The word "failure" and my problem with the "diet" industry.
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merzback
Posts: 453 Member
Why do people call themselves failures if they gain weight? You are NOT a failure. I honestly do believe, after nearly 30 years of weight loss challenges, that it is a shame that the diet industry doesn't consider themselves a "failure" and failing so many people.
I have heard that only 5 percent of people who lose weight keep it off permanently. That's a REALLY daunting statistic. I don't believe that 95 percent of the rest of the people are what the stereotype says that they 95 percent are lazy and unmotivated.
While I do believe it is WE who have control over what we put in our mouths, I also believe that the diet industry in general sets people up to fail. For if I do "fail" on their diet, I will most likely come back, generating more money for their diet product. They feed off the desperation of overweight people- mostly women but now men are not immune either. They do NOT sell health, they sell what they want you to perceive as happiness. What makes me sad is when people say "I can't be happy until I am a size ___ or weight ___. Life is too short..be happy now and treasure the process.
Why does the diet industry take no responsibility whatsoever? Over 20 years ago, I lost 60lbs in THREE months on one of those pre packaged diets. I was 21 years old and had a metabolism of fire! No where did they teach me a thing about nutrition, or about how to eat clean or healthy. I figured if I wanted to be "skinny" (a word I never use now as skinny can also equate to sickness) that I had to starve my body. Anyway, exactly ONE year later, they sent me a letter to "COME BACK FOR FREE." with just the cost of food (why anyone would pay 10 dollars a day to eat a granola bar and nasty food is beyond me anyway.) Why did they wait a year and why would they assume that I would NEED to come back? The answer is simple- according to their stats, they know that usually a year later some, if not all of the weight is back. That is a shame and disgraceful.
You are not a failure. If you gain weight, just chalk it up as a learning experience. What can you do different next time. What works LONG term is what WORKS. When people say this fad diet works because they lost 15 lbs in a week, doesn't mean that it works the way it was intended- anything NOT intended to work long term should be banned from being sold as to me it's like buying a car that is a lemon.
By talking to yourself and calling yourself a failure, you are, in fact, setting yourself up for low self esteem and more failure. You are not a bad person because you gain weight. You are NOT a bad person if you eat a cookie or have a binge, You are a person who needs a solution, and that solution is NOT with dieting. It's with finding out the root of what's causing the weight gains in the first place. It is NOT realistic to assume you will NEVER eat a cookie or piece of cake again. I remember when I was 14, my first DIETING experience and seriously thinking for the rest of my life, not one cookie would ever pass through my body. Honestly, how depressing is that? LOL
Much of the problem with many, though not all of those who are over weight is that they use food as a comfort, a drug. instead of dealing with the core issues of WHY you overeat, many look for a way to restrict their food- without getting help as to WHY they overeat in the first place.
I am not saying this is the case for everyone. I just wanted to tell everyone here that YOU are not the failure, even if you eat too much, that I have yet to see any DIET plan take any type of responsibility for their low success rates. Sure I do take responsibility if I gain weight, but I also think the diet industry has a lot of responsibility to take that they never will do because it's about the bottom line for them. In their diet commercials, do you EVER see the same people doing testimonials? Do they ever follow up on testimonials a year or 5 years later?
Think of it like this- would you buy a car that only had a 5 percent chance of running after a year? Would you trust a doctor that only had a 5 percent success rate? Would you buy ANYTHING that has a 5 percent success rate? DIETING has such a low success rate yet people blindly shell out money for really crazy items. I don't mean weight watchers, or a hospital based nutrition plan- I mean pre packaged foods, going to centers where they lure you in and do a bait and switch on you, or taking the latest diet pill, or thinking you can live off of special K or slim fast the rest of your life.
My point is this: Stay away from DIETING. Look at food as your fuel, be grateful if you are able to exercise because when I was in 2 car accidents last year, I would have given anything to be able to do my favorite work out , Turbo Kick/Jam/Fire, and if you do believe you have a food addiction, get help for that with a professional- not a company that cares about profiting from your insecurities and tells you lies that you will be so much happier once you are 20, 50 or 100lbs less. The truth is, happiness is not from a size, or a number, it's from INSIDE. It's a great feeling to lose weight, but once you do lose weight, you are still in your own head, and life's problems do NOT magically disappear.
