Women & Dieting

I'm sorry but I have to bring this up.

My girlfriend has recently become obsessed with dieting. She has gained a little weight over the past few months so she is somewhat justified for wanting to eat more healthy but she's gotten out of control. Not in the "eating disorder" way but the "fad diet" way.

She's trying these random diets and plans she finds on the internet or are being recommended by people. It's getting very annoying. I've tried explaining to her that nothing she's doing is going to work. And oddly weighing herself and seeing no change isn't enough proof for her either.

I had to take health classes in culinary school so I know what I'm talking about. I eat pretty well and work out four times a week. I'm pretty damn healthy for being a notorious drunk. I've tried to sit her down and plan out a proper diet and exercise routine. She'd rather get her advice from the internet because it promises fast results with very little effort. And basically starving herself.

Why do women, I'm saying women because they are more likely to do this, get sucked in to fad diets? Is it that hard to not eat shitty food? Make a simple sandwich and stay out McDonalds. Get off your ass and walk. Ride a bike. Masturbate for fuck sake... It's at least a physical activity.

 

I have a couple of female friends that do this. I know one was on a diet for a month that involved purposefully gaining ten pounds, then dropping to 600 calories a day while consuming a couple drops of some "magical formula" that would cause the pounds to burn away. As you can imagine, it worked wonderfully until she decided that she wanted to eat normally again.

Another has been fad dieting all over the place. She's swung from 5'4" and 240 lbs to 140 lbs and now she's back to something like 180 lbs and steadily gaining. She'll gain twenty pounds in a month from comfort eating, then freak out, eat more, freak out at the weight gain, binge exercise until she hurts herself (this has happened *several* times), then start comfort eating because she's stressed she can't exercise. When she exercises, she figures she can eat anything she wants and then doesn't understand why she isn't losing the weight with all her hard work.

It drives me insane.

Of course, then she asks me how I keep the weight off and I tell her that I do moderate exercise a few times a week and eat healthy. She'll tell me that doing that "just doesn't work" for her and that there's better ways for me to keep my body fat down and that I'm exercising "wrong".

I could rant about this for ages.

Why is it women? I would guess that men are more inclined to try to "pump up" than "slim down". Dieting is associated with slimming down.

 

I lost 30lbs in about a month. It was awesome. I didn't eat and I was hopped up on so much medication. I had hallucinations. It was so cool. None of my clothes fit. I felt SO sexy.

I maintained the "loss" while in rehab because I was doing PT every day and eating crappy institutionalized food. I gained about 15 lbs of that back when I got out of rehab because I stopped going to PT and was afraid of doing a lot of physical activity on my own with out having someone to watch me. I also started eating normal food.

I don't recommend the MS Relapse diet though. Actually, maybe I should and make a profit.

Anyway. I agree with Poetry. Fad diets do NOT work. You have to change your lifestyle. I was in the best shape of my life when I totally reevaluated my lifestyle, then I had a relapse and fell a part again. I never fully recovered, but am back to my 2008 eating habits and need to get over myself to get back into that exercise routine again.

So tell her if she wants to gain double what she loses on a fad diet, then she's on the right track.

 

I'm dealing with this at work. My coworker swears she's going to lose 50 pounds by Christmas, but then she'll eat a chicken club with extra mayo and a brownie. She's going to a "weight-loss doctor" next week, and is happy that she'll be on pills again. Yes. Again.

Another girl that works for the same company, but at a different site (I've done caterings with her) gets those weight loss injections. I guess she's lost weight, but she still eats terribly.

I've been losing weight the last couple months, and every time they ask me what I'm doing, I tell them. "I exercise, and I count calories." They look all excited until I answer them, then their expressions go dull, and I get something like, "oh....." That's too complicated, apparently.

I used to have a coworker who would tell people he knew the easiest and fastest way to lose 20 pounds. The answer? "Cut off your leg."

 

Our priorities are seriously f'd up as a society. There's just no way around it. You need exercise and a proper diet. Even after finally getting into somewhat good shape a few years ago, I kept trying to figure out how I could do enough of either diet or exercise in order to neglect the other. It can't be done, folks.

The aspect of fad dieting that I really don't understand is the time frame. They are mostly about a great deal of misery in a short amount of time, for the mere possibility of permanent results. Why not embark on a proper lifestyle change which involves more gradual changes over a longer term?

