Shortcuts and weight regain.

Sean_The_IT_Guy

I don't want this to devolve into a shouting match, or people pooping on me because I suggested a shortcut is effective.

I want to get your honest (not mean) opinion on this mentality that I've kind of come to.

Shortcuts to weight loss, be they diet pills, strict (but not dangerous) diets, low carb, low GI, or whatever, don't HAVE to be the evil that people put upon them. Hear me out.

Consider someone who knows how to eat to an appropriate, healthy dietary lifestyle, but has gained weight recently due to injury, or lifestyle change, or what have you. I don't think that dropping that weight at a rapid, but not dangerous, rate by using a temporary aid such as those mentioned above would put that person in any more danger of gaining all that weight back.

The main reason for weight regain, as I understand it, is a return to old habits, habits that made you fat in the first place. If you can drop the weight quick, and then switch to the diet and exercise regimen appropriate for your new bodysize, I would think one would be healthier in the long run. Though I know that dropping weight TOO quickly can wreak havoc on your hormones and whatnot.

I have about 30 pounds I'd like to drop, and I've been hovering at my current weight for a few months, due primarily, I admit, to slacking off on my exercise now that the weather has turned rainy and cold. I enjoy the appetite suppression benefits that a 100mg caffeine pill, or a couple cups of black coffee in the morning and again in the late afternoon give me (I'm 6'6" and 275lb, so I adjust dosage up appropriately). I also enjoy the effects a low carb diet gives me, though I know it's not 100% sustainable (for me, anyway). I may combine these two for the next month or so to see if I can kickstart this weight loss again, even though I know that neither of them are long-term solutions. But once I get the weight off, I hope to feel more apt to exercise, have more energy, feel healthier and, in general, just want to do more.

Opinions?

SideSteel

I don't want this to devolve into a shouting match, or people pooping on me because I suggested a shortcut is effective.

I want to get your honest (not mean) opinion on this mentality that I've kind of come to.

Shortcuts to weight loss, be they diet pills, strict (but not dangerous) diets, low carb, low GI, or whatever, don't HAVE to be the evil that people put upon them. Hear me out.

Consider someone who knows how to eat to an appropriate, healthy dietary lifestyle, but has gained weight recently due to injury, or lifestyle change, or what have you. I don't think that dropping that weight at a rapid, but not dangerous, rate by using a temporary aid such as those mentioned above would put that person in any more danger of gaining all that weight back.

The main reason for weight regain, as I understand it, is a return to old habits, habits that made you fat in the first place. If you can drop the weight quick, and then switch to the diet and exercise regimen appropriate for your new bodysize, I would think one would be healthier in the long run. Though I know that dropping weight TOO quickly can wreak havoc on your hormones and whatnot.

I have about 30 pounds I'd like to drop, and I've been hovering at my current weight for a few months, due primarily, I admit, to slacking off on my exercise now that the weather has turned rainy and cold. I enjoy the appetite suppression benefits that a 100mg caffeine pill, or a couple cups of black coffee in the morning and again in the late afternoon give me (I'm 6'6" and 275lb, so I adjust dosage up appropriately). I also enjoy the effects a low carb diet gives me, though I know it's not 100% sustainable (for me, anyway). I may combine these two for the next month or so to see if I can kickstart this weight loss again, even though I know that neither of them are long-term solutions. But once I get the weight off, I hope to feel more apt to exercise, have more energy, feel healthier and, in general, just want to do more.

Opinions?

My opinion is that you are neglecting the psychological effects that can occur with crash dieting techniques. You are somewhat assuming that one can just willpower their way to "choosing a sensible program once the shortcut is over" sort of thing.

I'm suggesting that crash dieting techniques can often times be the main contributor to people not being able to either find or sustain the necessary lifestyle required to maintain that weight.

This isn't to say that it isn't going to work in all cases, but take yourself as an example. You've lost weight and then regained it (edit: perhaps you haven't as it appears you are stalled. Have you EVER lost weight and regained it back? I am going to take a wild guess and say yes, but you can refute that if you want). You can use any sort of rationale for this that you want, whether it's changes in weather or attitude or whatever, but suffice it to say that even under sensible circumstances, adherence can be tough enough as it is.

I think you are fooling yourself quite badly.


And I don't judge you and I'm not personally attacking you when I say any of the above. I'm just giving you a straight-up no BS opinion.

