Because I am annoyed - What Is The Point?
Options
Replies
-
I think we read the same posts yesterday, OP! I was getting that sense, too- too many people saying things like "I lost 100 pounds and I barely did anything different- I don't know what everyone's problem is!" I read a lot and never post, but just wanted to respond because I got that feeling yesterday, too!1
-
Whether it's weight-loss, relationships or work--we all get a bout of the green-eyed monster at times. It's human, it's what we do. Wanting the success someone else has doesn't make you a bad person, it doesn't make you a failure, it just means you're struggling.
I bet if the "easy weight-loss" people saw your life, they'd find things about you to envy. As with social media, all we see are snapshots that other people choose to let us see. And we all want to look like we have it together, when we are all struggling with things.
Like @arditarose said, I still struggle with how I look, how much I weigh, what size I wear. I "know" I shouldn't, but I do. I'm not always as kind and gentle to myself as I should be--I would NEVER talk to a friend the way I talk to myself. Which is the biggest indicator I should stop it. But it's hard. Living in Southern California (which I love) doesn't make it any easier. But I'm working on it.
4 -
Sounds like you're being grumpy.8
-
I don't understand the point of posting these threads on the General Diet and Weight Loss Help forum.
I've been reading these forums for almost a year and a half, and I absolutely do see the reason they should be posted here. Thread after thread is started by people who have just started, or are well into their weight loss, and they believe that they can't do it, that they don't have the motivation, discipline, knowledge or whatever their particular issue may be to lose weight. For those people, many who have had success losing weight will want to show them that it is actually possible, and not as hard as they may think it is. Many of these people started out thinking and feeling the same way, but discovered, as time went on and they continued to be successful, that the process of losing weight was actually pretty simple - eat less than you burn. Log your food, meet your macros, weigh your food, exercise - whatever has worked for you personally is presented as part of that process that is easier than they thought it would be. A lot of those people, myself included, do try to say that the mechanics of weight loss is quite simple and easy to implement, but weight loss is more than anything a mental game that requires discipline and a whole lot of patience. Reading posts like these was hugely helpful to me in my own weight loss, so absolutely these types of posts belong in this section.
9 -
Some things are easy to do for some and not for others. Some suck at math while others see it as easy. Same with science, doing laundry, cleaning the house, cooking, spending time with the kids, etc.
In essence, it's personal viewpoint on whatever they are doing. I find weight lifting fun and challenging where others find it boring. Personally I find spin boring, but that's just my viewpoint.
So really, you just learn to take the good with the bad. That's how life works.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
12 -
I have seen a couple of posts like that, but I tend to ignore them. I'd rather hear from people who've struggled and got through it instead of from people who found the whole thing a walk in the park. I find the "I'm full on 900 calories, what should I do?!" or the "I'm eating so much but still losing weight, what's going on?!" posts more irksome. Mainly because I don't believe the majority of them are genuine. They come across like weird humble brags. "Look at me, I find this lettuce SOOOOO filling!" Yeah ok. WHERE'S THE EYEROLL EMOJI WHEN I NEED IT?!7
-
I hear ya, but yeah.... Complaining about it doesn't help at all.
I've lost around 90lbs, and yes, I do CICO. Was it easy? Heck no. However, losing weight this time around is easier as I ditched all the silly dieting rules that get passed around. I still have around 50 to go and it is getting harder, for sure.
Do I struggle? Absolutely. Every day.2 -
Yeah there was no particular thread actually, and I'm not having a particularly hard time right now. Pretty sure I was just grumpy and had my "posts I hate" glasses on. LOL.6
-
Maybe it's your outlook that needs to change?
Jealousy is counterproductive anyway.3 -
I suspect I'm guilty of saying it's easy, in a couple of very specific contexts, in General Diet & Weight Loss.
One is the people who post "I'm hypothyroid/menopausal/'older' and I've heard it's terribly difficult for us, or even impossible". Because I am hypothyroid/menopausal/60, I tend to say things like "I found it reasonably easy (no harder than anyone else AFAIK."
The other is people who have been here only briefly, have gotten all flustered/confused, and are ready to give up, saying things like "It's just too complicated: I don't know how to pick an activity level, do I have to exercise, how do I figure out my macros (and what they heck are they), I don't think I can give up sweets (or fries, or pizza, or . . . ) forever . . . .".
