Problems of weight loss

FBaby

Gloomendoom wrote: »

And most of my friends, colleagues and acquaintances who have been slim all their lives don't have to be careful about their weight. Most, but not all, are men, if that makes a difference.

I do know several people who used to be larger who are now relatively slim who do maintain their lower weight long term by managing their diets. I would put myself and Mrs G in that category.

I do believe gender will make a difference but must importantly age. It's a lot easier to eat what you want ans remain slim at 20 than it us at 50. Also it is easy to assume that slim people don't watch what they eat because it has become part of their routine. My husband would probably say that he doesn't watch his weight but then he had such excellent eating habits and exercise just about every day. When he had surgery and didn't exercise for weeks he did or on a bit of weight and realised he had to make some adjustments but lost it all anyway as soon as he resumed exercise.

Georgiegirl256

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Most people that have been slim their whole lives have been so because of genetics. Not really very much use to anybody else.

This is very true regarding my Dad's side of the family. I take after my Dad more, and my Dad, myself, my Aunty, my 2 cousins are all slim, and none of us have ever been on a diet. So I do think that genetics has a lot to with it.

pukkamum

I have been using the paul mckenna gastric band cd and can honestly say its working great for me, I don't weigh myself but go by clothes and in the month since using it I have dropped a dress size.
I am actually really enjoying eating, something I didn't before unless it was junk, I am craving veg, fruit and salad and am taking excercise that never interested me before.
I find I eat til satisfied and am then stop without even thinking about it.
It really is worth a punt, it only cost me £6 odd on amazon.

margaretclare

FBaby wrote: »

I do believe gender will make a difference but must importantly age. It's a lot easier to eat what you want and remain slim at 20 than it is at 50. Also it is easy to assume that slim people don't watch what they eat because it has become part of their routine. My husband would probably say that he doesn't watch his weight but then he had such excellent eating habits and exercise just about every day. When he had surgery and didn't exercise for weeks he did or on a bit of weight and realised he had to make some adjustments but lost it all anyway as soon as he resumed exercise.

Errr, yes, age has a lot to do with it. And I'm a bit further on than 50, another quarter-century in fact.

This is twofold: (a) physiological muscle loss as one gets older and (b) lack of activity in the retirement years. I am inevitably a lot less active than I used to be when running up and down a ward all day, then walking to/from the bus.

DH was a very sporty guy in his youth, but then, in his middle years he was behind a driving-wheel for hours on end and eating unsuitably. Not only snacks as and when he could, but business lunches. Diabetes has come to him down both sides of his family and that was when it kicked in. Seeing what he does day in day out I would do almost anything to avoid becoming diabetic, even though it is not in my family - I've been warned that I am at risk of it. So far it hasn't happened.

margaretclare

pukkamum wrote: »

I have been using the paul mckenna gastric band cd and can honestly say its working great for me, I don't weigh myself but go by clothes and in the month since using it I have dropped a dress size.
I am actually really enjoying eating, something I didn't before unless it was junk, I am craving veg, fruit and salad and am taking exercise that never interested me before.
I find I eat til satisfied and am then stop without even thinking about it.
It really is worth a punt, it only cost me £6 odd on amazon.

If it works for you then stick with it. Much, if not all, of weight loss is in the head rather than in the belly.

On some sites I go on to people say things like 'the cakes jumped into my mouth' or 'the biscuits were calling to me from the cupboard'. This translates to me as: 'I have no self-discipline whatsoever, I am not serious about this, and the desire for cake/biscuits in my head is stronger than any other consideration'.

pukkamum

margaretclare wrote: »

If it works for you then stick with it. Much, if not all, of weight loss is in the head rather than in the belly.

On some sites I go on to people say things like 'the cakes jumped into my mouth' or 'the biscuits were calling to me from the cupboard'. This translates to me as: 'I have no self-discipline whatsoever, I am not serious about this, and the desire for cake/biscuits in my head is stronger than any other consideration'.