EDIT: Also, this isn't about low carb in particular, or caffeine in particular. This is about crash dieting techniques/pills/VLCD's etc. I don't really put low-carb in that category. Close, but not quite.

Chief_Rocka

To echo Sidesteel, I don't think it's the speed of the weight loss per se, but a benefit of losing weight at a moderate speed is the lessons you learn along the way. After learning to navigate thorough the frustrations of weight loss, maintenece is a breeze.

Take an overweight person that does a crash diet. When they crash diet is over, they know 2 things: 1) how to eat to get overweight and 2) how to crash diet. They've never learned moderation, hence the yo-yo dieting.

SideSteel

To echo Sidesteel, I don't think it's the speed of the weight loss per se, but a benefit of losing weight at a moderate speed is the lessons you learn along the way. After learning to navigate thorough the frustrations of weight loss, maintenece is a breeze.

Take an overweight person that does a crash diet. When they crash diet is over, they know 2 things: 1) how to eat to get overweight and 2) how to crash diet. They've never learned moderation, hence the yo-yo dieting.

^ That's an excellent post. Great point.

Sean_The_IT_Guy

My opinion is that you are neglecting the psychological effects that can occur with crash dieting techniques. You are somewhat assuming that one can just willpower their way to "choosing a sensible program once the shortcut is over" sort of thing.

I'm suggesting that crash dieting techniques can often times be the main contributor to people not being able to either find or sustain the necessary lifestyle required to maintain that weight.

This isn't to say that it isn't going to work in all cases, but take yourself as an example. You've lost weight and then regained it (edit: perhaps you haven't as it appears you are stalled. Have you EVER lost weight and regained it back? I am going to take a wild guess and say yes, but you can refute that if you want). You can use any sort of rationale for this that you want, whether it's changes in weather or attitude or whatever, but suffice it to say that even under sensible circumstances, adherence can be tough enough as it is.

I think you are fooling yourself quite badly.


And I don't judge you and I'm not personally attacking you when I say any of the above. I'm just giving you a straight-up no BS opinion.

I've never lost and regained.. It crept up on me as I got older and didn't adjust my eating since I was a teenager, but I've been on a healthy diet for about 5 years and haven't regained any weight. I started out at well over 300lbs, and I'd gotten down to about 280 and injured my arm while rock climbing (my primary source of exercise and primary reason to want to be lighter) and I've only dropped an additional 5 pounds in the last year.

SideSteel

My opinion is that you are neglecting the psychological effects that can occur with crash dieting techniques. You are somewhat assuming that one can just willpower their way to "choosing a sensible program once the shortcut is over" sort of thing.

I'm suggesting that crash dieting techniques can often times be the main contributor to people not being able to either find or sustain the necessary lifestyle required to maintain that weight.

This isn't to say that it isn't going to work in all cases, but take yourself as an example. You've lost weight and then regained it (edit: perhaps you haven't as it appears you are stalled. Have you EVER lost weight and regained it back? I am going to take a wild guess and say yes, but you can refute that if you want). You can use any sort of rationale for this that you want, whether it's changes in weather or attitude or whatever, but suffice it to say that even under sensible circumstances, adherence can be tough enough as it is.

I think you are fooling yourself quite badly.


And I don't judge you and I'm not personally attacking you when I say any of the above. I'm just giving you a straight-up no BS opinion.

I've never lost and regained.. It crept up on me as I got older and didn't adjust my eating since I was a teenager, but I've been on a healthy diet for about 5 years and haven't regained any weight. I started out at well over 300lbs, and I'd gotten down to about 280 and injured my arm while rock climbing (my primary source of exercise and primary reason to want to be lighter) and I've only dropped an additional 5 pounds in the last year.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with an intelligently done low-carb approach but I also don't think you're going to lose fat mass any faster than you would without doing a low carb approach given equal deficits in both cases. And I don't think there's anything wrong with coffee. But I disagree with your premise, if that makes my position any more clear.

HealthyBodySickMind

Caffeine is an appetite suppressant? I didn’t know that. What the heck would my breakfasts look like if I didn’t drink coffee, lol.

fun_b

I took diet Pills when I was at my heaviest. These were prescribed by my Doctor although I had to lose some weight before I could start taking them. Honestly they were amazing as I lost about 28 pounds in a short time. But I also had terrible side effects. Yes, it was great hearing wondering comments about how great I looked but on the other hand the terrible headaches made me miserable and wanting to stop taking them. Eventually I stopped taking them and gradually gained all the weight back.

