What would happen if I stopped dieting??

Who has ever decided to just stop the madness and given up counting, obsessing, analyzing and wasting time always trying to lose weight?

I'm sure plenty of us have. I did. I gained up to well over 330lbs

The more I 'diet' the more I weigh!

then change how you live. Diets fail.

Use this website, track everything you eat, adjust as needed.

Tracking intake isn't dieting if you incorporate into a lifestyle change versus some sort of restrictive plan that isn't sustainable for a lifetime. You need to find a healthy relationship with food. Every time I use a diet plan and restrict something, I lose weight, get bummed because I can't eat something, eat it, feel guilty, and fall down the rabbit hole. By looking at what calorie amounts I should be eating and then what I need on a reasonable deficit so I can lose, I have created a sustainable lifestyle change.

I'd suggest that's the best way to do it. Get a reasonable caloric deficit (i.e. not something unsustainable and low like 1200), track everything, and you can be successful for a lifetime.

It should be a lifestyle change, not a 'diet'.

I did. I gave up at age 49. Decided that I wasn't meant to be normal sized. I was 224 pounds at 5'6". BUT... I knew that I always felt better when I exercised regularly. I had fallen off the exercise wagon years earlier for various reasons. I was still active, but not pushing myself. I hired a personal trainer in April 2011 and started working with him 2x week. A couple of months later, I had accidently lost 15 pounds or thereabouts. I started figuring out my workouts were better when I ate more veggies, meats, fruits. I decided to eat things that are actively good for me. I didn't cut out anything, but since I was focusing on making sure I was eating nutritiously, I accidently found out that I was cutting out a lot of foods that were pretty high calorie. About 6-7 months later, I had accidently lost a total of 45 pounds. WOW! How did that happen? I didn't diet, I didn't count calories, I didn't worry about portion control. I just found that I overate a lot less when I was eating a healthy diet. BTW - I also found this helped minimize perimenopausal symptoms. BONUS!

I maintained at that level for most of 2012 - up and down maybe 5 pounds, ultimately for the year down maybe 5 pounds. IN 2013 I decided the next thing was to start paying attention to portion sizes. I have been losing 2-3 pounds a month this year (total since joining MFP 21 pounds). There is a lot of variance month to month depending on life. I don't worry about it.

I am still working with my trainer, I started running and lifting heavy - just because it is fun. I didn't start doing any of those things. They just happened. My words of wisdom to you... Start doing something that makes your feel better that gets you moving. Start experimenting with creating foods that appeal to you, and have great nutrition. Don't be in a hurry. Don't set yourself weight goals, set goals like running a 5K race (for the first 50 years of my life, I NEVER thought I would say I was going running).

I am now 52, still 5'6" and weight 166. I am still losing weight. I feel better than I ever have, but I am where I am because of small, incremental changes, and finding things that I enjoy. That is a true lifestyle change.


tl/dr: I gave up at age 49 but started making minor changes for other reasons, and low and behold - started losing weight, feeling better, and found new hobbies.

I think you should absolutely stop dieting. The word diet simply psychs people out, we feel deprived and tell ourselves we can't have a cookie for example. Small steps, establishing new habits, lifestyle changes.

It's all about positioning in my opinion. Looking at things differently - balancing not analyzing, lifestyle changes not dieting.

I look at it like this, If I want to eat a cookie then I need to balance that with the rest of my day's intake or I need to offset it with activities. If I have a special occasion and want to indulge in dessert I need to balance that out with the rest of my week. I don't look at like cheating, because it's not a test. It's a lesson in tradeoffs; an opportunity to learn how to find the balance.

I don't diet anymore. I make choices. Some of those choices are healthy some unfortunately are not, but I have managed to find a balance that works for me.

Lol I thought I couldn't get much higher than 72kg. Soon I was 85kg. Was convinced I wouldn't go higher than that. Next minute, I was 97kg. Then 105kg.

This for me too....Exactly this.

I think the main problem people face is the idea that once they lose the weight that's it...you can eat normally again which is where the yo-yoing comes in. It took me years of 'dieting' to figure that one out (I'm not the brightest crayon in the box) The trick is to not expect miracles...to do it little by little and over time change your lifestyle until it becomes natural and you can instantly know what you can and can't eat and in what amounts without faffing about with counting calories. That way you're less likely to fall off the wagon.
As for giving up treats....well...that's why most of us are here in the first place right? Treats? My philosophy is not to give them up. To eat little amounts when you get a craving and don't beat yourself up about it if you binge. I binge all the time and I've still lost almost 60lbs in 2 years. When I binge I just think....'well that was silly...oh well...tomorrow is another day' Beating yourself up about it and getting down will only make you lose motivation and binge more...the vicious cycle of the yoyo dieter.

Of course, noone can tell you what to do. If you're at a point in your life where you're comfortable with who you are and don't think losing weight will make you happy, then that's entirely your decision. If you want to lose weight without changing your eating habits then all you have to do is get a bit more active. Walk instead of driving/getting the bus etc. It's the little things that make the big differences.

Good luck with your decision.

There's a school of thought that says you don't need to weigh food and track calories but that you can use your own feelings of hunger to guide your eating. I think it's called hunger-directed eating. I read a book about this called "ThinSide Out: How to Have Your Cake and Your Skinny Jeans Too," by Josie Spinardi. The idea is that you can eat whatever you want, but you must stop eating as soon as your hunger is satiated. So you can order the cheesy pasta alfredo with a zillion calories at a restaurant, but you will be pushing your plate away the second you reach fullness, instead of continuing to eat because it tastes good. It's not supposed to feel restrictive because you're letting your own body guide your behavior, instead of a calorie limit or other external rules.

This approach didn't work well for me because I'm such an emotional eater and I'm constantly getting my emotional and hunger signals mixed up. (Spinardi is currently writing another book about emotional eating.) But it has worked for others. You might want to look into it if you're sick of counting calories.

There's a school of thought that says you don't need to weigh food and track calories but that you can use your own feelings of hunger to guide your eating. I think it's called hunger-directed eating. I read a book about this called "ThinSide Out: How to Have Your Cake and Your Skinny Jeans Too," by Josie Spinardi. The idea is that you can eat whatever you want, but you must stop eating as soon as your hunger is satiated. So you can order the cheesy pasta alfredo with a zillion calories at a restaurant, but you will be pushing your plate away the second you reach fullness, instead of continuing to eat because it tastes good. It's not supposed to feel restrictive because you're letting your own body guide your behavior, instead of a calorie limit or other external rules.

This approach didn't work well for me because I'm such an emotional eater and I'm constantly getting my emotional and hunger signals mixed up. (Spinardi is currently writing another book about emotional eating.) But it has worked for others. You might want to look into it if you're sick of counting calories.

This is basically what I've done my entire life. I never knew people actually counted calories until I joined MFP when tracking my pregnancy weight loss.