 

Your girlfriend will lose all the weight she wants if she (1) drinks no soda, including diet soda, (2) limits her carbohydrate intake to 20 grams a day, (3) limits her calories to 1,500 a day, (4) drinks a lot of water throughout the day (half her body-weight in ounces of water), (5) cooks with coconut oil, (6) doesn't avoid fat or saturated fat, (7) takes digestive enzymes with every meal. Tell her this, make sure she sticks to it, and then tell her to shut up (optional).

 

Ummm... some good points (1, 2 and 4 are solid advice), but how on earth do you get the 1500 calorie figure without knowing her? Age, weight and activity level are the least you'd need to know in order to thwack a number on it.

 

1,500 was ballpark. I stuck to 1,500 a day when I went from 270 to 230, and I'm a 6'2" male. I also stuck to it again when I went from 230 to 195. So I figured if I can do it, a female can do it. But you're right, factors do play a roll, but I feel a ballpark of 1,500 would work anyway.

 

Can anyone else see the parallels between fad diets and people drowning in too much consumer debt?

 

Not yet, but when I saw what you said, my gut felt the thud of a distant bullseye. My eyes will be open, and I look forward to your saying more.

 

My old lady's been exercising more frequently, and although she's making good progress (her figure is slimmer with more muscle tone) she's measuring her progress solely by weight loss- and she thinks she's failed.

I point out that muscle weighs more than fat whenever I feel like sleeping on the couch.

 

I weigh less than I did a year ago, but I am MUCH flabbier than I was a year ago. Make sure she uses one of those measuring tapes that seamstresses use. Measure bust, waist, hips, thighs and upper arms.

Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat. That is a myth :-( It's more dense though.

 

I don't know a single woman that chooses not to get exercise that would lose weight on 1500 calories a day, unless she's dropping down from 2500+.
I lost 94 pounds a few years ago and I worked hard for every single damn pound. It's NOT easy. If it says it's easy, it's a lot less likely to work.
Changing your eating and exercise patterns helps over time.

I recently tried a "raw food detox" for about three days, with three days of "preparation".
My dumb ass gained 6 lbs in three days that I've yet to be able to lose, despite going to the gym 3 - 5 days a week with cardio and strength training (some of it is definitely muscle returning recently, though, because my clothes fit better).
That was all "healthy," raw, unprocessed foods in good portion sizes: nuts, fruits, green veggies, herbal teas, and 140 oz of water a day.
I screwed up my metabolism and fluid balance so badly.
My body now demands 120 oz of water minimum or I get dehydrated, but retains 4 - 5 pounds of fluid every day.
I consume about 1200 calories a day, some times a little more on strength training days... in the form of raw nuts and dried fruits or a no HFCS-kashi breakfast bar before my workout. Usually a little less.
Fad diets fucked my body.
The doc says it'll have to "work itself out".
You can't "cheat" to lose faster, cleaner, whatever.

This is the internet.
Have her read it.

 

I'll just reiterate what Baraka and noodle have said and maybe add a few things.

"Carbs" are not all white bread and white rice.
A healthy diet should take 45% of its calories from complex carbohydrates.
That's fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.
Not taking in an adequate amount of carbohydrates means you are not getting enough dietary fiber.
Inadequate dietary fiber intake is indicated as a risk factor for high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
The cells of your brain can use only one nutrient to generate energy - glucose.
Glucose comes from only one of the macronutrients - carbohydrates.
Your liver can draw on stores of glycogen and revert it to glucose, but these stores are finite and your liver is not designed to work like that for weeks, months, years.
So, you can't get away from eating carbs and expect to be healthy.

Saturated fats are unhealthy and you should always avoid them.
Cooking with coconut oil is a total shit piece of advice.
Saturated fats are directly related to the prevalence of heart disease and some cancers.
You can take in all of your body's fat needs from mono- and polyunsaturated fats.

People want so badly to believe they can forego the time and discipline it takes to lose weight and keep it off.
There are no miracles.
There is eating right and getting adequate exercise.
That's it.

 

That is true, but ideally a person shouldn't stress their liver by making it jump through hoops to satisfy their body's needs because they are afraid of 'carbs.'
The way our body uses the foods we eat to generate energy for our use has been understood for quite a while. As have the DRVs for both losing and maintaining weight. There are no great secrets to be uncovered or weight loss miracle diets that don't come with a cost to your overall health. Fact is, the average American eats way too much fat, way too much protein and way too many simple carbs and not nearly enough complex carbohydrates, but somehow "carbs" have garnered a disproportionate amount of attention when it comes to dieting. When the detrimental effects of eating too many "carbs" kind of pales in contrast to the dangers of consuming too much fat and protein.