What every dieter should know and understand

[fortyfour]

Alas i can't work this computer properly and so i can't get you the link but you can look this article up yourself. Its an important article about successful weightloss.

Google australian weekend magazine and weightloss. When i just looked the article just came to the top of the page.

the word "shedding" appears in the title of the article. Sorry i should have copied over the title. I can't be bothered to go back now. You do it.

this is about why weight loss efforts fail and potentially how to stop that failure. We've got to go about our weightloss in a slightly different way. Go read it before you begin.

[fortyfour]

Sorry, I've realised belatedly that you have to subscribe to get this article. However there might be other more traditional ways to access it. ie through the library. Its worth looking for it.

[Blitz]

I remember reading this article when it came out (I managed a refresher read just now after a few tries).

Fully understand where the Bridges couple are coming from. It is about a committed life long life style. I was greatly encouraged that they weighed themselves daily even after all this time. It showed I was on the right track.

I think that the article was a little harsh in criticising people for putting on up to 5 kilos in the 1st year. Like the Bridges I found that I had aimed too low. The subject of how much does loose skin weigh isn't discussed anywhere. When I had my hernia operation my surgeon also removed about 2 to 3 kilos of loose skin. I easy have another 4 or 5 kilos of loose skin parked around my body. That is a lot of dead weight that normal weight charts don't account for. So "normal" for a person for me is heavier than real normal.

Any way you look at it my metabolism is stuffed - and it isn't going to change any time soon so you just have to account it as the price you pay for being overweight in the first place (like the loose skin) and learn to live with it. Like a person with a disability you learn to deal with it because that's just life. So you know that you have to watch what you eat, understand that a meal out will put on a kilo (so you prepare and plan), weigh yourself every day, exercise every day (at least 90 minutes for me) and keep yourself focussed every day. That's fair because that's the lifestyle I choose...because that is who I am now.

Kim

[fortyfour]

I haven't read the article recently and I can't remember the criticism you mention. The main point i took from it is that if we want to lose weight, we have to do it slowly. But that i mean do it 10% down then stabilise for a time, then try again.

I suspect with my body that i am just not genetically able to stay at anything less than 60kg, and it may be more, even though 55-68kg is my healthy weight range according to a scale. So if i want to get to less than 60kg, i will have to get there slowly, in increments. or be satisfied at being around 63kg.

[Blitz]

I missed that point completely. In rats it took months for the body to get back to normal levels and they suspect that it takes years for humans (no real data or figure is known). I went away from the article believing that the Bridges (and my own experience) was probably was the way to go for successful weight loss for life. Weight loss was a two step process; taking it off and keeping it off for life. There is no finish (except death ) just a healthy continued lifestyle. From what I can glean from other sources (and that isn't much) this seems the best way forward for lasting success.

I did find the article very interesting because of the dearth of information on weight maintainance. I guess so few succeed so - so little is known. Perhaps we can be the pioneers in the field!

Kim

[fortyfour]

Yes of course keeping it off is important but its the same for people who don't need to diet. Its just that their lifestyles are different or they are more habituated to keeping tabs on their intake without needing to talk about it.

I know this by watching other people. They are no different from us except that they don't have the bad eating habits and lifestyle habits that fat people have. They are already more disciplined and busy.

[fortyfour]

Although some people, like my brother in law, just don't have a big appetite so its impossible for him to get fat. He has the opposite problem, he can't eat enough to put enough weight to round him out.

[Blitz]

I believe the main point the reporter was making in the article is that formally overweight people's bodies weren't normal which is the reason it is hard to keep the weight off. This is why I found the article interesting. It pointed to evidences that fat was dealt differently and hunger trigger chemicals were higher than the norm. I hadn't considered that there was a chemical inbalance involved. I just assumed that it was old behavioural patterns trying to reassert itself. Of course you can use this as a cop out and give up (any excuse will do if you are looking for one). The bottom line is that whatever the underlining condition, it still has to be dealt with.

I have a friend who has a medical condition similar to your brother in law's. Not only doesn't he have an appetite but his metabolism is running so fast that he has to eat huge amounts just to stay at normal weight. It was interesting comparing notes with him. Although we have opposite problems we both have to come to it with the same mindset and discipline. The big difference is that he doesn't have the luxury of giving up...if he does he will die. I guess so will I...but death by overweightness would take longer.

Kim

[fortyfour]

Blitz my brother in law doesn't have a health condition and is nothing like the person you mention. He just doesn't get as hungry as most people. I am sure if ate as much as most men he would put on weight. There is a hormone that governs appetite and it is probably a genetic predisposition that makes him not so hungry.

