Do you consider yourself "on a diet?"

not even a little bit. I eat a lot.

Nope.

No - I just eat. Diet to me refers to restrictions, "i cant eat what I want because my diet tells me so" as opposed to "i just dont want to eat because i can control my instincts and dont feel hungry". Diet to me also means there is an end, it is also implied negatively...what I am doing lasts a life time and it is a positive thing.

yes.

Nope, just always striving to be more fit.

super good point - I really get very annoyed when after 5 9 months of maintenance people asking me "how's your diet?"

having a normal BMI, controlling myself, not wastig calories making stupid food choices but having instead a balanced diet, and exercising is not dieting, it's being smart and adopt an healthy and more importantly normal life style.

Eh... saying that I'm on a diet gets me out of things that I don't want to attend, so yes, then I'm on a diet.

No, but mostly because I am in maintenance. I still count calories/macros and work out, which people seem to think means I'm "on a diet," but that's just people's ignorance.

I think it's kind of funny when people who are eating at a deficit to lose weight refuse to call what they're doing "dieting." No, they may not be doing a specific fad diet like Atkins or whatever, but they ARE dieting. Then they say, "a diet is temporary" - well, yes, and eating at a deficit is temporary. Even if you plan to track calories and/or macros forever, if you're cutting calories to lose weight, it's not something you plan to do for life. Eventually you'll get out of your dieting phase and go into maintenance or bulking.

I also think it's funny that people are okay with the term "cutting" but not "dieting," as if they're not the same thing. They are - both mean eating less in order to lose body fat.

Some people diet or cut for a really long time, while others do it for a short time because they have less to lose. Some people then maintain long-term. Some of those people will either gain weight back on "accident" or on purpose through bulking. Once the bulk is over, you either return to maintenance or enter another cutting or dieting cycle. This is mostly for people that lift weights and hope to gain muscle.

Call it whatever you want to make yourself feel better, but if you're eating at a caloric deficit, you're dieting. It's not a bad word - it simply means you're trying to lose body fat. People give dieting a bad name when they go to extremes, but that doesn't mean the meaning of the word changes.

Plus, saying "I'm dieting" is a lot easier than saying, "well, it's not a diet, I'm just eating less food and exercising in the hopes of losing weight, and then once I reach my goal weight I'll start eating more of the same foods so my weight loss will stop." Come on, no need to complicate it.

^ Wow, that was quite a rant, but I needed to say it.

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

I am purposely eating for weight loss, so yes, that is pretty much the definition of 'being on a diet".

And there will be an end to my dieting. At some point I will eat for maintenance.

This for me too.

I'm restricting calories in order to actively lose weight, so that's a diet. But I'm also learning how to incorporate healthy balanced foods and exercise into my daily routine, so that's a lifestyle change.

No, I just consider myself aware of what I'm eating.

yes, i'm eating at deficit. it's not any fad diet, but i consider the restriction to be healthy dieting.

midwesterner85 wrote: »

Yes. When I got serious about losing weight 1/1/14, everyone on here says there are ways to eat fewer calories and be satisfied. During the past 18+ months, I've tried a lot of different suggestions for how to do this. None of them have worked. I'm just going to be hungry forever, occasionally eat as would satisfy me, then diet for several weeks or months to compensate for a normal day or two. I can be fit or I can be full, but not both. Maybe you can be fit and full, but I can't. For now, I'm choosing to be hungry.

I consider myself on a diet because I'm restricting myself from what I would like to eat and what would keep me satisfied. When I hear diet, I infer "restriction" because that is what it is to me.

**Note: "Diet" does NOT imply restriction or short-term or finite, but you can infer it (as I do with restriction, but do not with finite). Don't confuse implying with inferring... it's all about how you see it.

I'm with you. I've been at least slightly hungry for about 3 years, except for the days or weeks when I just can't take it anymore and say, "Screw it, I want a goddamn cheeseburger AND fries AND TWO, yes, TWO delicious beers." (That's all my calories for the day).

I've tried more protein, I've tried more fat, I've tried high-volume, high fiber foods, I've tried more water... there is just no way for me, personally, to be full on the limited number of calories at which my body maintains a healthy weight. You know what works? Multivitamins that make me nauseated for a couple of hours. Also the flu

So, yeah, I'm on a permanent diet. If my day was not a constant succession of internal "No, you can't eat that" messages, I'd be 200+ lbs.

Yes, no, no , sometimes. Lifestyle change blah blah blah smug zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Yes I am on a diet. I will consider myself to be "not on a diet" when I reach my goal weight and can eat to maintain rather than to lose weight.

Likewise if I were eating to build muscle (in the weightlifting sense, not basic health level), then I'd consider myself to be on a diet.

That's not to say that good eating shouldn't be a habit or that my food choices should no be consistent with establishing good eating habits. But because I am restricted from what my current weight wants to eat to maintain itself, I feel like I am "dieting". When I'm maintaining and allowed to eat ~300 cals more/day than my current diet, then that will be "not dieting"--the amounts will shift slightly but allowable choices of foods will remain the same--I still won't be able (for example) to eat a donut every day--maybe once a week would be okay though.