How did you unlearn diet culture?
ochoa_ml
Posts: 10 Member
I’m 5 ft 2 at about 156 lbs at the moment. My weight to height ratio puts me in the overweight category.
I’ve been eating between 1200-1300 calories and workout 4-5x a week. This has been going on for about 2-3 months now.
I’ve been reading more into calorie intake because I’m constantly hungry and I absolutely hate it and have read eating less calories than your body needs can have negative long term side effects and can plateau weightloss as well.
However, it’s a little nerve wracking considering to increase my caloric intake when I’ve been losing weight with 1200-1300.
So my question is, did you have to break out of the low calorie = weight loss mentality and if you did and increased your calorie intake, did you start to gain your weight back again?
Bonus question: Was it tough unlearning diet culture to start eating more?
I’ve been eating between 1200-1300 calories and workout 4-5x a week. This has been going on for about 2-3 months now.
I’ve been reading more into calorie intake because I’m constantly hungry and I absolutely hate it and have read eating less calories than your body needs can have negative long term side effects and can plateau weightloss as well.
However, it’s a little nerve wracking considering to increase my caloric intake when I’ve been losing weight with 1200-1300.
So my question is, did you have to break out of the low calorie = weight loss mentality and if you did and increased your calorie intake, did you start to gain your weight back again?
Bonus question: Was it tough unlearning diet culture to start eating more?
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Replies
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What % of the calories you earn from exercise are you eating back? If none, that is not how MFP is designed to work.
Unlike other sites which use TDEE calculators, MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
If you are eating back a good amount of your exercise calories, and the 1200-1300 calories you mention above is net rather than gross calories, you may find this helpful: https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/
When I first started on MFP, I set my weekly weight loss goal to 2 pounds per week, rationalizing that if the people on The Biggest Loser could lose double digits of weight for many weeks, I could lose 2 pounds per week. I got over that by lunch time
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Yeah, if you're miserable you probably ARE undereating. I started at 1200, but I couldn't get through the day with any kind of equanimity while eating so little.
1200-1300 is pretty difficult. I switched to 1500-1600. It was much easier and still led to my losing weight at a good clip.
When I exercised, I got to eat more like 1800-2000, and that made all the difference.
The other thing is paying attention to macros. Making sure to get enough protein and fiber. Too many carbs makes me ravenous.
You'll find your balance. Less is not better, in most cases.
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1,200 calories is the recommended for a 5 year old... that’s obviously not sustainable long term. Everything in moderation. People so say keto / paleo / plant based works, it all works because you’re in a calorie deficit!
Move more, but in ways you enjoy. Join a running group, a dance class, yoga group, CrossFit, but do it because you want to for you. Don’t kill yourself doing an exercise you hate, that just makes you not want to do it ever again. Have one glass of wine instead of 3 with friends, or make them spritzers, or have spirits and slim line tonics, or have a beer and just enjoy yourself.
It’s like shopping. Some days you spend loads of money (probably on the weekend) whilst other days you might not spend anything at all. Sometimes you’ll overeat, but be mindful and make it up in other areas. x8 -
Almost all efforts to lose weight end in failure. Many of the failures, probably most, can be attributed to focusing on speed instead of sustainability.
In a nutshell you are following a path of statistical failure.
I doubt anyone, myself included, sets out to intentionally fail. However, that is what the cost is of sticking to popular ideas of getting weight off fast. It took me a long time, too long, to unlearn it. Now that I have I am in sight of being done with the weight loss portion of this deal.
Don't be the many. Be the few.20 -
I'm 5'2" as well. About 10-ish years ago, I was in the 160 range. I started off with 1200 calories and like you're finding out, it wasn't sustainable. I think I only lasted 2 months in that range. I upped my calorie intake to 1600 which was a lot easier for me and I still continued to lose weight. I think it took me a year to get to my current maintenance weight of 120-125.
Others have given good advice. You can do this!12 -
I'm also 5'2". I (re)started at 150lbs, am now down to 112 and switched to maintenance this week. It's taken over a year to get to this point but that's fine - I wasn't in a hurry. Now I just need to make sure I stay here, but I've had a year to learn proper portion sizes and what fills me up.
