Why Diets Don't Work

RonWalser

I'm a retired Chemist from the Food Industry: Just a comment:

The problem with all diet programs

Everyone enters dieting with unrealistic expectations. The Dieting Industry shouts their messages over and over about programs that either promise, or imply, that you will lose a certain amount of weight within a specific timeframe. In the beginning some do deliver but for the long view, losing weight is a grind. It requires what I call stickability. With all these programs, the weight loss will eventually slow down after a short time. Since we are mentally pinned to an unrealistic time period, we will either drop out due to discouragement or, discontinue after reaching a target weight. This is not a lifestyle change. It’s a yo-yo ride that will last a lifetime.

When Napoleon had conquered the world, a subordinate approached him with a request. Napoleon responded by telling him he could grant him all things except TIME; a commodity that he could not impact. Napoleon couldn’t and neither can we. If you have a calorie lowering system that works, you only have one element to concern yourself with. What do I want my TARGET WEIGHT to be?

From there, keep DILIGENTLY following the system. Once the TARGET WEIGHT is achieved you now have another question to answer: Do I want to stay here?

88olds

This 100% correct. Weight loss has 2 parts- eating at a calorie deficit and living with it long enough to work.

Like a lot of people trying to lose weight I soon found myself in the gym. But something was different this time. Instead of just burning calories, I wanted to build some muscle. I was just doing basic Arnold 101- sets and reps. Soon I could tell it was working. Small changes but undeniable. Then I had the lightbulb moment- if I just kept showing up at the gym, doing the reps and slowly increasing the weight, it would work. It had to work, it was how my body was designed. I only needed to put in the time.

The same thinking can be reverse engineered into weight loss. Our bodies are designed to survive hard times by storing excess calories as fat. Fortunately hard times have not arrived for most of us. But if we eat in a calorie deficit we will draw down the stores. Once we have the math right, it has to work, it’s how we are built.

If we can find a deficit we can live with, even a small deficit, time can be on our side. The voice in our heads telling us to go faster is the devil talking and will wreck perfectly good programs if we let it. There’s no reason to hurry, not much will change at goal weight if we want to stay there.

AnnPT77

Maybe I'm just having a crabby day, but this post overall hit me wrong. Why/how is it "Motivation and Support"?

RonWalser wrote: »

I'm a retired Chemist from the Food Industry: Just a comment:

How does being a food industry chemist apply here? It's an important job, so no diss intended, but it seems like a claim to some type of expertise. I'm asking out of pure curiosity, because I don't understand the implication. It seems like your personal history with weight management would be more relevant to an opinion on weight management . . . unless you're an RD or something in a similar specialty, with technical expertise around weight management. I see that you've been on MFP since 2011, but this seems to be your first Community post - so there's no real context?

The problem with all diet programs

Everyone enters dieting with unrealistic expectations.

Everyone? That's pretty bold. I'd maybe agree with "many people" . . . maybe even "most people".

The Dieting Industry shouts their messages over and over about programs that either promise, or imply, that you will lose a certain amount of weight within a specific timeframe. In the beginning some do deliver but for the long view, losing weight is a grind. It requires what I call stickability. With all these programs, the weight loss will eventually slow down after a short time. Since we are mentally pinned to an unrealistic time period, we will either drop out due to discouragement or, discontinue after reaching a target weight. This is not a lifestyle change. It’s a yo-yo ride that will last a lifetime.

Why do you believe that we all believe "the diet industry"? What do you mean by "diet program" - you seem to be referring to any/all the routes people might choose to take to weight loss, but I'm not sure? Or are you just talking about the commercial programs, the tricksy/restrictive named "diets", or some other subset?

Is "losing weight is a grind" meant to be encouraging? Personally, I found losing weight to be simpler (in its mechanics), and in some ways easier (subjectively/psychologically), than I'd imagined. I don't assume that generalizes to everyone, but it makes me think suggesting it's inevitably "a grind" is overly discouraging. If weight management required major discipline or motivation, I'm sure I would've failed, because those aren't my strongest skills, honestly. I'm sure it's a grind for some - since you think it is, I assume you've personally found that to be the case, and I have no reason to doubt you.

When Napoleon had conquered the world, a subordinate approached him with a request. Napoleon responded by telling him he could grant him all things except TIME; a commodity that he could not impact. Napoleon couldn’t and neither can we. If you have a calorie lowering system that works, you only have one element to concern yourself with. What do I want my TARGET WEIGHT to be?