In these cases, I'm sure I've said "You don't have to do it all at once. It can be easy if you do it gradually: Just log what you eat now. Review your diary. Reduce things that have too many calories for their tastiness/nutrition/satiation. Worry about the rest later."
OP, you make a good point, if what we're trying to do is communicate with diverse people in a supportive way. "Easy" has several meanings and various implications. When speaking informally, it can be the opposite of both "difficult" and "complicated" (among others). I'll try to keep this idea in my head, for the future.
Good point by someone up above, about "simple" vs. "easy" - a useful distinction I first heard years back from my kung fu teacher.
That said, I also agree with those who encourage readers to glean the useful points from posts, strive not to be reflexively symbol-reactive about word choices, and simply ignore people who're being snarky for their own amusement or self-aggrandizement.
4 -
Well I've been guilty probably of what you're talking about to an extent. Someone posted a question about eating sweets a while back. I posted about how I still eat sweets and still lose just fine. Of course my sweet thing is those mini magnum ice cream bars or 1 square of chocolate. My point with that was to say that you can still have sweets and have success, not to brag about this like it's easy. Would I rather have a whole pint of ice cream at times?? Absolutely!!! It is definitely not easy, but the math is simple. To lose what I want, I have to fit everything in my calorie goal.2
-
I've been seeing a lot of threads on this forum where people talk about how it was so easy for them to lose weight and there were no issues and it required very few changes and was no challenge and they eat whatever the hell they want and keep losing weight and everything is so goddamn great they're practically living on the moon.
I don't understand the point of posting these threads on the General Diet and Weight Loss Help forum. Perhaps they'd be appropriate for the Success Stories forum? Otherwise, to me, it just seems like crowing about how awesome you are, which is not helpful.
I admit I have a jaundiced eye toward this sort of thing, but I think it's counterproductive, and I don't have a lot of patience for people who post that sort of thing on this particular forum. Possibly I'm just a grumpy *kitten*, and if so I'll STFU, but I'd like to see more general diet and weight loss help.
I don't know, I think this message is a good one for people to hear. I don't think it's bragging, I think it's a good way to counter the very prevalent perception that weight loss or dieting needs to include a lot of suffering and sacrifice. Suffering through a diet you can't stand is probably one of the largest causes of yo-yo dieting out there - coming to the realization that it doesn't need to be that hard is an important step in breaking out of that cycle of loss and gain.15 -
I've been seeing a lot of threads on this forum where people talk about how it was so easy for them to lose weight and there were no issues and it required very few changes and was no challenge and they eat whatever the hell they want and keep losing weight and everything is so goddamn great they're practically living on the moon.
I don't understand the point of posting these threads on the General Diet and Weight Loss Help forum. Perhaps they'd be appropriate for the Success Stories forum? Otherwise, to me, it just seems like crowing about how awesome you are, which is not helpful.
I admit I have a jaundiced eye toward this sort of thing, but I think it's counterproductive, and I don't have a lot of patience for people who post that sort of thing on this particular forum. Possibly I'm just a grumpy *kitten*, and if so I'll STFU, but I'd like to see more general diet and weight loss help.
I had been trying to lose weight for 15 years- losing, maintaining, gaining, repeat. Weight loss can be hard and frustrating. There are so many diets and confusing claims out there. The easiest and most sustainable loss I have had in all that time was as simple as just watching my calorie intake using MFP. I was relieved to come on these forums and see others say eat what you want just stick to your calorie deficit. It takes a little bit of work to log food. It is harder closer to a healthier weight. It does not however require an ultra restrictive diet with the bare minimum of calories for most people to lose weight. It does not have to be that hard or complicated.
4 -
Yep, like I said, I was grumpy, so have applied the STFU.1
-
I've been seeing a lot of threads on this forum where people talk about how it was so easy for them to lose weight and there were no issues and it required very few changes and was no challenge and they eat whatever the hell they want and keep losing weight and everything is so goddamn great they're practically living on the moon.
I don't understand the point of posting these threads on the General Diet and Weight Loss Help forum. Perhaps they'd be appropriate for the Success Stories forum? Otherwise, to me, it just seems like crowing about how awesome you are, which is not helpful.