My daily net calories were around 1200 because that's what MFP told me to eat, but my gross calories were around 1700 because I also eat all of my exercise calories. I really hope you're quoting a net figure there and are eating your exercise calories. If not, start with doing that. It's how MFP is set up to work and you'll feel a lot better. Feeling better makes it easier to stay on track.
You can determine whether you're losing too fast by looking at your weight 6 weeks ago to what you weigh now. If you're going faster than planned, you're not eating enough. There's a chart shown in this forum that says you shouldn't aim to lose more than 1% of your weight, per week, so you may need to consider your weight loss rate and set it to lose at 1.5lb a week.
Although I never considered doing it, I've seen more than enough posts on here about the effects of under-eating to be put off the idea for life. I quite like being alive, having hair, having fingernails etc. Someone also posted, a while back, that the winner is the person who can eat the most and still lose weight. That helped shift any mental block I may have had.
For what it's worth, as you don't say what exercise you do, I find MFP is pretty accurate for calculating calories from walking and assume it would be for running too - as long as you're accurate about your pace. I took the figures from the cross-trainer when I was able to go to the gym.
If you use MFP the way it's designed, you should find it works.10 -
I've never been on a "diet" that mandates that only certain types of food be eaten.
I've only counted cals using MFP and have eaten whatever I've liked as long as I stayed w/in my cal limit (as measured by TDEE or experience) at the time.
Lost 46# from 196 to 150 and have maintained my wt bet 155-157 (sometimes w/little or no extra exercise) doing this over the past 5 yrs .
It's a lifestyle not a"diet" to me7 -
I think one big key that's been touched on here is the mentality that we have to lose weight fast.
No, we don't.
We didn't gain all that weight fast, it crept on over years. Therefore it's perfectly acceptable to lose the weight slowly.
Too fast a weightloss just leads to someone being miserable all the time, except for weekly weigh ins. It's just not worth it.
Tell yourself you are going to allow yourself time to lose the weight. That losing 10-20lb in a year is perfectly fine. And eat at a calorie deficit that will allow that weight loss. You will feel more satisfied as you aren't starving yourself, and you will be more likely to achieve your goal.
It's about starting with the mindset that this is a marathon, not a sprint.10 -
I've actually been eating more calories, the more weight that i've lost as i've increased my activity. when i first started out, and for about the first 130-140 lbs that i lost, i was probably eating 1300-1400 calories a day. the last 30-40 i've lost since then, i've been eating closer to 1600-1800 calories a day on average. i've found that my weight loss has slowed on some weeks, but been faster on others. i basically just started re-introducing a few more carbs back in, and letting myself indulge in additional fruits and veggies throughout the day! the weight has come off pretty fast, but i've been able to develop habits that i'm confident i can hold onto for the rest of my life and if i were to ever gain a few lbs back, i know what i would have to do to correct it.4
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Thanks everyone for the responses! I’m still learning and I’m glad I asked the question because it sounds like I have been undereating and doing my body harm 😖 Definitely upping my intake now and focusing on long term weightloss rather than rapid results.13
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georgieamber2 wrote: »1,200 calories is the recommended for a 5 year old... that’s obviously not sustainable long term. Everything in moderation. People so say keto / paleo / plant based works, it all works because you’re in a calorie deficit!
Move more, but in ways you enjoy. Join a running group, a dance class, yoga group, CrossFit, but do it because you want to for you. Don’t kill yourself doing an exercise you hate, that just makes you not want to do it ever again. Have one glass of wine instead of 3 with friends, or make them spritzers, or have spirits and slim line tonics, or have a beer and just enjoy yourself.
It’s like shopping. Some days you spend loads of money (probably on the weekend) whilst other days you might not spend anything at all. Sometimes you’ll overeat, but be mindful and make it up in other areas. x
This is very much incorrect. At 4'11 and within a healthy weight range, my NEAT is only around 1,300 at sedentary. This means that 1,200 would have me losing weight very, very slowly! At 5'2 1,200 still would not be an unhealthy amount to eat for a slow and steady loss but she should be eating back at least half of those exercise calories so she is not hungry all the time.13 -
I am 5’10”, lived on a farm and worked hard. I joined weight watchers 3 times over about a 10-year period. 3 times they put me on 1200 calories (or the point equivalent). The first time I stayed with it and tried. 1 week strictly on the diet, one week trying, but feeling so bad I could hardly make it, one week in bed recovering, repeat. Finally had to quit. Second time, repeat of the first time, but I didn’t last as long. Third time, I confess, when they said 1200 calories, I just walked away. At the time, ww was all there was. I didn’t have the knowledge to do it on my own, pre computer days.
