Stop calling it a diet!
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middlehaitch wrote: »I wasn't expecting so many responses! I agree that the word diet has many connotations, some good, some bad. I guess I didn't explain my irritation well enough: What gets under my skin is when people say things like, "You can't eat that - you're on a diet!" or "She won't eat with us, she's on a diet!" Maybe once I've been at this as long as some of you I'll make my peace with it, but for now it just exasperates me.
The trick to not getting these types of responses is to not say that you are losing weight, on a diet etc.
I just lost my weight by myself for myself and no one ever commented when I left food, chose lower calorie options, drank 3 pints of beer, or ate a large slice of cheesecake.
Cheers, h.
This.
I lost 50lbs during fall/winter months and continued to wear layers/baggy clothes. No one besides my husband had a clue that I was losing weight until spring hit and the layers came off. By that time I was confident in what I was doing and didn't engage in any dieting conversations with people.5 -
I agree with this and despise the current popular use of the term, but I'm a holistic thinker.
Diet of late has been inextricably tied to some manner of exclusion.
When people ask me what diet I'm on I proudly proclaim "Why the Wisconsin diet, which consists of beer and cheese curds."
Except that's not at all new. The diet of Jains who follow the dietary rules of that religion has been around since what, the 6th century BCE? That diet, while religious in nature, involves massive amounts of exclusion. People wanting to manipulate their diet as a way of losing weight also isn't new. William Banting's Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public was published and first distributed in 1863.6 -
I've had plenty of people ask me what 'diet' I used to lose weight and my response is always the same.
"Same food as before but I just stopped eating like an unsupervised 6 year old"
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I would just ignore it. I am in the south and while I am not fond of being called "honey" or "sweetie" by random strange women I am not going to let it ruin my day.6
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YES YES YES0
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I call it a diet because when I say that, people know that I mean I am doing something to try to lose weight. It's less awkward than saying "I'm on a journey of weight loss".5
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I call it a diet because when I say that, people know that I mean I am doing something to try to lose weight. It's less awkward than saying "I'm on a journey of weight loss".
That's my reasoning too. I use "dieting" because it's easier to understand and less awkward than "I'm changing my lifestyle in order to lose weight", plus the latter is a lie because I'm not changing my lifestyle, I'm just being strategic about my food.2 -
I started out on a diet.. it was hard.. it took work.. gosh I had to change everything really and had to pretend I wasn't. Now.. the diet has turned into a lifestyle change. I don't think about it.. it doesn't seem like work.
the difference between diet and lifestyle is TIME.
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I call it a diet because when I say that, people know that I mean I am doing something to try to lose weight. It's less awkward than saying "I'm on a journey of weight loss".
LOL! I don't find myself objecting to the word diet either. But for some reason I really dislike the term 'journey'. Everyone seems to be on a journey these days.
I can't really articulate why but just bugs me 9 -
I call it a diet because when I say that, people know that I mean I am doing something to try to lose weight. It's less awkward than saying "I'm on a journey of weight loss".
LOL! I don't find myself objecting to the word diet either. But for some reason I really dislike the term 'journey'. Everyone seems to be on a journey these days.
I can't really articulate why but just bugs me
None of these words particularly bug me, but most of them do not describe me so I don't use them. My experience was not grand enough to be considered a journey.2 -
- Are you on a diet?
- Yes.
- What's your diet?
- I'm just eating better, counting calories and working out.
- Oh, why don't you try the -insert fad diet name-?
- Because I'd prefer to be able to eat everything. Just better controlled. After all, I have to learn how to eat in a healthy manner so that I'd be able to maintain my weight loss afterwards.
- -blank stare- So you are not really on a diet. I don't see how this would work.
OR
-blank stare- But obsessing over calories is no way to live!