Any thoughts? What do others think? You can disagree with me- I just wanted to share my wisdom of what I have learned. This site and what I love love love about it (besides it is free) is that it is a way of life you have to live, and finding what works best for you to sustain a healthy lifestyle. The truth is that we are all worth it and NONE of us are failures.
What is a true failure? A fad DIET, any site that promotes eating less than 1200 calories a day, or eating 2 bowls of cereal or 2 slim fasts until dinner (I'd be a miserable nightmare if that's all I had until 5pm) any diet that asks you to come back a year later because they know you most likely have gained weight back. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is just setting you up to fail. You are smarter and better than that, and worthy of way more.
I have heard that only 5 percent of people who lose weight keep it off permanently. That's a REALLY daunting statistic. I don't believe that 95 percent of the rest of the people are what the stereotype says that they 95 percent are lazy and unmotivated.
While I do believe it is WE who have control over what we put in our mouths, I also believe that the diet industry in general sets people up to fail. For if I do "fail" on their diet, I will most likely come back, generating more money for their diet product. They feed off the desperation of overweight people- mostly women but now men are not immune either. They do NOT sell health, they sell what they want you to perceive as happiness. What makes me sad is when people say "I can't be happy until I am a size ___ or weight ___. Life is too short..be happy now and treasure the process.
Why does the diet industry take no responsibility whatsoever? Over 20 years ago, I lost 60lbs in THREE months on one of those pre packaged diets. I was 21 years old and had a metabolism of fire! No where did they teach me a thing about nutrition, or about how to eat clean or healthy. I figured if I wanted to be "skinny" (a word I never use now as skinny can also equate to sickness) that I had to starve my body. Anyway, exactly ONE year later, they sent me a letter to "COME BACK FOR FREE." with just the cost of food (why anyone would pay 10 dollars a day to eat a granola bar and nasty food is beyond me anyway.) Why did they wait a year and why would they assume that I would NEED to come back? The answer is simple- according to their stats, they know that usually a year later some, if not all of the weight is back. That is a shame and disgraceful.
You are not a failure. If you gain weight, just chalk it up as a learning experience. What can you do different next time. What works LONG term is what WORKS. When people say this fad diet works because they lost 15 lbs in a week, doesn't mean that it works the way it was intended- anything NOT intended to work long term should be banned from being sold as to me it's like buying a car that is a lemon.
By talking to yourself and calling yourself a failure, you are, in fact, setting yourself up for low self esteem and more failure. You are not a bad person because you gain weight. You are NOT a bad person if you eat a cookie or have a binge, You are a person who needs a solution, and that solution is NOT with dieting. It's with finding out the root of what's causing the weight gains in the first place. It is NOT realistic to assume you will NEVER eat a cookie or piece of cake again. I remember when I was 14, my first DIETING experience and seriously thinking for the rest of my life, not one cookie would ever pass through my body. Honestly, how depressing is that? LOL
Much of the problem with many, though not all of those who are over weight is that they use food as a comfort, a drug. instead of dealing with the core issues of WHY you overeat, many look for a way to restrict their food- without getting help as to WHY they overeat in the first place.
I am not saying this is the case for everyone. I just wanted to tell everyone here that YOU are not the failure, even if you eat too much, that I have yet to see any DIET plan take any type of responsibility for their low success rates. Sure I do take responsibility if I gain weight, but I also think the diet industry has a lot of responsibility to take that they never will do because it's about the bottom line for them. In their diet commercials, do you EVER see the same people doing testimonials? Do they ever follow up on testimonials a year or 5 years later?
Think of it like this- would you buy a car that only had a 5 percent chance of running after a year? Would you trust a doctor that only had a 5 percent success rate? Would you buy ANYTHING that has a 5 percent success rate? DIETING has such a low success rate yet people blindly shell out money for really crazy items. I don't mean weight watchers, or a hospital based nutrition plan- I mean pre packaged foods, going to centers where they lure you in and do a bait and switch on you, or taking the latest diet pill, or thinking you can live off of special K or slim fast the rest of your life.