Years later when I decided to try again, there were lots of choices, and I stumbled on to a very good one. I was no longer young, no longer worked on the farm, but at a desk. A very wise dietician told me I would lose weight eating anything under 2500 calories, and judging by how much I usually ate, if I paid attention to WHAT I ate, I could probably be healthy and happy at about 1800 calories, so that’s where I started. It took me about a week to embrace it fully and know that this was going to be the BEST thing for me. I went on to lose about 60 pounds in about 6 months.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!!!15 -
All this is good to read. I've been following someone who is a "diet culture rebel". They say to never weigh yourself, avoid all people focussed on weight loss, eat everything (when you're hungry), etc. But I know my body is not happy at this weight. I've been on WW, and they level I was at was approx. 1200 calories - way too few. I've read to eat 10 times your body weight in calories. All I know for sure is that I want/need to lose maybe 20 pounds, and I need to figure out the right calorie level to do it.0
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How much have you lost in 2-3 months?0
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Our minds can be very baffling at times. The thoughts they hold onto and refuse to let go of.
If you've worked hard and been successful at losing weight, it'd be very difficult to redo things by adding calories, fearing regaining after all the work you've put in. You may end up just losing slower, which sometimes can be a good thing! Whatever you change doesn't have to be set in stone, please remember that. You want to be healthy first, lose weight second. IOW, do it the healthy way.
If you're constantly hungry, what about trying volume eating? Search the threads, there was a great one for that. Or just upping 100 cals. a day and see where it takes you?2 -
I don’t think any of us have enough data to provide feedback yet. She says she’s 5’3”, eats 1200 cals a day, works out 4-5 times a week, and that she’s always hungry.
What we don’t know is if she’s lost any weight, if she’s actually eating 1200 calories, what her TDEE is, and what her food makeup consists of. Before we rush to tell her to “eat more” we might want to understand the variables first.4 -
Lillymoo01 wrote: »georgieamber2 wrote: »1,200 calories is the recommended for a 5 year old... that’s obviously not sustainable long term. Everything in moderation. People so say keto / paleo / plant based works, it all works because you’re in a calorie deficit!
Move more, but in ways you enjoy. Join a running group, a dance class, yoga group, CrossFit, but do it because you want to for you. Don’t kill yourself doing an exercise you hate, that just makes you not want to do it ever again. Have one glass of wine instead of 3 with friends, or make them spritzers, or have spirits and slim line tonics, or have a beer and just enjoy yourself.
It’s like shopping. Some days you spend loads of money (probably on the weekend) whilst other days you might not spend anything at all. Sometimes you’ll overeat, but be mindful and make it up in other areas. x
This is very much incorrect. At 4'11 and within a healthy weight range, my NEAT is only around 1,300 at sedentary. This means that 1,200 would have me losing weight very, very slowly! At 5'2 1,200 still would not be an unhealthy amount to eat for a slow and steady loss but she should be eating back at least half of those exercise calories so she is not hungry all the time.
well both could be true - 1200 may be the right amount for a 5 year old - 5 year olds are in rapid growth phase and are usually very active and not trying to lose weight.
and that would be total calories - because I'm sure nobody is working out the eat back calories for a 5 year old
It could also be the right net calories for a smaller older not very active woman to lose weight on..
What is not correct is posters implication that because 1200 is right for a 5 year old it could not be right as net calories for any adult in any circumstances
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Looks like you’ve been given plenty of advice on daily calories and what to do/experiment with regarding that. PSA: when I use “you” I use it in the general sense, not as in you personally.
