Things people who are trying to lose weight say that bother

my mother-in-law, sitting around the table after someone mentioning the fact I lost a few kilos

"These young ones lose the weight SOOOO easily, they don't have to work hard like people like me! I work and work and work and never lose anything!"

arggh makes me want to scream sometimes.. just put down cheesecake and stop deep-frying everything. Stop wasting money on "fat blaster" and optifast and all that other stuff, won't do much when you have bacon and eggs and hash browns and sausages for breakfast EVERY morning.

She's 65ish and has been obese since she got married at 20, been "trying" to lose weight ever since. I feel sorry for her but that's hard to do sometimes because she always has some ****ty little snide remark towards everything I do.

woops that turned into a bit of a rant hah. sorry

I strongly believe it IS just a question of eating right and exercising, but I know that people have an emotional attachment, even addiction to food that makes that very hard, which is where these plans come in.

They work for some people because they understand the intention behind them - breaking the addiction to food, but they don't work for people who don't get it. I went to a party last week with a lot of people doing one of these plans, and they all had plates piled absolutely to the top with "allowed" foods - chilli, baked potato, pasta salad, ham and salami. I was there eating one spoonful of vegetable chilli and one of greek salad, with a big green salad on the side, no dressing. They were all laughing at how little I eat, and how I am obsessive about exercise, and I just sat there thinking "and I am a size 8 (UK), and you are obese....can you not see what is going on here?" But apparently they couldn't. I logged my meal after and it came to 600 cals, so goodness knows what their's were. You can't say anything to people who think like that, because it would be tactless and downright rude, but you have to be realistic.

I have a friend who wants to lose weight. I tried to tell her about MFP , how fab it was and how I had lost the weight steadily through sensible eating and exercise. She told me that her other friend was trying to lose weight and had said the only way to lose weight was to go on a really strict diet and not eat much and she agreed with her. I was quite shocked. Her loss I suppose.

its tough when its the ones you care about getting on like that. You want them to feel better, and be able to do it... but at the end of the day they have to want to do it. Just like every one of us that came here.

Actually my father had a heart attack not that long ago, hes completely changed his diet. His diet prior to the heart attack would probably have put me to shame... (it was already pretty healthy) so hes now completely cut out everything bad, dropped about 2 stone in a matter of weeks. I'm actually a little concerned that hes gone a bit too far. His complexion is grey.. and hes lost maybe a bit too much weight...

People can be reluctant to give the health eating/exercising thing a go because it's too slow. A fad diet promises to drop 10lbs a week and people love the sound of those kind of results. It's supposed to be easy. You eat x or don't eat y for a week and the wait will fall off. You tell them it'll take 5 weeks to drop those "same" 10lbs and they won't do it.

The ironic thing is once you get into the swing of watching your calories it really is very easy, but this is the kind of 'diet' that people are only going to take up if they want to change their lives, and not just drop some immediate weight.

Yeah. Sometime's people need to hit their rock bottom before they can commit to changing their way of life for good.

Unfortunately, that's often true.

I found that people have to be ready to commit totally to losing weight.

People on here will ask to be my friend and then want my "secret" and tips. I give them tips but most dont want to hear that I changed my eating habits and my lifestyle.

I have a few co-workers that wanted to lose weight with me. Im still waiting for them. I am down 100lbs down and they are the same.
I get the excuse... I dont have time to go to the gym... Its too much work to plan out your meals ahead of time. I dont have time to log my food. They arent committed just looking for the "quick fix"

They eat all the food that is made by others or catered in to work.. i will taste a bite here and there.
I am 20lbs from my goal.. I am way healthier they I was a year ago. what are they?

Not to sound like I'm defending your friend, but I'm sympathetic to the response in this sense: assuming you have a normal physiology, there is truth that controlling caloric intake will lead to weight loss; but IMPLEMENTING these changes is far harder than many people (particularly in MFP) seem willing to acknowledge. Real and successful weight loss requires major behavioral change, the implementation of which is never easy. I've always found it platitudinous to wave the "eat less and exercise more" banner without simultaneously discussing and acknowledging the complex behavioral change that must ensue.

I suppose the short version of my point is this: people who say eat less and exercise more very frequently present this as a simple solution...which it is anything but. (Note I'm speaking as someone who's made the modifications successfully for 10 months and is approaching goal. I'm not defending excuse-making; I'm pointing out how difficult this really is.)

I completely agree with this. I was one of those people who went to the gym and then ate all the burned calories back and then some and kidded myself on that I was doing everything I could and that there must just be something wrong with me. It wasn't until I finally had the epiphany that I actually started to loose weight. I look at food completely differently now. I weight my food, I constantly check calories, etc.

People ask me all the time, what is my secret and I tell them, "eat less, exercise more". I realise now that is is NOT that simple. You have to have that epiphany too. You have to be willing to change your life and THAT is the hardest thing anyone can ever do.

My mum is loosing weight with me. She complains when I loose more weight than her saying "You have the tablets so it's easier for you." Yes, I take Orlistat and yes it does help you loose slightly more weight, but it's not a miracle fix. I have to work bloody hard to loose that weight. She goes to the gym 2 days a week, I go as many as 5 days. That's why I loose more weight than her. These tablets do NOT do all the work for me.

My uncle who is easily 400lbs and can barely walk took Orlistat for a while. He stopped taking them after a few months because of the unwanted side effects and complained they didn't work. They didn't work because every time I seen him he was stuffing his face with junk food and THAT'S why he got the unwanted side effects. I almost never get the side effects because I eat the right foods.

My brother who must be 300lbs, has no desire to loose weight, not even after seeing my success.

My sister, who is a fan of fad diets and yo-yo's constantly, refused point blank to use MFP when I showed it to her. She said it's too much work logging everything.

So it's not just a case of "eat less, exercise more". It's about changing people's attitudes and educating them about the right ways of doing it. Unfortunately, the former is the biggest challenge of all and only THEY can change that.

Yeah. Sometime's people need to hit their rock bottom before they can commit to changing their way of life for good.

could not have said it better myself