Can dieting work?

[AB Asks]

Magazines and newspapers seem obsessed with diets. All too often you turn to the centre pages of a newspaper and there are details of the latest 'trend' in dieting. Do you think there is any way to make dieting work? Or is having a healthy lifestyle the only way to make sure the weight stays off?

[smudge]

I personally think it's all down to eating sensibly & gentle excercise, walking, etc.

Then again I'm at an advantage, as I'm naturally slim - as were my parents & are my siblings.

[smudge]

P.S. Although I've never been on a diet, I have to say, that of all the people I know who have, they've eventually put the weight back on.

Hope that doesn't sound patronising & forgive me if it does - but it's perfectly true.

[Champagne]

I think dieting should be made illegal. Anyone caught going on a diet can be arrested and imprisoned for up to 2 years where they are fed nothing but salad with chicken or fish, fruit smoothies and lots of other healthy options.

Either that or we make beauty magazines illegal. Hmmm... but then I wouldn't have known where to go shopping for those FANTASTIC wedge sandals...

Option 1 it is then.

[bigmamma]

lol @ champagne :-)

[RATTER15]

I thin nearly all diets work!! The trouble is that some diets are too extreme and most aren't stuck to.

What some people don't seem to realise is that for a diet to work you must stick to it and then once the weight is lost, you must severely modify your eating habits for life, generally speaking.

At the end of the day its about eating sensibly and exercising!!

Now I eat enough food to feed a small nation and always have done, I'm a chocoholic and the last time I done any exercise outside of work was running to the car in the rain, OK so I do have a walk in the lanes and on the beach occasionally!

I'm about 2 stone overweight but I'm stable at that weight and it rarely fluctuates, so I wont go on a diet, I enjoy my food too much and it usually messes up your metabolism and end up putting twice as much weight back on!!

[RATTER15]

LOL it should have read I think!! I got thin on the brain maybe!!

[bigmamma]

Hi AB :-) I am having problems with my weight at the moment but never find anything in the magazines to help. All the papers and mags , even the general media , seem to imply that the word diet is for people wanting to lose weight only.

[smudge]

That made me smile too Champagne!

On a more serious note - I regularly visited a friend in the The Grovelands Hospital in Southgate, London (now commonly known as The Priory), who was suffering from mental helath problems.

Whilst visiting, I used to sit in the restaurant & have lunch or evening meals with her. A few of the in-patients were young girls who were anorexic. It was pitiful to see a large table of them sitting trying to eat food, with nurses watching their every move.

I have since watched programmes on anorexia, but nothing prepared me for what I saw at that hospital. It left me feeling quite drained & I thank the Lord that our two daughters & 17 year old granddaughter hasn't suffered the same fate.

Yes, it would be great if we could ban all slimming mag's, adverts showing skinny celeb's & all that goes with it, but sadly, I don't think that'll ever happen!

[smudge]

*health

[bigmamma]

My weight is going down too 10Clarion St but I neither need it to or want it to .:-(

[cazzz1975]

you only play golf once a week?? I cant stop playing golf, If I cant get to the course i go to the driving range, I have lost 8 stone 4 years ago..

[bigmamma]

Yes 10ClarionSt i have been to my GP but only saw a locum who didn't know me as my usual doc was on holiday. I am now 41 kilos but he said he wouldn't be worried about it unless I kept losing. I am due at docs again next month with my usual one.
Thanks for asking :-)

[Rubyrose]

Any diet will work! All you need is will power and the ability to stick to it! But the best thing to do is eat heathily and work out.. burn more calories than you take in... without getting caught up in counting them!

The reason most diets fail is because 1- Most people tend to lack will power unless they have an occasion to prepare for.. ie. wedding day, holiday, and 2- most diets are complicated and are seen as a quick fix for losing weight and not as a long term thing or a life plan!
Plus when you start a diet and fail it, your brain logs the fact that you failed.. it stores it away until the next time you do a diet.. and then you do that one for an even shorter amount of time as your brain is saying to you 'this didn't work last time and it won't work this time'. The whole thing is psychological!

That is why the main thing to do is eat healthily, and work out regularly. It is a simple plan that you can put into practice for the rest of your life.

Rrx

[Rubyrose]

Also.. It's all about substitution.
Replace fatty meats for chicken or fish
Replace bread with Wraps
Before reaching for chocolate, try having some fruit as it may just be a sugar craving... and so on... :o)