I just wanted to chime in and say that I too am trying to unlearn diet culture. It’s very ubiquitous in our society, so unlearning it will take time. We see bodies projected as “the ideal” way to be, and I think unlearning diet culture is learning to care for our bodies not to get them to look a certain way (that’s a fine goal, but if you’re only goal is to look a certain way because it’s “ideal” then you need to re-evaluate), but to treat them as they deserve to be. I’m trying to learn to move my body and fuel my body because it’s GOOD for it, to care for my body because it does amazing things for me (like my heart, my brain, the very fact all my internal organs operate the way they do), not because diet culture tells me I should look a certain way to be “healthy”. Besides, those behind diet culture I’m sure make a pretty penny of selling all the stuff that exists to make us believe we need to be a certain body type. Unlearning is hard, we are not just physical beings, and unlearning diet culture means unlearning on a mental, emotional, and spiritual level too. Be kind to yourself, fuel your body because it deserves it not because you’ve done an equation which “allows” you more food.
I’m not perfect and fall into the trap LOTS of times. I’m trying to figure out the line of why I want to lose weight and how I can still be body positive. It’s tough, but I’ve taken enough air space for now. So good luck with it all, and remember MFP has a community to support you!3 -
Looks like you’ve been given plenty of advice on daily calories and what to do/experiment with regarding that. PSA: when I use “you” I use it in the general sense, not as in you personally.
I just wanted to chime in and say that I too am trying to unlearn diet culture. It’s very ubiquitous in our society, so unlearning it will take time. We see bodies projected as “the ideal” way to be, and I think unlearning diet culture is learning to care for our bodies not to get them to look a certain way (that’s a fine goal, but if you’re only goal is to look a certain way because it’s “ideal” then you need to re-evaluate), but to treat them as they deserve to be. I’m trying to learn to move my body and fuel my body because it’s GOOD for it, to care for my body because it does amazing things for me (like my heart, my brain, the very fact all my internal organs operate the way they do), not because diet culture tells me I should look a certain way to be “healthy”. Besides, those behind diet culture I’m sure make a pretty penny of selling all the stuff that exists to make us believe we need to be a certain body type. Unlearning is hard, we are not just physical beings, and unlearning diet culture means unlearning on a mental, emotional, and spiritual level too. Be kind to yourself, fuel your body because it deserves it not because you’ve done an equation which “allows” you more food.
I’m not perfect and fall into the trap LOTS of times. I’m trying to figure out the line of why I want to lose weight and how I can still be body positive. It’s tough, but I’ve taken enough air space for now. So good luck with it all, and remember MFP has a community to support you!
That’s a beautiful sentiment. I’m here for that 👏🏻1 -
The original post is from April, and the OP hasn't been back on since May.1
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Try this on for size:
Stop thinking of diet as a verb and only consider it to be a noun. A diet is what we eat. We each have a diet. Every animal has a diet. Our diet can either be ideal or problematic.
My diet was problematic in that it made me weigh twice what I ought. I am slowly and judiciously adapting my diet and my exercise habits to sustain a healthy body at a proper weight. My old way of eating was not a good fit for my goals.
I must change my diet. I am not "going on a diet" which implies doing some temporary measure to affect my weight. I am changing my diet to reach and sustain my goals.7 -
I like it when old threads are bumped. Like there's the recent one about iron. I'm watching my iron now so clicked on it and maybe learned something. Maybe not. Cuz those kids complete multivitamins taste good.
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As long as there is an abundance of food the diet culture is not going away. Diets will always be used as a means to compensate for all kinds of conditions.1
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I think this post plays into what I consider one of the traps, in pursuing a weight management goal (and a lot of other goals, frankly).
In cartoon extremes, I think people have a choice between thinking of weight management as
(A) An n=1 science fair experiment, one about balancing portions, calories, nutrition, satiation, and one's own behavior/habits. This is an experiment in which we individually completely control or at least materially influence all of the important variables. Change is in our reach, if we reach. (Doesn't mean it's completely easy.)
(B) A dramatic fight between good and evil, with something like "diet culture" or "manipulative food companies" cast as the villain, and the hapless person who's trying to lose weight as a victim of those titanic forces. IMO, this focuses attention on things we can't control, and is on a slippery slope to a sense of victimhood rather than empowerment.
(C) A dramatic battle between competing forces, all of which live inside the head or body of the person who's trying to lose weight. I'm not a big fan of mind/body duality as a concept, so the idea that "my hormones are getting the better of me" (or the like) kind of doesn't make sense. My hormones may be a problem I need to solve, if I can, but my brain and body are all one thing. What I actually do is what I really wanted to do, unless someone has a gun to my head, and to me thinking otherwise is a bit of a dodge. (Making the decisions that are in my best interest can be really, really hard, and it sometimes doesn't happen. Not pretending otherwise. Still was a decision, though, even when I do the suboptimal thing.)
