Diet or Lifestyle Change?
kayjosh2422
Posts: 864 Member
I personally never do well on a "diet", something about that word just signals failure to me. The definition of diet is : "a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons"! Do you see the word that jumps out? RESTRICTS!! Often when something is going to restrict us we than try and buck the system and fail at our so called diet.
Personally I prefer a "Lifestyle Change", what that means is I am changing the way to eat, not for 6 months, not to drop weight and than go back to "normal". Remember that "Normal" is what got us here in the first place. I truly believe you can eat whatever you want, within moderation as long as you stay within your calories and exercise. I highly encourage everyone to get a kitchen scale. They can be found for under 20 bucks and for me it was a true wakeup call as to what a serving is and is not. lol
If you want that slice of cake, have it, but make sure you have a serving or less and work it into your calories. That might mean having a smaller meal during the day or pushing your exercise longer. But if you deny yourself that slice of cake, its going to be on your mind all day and the next. the craving for that cake will build and sooner or later you will have that slice and a whole lot more.
Lifestyle change is about retraining ourselves to eat a serving, to eat better, to exercise more and to be healthy. I believe any diet that restricts certain foods cannot be healthy or long term. Successful weight loss is when you learn how to eat and make that your lifestyle choice.
If you do a "diet", stay within your calories and deny yourself certain foods, you will drop the weight, you will make it to goal, but when you go back to eating the way you did before the weight will come back and statistics show you will gain even more. So do yourself a favor and make a lifestyle change!!!
Personally I prefer a "Lifestyle Change", what that means is I am changing the way to eat, not for 6 months, not to drop weight and than go back to "normal". Remember that "Normal" is what got us here in the first place. I truly believe you can eat whatever you want, within moderation as long as you stay within your calories and exercise. I highly encourage everyone to get a kitchen scale. They can be found for under 20 bucks and for me it was a true wakeup call as to what a serving is and is not. lol
If you want that slice of cake, have it, but make sure you have a serving or less and work it into your calories. That might mean having a smaller meal during the day or pushing your exercise longer. But if you deny yourself that slice of cake, its going to be on your mind all day and the next. the craving for that cake will build and sooner or later you will have that slice and a whole lot more.
Lifestyle change is about retraining ourselves to eat a serving, to eat better, to exercise more and to be healthy. I believe any diet that restricts certain foods cannot be healthy or long term. Successful weight loss is when you learn how to eat and make that your lifestyle choice.
If you do a "diet", stay within your calories and deny yourself certain foods, you will drop the weight, you will make it to goal, but when you go back to eating the way you did before the weight will come back and statistics show you will gain even more. So do yourself a favor and make a lifestyle change!!!
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Replies
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Yes!! Lifestyle change is what I'm shooting for too.0
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Lifestyle change, not for me but to show my kiddos how to be healthy also. We use to eat out 3-4 Times weekly, now I cook healthy meals and we eat out 1 mAybe 2 depending on whAt's going on that week. They need me to do this for them as much as I need to do it for me. No I do not restrict their calories ( they still get their chips and soda some and they have sweet treats) but they get healthy options.
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Never diet! That's just a bad word. It starts with "die" then it has a cross! ( t ) Who wants that? Plus, a diet implies that it's for x amount of time. If you "diet" for a month, all the weight will just come back. We need to train ourselves to stop eating when we've had enough, not keep eating just because it tastes good. Plus, we need to learn to love those healthy choices, rather than just pizza, bacon cheese burgers, chips, soda, and sundays. All are yummy, and ok to have in moderation, once in a while, but definitely not something we need to be eating on a regular basis!0
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Lifestyle of healthy eating continued, but with alterations. I have eaten very well and cooked healthy meals for many years. However, I have also allowed myself indulgences along with that healthy eating style (like chips, cheese, wine) and always ate until I was "full". My not tracking on those extra calories led to slow weight gain over the past 10 years until I woke up one day and realized I was 30 lbs heavier than I should be. That was only about 3 lbs a year but it added up! So for me, the changes are about limiting the high calorie snacks (not eliminating) AND portion control. Even healthy nutritious food calories add up if you eat huge amounts!0
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Diet's fail, and also it makes it sound so temporary. If we go back to the old life, then we're just going to pack on the pounds again. It's a dirty 4 letter word.0
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My kitchen scale definitely changed my life! I am so grateful to my friend on here that suggested I buy one. I had hit a plateau and didn't lose weight for months until I started weighing my food. Now the food I am logging is accurate! I am definitely all about lifestyle change. I still eat the things I love like pizza and burgers, I just account for them in my food diary. Also, I have found that even little changes make a big difference- like wrapping my burger in lettuce, or having a big salad before I have pizza so that I don't want to eat as much of it. Some days (very rarely), I will admit, I go over my calories. But I have made it a goal to log every morsel, and it has really helped me tremendously!0
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Lifestyle change for me.0
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Make no mistake: Right now, I am dieting.
In the defense of "dieting," it was (and often is) presented in a negative light.
My interpretation:
"Lifestyle" is the way you choose to live your life, so a lifestyle change (in context) would mean to adopt eating habits similar to one who maintains at the weight level you desire to weigh. But if you weighed 200 pounds, and changed your eating lifestyle such that you would maintain your weight if you weighed 150, it would be a very long and slow process but you would eventually reach equilibrium (150 pounds).
(Actually: mathematically you would never reach 150, but would approach 150 as time approaches infinity. But I digress.)
