Why are restrictive diets so popular?

I think restrictive diets are popular because we live in a society that values punishment. You're fat, therefore you must deserve to be punished. You should deprive yourself to be a better (thinner) person. I think it is crap, but there you go.

Because we want it NOW, too bad most of the time we don’t even give a thought about how are we going to Maintain in the long run, if we did we would take our time to learn and make it a LIFESTYLE ...I did on my last attempt (took my time & ate in a balanced way) I lost 45 lbs in almost 2 years, but I’m maintaining for almost 11 years!!!
No fad diets for me

lin_be wrote: »

I honestly don’t mind that people have restrictive diets. For me, I can’t eat what I use to because it doesn’t fit my calories so I guess I am somewhat restrictive myself.

To me this reads “moderation.”
But I guess to some, moderation = restrictive.
It’s all relative really. What I think is moderate, others consider restrictive. Still others think it isn’t restrictive enough.

pierinifitness wrote: »

There’s more than one way to get the job done and what you describe as torture about your friends’ weight loss journey may be pleasant and palatable to them. Hold your breath judging them and others who aren’t doing it your way. See where you’re at in six months and then maybe make your next judgment.

I lost 33 lbs. in 173 days practicing intermittent fasting. Some would call it a restrictive approach. I saw it differently and didn’t feel deprived but, rather, very disciplined. It worked, for me.

Same here, I lost 25 lbs doing IF nothing else, I simply skip breakfast. I did not count calories/points, etc. No interest in doing any of that. For me it worked and I like the structure of an eating window as opposed to the structure of counting or tracking calories.

witchaywoman81 wrote: »

I have 2 good friends who are on diets at the moment. One is doing something called “carb cycling” and the other is doing what she calls “lazy keto.” I told them both I’m eating what I want and tracking my calories here, and I’ve lost 7 pounds since the beginning of the year, which didn’t seem to deter them from their plans. Not that I was trying to at all, but it got me thinking about why “we” feel like we need to torture ourselves to lose weight. We don’t (generally) gain weight quickly, so why do we feel the need to lose it so quickly? I ask all of these hypothetical questions as someone who has tried my own share of quick fixes...with little success.

I think many people underestimate the psychology. We "know" losing weight is hard. Maybe we have tried before and failed, or maybe we know someone, like a close friend or a family member who has failed.
This reinforce the psychology. Losing weight is hard. Period. This "fact" makes us take irrational decisions. It will take an extraordinary effort to lose the weight, and the diet must also be extraordinary, hence all the crazy diets out there.

Sadly, the only extraordinary thing about all of this is the failure rate. under 10% will actually lose the weight and maintain over a period of time.

100% believe they are amongst the sub10%

First, let me say that I think any well-rounded nutrition that gets someone happily to a healthy weight is a very fine thing. Yay, you! :flowerforyou:

But tricksy named diets are common, often unsuccessful, and I think there are various reasons why they're popular. Others have posted some good insights. I'll just add my ramble:

First, I suspect many people implicitly think their current eating is OK and normal: It's how the people around them eat, and in some cases we'll believe we're eating no more than others around us who "eat the same" but are thin - coworkers or friends, typically. So, those other people must have a "faster metabolism" or something. (All of these are skewed beliefs, in this scenario).

If what we're doing is OK and normal, and we have a special-high hill to climb to reach success, then we need a method or mechanism or hack or something. This primes us to be fooled. Enter the marketers and blogs and TV shows and friends who follow/preach the fads . . . and we're off and running.

Second, there's a thread of guilt and shame around being overweight (not universal, not powerful in every individual, but common in the wild). This can create the implicit (not fully thought out) belief that if being fat is bad, we are bad for being fat, so penance will be necessary if we are to be saved. Enter the expectation that misery must be endured, in order to lose weight. If it were pleasant, we won't have suffered enough for our sin of gluttony. (The extreme weight loss shows contribute to this one by showing people being miserable (must be what it takes, eh?), losing weight, then getting a praise ceremony at the end, plus maybe cash.)

Third, add a dash of "bad at science/bad at math" or tendency toward conspiracy theories (the evil corporations making us helpless people fat, so we gotta find the secrets they're hiding from us, or somesuch thing). It's a minority of people who fit in this third point, but it happens at an observable rate in the general population. When it occurs, these people find claims harder to evaluate accurately, and can encourage some to turn away from "boring" sources full of statistics and studies and moderate advice, and go for something lively and psychologically seductive (that has plenty of footnotes pretty much no one actually links to and reads, and the occasional "science-y" word to sound more persuasive).

Fourth, named diets are a social bonding experience. If our friends all do the "Giraffe Phlegm Supplement Diet" (small print: "effective in combination with diet and exercise program on our web site"), and someone(s) lose a few pounds, that will keep a group going, and encouraging each other, and talking about how great they feel, and how they would've lost a bunch but unfortunately they had that birthday party last weekend . . . .