My point is this: Stay away from DIETING. Look at food as your fuel, be grateful if you are able to exercise because when I was in 2 car accidents last year, I would have given anything to be able to do my favorite work out , Turbo Kick/Jam/Fire, and if you do believe you have a food addiction, get help for that with a professional- not a company that cares about profiting from your insecurities and tells you lies that you will be so much happier once you are 20, 50 or 100lbs less. The truth is, happiness is not from a size, or a number, it's from INSIDE. It's a great feeling to lose weight, but once you do lose weight, you are still in your own head, and life's problems do NOT magically disappear.
Any thoughts? What do others think? You can disagree with me- I just wanted to share my wisdom of what I have learned. This site and what I love love love about it (besides it is free) is that it is a way of life you have to live, and finding what works best for you to sustain a healthy lifestyle. The truth is that we are all worth it and NONE of us are failures.
What is a true failure? A fad DIET, any site that promotes eating less than 1200 calories a day, or eating 2 bowls of cereal or 2 slim fasts until dinner (I'd be a miserable nightmare if that's all I had until 5pm) any diet that asks you to come back a year later because they know you most likely have gained weight back. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is just setting you up to fail. You are smarter and better than that, and worthy of way more.
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Replies
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no one responds to my long posts! LOL0
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Seriously not one person has a comment about this one? LOL It's ok I know I ramble!0
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Gaining weight may be a failure, but a person is only a failure if they give up the fight.0
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It's quite simple. If it is a diet, then it's not a permanent change in your life style and you will get the weight back as soon as you get back to your ol'habits. People are always looking for a quick way to do things but it's not about losing weight, it's about taking control of your health, living an healthier lifestyle and the weight loss is just a consequence of becoming healthy.
I'm sorry I didn't have the patience to read everything so I skipped a few parts. Sorry.
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I think you are absolutely right and the part about the 5 pecent success rate was great! Thanks for your rambling, I enjoyed it
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I have a very short attention span, plus I'm not wearing my glasses or contacts today so it's hard for my eyeballs to focus for too long so I only made it through the first 2 paragraphs. But based on those 2 paragraphs, I would have to agree.0
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Losing weight and keeping it off is a constant struggle, literally a brain vs. body battle. Once you've been overweight, your body will fight you for the rest of your life to return to that state. Your body doesn't like calorie restriction. Staying at a healthy weight can be done, but for most people who have been overweight, it's requires diligence and serious commitment. It's incredibly difficult - hence the 5% success rate. But it can be done.0
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I totally agree with you. I believe part of the problem is that we buy into the "quick fixes". We believe the commericals that say "you will lose 10 lbs in a week if you do this exercise. It only takes 10 minutes per day." I remember when I was overweight. I bought all the diet pills (Stacker 2 & Stacker 3). I even bought the damn diet patch thinking that all I had to do was put this patch on my arm and magically I would lose weight without doing anything different. Of course it didnt work but I wanted to believe that it would work. I watched the infomercials and bought the machines that I could use for "only 10 minutes per day", thinking that it would work but of course it didnt. It wasnt until I hired a personal trainer that I learned about nutrition and how to properly work out. At that point I had really low self esteem and was depressed all the time.
We cant look at it as a DIET because DIET = TEMPORARY. Something that you only plan on doing for the next month, 3 months, 6 months...DIETING isnt something that you are going to do for a lifetime. Instead we need to look at it as lifestyle change. A permanent way of life. Deprivation only leads to overeating and bingeing. Ive been down that road and refuse to go back down that road. I used to say "I cant eat this or I cant eat that". I kept telling myself I couldnt have something. The more I did that the more I wanted it...it got to a point where I was depriving myself so much that I ended up bingeing on the food that I kept telling myself that I couldnt have.
The fitness industry as a whole is doing what it needs to do to make sure individuals are looking to make a LIFESTYLE change. Its the commercials and the fad diet industry that is the major problem....as a society, all that we can do is continue to educate ourselves as much as possible and make small lifestyle changes. Something that we can live with. We need to stop starving ourselves and eating these low calorie diets that yes are only going to work for the SHORT TERM.0 -
I'm only 20 years old and I'm glad I learned this lesson early! I have zero faith in America's food industry and there's no point in even commenting on the "diet" industry because it all a big joke. The key to losing weight and becoming healthy is a clean natural diet and some type of exercise each day. There is no secret!