From there, keep DILIGENTLY following the system. Once the TARGET WEIGHT is achieved you now have another question to answer: Do I want to stay here?

But we don't keep following "a calorie lowering system" forever, do we? Eventually, we want to be maintaining the healthy weight we reach, ideally, I would think. To me, that makes the key question less "do I want to stay here" than "what habits do I need to stay in a healthy range without undue white-knuckled effort", or something similar. Maybe that's just me, though.

There are quite a few people here who've lost major amounts of weight, and kept most or all of it off for long time periods. It's true that some/many of those do keep using some of the tactics they used during weight loss - is that what you mean by "keep diligently following the system"?

If you're simply saying that for someone (like me) with a tendency to excess weight, weight management is a lifelong endeavor (vs. thinking of weight loss as a project with an end date), then I agree with that.

Also, as a trivial quibble, I don't think "what do I want my target weight to be" is a key question right up front. If we have a material amount of weight to lose, and we know it, there's no need to set a goal weight (or even a narrow range) at the outset.

We see people come here all hung up over what their goal weight should be. It really doesn't matter - the process is pretty much the same, no matter the goal weight. If someone's been overweight to obese for decades - as I was - or even has been overweight/obese lifelong, it's pretty hard to set a sensible goal weight at the start.

My personal feeling is that anyone without serious body dysmorphia can wait, and figure out a goal weight as they get closer to feeling/looking the way they'd like to feel/look. The only time one needs to know a goal weight is when it's time to stop losing. Even then, it's OK to change one's mind, and intentionally either lose some more, or gain some back. Health-wise, most of us have a sensible range of weights, potentially . . . it's not just one unitary "ideal weight".

But I'm just a retired IT developer/manager, in year 7 of maintaining a healthy weight after previously being overweight to obese most of my adult life. All I know for sure is my n=1 experience. 🤷‍♀️ I'm sure it doesn't generalize to everyone.

JBanx256

RonWalser wrote: »

The problem with all diet programs

Everyone enters dieting with unrealistic expectations.

Really? You sure about that?

88olds

Ok, so OP might have included some qualifiers. Fact remains that if you read this board much there seem to be mainly 2 things that trip people up- the numbers put out by the calculators don’t seem to work or time. And sometimes the numbers aren’t working because people won’t give it enough time. Look at the tv ads and see how many are pushing x lbs in y time. Folks set the calculators to lose 2 lbs in a week and if it doesn’t work out they throw up their hands and quit. And not working out frequently includes losing 1 1/2 lbs. But 1.5 isn’t 2. The time issue wrecks a lot of efforts that are in fact working.

The calendar is not a weight loss tool.

AnnPT77

88olds wrote: »

Ok, so OP might have included some qualifiers. Fact remains that if you read this board much there seem to be mainly 2 things that trip people up- the numbers put out by the calculators don’t seem to work or time. And sometimes the numbers aren’t working because people won’t give it enough time. Look at the tv ads and see how many are pushing x lbs in y time. Folks set the calculators to lose 2 lbs in a week and if it doesn’t work out they throw up their hands and quit. And not working out frequently includes losing 1 1/2 lbs. But 1.5 isn’t 2. The time issue wrecks a lot of efforts that are in fact working.

The calendar is not a weight loss tool.

I agree that impatience is a frequent pitfall, and that aggressive or rigid "X pounds in Y time" goals tend to be more hindrance than help. If that was the OP's point, I think the author buried the lede.

@88olds, your posts tend to be among the best here, because they are routinely clear and helpful. Like I said, maybe I was having a crabby day, but I didn't find the OP to be either of those. (I'd maybe have reacted differently if it had been in Debate rather than Motivation and Support.)

The focus on target weight is - IMO - just weird. Target weight is another common trip-up, I think. Not nearly as big a trip-up as impatience (or its near-identical twin, unrealistic quick expectations), but a trip-up nonetheless.

88olds

@AnnPT77 I didn’t notice I was responding to you.

AnnPT77

88olds wrote: »

@AnnPT77 I didn’t notice I was responding to you.

@88olds,

(1) It shouldn't matter, IMO - it's the opinions and how clearly they're communicated that matters.

(2) I'm happy to have you reply to my posts. I'm open - I hope - to reasoned disagreement, and do try to keep an open mind. I learn lots here, regularly, and I value that. For sure, I've changed some of my views since joining MFP.

OP: Apologies, because this post is off topic. I appreciate your post, too - it made me think; and 88olds' comments made me re-read it for more nuance.