Things people who are trying to lose weight say that bother

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

Yeah, it's so frustrating!! And it's like, you just want to help but if they don't want it, they just won't listen!

I had this friend who lost a bunch of weight in a REALLY unhealthy way. Eating less than 1000 calories a day, and doing only cardio (walking like 45 mins a day). She was also on adderall, which naturally suppresses your appetite and any doctor will tell you to really monitor your diet and calorie intake to make sure you're eating enough. Anyway, she got down to like 105 lbs, at 5'3". She looked anorexic, but she was SO proud of how skinny she was. At the time I outweighed her by 50 lbs, yet I was in better health than she was.

She would gain like 10-20 lbs back, then go back to eating practically nothing for a while if she had some event coming up she needed to lose for. I would tell her, just eat healthy and do balanced exercise, but her response would be "i know what works for me. "

So many people do NOT understand that skinny does NOT equal healthy! I'd rather lose weight really slowly and be able to keep it off and be HEALTHY, than drop 40 lbs over night and still be in crappy health. You can't make em listen! You can only offer advice once and let them decide if they want to take it.

Your friend's in denial and deflecting her frustration to everyone who's EXACTLY RIGHT - Eat the right foods in the right quantities, treat yourself NOW AND THEN, and exercise regularly and vigorously (sex counts as exercise, by the way!), and you will be fit. It took me a while to get over the entitlement I felt to eat out whenever I wanted, and stuff my belly with whatever tasted good at the time, but now that I'm doing it right, I'm 40 pounds lighter and four dress sizes smaller. I have 30 pounds to go, and I have no doubt I'll get there by doing exactly what I'm doing today. Your friend will never be healthy until she gets her head in the right place.

For people with medical issues, sometimes you can't just "eat less and exercise more". When I just did "eat less exercise more" after my last baby, I was able to lose 20 lbs but could not lose an ounce more - I still had 40 lbs to go before I was a normal-for-me weight. I have never been able to get that off, and my last baby just turned 10. Have some compassion. It is so disheartening to really be eating 1200-1500 cal/day and exercising 5 days a week and not losing an ounce. No wonder they go back to the old way of eating. If you could eat 1200 cal a day and weigh 200 lbs, or eat 3000 cal a day and still weigh 200 lbs, which would you choose?

Its sad. One that bothers me is people that are trying to lose weight that may be doing some things right, but go out drinking- consuming massive amounts of calories/sugar. And believe me, No one wants to hear that message. I'm thinking about becoming a personal trainer and dietitian so people will Want to listen to me LOL.

a co-worker at work and I started losing weight together a couple years ago. I did MFP while she's done just about every single diet you can think of. Dunkan, Paleo, Jorge Cruze, 17 day, etc etc. I've been losing steadily. the most she's lost is 50 lbs. infact she was within 25 lbs. of reaching her goal weight. however she isn't consistent and has gained it all back.

she blames her age. she is in her early 50's. I told her no and shown her pictures of folks her age on here that succeed. I tried to get her to join MFP but she doesn't want to track calories. Says it's too hard and it won't work. I point out it works for me and she counters with me being young. I point out the older people on here that lose just fine and keep it off and still refuses to try it. She has collected tons of diet books and she'll be good for a few weeks following their guidelines but then she'll go back to her old habits and whatever she lost, she gains again. she blames boredom. She'll get bored with it and stop. I have tried over and over to get her to sign up to MFP but she doesn't want to. I just kind of gave up with her. I'll still go on walks with her, hit the YMCA together etc etc but when it comes to the diet part it's like hitting my head against a wall.

". . . but she doesn't want to track calories." It is a shame, isn't it? Keeping a food journal, particularly electronic, whether it's MFP or another source, is worth its weight in gold. Even if you are at maintenance weight, the benefits of documenting your food intake (with the macros distribution) is tremendous. You are being a good friend -- don't hit your head too hard!

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.)

Very well said, thank you! It's not easy to change habits. I too have managed to change mine, but that doesn't mean it was easy.

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

I agree. I did too x

Hey You! ~thinking of getting healthy?...
Try these tips:

#1) you have to be fed up....(sick n tired of being sick n tired)
#2) you have to do it for yourself
#3) you have to make a plan and stick to it
#4) start with baby steps if you have to ....
#5) take it one day at a time
#6) mix it up ( your diet and your exercise )- so you don't get bored
#7) have accountability partners (MFP!!!)
#8) set short term and long term goals
#9) make Yourself, Your Life, Your Health, a Priority

Well Done You!!!

^^^ Simply Love it!!! -

On the topic: it is hard work to do what we do, hence reason why most of us are on MFP looking for support from total strangers. See what happens is most people's goal is not necessarily to be healthy, it is to simply lose weight -- there is a huge difference in the two. Healthy is a lifestyle <--- it requires breaking old habits and establishing new ones; setting realistic goals such as losing 1 lbs per week instead of striving for 10 (exaggeration), requires commitment and acknowledgement that failure is part of the journey and what really matters is continuing the race.

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.

So true. I think it took me 6 months to lose the first 10 pounds! Then I realized it was working and lost another 30 in that next 6 months. I have lost 43 pounds and it took 15 months! (so far, another 7 lbs to go!)

A friend on my fiancee's FB was complaining that she just can't lose weight and keeps gaining it back from the fad diets she keeps trying. A few people in the comments posted and said 'just eat right and exercise and it will stay off'. Her response was..

"..screw you all who said eat right and workout, if it were that simple wed all be healthy fit beautiful models."

I understand that people have to be ready to lose weight, but really? I guess it's hard for me to understand how people just expect the weight to come off magically and stay off while you're still eating junk.

Sounds to me that she probably shouldn't be posting stuff like that if she can't handle to responses! I feel bad...kind of....but , what did she think was going to happen?