I know this post wasn't just about diet pills but thought I would share.

Sean_The_IT_Guy

I took diet Pills when I was at my heaviest. These were prescribed by my Doctor although I had to lose some weight before I could start taking them. Honestly they were amazing as I lost about 28 pounds in a short time. But I also had terrible side effects. Yes, it was great hearing wondering comments about how great I looked but on the other hand the terrible headaches made me miserable and wanting to stop taking them. Eventually I stopped taking them and gradually gained all the weight back.

I know this post wasn't just about diet pills but thought I would share.

I appreciate all the candor so far. I asked for honest opinions and appreciate them.
Regards to the above post:

Are you sensitive to caffeine in general? Does excess coffee or other caffeniated drinks give you a headache? I'm not taking diet pills per say, just one or two "wakeup" type pills daily. As I stated, I'm in the "huge" range, overall. I'm not waddle-fat, just a little belly-fat, but at 6'6" and 275lb, I'm not overly sensitive to many drugs, just due to body size, so a couple pills a day (each of which are equivalent to 2 cups of coffee in terms of caffeine content) doesn't seem like an excessive amount.

When I stop hardcore working out, and eat what I would consider "normal", I have no trouble maintaining. I fluctuate up and down by 3-5 pounds, mostly due to water weight after I eat a lot of salty treats (baked, salted pumpkin seeds flow like water around my place in the harvest months).

Caffeine is an appetite suppressant? I didn’t know that. What the heck would my breakfasts look like if I didn’t drink coffee, lol.

caffeine is a strong appetite suppressant. It's the primary ingredient in most diet pills, which is why diet pills make a lot of people jittery and stomach sick. The Mayo Clinic considers 200-300mg of caffeine (3-4 cups of coffee) to be 'moderate' and safe for most adults to consume. Many diet pills, especially the sketchier ones, often have more than this. It will curb your hunger, to be sure, but it will also set you up for withdrawal if you go off them too quickly, as well as the side effects I mentioned earlier.

LoraF83

I took diet Pills when I was at my heaviest. These were prescribed by my Doctor although I had to lose some weight before I could start taking them. Honestly they were amazing as I lost about 28 pounds in a short time. But I also had terrible side effects. Yes, it was great hearing wondering comments about how great I looked but on the other hand the terrible headaches made me miserable and wanting to stop taking them. Eventually I stopped taking them and gradually gained all the weight back.

I know this post wasn't just about diet pills but thought I would share.

And this goes exactly to SideSteel & Fire_Rock's points - that you learned how to diet and you already knew how to be overweight, but without learning how to moderate your food choices, it was inevitable that you would put the weight back on.

I see this with family members....they go low-carb to lose weight quickly. After they drop the weight, they return to their old eating habits and find themselves even heavier than before. And now, because they are getting older & heavier and they have been yo-yo-ing for decades, they get to enjoy a host of health issues as well. Kind of sucks the joy out of the "golden years".

I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I stand a better chance of keeping my weight off because I know how to moderate my diet. I know exactly how much I can eat without gaining weight. I know how much I need to eat to lose weight. I understand the effects of sodium, hormones, excess carbs, etc. I know why the scale jumps up and down. Because of all these lessons I have learned, I have no reason to return to my old ways. It would be like telling a 5th grader to go back to counting on their fingers after you've taught them how to use multiplication tables. They know too much to revert back to their previous ways.

beachlover317

I am a yo-yo dieter in the past. I have lost and gained the same 40 - 50 pounds over and over - until I gave up and gained even more. My biggest accomplishment this time? I am eating the correct number of calories for me and choosing healthy foods. I am not starving myself as I have in the past. I am not relying on diet pills to control my mind as I have in the past. I am not going so low carb that I can not sustain those choices as I have in the past.

I AM exercising every day. I lift weights 3 times a week. I do minimal cardio 2 - 3 times a week. My whole life has changed. I can only vaguely remember the binges of the past and that awful sick feeling at the end. I only vaguely remember the empty stomach and racing heart with the pills. BUT, I remember clearly the feeling of total failure that I put on myself when, once again, I fell back into old habits and gained the weight back.

Not this time. I've been doing this for 7 months. My whole life has changed. My whole life has changed. I don't begrudge anyone finding their own way. For me, success is found every day. There is no "goal line" any more. My goal is health. Now that that's in place - the rest is easy!