How did you unlearn diet culture?
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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.6 -
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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: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 together9
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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.
I have a 6 and 8 year old, I think the recommendation is more like 1400-1500 for growing kids. But children are GROWING exponentially. My 8 year old put on 8lbs in the past 6 months (I hear kids grown a lot more in the spring/summer). That was like ~17% body weight increase! He's still thin as a beanpole, I don't know where he put it.
Anyway, being shorter than the OP, 1200 is not unhealthy for a sedentary person. But if you move your body at all, you have to account for those calories. I'm 5'0" and the lowest calorie level I have ever eaten at was 1450.
I don't know what you mean about "unlearn diet culture" - I have never been on a yoyo diet, my "diet" has always been about balance. Moderate carb, moderate fat, moderate protein. I go for a (loose) macro spilt, from 40-30-30 to 35-35-30 (c/f/p). I have never felt severely restricted. Some days I choose to eat more calorie dense foods so I have to eat less, but most days I round out my day nicely at 1500 (my current goal, and I eat exercise calories on exercise days).1 -
What is diet culture?0
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