For those who choose to try to speed the process along (of which I and I'd wager most of you have so chosen), you will likely do extra calorie cutting and burning; and that, friends, is a "diet."
The key is that reaching your weight goal is only half the battle. "Diet" is Phase I. Phase II is what would be more accurately termed "lifestyle adjustment"; adapting to life at your new, desired weight.
Thoughts?0 -
Make no mistake: Right now, I am dieting.
In the defense of "dieting," it was (and often is) presented in a negative light.
My interpretation:
"Lifestyle" is the way you choose to live your life, so a lifestyle change (in context) would mean to adopt eating habits similar to one who maintains at the weight level you desire to weigh. But if you weighed 200 pounds, and changed your eating lifestyle such that you would maintain your weight if you weighed 150, it would be a very long and slow process but you would eventually reach equilibrium (150 pounds).
(Actually: mathematically you would never reach 150, but would approach 150 as time approaches infinity. But I digress.)
For those who choose to try to speed the process along (of which I and I'd wager most of you have so chosen), you will likely do extra calorie cutting and burning; and that, friends, is a "diet."
The key is that reaching your weight goal is only half the battle. "Diet" is Phase I. Phase II is what would be more accurately termed "lifestyle adjustment"; adapting to life at your new, desired weight.
Thoughts?
Perfectly stated!
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Make no mistake: Right now, I am dieting.
In the defense of "dieting," it was (and often is) presented in a negative light.
My interpretation:
"Lifestyle" is the way you choose to live your life, so a lifestyle change (in context) would mean to adopt eating habits similar to one who maintains at the weight level you desire to weigh. But if you weighed 200 pounds, and changed your eating lifestyle such that you would maintain your weight if you weighed 150, it would be a very long and slow process but you would eventually reach equilibrium (150 pounds).
(Actually: mathematically you would never reach 150, but would approach 150 as time approaches infinity. But I digress.)
For those who choose to try to speed the process along (of which I and I'd wager most of you have so chosen), you will likely do extra calorie cutting and burning; and that, friends, is a "diet."
The key is that reaching your weight goal is only half the battle. "Diet" is Phase I. Phase II is what would be more accurately termed "lifestyle adjustment"; adapting to life at your new, desired weight.
Thoughts?
I'm still in the dieting phase right now but I am slowly incorporating more fruits and veggies in my meals that I think would help me in the lifestyle adjustment phase. I am also trying to up my exercise but I think that would be after I have already adjusted with my diet (a week or 2 from now).0 -
Make no mistake: Right now, I am dieting.
In the defense of "dieting," it was (and often is) presented in a negative light.
My interpretation:
"Lifestyle" is the way you choose to live your life, so a lifestyle change (in context) would mean to adopt eating habits similar to one who maintains at the weight level you desire to weigh. But if you weighed 200 pounds, and changed your eating lifestyle such that you would maintain your weight if you weighed 150, it would be a very long and slow process but you would eventually reach equilibrium (150 pounds).
(Actually: mathematically you would never reach 150, but would approach 150 as time approaches infinity. But I digress.)
For those who choose to try to speed the process along (of which I and I'd wager most of you have so chosen), you will likely do extra calorie cutting and burning; and that, friends, is a "diet."
The key is that reaching your weight goal is only half the battle. "Diet" is Phase I. Phase II is what would be more accurately termed "lifestyle adjustment"; adapting to life at your new, desired weight.
Thoughts?
The problem is just like you said, dieting is presented in a negative light. Dieting brings to mind a temporary severe restriction, eating horrible foods, grueling hours of horrible work, etc. that they have seen fail so many times. In the truest term of dieting yes, any calorie restriction is termed as a diet.
At the same time, however, most of us are making a lifestyle change at the same time we are dieting. We are changing from the foods we used to eat that were damaging us or causing us to binge to options that are healthier for us (which I realize means that we are updating the diet of what we eat).
Because we're not going to change thousands (millions?) of peoples minds that saying Diet doesn't mean temporary unpleasant process, I prefer to say I'm making a lifestyle change.0 -
I agree Afura, when I think of diet, something clicks in my brain that seriously makes me crave everything under the sun. It's kinda like when you say I will start my "diet" on Monday and the days leading up to it become a free for all. When I decided to make my lifestyle change, diet never crossed my mind. I was about changing the way I ate, the portions I ate and deciding it was time to get off my butt and actually start walking.
It honestly was not about vanity, it was about health and making that choice to live longer and be healthy meant a lifestyle change. So now 10 months later I can say that lifestyle change is working where I know for me a diet would have been over 9 months ago.
I have learned portion control, I know what it takes to maintain and I know I can eat anything I want as long as I eat one portion and work it into my daily calories. I don't feel restricted, I feel liberated. I no longer feel as if I "can't have something, I know I can but I must be mindful. And I also know what things can put me on a slippery slope.
So for me and my mind lifestyle change is the only way.0 -
In my opinion diet isn't a bad word, it just means what I eat. It can be a good diet, poor diet, healthy diet, unhealthy diet, etc.
I happen to be following a healthy diet now. When I reach my goal, it will remain a healthy diet with more calories added back in.0 -
In my opinion diet isn't a bad word, it just means what I eat. It can be a good diet, poor diet, healthy diet, unhealthy diet, etc.
I happen to be following a healthy diet now. When I reach my goal, it will remain a healthy diet with more calories added back in.
I agree. When I have a healthy diet I feel better & look better. Thats the goal!
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This discussion has been closed.