I admit I have a jaundiced eye toward this sort of thing, but I think it's counterproductive, and I don't have a lot of patience for people who post that sort of thing on this particular forum. Possibly I'm just a grumpy *kitten*, and if so I'll STFU, but I'd like to see more general diet and weight loss help.
I don't think you're being grumpy, I think everyone on the forums has felt this way about something over the course of losing weight. I've seen plenty of successful people speak on their walls about being fed up with weighing food all the time, or annoyed that it takes forever to lose the last 10 lbs, or just wanting to be able to eat all the food they want (and not talking about fruits/veggies/lean protein) without only having a small portion or having to space it out over time. And yes, the calorie deficit can get to you after awhile, since for many people it ends up being 2000 calories or less, even with exercise.
On one hand, those posts are helpful because they emphasize that weight loss is fairly simple as a concept, and that yes, you can do it. On the other, sometimes it is nice to see the processed humanized and people open up about the parts that are difficult or frustrating for them.2 -
As an abstainer type of person, I can get narked by the moderation type of people. Just as I'm sure they find my way of not being able to eat only a bit of something is bewildering to them.
This is interesting. I had never considered that "abstainer" types might get narked by people recommending moderation, as if we were recommending a "harder way" of doing it instead of the "easy way" that works for you. For us, moderation is easier, abstaining is so much harder that for many of us it has been a major, even the biggest, obstacle to our success.
So when someone like me recommends a moderation approach, we are not bragging that we can do something difficult, we are recommending a way that we find easier.
If you are someone who abstains because that works for you, we aren't even talking to you at all. We are talking to those who are like us and suffering repeated failure and frustration because they are trying an abstention approach which isn't working for them and will never work for them.
And because there are so many people out there who are like us, and because abstention, "bad foods" and deprivation are the dominant narrative in weight loss talk, we have to keep banging the moderation message, because otherwise people like us will never find their way out of the maze.
If the words about moderation are not helpful to you, ignore them. Please never feel offended or belittled by them, as that is never the intention, at least not as far as I am concerned.
7 -
rankinsect wrote: »I don't know, I think this message is a good one for people to hear. I don't think it's bragging, I think it's a good way to counter the very prevalent perception that weight loss or dieting needs to include a lot of suffering and sacrifice. Suffering through a diet you can't stand is probably one of the largest causes of yo-yo dieting out there - coming to the realization that it doesn't need to be that hard is an important step in breaking out of that cycle of loss and gain.
I wasn't a yo-yo dieter... I only ever tried dieting once, a few years ago. Most of the time I didn't even feel like trying because of that exact perception you mention - that it involves suffering and sacrifice. I wasn't prepared to give up the foods I enjoy for ever.
MFP was recommended by a friend who'd lost a lot of weight, and coming here to find out that I could eat chocolate (just not too much of it!) and still lose weight was such a relief! Suddenly I felt like there really was hope for me after all, and seeing posts from people who say they "eat what they like" (and I do realise that doesn't mean "as much as I like") helped me to feel that I had a good chance of success.
That said, I do sometimes find it easier to relate to the posts from people who've taken some time over losing their weight and struggled a bit. The stories of those who've lost a lot of weight in just a few months and found it "easy", while I'm happy for their success, just don't really resonate with me. Some of them have done so by methods that they might have found easy to stick to but would not have worked for me, so I don't necessarily find them helpful. But of course, for other people those posts might be just what they need to see! We're all different in what works for us.
It's like others have referred to upthread, about the difference between "easy" and "simple" - the concept is simple, but the execution of it might not be easy. Reading about different people's methods, and what they personally found easy or not, can be helpful in formulating our own plan of attack. 3 -
I did not find losing weight easy or effortless
I did not eat whatever I wanted
I did not log every bite, lick and taste perfectly
I did go through stalls and plateaus
I did omit my trigger foods
I did get pissed off at weight fluctuations
I did make a few changes12 -
@Bearbo27 look up Halo Top ice cream. It is 240-280 per pint and doesn't taste like sadness. Tell your local grocery store to stock it, you won't be disappointed.2
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.4K Getting Started
- 259.6K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 387 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.2K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 913 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions