Friends w/ stupid diets - do you say something?

sunryse00

I'm just a little confused as to why someone would prefer to do such an extreme diet like that, when they could probably lose the same weight by just controlling their calories.

If she's like me she's tried the counting calories and either didn't lose or was always starving and would binge. I now eat 20 carbs or less with plenty of fat. I've lost more weight than I ever did counting a calorie. I no longer have GERD, swollen feet and ankles and more energy than I ever did eating brown rice, wheat bread and no fat.

Before you start knocking someone's eating plan try doing some research. For some people carbs are the enemy and we can do just fine without them.

maegmez

I get friend requests on here with a private message that always ask me my secret. I always write back and add them. Then a few show up and they are doing some crazy diet. I do speak up because I really want to help and how we lose weight is a lifelong journey so diet sustainability is important to me.

I will offer suggestions and advice but I just won't support fad diets and sadly, I do move on.

bacitracin

This has been driving me mad. I have an acquaintance who I am friends with on Facebook. She is quite overweight and recently announced that she is going to start changing her lifestyle to get healthier and lose weight. I was really excited for her! She started a blog about it so I've been following her blog posts.

Well this week I saw a post that made me really frustrated. She's lost 20 pounds so far and was discussing her diet. It turns out with this "diet" she's on, she can only eat 5g of carbs every 5 hours. Are you kidding me?! I'm sorry, but unless you have a severe medical condition, that's one of the craziest things I've ever heard. I mean, if it's working for her I don't want to be mean about it, but I just can't comprehend why someone would do that. Carbs are important, just like fats and proteins... le sigh.

She also stated in the same post that she didn't lose this week because she "cheated" and ate one little debbie cake. ONE. Now anyone with a basic knowledge of calories would know that one debbie cake is not going to completely negate the 2-3 pounds she should have lost this week. But she honestly thinks that's why she didn't lose.

She seems miserable. I want so badly to talk to her, to be like, "Hey! you don't have to do this! You can lose weight just as quickly, and wayyy more healthily, by monitoring your calories alone. Check out this site, MFP..." But I don't want to offend her. I know her weight loss shouldn't be my business. Would you say something?

It's called a ketogenic diet, it's very useful for people with neurological problems or polycystic ovary syndrome (or other hormonal problems). The carbohydrate limit is generally under 20g per day, with the macronutrient ratio around 65% from fat, 30% from protein and 5% or less from carbohydrates.

I've lost 50ish pounds on it and kept them off. It's an incredible tool. There are a lot of us on it.

The "problem" that she has had this week, with the little debbie cake, is that if you eat something like that and "cheat", you are thrown out of ketosis because of the stored glycogen in your liver and you retain water for a few days until the glycogen is depleted. I've been known to gain upwards of 10 pounds on my cheat days, though I lose it all again in a week or two, just by peeing it out. It's not 35000 calories, it's just water, and she likely knows that better than you do.

At this point, I would keep my mouth shut if I were you, since she is losing weight and most likely improving her cholesterol and blood pressure just like I did. If the SAD (Standard American Diet of high carb, low fat) works for you, so be it. She found what works for her.

Ah yes, I've heard of that diet actually. I forgot about that. Well I don't know enough about it to judge so I won't criticize. I'm just a little confused as to why someone would prefer to do such an extreme diet like that, when they could probably lose the same weight by just controlling their calories. (I realize this is not the case for everyone, but my friend has no medical condition that I know of that would make ketosis necessary). But, to each his own.

Are you serious? Extreme diet? :-) EXTREMELY TASTY! I eat bacon, steak, buttered broccoli, cheeseburgers... And you wanna know the best thing? I actually eat LESS CALORIES PER DAY than when I was doing the South Beach diet or when I was a raw-food vegetarian. I'm full all the time because protein and fat do that. I don't have a medical condition that makes ketosis "necessary" either, but if I can have a favorable cholesterol ratio and lowered blood pressure and lower body fat percentage and eat bacon and eggs, steak and broccoli, turkey legs and as much cheese as I want... I'll do it! Hate on it all you want, hahahaha. I'll gladly eat your share. ;-)