Anyone else fed up with constant dieting?

How frustrating that it is so easy to put weight on, so hard to get it off , and almost impossible to keep it off. I'm certain that after forty or so your metabolism grinds to a halt. I was always fairly slim, but not now. Trying to keep my weight down seems a struggle constantly, even though I eat sensibly, walk, and don't have snacks. It just ain't fair, but I have a couple of friends of my age who can eat anything at all in any quantity, don't seem to charge around as I do and they haven't got an extra ounce. I read this morning that gut bacteria can be significant in the area of weight gain - my bacteria are clearly not friendly to me.

Walking 20 minutes a day keeps me slim.lots of water.and SENSIBLE eating NO dieting works for me

Since the menopause I can only lose weight on a ketosis diet of low or no carbs. Once you get used to it it's easy?. I've had to give up bread and white carbs.

I put on weight around menopause and found it impossible to lose it until I decided to try Slimming World. It actually works and isn't too hard. I've lost 9lbs in 12 weeks so not starved myself and had wine etc still. It's more a healthy eating plan than a diet - we've eaten much more fruit and veg.

A lot of keeping a healthy weight lies in the mind. If you go on some diet regime always looking forward to coming of it and eating 'normally' again then you are on a hiding to nothing, because it is eating normally that caused the problem in the first place. The same applies if you keep thinking about being able to get back to your nightly glass of wine or bar of chocolate with your lunch.

You need to spend the time you are on a regime, visulaising and planning how to eat healthily when you come off it, plan to cook from scratch, plan to always buy lean meat and to grill not fry. Everyones eating choices are different and personal, but there is no point on going to all the effort to lose weight if you do not really plan the after with great care and then determinedly follow it.

The most I have ever had to lose is two stone and once I had done it, nothing, but nothing would get me eating again in a manner that put it on again.

Can anyone remember the book 'Dieting is a feminist issue' ?
I'd love to read it again as I remember it struck a cord then- although I was very slim then.

I am interested in the reasons why women diet. Is it because of their health? Or is it because of being judged by others. Men perhaps. But I believe women are worse 'judgers' of other women's weight and can be really *itchy about it, and often behind their back.

Genuinely interested.

I think it's Fat is a Feminist issue, its a very interesting read , along with The Beauty Myth.

Susie Orbach is really slim though!!

I think we are messing up our bodies and metabolisms with dieting. I deeply regret spending years starving myself and worrying about it, when in fact I was attractive and slim. End result of all that dieting is being overweight, so it clearly didn't work.

Oh, yes, thanks for correction Lily.

Will try and find it in a charity shop- as it was one of 100s of books we gave to charity before we moved.

But what do you think about the pressure we put on each other, and magazines, etc? It makes me rebellious (ah - surprise ;) )

Do you really not know why some people diet Jura - have you never dieted?

I would imagine that dieters of our age are not influenced by magazines and pressure from others, etc. Why be rebellious against what we know is better for our health i.e. a reasonable weight?

I watch my food intake because I don't want to be fat!

I don't want to spend my life watching my food/ counting/ obsessing.

Why do people have to be so rude here?

jura was just broadening out the discussion a bit ( see what I did there)

I've always been round ish but only seriously overweight since Hashimoto's Thyroiditis struck 6 ish years ago. 5 stone crept up despite Levo. With help of T3 with Levo I found some mojo to tackle it. I tried 5:2, but v hard. 16:8 is my go to, together with cutting out sugar. My weakness is pastries and I allow myself plain croissants with butter but not daily.
I lost 2 stone but with Winter ended up low and all over place, plus 7 lbs. Back on track. Depressing to have setback but at 62 too young to give up. 3stone to go. I try to take it day by day. Am fed up at times but never mind... at least my bloods improved, nomlongernpre diabetic and cholesterol just within limit

At 63 my bmi is 27. If I lost a stone I’d be in the healthy range. I have lost a stone and a half in the last few years without really trying very hard. I remember following diets in my 20’s (heaven knows why when I was under 9 stone then) to lose a few pounds and it would be low fat yogurt/spread/cottage cheese etc and treats would be low-fat. What I didn’t know then was fat was simply replaced by sugar so even worse than the full fat stuff it was replacing. I’d never follow a diet now, I’d just cut back or follow 5:2.

