No Magic Pill

julieworley376

I think one of the most hurtful things a Weight Watcher leader ever said to me is, 'you are searching for a magic pill.' That was so not true and still is. I am very well aware after 50 years of this that there is no magic pill. And from people I have met that have had weight loss surgery, I know there is no magic surgery either for this condition.

ALL diets work. Whether it be Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem or whatever all work on the same basic premise, take in less calories, exercise more. Then there are the weight loss supplements, I have no idea if these 'work' or not because I won't spend vast amounts of money on pills and potions, especially when the small print always says.. 'works as part of a calorie controlled diet and exercise program'. Pardon my French but.. no ****!

I believe of them all Weight Watchers has the best overall program as it is based around real food and you can live on it for life. My feeling is if you can't then don't do it. But I am having issues with Weight Watchers I am not sure can be resolved. It seems to be putting a pressure on me that I can't handle.

Do you feel the same way I do about the magic pill? What have you tried to lose weight over the years? Is the key really inside your own mind?

andysdream

Speaking from my own experience, many weight loss programs seem to make it much harder for me to stick to my eating plan. I believe this is from the added pressure to lose weight consistently. This pressure is imposed from internal as well as external sources.When the pounds are coming off there is a lot of positive feedback, but when that does not happen, you seem to be left hanging without any support. Often the message you receive is "just follow the plan". But obesity is a disease due to multiple causes. I find that if I slip up during the week, I start starving in order to have a loss at weigh in. No one can continue that pattern for the long term.

scubasuenc

Many weight loss plans are very calorie restricted which can make them very difficult for the morbidly obese. For example I was at an event yesterday and one of the main weight loss brands was there. I have done them in the past with some success. They have protein shakes and supplements, so I took a quick look at what they had just to compare with what I'm using.

I started talking to the lady about their program. On their program folks get about 80g of protein per day. My current goal is 170g. Now I might not make it most days, but my doctor told me 90 should be my minimum, and the more the better. She also said that most folks end up on 1200 to 1400 calories per day. I told her that wouldn't allow for exercise, and she said their plan was designed so that you don't have to exercise. But it was clear that if you do exercise they don't really have a method to help you eat more to ensure you have proper nutrition. So if you exercise while on their plan you are probably under nourished and are likely to get tired and have difficulty recovering from exercise. This increases your chance of binging.

When I started on MFP, my 2lb per week loss calorie goal was 1680 before exercise. So a 1200 to 1400 calorie diet for someone who is morbidly obese is very low. I currently lose about 2lbs per week on 1700 calories per day, and that is still a very large cut from my TDEE. Why restrict yourself to so few calories if you can lose weight eating more?

And then of course there is the issue of how you live after you have achieved goal. I currently eat all kinds of foods, pizza, cheesecake, steak, etc. They are things I enjoy and will continue to enjoy once I reach goal.

Now one of the things I do like about the various programs is they provide some accountability. But guess what, I get that here on MFP for free.

AwesomeGuy37

Without addressing the reasons why you overeat, you will continue to overeat. Losing weight won't change your eating and emotional habits. Those need to be dealt with before setting out on changing your lifestyle. Diets fail.

KarenZen

Without addressing the reasons why you overeat, you will continue to overeat. Losing weight won't change your eating and emotional habits. Those need to be dealt with before setting out on changing your lifestyle. Diets fail.

I just posted something like this in the frustrated with doctors thread. The diet programs, to me, don't address the significant addiction/psychological components that lead to eating disorders and morbid obesity. The" magic pill" is multi-layered treatment, a recovery program that works for you.

Not b surprisingly, a research team at Yale recently completed a study that showed the brains b of food addicts lighting up (neural pathways) when they were given high fat/high sugar food in exactly the same way heroin addicts' brains lit up when they took heroin. It finally proved that food addiction is real. We've created brain pathways that bypass the logic of self control and consequence and go right to B-) pleasure, reward, and dopamine.

KarenZen

Please excuse b random letters in my posts... my phone b keyboard sucks and editing is nearly impossible.

PatrickB_87

Weight Watchers has been the only "diet" i've tried before, multiple times. I enumerated on it in one of my other posts. It works, you can loose weight but it always felt like a diet and they way they approached it, from concealing calorie and macronutrients into points, and they way it was discussed in meetings made it feel like a diet even though their was an air of trying to make lifestyle changes. I could just never get past that. Add in the predominately women only meetings, the weekly group weigh-ins, the constant sales pitch. I never stuck too it for long.

The reality is, if im going to make it and make the change for a lifetime, I need to do it for myself by myself (not to sound isolated, I think you all understand what i mean).

I can happily say I never remember feeling like I do now, 23days in, when i was on a diet. Certainly their is no magic pill.

I've also seen people who have weightless surgery. It can do a lot for a person who is far more obese then i am I still remember looking at her afterwords and thinking how much further she still had to go. Surgery doesn't teach those skills.

AwesomeGuy37

I just posted something like this in the frustrated with doctors thread. The diet programs, to me, don't address the significant addiction/psychological components that lead to eating disorders and morbid obesity. The" magic pill" is multi-layered treatment, a recovery program that works for you.

Not b surprisingly, a research team at Yale recently completed a study that showed the brains b of food addicts lighting up (neural pathways) when they were given high fat/high sugar food in exactly the same way heroin addicts' brains lit up when they took heroin. It finally proved that food addiction is real. We've created brain pathways that bypass the logic of self control and consequence and go right to B-) pleasure, reward, and dopamine.

To add...Some of us are morbidly obese for reasons beyond addiction. Some actually purposely binge to hide feelings, try to kill themselves, or sabotage themselves due to self worth problems. Food can be a pleasure, but I see no joy in someone hiding in their room crying over a box of donuts.

KarenZen

[/quote]

To add...Some of us are morbidly obese for reasons beyond addiction. Some actually purposely binge to hide feelings, try to kill themselves, or sabotage themselves due to self worth problems. Food can be a pleasure, but I see no joy in someone hiding in their room crying over a box of donuts.
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I think that version of "pleasure" is similar to what the heroin addict feels. It's release from pain, psychological or physical.

My theory is that the magic pill doesn't exist because the disease is so complex, with symptoms and causes that vary from person to person.

I'd be curious to know how many in this group would identify themselves as binge eaters or compulsive overeaters . I'm not only learning to adjust portions; I'm also learning to stop the binge and to stop the compulsions, to avoid triggers, to feel and process unpleasant feelings instead of eating them, to deal with the depression that I get when I stop eating sugar, to find replacements for the food, etc.