I like case A, personally. It's empowering. It focuses on the things we're most able to control/change, and doesn't waste energy on catastrophizing about things that aren't going to change on a realistic time scale for individual weight loss (such as fast/junk food availability, or our family's attempts to influence us).
I'm not pretending it's always easy to control our own thoughts and behaviors. It can be really tough. It can require professional assistance. It certainly requires *hard* analytic self-assessment, and honesty with oneself, learning about techniques and maybe some science, and exercises some character traits like persistence (which can themselves take work to develop). Thing is, working on mastering our own self - thoughts and behavior - is super powerful, and creates skills that can be deployed in other areas, like personal finance, career progress, education, skills development and more.
I don't like the "overcoming diet culture" frame in the OP, when I think the long-gone OP is really trying to come to terms with taking steps that she knows are the best course. Recognize that we have agency and power, take the wheel, and drive. It's not "overcoming diet culture", it's learning to master one's own thoughts and behavior.
So, I think the penultimate question in the post (which is really 2 questions) is reasonable, and potentially useful:
The ultimate question, the bonus question is . . . not a helpful frame, IMO.So my question is, did you have to break out of the low calorie = weight loss mentality and if you did and increased your calorie intake, did you start to gain your weight back again?Bonus question: Was it tough unlearning diet culture to start eating more?
I mostly don't like really old threads being revived, though there are exceptions. This is because some (many) threads from years back include huge amounts of really poorly-reasoned, poorly-evidenced posts, often pages of them at the start of the thread. This one isn't terrible, in that respect.
My inference would be that the average experience level and science-centric-ness of the culture has improved over the years. Some of the 2014ish posts' threads are *really* bad. Even if they recover in lataer posts at the end, a lot of people are going to read the nonsense at the start, and buy it, because the same junk is still being spread by diet-plan marketers, blogs, newsletters, print/video media, and social influencers. Ugh.5 -
It is very hard to switch your mindset from "I want to lose weight" to "I want to live healthier." If I have a goal to just lose weight, I'm consumed by the scale. So I learned to only weigh myself maybe once a week. Also, I try to make small changes at a time. For example, start with just 20 min of cardio. Then increase by 5 min intervals if I want. Also, I do changes in my diet slowly, such as "a little alcohol socially" to "no alcohol" and "carbonated flavored water only" to "no carbonated drinks." If I made a small change when I think of it, it all eventually adds up to be a healthier lifestyle. Only recently do I have a new rule of no dessert if eating out unless it is a very special event. Sometimes it seems like I'm not losing fast enough, like a gerbil running around going nowhere. However even if I stay the same weight I'm eating clear and healthier for my body. That was a long, rambling post!1
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stevehenderson776 wrote: »Sounds like how I got fat in the first place lol.
Thunderclap. Drumroll.
In a nutshell and not the whole bushel that's some serious truth. The anti-dieting dogma is just as vague as all of the other food mind warp. The anti-dieting culture uses substitute words and terms for dieting but they all mean the same things. It's mostly slick marketing tricks.
I'm on a journey
Nutritional therapy
It's a way of life
Intuitive Eating
Following hunger cues
Lifestyle change
Cultivating body respect
Wellness plan
Healthy meal plan
It's not the word diet that brings on negative behaviors or a poor relationship with food. It's complex.
You have to find the deeper reason for getting fit under real life conditions or none of this will stick.4 -
Hi all, if anybody is reading this anymore...I got off MFP in May 2020 and tried not tracking. Quickly I found that I started to gain weight slowly, but surely. Decided to try WW. Was on in for maybe a couple of months. I didn't enjoy it at all, so I stopped and tried Noom. Noom essentially is MFP but with homework. As of now, I actually am 10 lbs heavier, approx. 166 lbs. I'm back on MFP now. I had the most success in losing weight and gaining community support from being apart of MFP, so I'm hoping I can steadily lose weight and hopefully get back into the 150s. Read back on all of the great advice everyone posted. I'm eating back a portion of my burned calories and I've also started to focus on my body rather than compare myself to another. It's been helpful. Good luck and thank you to everyone, let's all reach out goals together
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