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What are the main reason behind your failed diet attempts?
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vegaslounge wrote: »For the most part, the whole "diet" mindset and fads as opposed to knowing actual science "prevented" me from losing weight as I had no understanding of CI<CO or even calories. I grew up in the age of Susan Powter, SlimFast, Wow! chips, Alli and Snackwells and God knows how many more in between, it seems that every few months in the '90s there was a new product or plan on the market and I tried them all.
The worst was Atkins because that was popular when I was a teenager and so it's the one I remember the clearest. If my mother went on a diet the whole family went on a diet (I literally remember her saying, "we have to completely revolutionize the way [our family] eats") and those were the most miserable three months of not only mine, but all of our lives. I love bread– it's undoubtedly my favorite food– and by week three, no kittening you, I was about ready to shank my best friend over the hunk of bland baguette she was mindlessly chewing in the high school cafeteria.
Now, I eat everything I like to eat (especially bread ), I just weigh the right portion sizes and don't go over my limit for the day. I see it as a budget, the same as with my finances. Honestly, this is so much simpler than the crazy crap I was doing for so long. It takes so much more mental stress to adhere to arbitrary diets than it is to...eat less and exercise more.
Crazy, I know.
~VL
I relate to this so much...plus you made me laugh several times. Susan Powter (forgot about her) shank your best friend!! Lol. Hysterical.2 -
Anytime I try a very specific fad diet I eventually give in cause I start craving whatever it is I can’t have. I was doing really well in a very well balanced diet and exercise routine that I was doing with a group. When the group changed the time we all met to work out I couldn’t go and then didn’t establish a routine to continue. When I am working to loose weight it’s easier for me to keep up with eating right when I am working out. I’m not sure if it’s a mind game I play with myself but I feel as if my body starts to crave more nutritious foods and I also say to myself I worked to hard at the gym to binge on donuts. So I fell of my diet when I quit exercising1
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I haven't yo-yoed like some. I moved to the US from the UK when I was 23 and a combo of the food supply and lifestyle immediately led to weight gain. It was creeping, but I went from normal weight to 40lbs too much over the years. My first attack was working out and eating well but I don't think I had a handle on the CICO back then and had picked a pretty arbitrary 1500 cals to stick to. I also had a pretty permissive doctor who prescribed me Adipex instead of discussing my lifestyle with me. The weight came off real fast, but of course it went back on. I stayed active but ate however I wanted, and ended up a sort of fat athlete - like sort of "in shape" sport wise but a big girl. I practiced all kinds of self acceptance and honestly wasn't unhappy with my body in big ways until one day I just decided to see what it would be like to just really get the weight down and get a sick fit body. I think the idea of turning 40 and just being "whatever" wasn't appealing. I'm 11 months maintaining so far and still working on the physique.2
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MelanieCN77 wrote: »I haven't yo-yoed like some. I moved to the US from the UK when I was 23 and a combo of the food supply and lifestyle immediately led to weight gain. It was creeping, but I went from normal weight to 40lbs too much over the years. My first attack was working out and eating well but I don't think I had a handle on the CICO back then and had picked a pretty arbitrary 1500 cals to stick to. I also had a pretty permissive doctor who prescribed me Adipex instead of discussing my lifestyle with me. The weight came off real fast, but of course it went back on. I stayed active but ate however I wanted, and ended up a sort of fat athlete - like sort of "in shape" sport wise but a big girl. I practiced all kinds of self acceptance and honestly wasn't unhappy with my body in big ways until one day I just decided to see what it would be like to just really get the weight down and get a sick fit body. I think the idea of turning 40 and just being "whatever" wasn't appealing. I'm 11 months maintaining so far and still working on the physique.
This bit made me laugh out loud!2 -
1. I like food.
2. I have problems with self-defeating behavior in general and love to start things but rarely finish them. This is as much a psychological thing as a laziness thing for me.
3. If losing weight is a problem I am constantly battling, then I don’t have to worry about the really hard problems like sorting finances, planning for the future, being a better person, etc. It’s almost become my go-to distraction technique.5 -
Too restrictive usually! and this feeling that you had to exist on rabbit food....doh! how silly a notion that was!2
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honestly? stress eating, for the most part.. some people lose their appetite when dealing with anxiety/feeling down, I'm the opposite of that...0
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Plain and simple - my love of all things greasy, sugary and/or baked goods. I KNOW what I am supposed to stay away from. I just have to reach a point where my motivation to be more fit exceeds my love of bad foods.1
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I tend to be a perfectionist. I can't "get food" perfectly. So, when I was trying to lose, I would wait as long as I possibly could to eat and then eat as little as possible and as "clean" as possible. I was motivated by shame and self-hatred and insecurity. Then I would end up feeling sick and discouraged, so I would give up. Then those same negative emotions and motivations I had used to try to starve the fat away pushed me towards over eating and gaining it back plus more. It has always been a cycle of negativity for me where fat and food were the enemy. I feel differently this time around. I am try to approach food with a goal of balance, nourishment, and for the purpose of enjoying my life. I still have those negative body issues in my mind, but I am really trying to shut them up and remember that there is no perfect with food. I am also trying to separate food from emotion. You can do this. We can do this.8
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I've never yo-yo'd...and really only ever made one real attempt to lose weight which was successful. I made one half assed attempt years ago mostly in support of my wife, but I had put on a bit of weight (not much) and she wanted to do the low carb thing...I was miserable and lasted two weeks at most.
As a general observation I'd say that people tend to be overly restrictive, they tend to feel this need to make whole sale changes overnight, and they have an all or nothing mentality.4 -
Emotional and stress eating overcoming self control. And then what does one more bag of chips matter, I'm fat again anyway. I'll get back on track next week. Rinse and repeat.2
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Trying to eat too little.3
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bump0
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I believed that weight loss was about clean eating and I love food too much for that. Then I discovered MFP and weight loss became a way of life1
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I lost 24 pounds last year with MFP's help. I was doing SO good, then I just got tired of exercising and wanted to eat whatever. I'm an emotional/stressed/bored eater, so that made it worse. I simply got lazy. And I gained it all back very quickly. I'm hoping this time it sticks for good, because I know what to do. I'm just choosing not to do it, and that's the problem.2
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What caused each and every one of my failures was trying to diet in a way I could not maintain for life. I only succeeded when I learned how to eat for the rest of my life to maintain a 100+ pound weight loss.3
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I was miserable. Most diets are too restrictive for me, I was just not happy having to give up things I enjoy.0
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Inattention on my part. When I stopped paying attention to my diet and forgot my goal, my diet failed.2
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bump1
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Thinking too black and white, all or nothing. This time I am forgiving myself, focusing on health and sustainability, and carrying on no matter what happens. Also running out of healthy food. Im trying to be more flexible now.1
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