6 years now. I've lost weight (50 pounds), been at goal, and gained it all back TWICE in that period of time. Not only that, but all my MFP friends either gained all their weight back or have been struggling on the losing, gaining crazy cycle. I have not known ONE person here who lost weight and maintained. Yes you can lose weight on a diet, but if you can't maintain the loss, then diets don't really work. Research is now beginning to prove that the old "calories in-calories out" is garbage. In fact, it may not even be calories that determine weight loss or gain. I've been hearing the buzz about this for the past year or so and it's becoming louder. Unfortunately, MFP is calorie-based (you can't log food without calories on MFP, nor can you log exercise without a "calorie burn.")
Citations needed. Reputable and peer reviewed, please.
And if we're comparing anecdotes, I personally know two calorie counters who have gone from obese to quite tiny and kept it off long term. One for over 20 years, the second for 8.
If we can find these medical miracles that poof energy out of existence without calories, we need to study them, create a pill and give it to starving and malnourished people who live in countries where "starvation mode" hasn't caused obesity, it's caused death.6 -
Diet? Lifestyle? WOE?
Words don't mean anything, in and of themselves. They only mean something when two or more people share the same general idea about them. Then they start to accrete meaning, and connotations, and implications, until - it seems - we just can't use them anymore without upsetting someone. Yeesh. So much symbol-reactivity here, to the point where (sometimes) context of a word's use becomes totally irrelevant.
I put this in my visual journal a long time ago (before meeting MFP) but it seems particularly applicable today:
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