I disagree with you about the point of the article being that overweight people have an abnormal body . Of course a history of weight cycling seems to mess up ones metabolism and i can't remember what they said about syndrome x but thinking that you have an abnormal body is just another way of not taking responsibility for one's weight issues. I think most people's weight issues stem from psychological and environmental inputs on top of a natural tendency to get fat but i think that last tendency is shared by the greater part of the world's population. Travelling in india will show you this. Poor people are skinny and well off people over tend to become fat - most of them.

Lets not talk about this anymore until we can reread the article as we clearly have different views on it.

[fortyfour]

The condition of the person you describe sounds like hyper thyroidism. Such people eat a lot but can't put on weight because they have an overactive thyroid which speeds up their metabolism. My brother in law does not have that condition.

[Blitz]

I didn't mean to suggest your brother in law was the same as my friend. However your brother in law and my friend do share this in common; "...just don't have a big appetite so its impossible for him to get fat. He has the opposite problem, he can't eat enough to put enough weight to round him out." This is desciptive of my friend as well. Clearly my friend has a more serious condition that is being medically supervised. I used my friend's example to demostrate that sometimes it is physical, abet his condition being the opposite problem faced by those who were overweight as suggested by the article.

Unlike you I have had the benefit of rereading the article (as mentioned in my first post in this thread). I have stated the reporter's view point accurately. I also stated in the first paragraph (second half) of my last post that even it was the case we still had to deal with it and not use it as an excuse.

Kim

[CronicBadger]

I've just read it. That was quite an interesting article and is suggestive of my own ongoing struggle to maintain my weightloss.

The Bridges have been maintaining their weight for six years. And for those six years they've been experiencing seemingly abnormal metabolism linked to their weightloss. The implication of this is rather depressing, but as the saying goes, "forewarned is forearmed". So, the expectation that everything will be fine once the weightloss process is complete is unrealistic, and the process of keeping the weight off will be yet another struggle involving new habits and eternal vigilance.

I still keep a food diary and count kilojoules daily, and suspect it will be a long, long time before I feel confident enough to dispense with that activity.

[Blitz]

I feel the same way about my maintenance as well. I've said in the past that there are no holidays in weight loss...I guess that is true about weight maintenance as well. That's the reality and we just have to learn to deal with it.
Kim

[AndyJ]

Just read the article and it describes me perfectly.

In order to maintain my weight, I have to eat no more than 1500 Calories a day and exercise for at least half an hour per day.

That is my life from now on, eating rabbit food.

But I know this, I understand this is what I need to do in order to maintain my weight. Everyone goes nuts at me because I will not eat what they see is not enough, because I exercise so much, my doctor went mad because I do not eat enough. My reply is well you said to be this weight, and this is what I have to do to stay there.

Guy at work eats 3 x the amount of calories as what I do, he is stick thin, always has been.

Lucky for some..

[DD Diva]

Just read the article and it describes me perfectly.

In order to maintain my weight, I have to eat no more than 1500 Calories a day and exercise for at least half an hour per day.

That is my life from now on, eating rabbit food.

But I know this, I understand this is what I need to do in order to maintain my weight. Everyone goes nuts at me because I will not eat what they see is not enough, because I exercise so much, my doctor went mad because I do not eat enough. My reply is well you said to be this weight, and this is what I have to do to stay there.

Guy at work eats 3 x the amount of calories as what I do, he is stick thin, always has been.

Lucky for some..

Andy, weight loss (and maintenance for that matter) is not about living on "rabbit food" it's about portion control.
I've lost close to 48kg (well 58kg from my heaviest weight) with still about 10-19kg to go (depending on weight of the excess skin) and I haven't lived on rabbit food, nor have I exercised my (now much thinner) a$$ off to get there....AND I don't plan to when I reach maintenance.
I've learnt to control my portions, eat everything in MODERATION and move move move (and generally a whole lot more than I ever did). But most amusing part of it,is that I'm moving more not necessarily to negate what I'm putting on my plate but because I ACTUALLY ENJOY going being more physically active, I dance around like a teenager, run around the park with my dog, go for super long walks with my husband or work colleagues every chance I get!!!
If it's a chore you will get bored, and when that happens you risk the weight going back on.
My advice to you is simple.....
Change what you do so that it becomes enjoyable, and you stick with it. After all, weight loss and maintenance is about lifestyle change (but there is not point in making that change something you don't enjoy because if you dislike it, you'll soon tire of it and before you know it, you'll be back to your old weight).
As for your work colleague, his is one of genetics (most likely) with perhaps the fact that he's about your age? but don't envy him too much....if that's the case, the weight will find him in his more senior years!!