Last time I got recommended to try the Cabbage Diet - from what I was told, you eat cabbage for two weeks in various forms and you lose the weight quickly and for good!!!!!!!! -blank stare-
Most people associate the word "diet" with a very limiting food intake for a period of time that is including or excluding a certain food/food type, which miraculously leads to weight loss. Very few perceive the word as "way of eating".
If it's not delivering miraculous weight loss in two weeks, most people see the diet as too troublesome. Just yesterday I had to explain that counting calories takes me about 30 seconds per meal and it's in no way limiting or obsessive (unless you have obsessive disorders, but that's a whole other story). When I said that I was currently eating about 1800 calories, the very knowledgable cabbage-recommending person I was talking to gasped and concluded "But that's a lot, you will get fatter!" ...
People want a magic pill. Which doesn't exist. And it's easier to just use terms and words that they would understand. The word calories triggers some very interesting reactions, so I very often just don't even mention it and people react so much better.
- Are you on a diet?
- Yes.
- What's your diet?
- I'm eating less, moving more.
- Good!!!
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Diet as both a noun and verb doesn't have any emotional baggage for me it's simply descriptive of what I might be doing or my overall food choices. I diet every Spring to get down a few pounds to my best cycling weight - I could make it sound sexier and say "I'm cutting" but that sounds pretentious for an old fella...
Personally I find the phrase lifestyle change used simply to describe eating less intensely annoying - lifestyle is far more than that. Eating less can certainly be part of a bigger change though.
"You can't eat that - you're on a diet!" or "She won't eat with us, she's on a diet!"
I find that mindset amusing and on the rare occasion it cropped up I used to respond with "watch me" or the more challenging "why not?" if I could be bothered to engage.
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I don't mind "cutting" either, but again, I don't like using it because it's mostly used as part of the inside lingo in the strength training circles to mean dieting. Since I don't identify as part of that club, it doesn't feel "me" if I use it. Language is a funny thing. It's fascinating how words can carry intricate nuances and elicit interesting emotions.5
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When I eat for weight loss, I call it a diet. It's certain not my lifestyle!
But I don't tell anyone that I'm on a diet.2 -
I call it a diet because when I say that, people know that I mean I am doing something to try to lose weight. It's less awkward than saying "I'm on a journey of weight loss".
LOL! I don't find myself objecting to the word diet either. But for some reason I really dislike the term 'journey'. Everyone seems to be on a journey these days.
I can't really articulate why but just bugs me
Because you're channeling Lord Business!
I mean, part of their ability to sustain their diet hinges on making it more than just eating, I get that. Some need to make it significant and all-encompassing and immerse themselves in it to not stray. But I agree, the overuse of that word is just making me knee-jerk
these days.
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I mean aren't we always participating in some diet or other? It's the word for what you eat.1
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I hate it when people say I can't have that..I am trying to be good.
A friend of mine will say "I am so bad, I ate a slice of pizza" drives me nuts! Or she will say "omg I just ate half of a squash for dinner"...it is like wtf!
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Yeah, people get weird about the word diet (honestly, including myself, like a weird gut reaction) so I just call it "deficit eating". So instead of saying "I got back to my normal diet after Easter", I'll say "I got back to deficit eating", 'cause it really isn't my "normal" diet, it's my "normal" diet minus 250-500 calories.5
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RelCanonical wrote: »Yeah, people get weird about the word diet (honestly, including myself, like a weird gut reaction) so I just call it "deficit eating". So instead of saying "I got back to my normal diet after Easter", I'll say "I got back to deficit eating", 'cause it really isn't my "normal" diet, it's my "normal" diet minus 250-500 calories.
Yes!!
My diet/deficit and my normal/maintenance are two similar but different things.
(And personally I think of my lifestyle as something quite different)0 -
I refer to the restriction of calories as a "diet" too even though it's not a diet of specific foods like keto, south beach, military etc. etc.
But I understand your frustration. I don't ever tell people when I'm trying to lose weight or not, so no one would ever have any comments about what or how much I'm choosing to eat.
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