Diets don't work: study

NextSteps

Apparently dieting is entirely counterproductive: you are more likely to have weight problems if you diet than if you don't. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of some of the serial dieters on this forum - does dieting work, honestly?

Sunday Times, 06.07.08 wrote:

The lead author of the study, Traci Mann, noted: “You can initially lose 5%-10% of your weight on any number of diets, but then the weight comes back. We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more.” The success rate for maintaining weight loss five years after a diet ends is estimated at only 5%.

“People make the mistake of judging the success of a diet at the point that it is stopped,” says Cannon, who points out that this is like assessing the state of your finances based on the one day in the month when your account is in the black. “It’s madness. Dieting triggers the body to go into reversal. When people come off a regime, it’s a form of the bulimic syndrome. They find they can’t stop eating. I’ve had that when coming off a diet, and it’s scary.”

Source: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/diet_and_fitness/article4256687.ece

rubadub

People starve themselves for short periods eating foods they may not like. This lowers muscle mass and metabolism. Then they hit some goal weight, go to the wedding, fit in the dress etc. Then they go back to eating like they used to and put it all back on in no time. You metabolism has slowed down, so you need far less food just to survive. So if eating what you used to you are taking in far too much food for your needs.

You have lost muscle mass so need less energy too, you will feel weaker. If you return to your old overall weight you will be fatter, though the same on a scale. Muscle takes up 1/3 the space that fat does, starve yourself and lose 1/2stone of muscle and gain 1/2stone of fat in place of it and you will be bigger.

The answer is to raise your metabolism, lift heavy weights and you have to eat more just to stay alive. A 15stone muscle man in a coma needs more food to stay alive than a 15stone fat man.

Too many people diet with out doing exercise, some will only do cardio too which can lead to muscle loss on a calorie deficit.

Khannie

This sounds like one of those cause and effect bullsh*t inferences to me.

e.g. The government recruits 500 new gardai. Crime rate rises. Therefore gardai are responsible for crime.

People that diet are people that overeat in the first place. Of course they're more likely to be overweight than people who don't overeat and therefore don't need to diet.

EileenG

If you diet, lose the weight and then go back to your old eating habits, you bet you'll put the weight back on, often with interest.

The truth is that you'd better pick a diet you like, because you will be on some version of it for life. If you do Weight Watchers, you will have to count points even when you reach your target. Yes, you can eat a couple more points a day, but if you go over that, you'll find yourself putting the weight back one.

If you do Atkins, you'd better be prepared to accept that sugar and white flour will never be a significant part of your diet. You can relax a bit with the stuff like fruit, but you can forget the Jaffa cakes.

If you lost weight by running 30 miles a week, you'd better not give away your running shoes. You can probably cut back to 20 or 25 miles a week, but if you stop running, you'll gain weight.

The obvious answer is not to "do a diet" but to change your lifestyle, making the changes things you can live with and enjoy.

Oh, for what it's worth, I'm on the National Weight loss registry http://www.nwcr.ws/ as someone who's maintained her weight loss for five years or longer.

EileenG

EileenG wrote: »

The truth is that you'd better pick a diet you like, because you will be on some version of it for life.

I don't agree with that, I think alot of people in the country are overweight because of their attitude to physical activity.

rubadub

I think Eileen would agree, she went on to say

EileenG wrote: »

The obvious answer is not to "do a diet" but to change your lifestyle, making the changes things you can live with and enjoy.

Too many people go on "diets" rather than change their actual lifetime diet, and I reckon she was talking about "diets".

People go force feeding themselves stuff they do not like, never going to work long term. I eat nothing I do not like, you just have to find foods you like. On the flipside I see many people ignorantly eating foods they may not like since they think they are "healthy", and are trying to lose weight, oblivious to the calorie content, -noodles being a prime example. These people may be shocked at which foods are actually low in calories, because they like them they presume they must be "bad". The info is on the back of all the packets these days, no secret, yet I still get people saying "jesus do you know what all that stuff means!?!" when I am looking at packs at lunch or wherever. The education system has a lot to answer for, people know calculus and the capital of mongolia, yet do not know how to fuel themselves, yet could tell you how exactly much petrol they need to drive to cork.

Point is also that once you lose the fat you have to maintain it. I built a little muscle to raise my metabolism to a point where I eat and drink what I pretty much want. Now I can reduce my exercise so I just maintain the little muscle I put on. I can easily live with that, I enjoy it, only takes a few minutes per day. I cycle everywhere and enjoy it, I have the use of a car but in todays traffic I would sooner walk!

EileenG

Very true. I spent years being fat. Ok, some of it was just eating too much, but a lot was because I felt I had to eat the brown bread and rice and noodles and potatoes before I was allowed the stuff I really enjoyed, the meat and vegetables! I looked at labels, but only at the amount of fat per 100g, not even per serving. I'm still shocked when I realise how many calories you can squander on stuff that tastes like polystyerene.

By dropping all the refined carbs, I lost the weight and kept it off, but I still have to keep an eye on what I eat. I know that if I go to town on cake and sweets, I won't be able to zip up my jeans. I've never met anyone who managed to keep their weight off without changing their attitude to food and their lifestyle.

Brian?

I completly agree with Eileen and Rubadub, for what its worth.

I lost 3 stone on weight watchers and have kept it off for the last 1.5 years by following the lessons learned on it. Ok so I don't count my points every day anymore but I know what I can/can't eat and I know when I should be ashamed of myself for the way I eat more importantly.

Having said that, my bodyfat was still almost 30% when I finished WWs. Throught increased excercise I had that down to 22% while maitaining the same weight and roughly the same diet.

Transform

Diets DO NOT work - totally agree.

Diets for most is not about the system/approach but the mental attitude i.e. "oh i have to give up xyz", "I will do this until i get my weight to x then i can go back to 'normal' eating".

Change your beliefs about your nutrition in general, read the stickies (no dieting there) and if you think your 'on' a diet your screwed from the start!!

The people that look and feel fantastic are like that because they adopt a lifestyle which is permanent not a quick fix.

Westwood

Everyone should be on a diet if we all ate what we wanted we'd be fat fools :rolleyes:

Piste

Oh I dunno, once I'm married I can start eating whatever I like and put on all the weight I like, he's trapped then



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