When did you start "dieting?"
 

And when did you stop?
I've been yoyo dieting literally almost my entire life.

The earliest I can remember, is when I was about 7 or 8. I'm serious. I remember for a while purposely cutting everything on my plate in half, and only eating one half of it. The rest I wouldn't allow myself to eat. I wasn't overweight at all...I was actually a very skinny child due to very enlarged tonsils and being very active.

Anyway, I've done a lot of crazy diets in my life. I starved myself for a while, I chewed and spit for a short period of time (ew.). I've done low carb, eaten only fruits and veggies, eaten only salads 7 days a week, drank apple cider vinegar with every meal, juice fast, one big meal a day only, special K, slimfast, diet pills, calorie counting, coffee and cigarette diet....

So this is the first time in my life that I've actually counted calories consistently. And this is the first time in my life I've realized that I'm going to have to do it for the rest of my life. I can't diet my way out of obesity, and then go back to "normal" once I've lost the weight. :rolleyes:

It took me almost a decade or two to get it, but at 23 I've finally got it through my thick skull. :yay: I'm never going to diet again.

I grew up overweight and I remember crying myself to sleep at night in elementary school wishing I would just be thin like the other girls. It was hard because there were a lot of bullies in my grade :(

There were two times I tried "dieting" but not real serious or anything. My first attempt was when I was 12. I tried not eating for a day. I don't know why I did this, but my parents saw right through it and made something I couldn't refuse for dinner (LOL they knew me too well) and that was done. Just one day haha!

The next attempt was the summer into 8th grade. I was wearing a size 16 and I thought if I exercised all the time that I would lose weight. I rode my bike for an hour every day and I managed to get into a size 14 by the end of the summer (which, trying those clothes on now was the equivalent of a 10/12). Looking at pictures of me back then I actually looked pretty "normal" but I still thought I was fat.

In high school I gained a lot of weight and went up to a size 18. I don't know how much I weighed back then (likely higher than my starting weight here) but I didn't try dieting or anything.

This is my first "real" attempt at dieting and I'm glad I found calorie counting. Thing is, during high school and college I learned that I didn't need to be thin to be happy. I loved myself and that really helped me start losing weight.

i first remember thinking about my weight and comparing my body size to other girls at around 10. by 12 i was purposely eating less and trying to lose weight, mainly by restricting most days with some days of not eating at all. by 14 i was obsessed with my weight, actively googling info for "zero" calorie foods and restricting heavily and exercising a lot. by 16 i had started making myself throw up every now and then and by 17 i had developed a fully fledged eating disorder which reigned supreme until i turned 22 and started therapy...

only now am i more aware of my eating issues (i have now been diagnosed and have been in therapy for about 2 years) and am actively trying not to let it control my life. it is extremely hard not to fall into old habits and whilst i am not a slave to it, i know i still lapse. still, this is my first time actually properly trying to lose weight without all the bad stuff and i'm doing reasonably well so far, i'm quite proud of myself (not so much for weight loss but for not letting the 'disorder' totally take over!)

I started at 11 and never stopped (aside from pregnancy when I didn't weigh/count anything) and I'm still doing it 18 years later.

Eight months ago. I'm a first-time dieter, and it's working out well for me, so "diet" isn't a dirty word for me. I'll stop when I transfer into maintenance, which isn't too far away now. I grew up with a mother who had very unhealthy attitudes towards weight, and who showed me by example that crash dieting and guilt-based approaches are extremely bad ideas, so I always avoided those.

My Mom is a serial yo-yo dieter. I'm pretty sure she was dieting when I was conceived - does that count?? Do I win?

You made me :rofl: You win!!!

I first remember dieting a few months before I got married but they were definitely vanity pounds as I was 125 lbs and wanted to be 115. After I got married my husband and I ate a LOT of fast food. I rarely cooked. We lived it up! I gained a lot of weight and I started the cabbage soup diet. It was all the rage in the early 90's. I was miserable, my husband was miserable and our small apartment stunk ALL THE TIME. Then I embarked on the following:

1) The infidelity/divorce diet - i.e.; starving myself
2) The intro to AOL and chat rooms - i.e.; too enthralled/addicted to remember to eat
3) Weight Watchers - worked great but didn't stick to it
4) The break up diet - dumped a great guy to become miserable and not eat
5) Slimfast
6) Atkins

It was only last year did I hit my highest weight ever and in January I started my journey, not a diet. Like you it just finally clicked! So now I am low calorie, lower carb and exercising. Although I still struggle some days and I have gained a few pounds back lately I know in my heart that I will never again go back to where I was. This has FINALLY become a way of life. :D

This is only my second foray into dieting... Or better but, caring about what I put into my body. First time I did weight watchers and exercise. I've tried to add exercise a couple other times too, but I always dropped it. This is the first time I mean business, I count calories, I watch my simple carbs intake (blood sugar issues I can control with diet alone) and I excise regularly. And I know I will continue with this for the rest of my life. There is no ending these methods. Took me until I was 41 to figure it out. Been going strong for almost a year and I feel better than I have in eons. The careless food fest made me feel like crap. I don't want to feel like that again.

I can remember reading calorie labels at the snack bar at the community pool by the time I was in 3rd grade or so... but the first time I actually dieted was when I was 13. I ate the same thing every day (english muffin with jam, rice cakes, soup, and a small plate of whatever my mom made for dinner), lost 40 pounds and would cry if I "gave in" and went over 1000 calories, or if I ate anything but soup or salad if we went out to dinner. This went on for about 2 years, I think, and then I just gradually gained and gained through high school and college, and my life has been a diet again probably since 16 or so (27 now, so 11 years, I'd say about 1/3 of each year has been actively dieting)

I've lost over 200 pounds and maintained it for 30+ years and I've never been on a diet. I do Weight Watchers and it has taught me that diets never work but making lifestyle changes leads to weight loss and maintenance.

I didn't seriously start dieting until May 1st of this year. I've never yo-yo dieted before and hopefully this isn't the start of it. :/ Though in the past 2 years I've sort of been easing myself into a diet. It started with buying less snack food so I didn't have them around the apartment, then I cut down on ordering takeout (college...haha), then I cut out midnight runs for candy (a horrible habit to have). I lost about 6lbs in a year which isn't a lot, but it's the first time in my life I went down in weight instead of up. That's what sort of told me I could do this for real, so I tried it. :)

I've never dieted.
I have always had a large body size, I have always been bigger, I have always been told to lose weight, my mother used to try to put me on diets as a child, but I never "dieted".

I am not "dieting" right now- I am living a lifestyle that I love, being consious that my body is not a waste basket.

I've just realised that I'm happy to think of myself as "dieting", but not "on a diet". The latter implies something too fixed, and has more of those negative crash diet connotations. Odd.

I'm the same way. I don't care about the semantics of it because there is absolutely no end date for me and there hasn't been for almost 20 years. I have finally settled on a great plan that is neither under- nor over-eating and I feel great.

To me, "diet" implies I'm eating mindfully and doesn't connote a stop date.