The way you feel about the diet industry is the way I feel about the food industry. 90% of the things in the grocery store or full of antibitoics and chemicals. It's horrifying.
I'm now a healthy vegan and proud of it. I know better then to let the american government pull the wool over my eyes. We are all better off growing our own foods then eating what is provided in most grocery stores this includes all the fad diets. On a side not the only diet type company that I feel does work is Weight Watchers. They teach you how to eat right, exercise, and maintain a healthy lifestyle (just don't buy their prepackaged foods!)0 -
I do agree. Like you noted at the beginning - there's no money in a cure. Just think of how many companys and industries would be affected if people quit smoking, ate healthy, gave up caffeine etc. ....they don't REALLY want you to quit - they want to sell you temporary fixes so you'll keep coming back.0
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You are very right. It's sad though that so many companies profit from the insecurities of people. I've fallen prey to most of them and in the past would listen to anything that would help me lose weight. I thought being skinny would solve everything. Now, although I'm not skinny yet, I'm working towards my goal and I will have earned it not just achieved it.
I respect my diet a whole lot more because I know how much effort it takes to burn the calories I eat. I have a lot of making up to do with my body, and I hope it's more forgiving than it has been lately, but I'm working at it.
Thanks for the post. It really is a shame that there are so many sheep following the diet fad bandwagon.0 -
It's very interesting ramble.. lol! I agree that we need to change eating habits and see it as a lifestyle change to maintain the weight loss.
I also agree we don't relaise how amazing our bodies are until they fail us. I developed a neurological condition in my 30's despite being fit and active before, so no one is immune to these things happening to them.
I skated, biked, swam, hiked, done several famous paths across UK, pennine way etc .. still it only took 18 months to go from walking to wheelchair... with it came extreme fatigue and the weight piled on... my highest was 16st.. i got to 11st 7 once,, then put stone back on after having to switch to powerchair for most of time... 8 months of re-learning how to control my body and I've managed to lose 2 and half stone and only 7lbs off what I used to weigh in my 20's (I'm now 42).0 -
I'm only 20 years old and I'm glad I learned this lesson early! I have zero faith in America's food industry and there's no point in even commenting on the "diet" industry because it all a big joke. The key to losing weight and becoming healthy is a clean natural diet and some type of exercise each day. There is no secret!
The way you feel about the diet industry is the way I feel about the food industry. 90% of the things in the grocery store or full of antibitoics and chemicals. It's horrifying.
I'm now a healthy vegan and proud of it. I know better then to let the american government pull the wool over my eyes. We are all better off growing our own foods then eating what is provided in most grocery stores this includes all the fad diets. On a side not the only diet type company that I feel does work is Weight Watchers. They teach you how to eat right, exercise, and maintain a healthy lifestyle (just don't buy their prepackaged foods!)
sadly its the UK government to.
all of them are in the pockets of the grain industries, and supermarkets have far too much sway over the food prouction and farming industry.0 -
i agree with you and that is why the word diet is not in my vocabulary who wants to use a word when the first 3 letters are d-i-e?? i mean seriously. i refer to my routine as a wellness or fitness program. also i believe that you should take the word impossible and change it to IM-POSSIBLE!!0
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Awesome! Very well said! I have so many friends/aquaintences on diets right now and most of them have lost more than I have, none of them will listen to me when they ask for my advise and I tell them the diet plan they are on is bunk, they get really irratated. Mostly because they are loosing the weight NOW and at a faster pace than I am. Thats ok cause I know the way I eat now is something I can and will do for the rest of my life! So I know I will keep my weight off!0
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Great topic.
Really it's about reframing the problem. Just like kids aren't bad just because the did something wrong, a person is not a failure just because they didn't achieve a goal like keeping weight off.0 -
Thanks for everyone's reply! I should really say the fitness industry is decent- though some of the products are just laughable- the shake weight???? are you kidding me?? LOL Most ppl, sadly, buy these items and they end up being used as a clothes hanger! LOL0
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Gaining weight may be a failure, but a person is only a failure if they give up the fight.
Yes, this ^^0
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