Oh yes healthy eating is totally a mind set, paul mckenna makes the point in the book that over eater's have stopped listening to the messages their bodies and minds give them re food, processed food, eating when bored, continuing to eat when full etc have meant we can longer recognise the signals telling us to stop eating, naturally slim people can still recognise and act on those messages.
Likewise the body will naturally crave healthy foods but we have learned to ignore those cravings for healthy stuff and will reach for a biscuit etc instead.
The cd is all about teach7ng the mind to recognise and act on those signals again.

mumps

margaretclare wrote: »

If it works for you then stick with it. Much, if not all, of weight loss is in the head rather than in the belly.

On some sites I go on to people say things like 'the cakes jumped into my mouth' or 'the biscuits were calling to me from the cupboard'. This translates to me as: 'I have no self-discipline whatsoever, I am not serious about this, and the desire for cake/biscuits in my head is stronger than any other consideration'.

But that is exactly what I was talking about. Alot of people blame weight on genetics when it is more about what they eat. Slim people tend to be people who eat a healthy well balanced diet, this might be because of how they were brought up or just that they like that sort of food, my son is very slim and he eats alot but it isn't junk he likes good food meat fish veg fruit. People might look at him and think it is his genes but it isn't.

The other problem I see is that once people start on the diet treadmill it just seems to set a pattern, diet that seems to work for a while, slip back and end up heavier than when you started. This has happened to several friends/family of mine. I don't know the science of it but it does seem to happen (unless I just know some unusual people.)

In my original post I said people should ask people who are slim and I think what they would hear is don't over eat, don't eat when you aren't hungry, don't eat too many treats (I think a few don't hurt but they will vary from person to person, for me chocolate for my son it might be a pizza.)

Diets are a multi million pound industry and they don't really seem to work, or do they? I am happy to hear if lots of people go on a diet, lose all the weight and live happily ever after. I only know one person who has managed that but I know far more who have just stayed slim even thought slim at 60 might be a bit heavier than slim at 16.

mumps

pukkamum wrote: »

Oh yes healthy eating is totally a mind set, paul mckenna makes the point in the book that over eater's have stopped listening to the messages their bodies and minds give them re food, processed food, eating when bored, continuing to eat when full etc have meant we can longer recognise the signals telling us to stop eating, naturally slim people can still recognise and act on those messages.
Likewise the body will naturally crave healthy foods but we have learned to ignore those cravings for healthy stuff and will reach for a biscuit etc instead.
The cd is all about teach7ng the mind to recognise and act on those signals again.

I think this is so true. I wonder why some people lose the ability to recognise the signals?

margaretclare

In my original post I said people should ask people who are slim and I think what they would hear is don't over eat, don't eat when you aren't hungry, don't eat too many treats (I think a few don't hurt but they will vary from person to person, for me chocolate for my son it might be a pizza.)

DH can't understand why I like to watch programmes like 'Secret Eaters'. I suppose the only reason why I do is that I still have an interest in social psychology, why people do the things they do.

All of the people depicted followed a 'healthy eating plan' devised by the programme's dietitian and all of them lost weight after 5 weeks. I think when you're fairly young almost any 'healthy' eating plan will work and we're not told the details, but it would seem to involve an end to the 'secret eating' that got them into that state in the first place, the snacking, the eating just mindlessly when not hungry, and the piling plates high. It always seems to me that the 'healthy eating plan' is less important than the change in mindset brought about by the 'shock tactics' of having your habits brought into the full glare of publicity. Human beings are capable of almost infinite self-deception, that's well known. What pukkamum is doing is more or less self-hypnosis, over-riding the bad (harmful) impulses by 'good' or useful ones. It works for her.

For me, over the past few years I've changed many of the bad habits I'd slipped into. I no longer even like very sweet items. I've had KrispyKreme doughnuts advertised in my face and I don't give them a second look. Cadbury's cream eggs - uuugggh. I can be out, sit and have a coffee with home-made cakes staring me in the face and they don't tempt me at all. They certainly wouldn't 'jump into my mouth' as people blithely say. My problems are different. After a lifetime of being extremely active I'm no longer very active at all. I don't need the carbs for energy, but I seem to have found something which works, at last.

margaretclare

mumps wrote: »

I think this is so true. I wonder why some people lose the ability to recognise the signals?

Peer pressure may be one factor, one's social group. The fact that food of all kinds is now so easily-available, the opposite from when I was young. We're surrounded by ads saying 'Just eat - don't cook'. Numerous reasons.