An unfortunate and unpleasant response Riverwalk- why?

I am genuinely interested in the reasons why people feel the need to be constantlyon a diet or another. If you are not interested in this aspect of the discussion, why not just walk by.

Always been slim, in a family of slim people- healthy diet and lots of exercise and sport, and very busy lifestyle- until the menopause Thyroïd issues not diagnosed in time- and same as Bridgidsdaughter, despite being put on Thyroxine- it has been a real struggle ever since. And yes, I want to lose weight for myself, and the pressure from outside, especially other women - makes me feel rebellious rather than supported.

A lot of my obssessively constantly dieting slim, mostly thin, friends, have developed brittle bone and osteoporosis and are very inactive now. I am overweight +, but do a lot of garden work, walking, swimming, skiing, etc- and am very fit. But losing weight would be good- never ever found the right way. The contradictions of the diets available, the fixated advice from those who follow one diet or another, and everythinf else is just pure rubbish in their eyes - is not helping.

I was so proud of my dieting efforts way back in 2000 when I lost almost stone with SW. Fast forward to 2016. Retired and living in bungalow now DH disabled and, sods law, now am diagnosed Coeliac so lbs creeping back on. So depressed it's like all that hard dieting work has been for nowt.

Oops that should read 'lost almost 3 stone with SW!

Thank you for this post, Jessity. I always eat less in Advent and Lent but last Advent I comfort-ate and binged on chocolate and biscuits and put on weight - disastrous comfort eating. So this Lent I've eaten much less and felt very hungry but weight loss has not been as great as I feel it should be and I'm not going to meet my target by Easter Day although at the moment I'm well within the weight range for my height. I weigh myself every morning and record it. After Easter I plan to relax my eating regime but go back to the 5:2 diet. At the moment the biscuit tin is empty otherwise I have no will power and would not be able to resist. Having no car I walk at least 2 miles every day, sometimes double that and also garden a lot so in theory I should be as thin as a rake. I wish I could relax more about food and not be so concerned about meals out, an extra piece of cake etc.

Have come to the conclusion dieting is not for me- however to start to get healthy and remain so I have had to change my eating habits. It ebbs and flows but basically I realise the only person who is going to look after me.........is me!
Incidentally DH is one of those who would rather eat what he wants and die 5 years younger than otherwise but has no consideration of the possibility that he might not ‘just’ die but become majorly debilitated- in which case I would be left to support, care etc.??

The answer is simple eat less and move more. Shame I can't do it - been trying for years!

Why should anyone feel pressure from other people to lose weight unless they are morbidly obese and it is undermining their health?

Well you seem pretty smug about your success and slim figure M0nica, so that's probably answered your own question.

Am I fed up with dieting. YES YES and YES YES YES.

I am not smug about it. I am just fortunate. I was overweight for 10 years and unable to find a solution. I did and lost the weight. Remembering what hard work it was, I do find it difficult to understand why after all the effort people just let things slide so that it all goes back on again. For me, it is a bit like the threat of the nuclear deterrent. The fear of putting it all back on and either being like I was before or having to do it all again, is enough to frighten me into keeping things under control, so that I am never again in that situation.

Didn't need to watch my weight until 60. From then it has turned into a constant battle. I am convinced that no matter how much I lose, twice the amount will return. I don't have massive meals, use SW recipes but it's still a battle. Apparently there is a school of thought that once you stop thinking about dieting you will gradually adapt to eating enough, just the amount you actually need and should lose weight. I'm not convinced but I am also fed up.

Anja But you can’t ‘eat what you want’ and stay slim if eating what you want means lots of cakes, biscuits, etc..

Totally wrong

I know many people, my own sister included, who do exactly that.

My sister even used to take chocolate mud cake to bed with her to snack on as she watched TV in the evenings after a gigantic meal.
She has McVities milk choc digestives permanently at her side.
At 63, she is still as thin as a wand. Nor does she exercise.

5-2 works for me.... Went to see Michael Mosley a couple of weeks ago... sensible and entertaining!