What to call a diet that is just based on reduced calories?

One's diet is whatever one chooses to eat. The word diet has been hijacked to only mean, the foods, amounts, eating plans one chooses in order to change one's health, or weight up or down. What we all are or were searching for is the right food balance for ourselves. Mrb or yrb. good fortune everyone.

Personally I don't have any hang ups about saying "I'm on a diet" when I'm losing weight - in fact the phrase "it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle change" irritates me intensely.

I did 5:2 to lose my weight so IRL just said I do "the 5:2 diet". It's only on here I've seen or used the phrase Way of Eating.

At the moment I'm losing some weight for the cycling season but not following anyone's else's plan. If people IRL want details I would just say I'm cutting calories. If they really want lots of detail I would say I'm just cutting a few hundred calories on days when it suits me but aiming for a daily minimum protein goal - not sure what label would fit that even if it needed labelling.

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I don't really call it anything as far as the way of eating goes. Counting calories or not, I just consider it dropping, maintaining, or adding weight. As for the things I actually eat, I tend to not label it, but mostly because someone differs on what every label implies regardless.


For the most part, I just consider it life.

I eat the same food as my dh and dd who are maintaing and still growing. We eat different amounts because I am a different height, age, gender, and activity level. Even at a healthy weight eating the same food I will always need a different amount of calories even if the food is the same. So my diet is the 5'4", 41 year old, sedentary woman diet plan. It would be wrong for an 18 year old 6' active man to follow this diet plan. Another 5'4", 40ish sedentary woman with the same goal would probably be fine eating exactly like me but they can eat different foods too. It is a very flexible plan.

People who are not trying to lose or gain weight don't have to label their "way of eating". They can just show up and eat what they want. They can say, "oh, I eat anything" or say, "I don't like Indian food" and eat pizza instead. CICO still applies to them even if they don't think about calories ever. They don't gain weight if they eat the right amount of calories for their activity level. They don't lose weight if they eat the right amount of calories. Are we doomed to a label for the rest of our lives or do we get to shake it when we are no longer overweight?

How about calling it "Eating normal."

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lisawinning4losing wrote: »

The perpetual hunger diet?

Again with the incredibly rude assumption that others are hungry.

Re ketomom and cutting calories and eating less not working for you, I never assume that cutting calories means eating exactly the same, but less, since obviously anyone sensible (and I assume people are sensible) will realize that some calories are more dispensable than others, although it depends on their preferences and what satiates them, as well as nutrition concerns. I know I and others have said that one big change was that having reduced calories made us pickier, less likely to eat things we don't find delicious (I find vegetables delicious as well as essential for a healthy diet), and I also expect that people will prioritize health and satiety and experiment to find something to work.

So when I say "just cut calories, you don't need a special diet" I don't mean "make no changes to your diet and keep the percentage of cookies or whatever exactly the same"). I don't think anyone means that. Instead I say go through your diary and see what's easiest to cut without missing it. For me that meant increasing my protein (meat) consumption (although I was not totally comfortable with the meat part of that), decreasing sweets, especially those I ate pretty mindlessly (because they appeared in my office and everyone seemed to be eating them), decreasing some starchy carbs since for me they aren't worth the calories, decreasing the amount of oils and butter I used (this was significant). On the other hand, I greatly prefer chicken with bones and skin to most boneless, skinless, so did not make that switch (with exceptions for specific dishes). I already ate (preferred) skim or 1% dairy and saw no reason to change that. I ate lots of fish and vegetables and kept that habit. Mostly it's going to be personal, and I don't see why cutting carbs isn't often the product of the same kinds of choices (though not a hardcore keto diet, I suppose).

newmeadow wrote: »

nvmomketo wrote: »

newmeadow wrote: »

Or one could just say I'm On A Diet. Easy enough since no one will ask in real life, because no one really wants to know about the boring details.

True... What to call it at maintenance though? I was vLCHF while losing and now I am still vLCHF, just more of it.

Say this: Get that poison out of my face! I don't eat it! How many times do I have to tell you? If you ask me again, I'll throw it on the carpet and stomp on it and let your dog eat it. That's why I look this good and feel like a million bucks, by not eating that carbage! You do eat it and wear a size 6? How wonderful for you! Enjoy it and enjoy yourself and get the eff away from me with your taco chips and chocolate frosted cream puffs. It's okay. I know you didn't mean to offend me or upset me. People like you just can't help being annoying. I understand. Okay. No offense taken. Enjoy the party. See you later.

Anger management classes anyone? Seriously, if you're that pi$$ed maybe you need some Oreos . ..

CCSAD. Calorie Controlled SAD.

I like it.

Healthy Living?

stevencloser wrote: »

zyxst wrote: »

HealthyGinny wrote: »

In French, we call it "hypocalorique", WordReference tells me it simply translates to "low-calorie diet" but I don't really agree with that word? As you can eat less calories but not have your diet be really LOW calorie, you know what I mean? So I'll probably go with a diet where I eat fewer calories than before.

I bet German's got a great word for eating less.

I can't think of one off the top of my head.

"Hypocalorique" properly translates to "hypocaloric".

For German ... maybe eingeschränktekalorien

lemurcat12 wrote: »

newmeadow wrote: »

Or one could just say I'm On A Diet. Easy enough since no one will ask in real life, because no one really wants to know about the boring details.

Some do. I normally say I watch what I eat and increased my activity a good bit. You know, eat less, move more.

You typically get pushed to admit what you really did.

I give more information if someone seems really interested in talking about weight loss which most are not.

Sometimes if someone is really pushy in a way I don't think is from personal concern I give a jokey answer like "kickboxing."

IME, although those who ask/are pushy are the most noticeable most people don't care or care about how others eat and are more likely to think it's rude to say anything unless there's a past history of discussing it.

Its this for me. I say "I changed the way I eat", then when asked for more detail I tell them "I ate less and moved more, and kept track of everything", and then if they want more information I'll go there. Yes I define the way I eat as Paleo, but there is just more to it than that and if I start with it then people will think that's the only way to lose weight so I don't even mention it unless we get into a detailed discussion about different methods of losing weight.

EvgeniZyntx wrote: »

For German ... maybe eingeschränktekalorien

Or perhaps kalorienreduzierte Diät ?