I'm not saying all of these things apply to everyone who undertakes a named diet, a faddy diet, etc. I'm merely suggesting that they're things that don't apply to everyone, but that do contribute to the popularity of tricksy weight loss diets and products.

lthames0810 wrote: »

Someone in my workplace corrected me yesterday on my way of losing weight.

She took me aside and asked if I had lost some weight (yes, 25 lbs) and was I losing intentionally (yes, why?). She thought, because I commonly share in birthday cakes and cookies in the office, I couldn't be on a diet, so I must be sick or something. Then I got a lecture on the proper restrictive way to lose weight.

So even though my "stealth" diet is working, it's not right. I guess I'm supposed to do a lot of public suffering.

Oh my gosh..how annoying and weird of her!

I hate hate hate it, when people think that eating cookies/cakes is forbidden on an eating plan.

I have a friend that will say..."I am so bad, I just ate a slice of pizza" or I just ate a whole squash for dinner, I am so bad"....I hate that overdramatic *kitten*!

I hate when coworkers see me indulging in a treat or slice of homemade pizza and ask "but arent you on a diet?". I have explained to these people that I am but I make room for an occasional treat. They dont get it. They think I need to eat nothing but lettuce and unseasoned chicken to lose weight.

paperpudding wrote: »

I agree with Emberlain - sometimes we get too caught up in calorie counting and smugly think that is the be all and end all way for everyone.

Some people dont want to count calories and would find it restrictive and torture.

But they are quite happy following a prescribed diet that, for example, restricts high calorie carbs and call it lazy keto or carb cycling, however that works.

or a plan that says Breakfast - 1 bowl of oatmeal, Lunch pick from this or that etc

As long as the plans are not silly restrictive quick fixes (eg eat bananas only for 3 days a week or suchlike) - which carb cycling and lazy keto do not seem to be - then no problem.

What they are doing works for them, what you are doing works for you.

No need for anyone to be detered.

Yes, I have heard that before in my family..(bold print above..)... But in the end, it was just that they couldn't face the fact that the total of the calories in the food log where their responsibility alone...nobody else to blame.... Some people (in my circle of friends and family) can't go without the frequent 'pity party', it seems. They need to draw attention to their restrictive diets... They always end up back on the 'frequently-overweight' side, and all I hear is 'Oh..I could never have your discipline...' Duhhh...keep trying for more than 2 weeks, sister....

Losing weight requires a change of some sort. Personally I did it by tracking calories but a restrictive diet also changes behavior and what/how much you eat. The only problem is to keep weight off you have to keep doing whatever you did to lose it. Most folks aren't prepared to stick to carb-cycling/fake-keto/whatever-faddy-carb-diet for life.

People are dumb about carbs in general. So many people who comment on my weight loss say "you must not eat any carbs" and they are dead wrong. I just nod and smile because I've given up trying to explain that fiber-rich plant-based whole foods like beans, quinoa, potatoes, and winter squash are not the same as doughnuts and pizza.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Look at HIIT, for example. A good thing as originally defined, useful in a context, studied and benefits found, pulled into other contexts, translated into other activities that don't meet the original definition or occur in the original context, still called HIIT and the original studied benefits still claimed (in the most click-bait-y, bad-math statistics ways), popularized to the point where beginners think they should do HIIT every day for an hour. (I exaggerate only slightly.)

HIIT is a great example. Most of the general population, i.e. those that really desire the benefits of HIIT and who are not already elite athletes, would not be able to do true HIIT every day, let alone for an hour at any one time.

When you see fitness models on their Bowflexes in the commercials showing moderate effort and that you spend "only 14 minutes", that's not exactly reality.

HIIT is hard hard hard..... if you do it right. It's really hard. The first sprint or two or three...no problem. In the commercial you are probably seeing the first or second sprint - not the ninth or tenth.

I do HIIT - about once per week, sometimes twice. I use it as a conditioning component as a part of my overall strength training program. I use a Concept 2 (C2) Rower because it lends itself well to the process and it is easily measurable. 30 second all-out sprints, followed by 90 second rest x 10 rounds. It's all I can do to stagger back to the locker room. I can do steady state rows on the same machine for 40 minutes and walk back to the locker room sweating, but having a good low intensity session. Completely different thing.

The benefits of HIIT, reported EPOC, should last for 48 hours after the fact - if you are doing it right. With that in mind, it makes no sense to do it 6x per week as many people claim to do. 1-2 times per week for most of us. Maybe 3 if you are part of the small percentage of those who are super fit.

Ultimately when paired with diet, it's still diet that has the biggest impact on weight loss. And it's not close.