I personally haven't been given any bad advice like these ones (though they are hilarious!! ) but what I have experienced is lots of people seeing my success and trying to capitalize on it by latching on to some totally random aspect of my plan that they seem to think is responsible for all of my weight loss! And then they do it completely differently, but expect to see the same results!
For example, a very typical breakfast for me is 1 cup of Total cereal with 1/2 cup light vanilla soy milk and 1/2 a sliced banana, right? Well, my mom claims that she is trying to eat healthier, and right after I finish my breakfast I'll often see her eating a huge gallon-sized bowl of some sugar-packed/nutritionally empty granola cereal with 2% milk and a whole sliced banana - not terrible choices I guess, but definitely not as healthy, and HUGE portions - and she'll give me this smug look, like "See? It's not so hard; *I* can do it too!" As if all of my weight loss has come just from eating a bowl of cereal!
Oooh, or another one of my friends who is very overweight recently became a vegetarian, and I swear he only did it because I am one, and he's seen the success I've had losing weight, and he thinks that that *must* be why I've lost weight. He freely admits that he didn't do it for ethical reasons (like I did), and indeed he'll still eat meat every once in a while for a "splurge" (or if he's just drunk and "forgets" that he's supposed to be a vegetarian), and it's so frustrating to me that he thinks he's going to lose weight just by giving up meat. I've been a vegetarian for 4 years, and I was still fat for most of it because I didn't replace the meat with healthier stuff; I just ate meatless junk! Which is exactly what he's doing, which is why he's not going to lose any weight from it, either... Yet at our dining hall he'll load up his plate with mac n' cheese, mashed potatoes, a bowl of cream of broccoli soup, etc and talk about "how hard it is being a vegetarian." Sheesh.
This is the same friend who seems to have noticed that I eat Luna Bars a lot, so he started buying them, too... In addition to the sodas and candy bars he buys every day. Ugh, all the "copycats" just kill me! I mean, I would never try to belittle someone else's efforts if I thought they were sincerely trying, but to me it seems more like they're looking for the same thing that all the previous entries in this thread are looking for--a quick fix! An "all you have to do is ____ and you'll lose weight!" When will people realize that it's not that easy?!
i got this alot too when i was at my low weight. it really really irritated me.
In the middle of losing weight, while eating my afternoon snack of baby carrots, sugar snap peas, red pepper strips and grape tomatoes:
"I can't believe you would eat carrots. Do you know how much sugar is in carrots?"
This one kills me. Like anyone every got fat from eating too many *carrots*!
A girl from work lost a bunch of weight. I hadn't seen her for awhile so I was all like, "Wow, you look great, how did you do it!" So she sends me her food plan through interoffice mail......it was some hard-boiled egg thing where you had to eat something like 2 or 3 dozen eggs a week! Gahhhhh! Even if it is healthy (is it? It doesn't sound healthy!), I can barely stomach ONE hard-boiled egg, let alone many of them at every meal.
I used to work at a place where I think every fad diet had made the rounds more than once...including the Hollywood diet with the orange drink that from what I've heard you loose the 10 pounds in 2 days because of the mad dashes to the bathroom. And of course once a few people got on board, they were full-fledged diet experts.
A few weeks ago, I had a moment of panic over the whole loose skin thing after loosing significant weight (calmed myself down...got a grip on things) but I was browsing websites at work looking for good toning exercises, advice, etc. I came across a website that had a trainer who's advice on how to deal with loose skin is you *simply* need to loose more weight. If you have extra skin, you haven't lost enough weight...loose an extra 20lbs or so, and the extra skin will magically disappear. A girl in the comments section actually mentioned loosing a significant amount of weight, down to 125lb but had extra skin that she was concerned with...he advised her (note was not a doctor or nutritionish, just an over muscled "trainer") she would need to loose 20lbs more, getting down to 105lb, then she could work on building some muscle.
I came across a website that had a trainer who's advice on how to deal with loose skin is you *simply* need to loose more weight. If you have extra skin, you haven't lost enough weight...loose an extra 20lbs or so, and the extra skin will magically disappear. A girl in the comments section actually mentioned loosing a significant amount of weight, down to 125lb but had extra skin that she was concerned with...he advised her (note was not a doctor or nutritionish, just an over muscled "trainer") she would need to loose 20lbs more, getting down to 105lb, then she could work on building some muscle.
I saw that guy's site! While that might work for a handful of people, what about those of us who want to lose weight, but not every last one of our curves!? Not to mention the insanity from a medical perspective!
Last edited by Enduring Infinity; 03-21-2009 at 09:58 PM.
Reason: grammatical error
Some of my co-workers have done the soup diet thing a time or two, and "helpfully" suggested that I try it. I also had people try to push some kind of energy bars on me. What I find funny is that these people go on a diet and are all gung-ho for two weeks, then get tired of it and give up...and I'm the only one there who's lost a significant amount of weight, through a healthy lifestyle I've kept up for more than two years.
What I find funny is that these people go on a diet and are all gung-ho for two weeks, then get tired of it and give up...and I'm the only one there who's lost a significant amount of weight, through a healthy lifestyle I've kept up for more than two years.
That's the funny bit about it, really. Unless someone is only aiming to knock off five or so pounds, the only thing that really ~works~ is a full lifestyle change. Congrats on the weight loss! I'm starting at the same weight you started at; I hope I can have similar success!
drink grapefruit juice before every meal and never eat any white food.
Actually, the white food thing is one of my rules. I have kept 80 pounds off for 5 years by keeping this rule. The white things in question are flour, sugar, white bread, white pasta, white rice. Some has slipped in for sure, but that's the logic behind the "no white food thing"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Glory87
In the middle of losing weight, while eating my afternoon snack of baby carrots, sugar snap peas, red pepper strips and grape tomatoes:
"I can't believe you would eat carrots. Do you know how much sugar is in carrots?"
I once overheard a girl tell her friends, "You shouldn't eat breakfast because then it makes you hungry all day".
One thing is for sure, I have heard most of these my entire life!! Everyone in my family is thin, so they all give me advice. I've been told to wear a tight belt around my waist to shrink my stomach, drink vinegar, eat grapefruit three times a day and on and on and on. The girls at work only eat yogurt all day. One rumor that flies around our workplace, which is probably not a rumor, is that to be promoted you have to be skinny. Forget healthy, some of these people are downright anorexic, but anyway.....
I saw that ---Originally Posted by WildThings
I came across a website that had a trainer who's advice on how to deal with loose skin is you *simply* need to loose more weight. If you have extra skin, you haven't lost enough weight...loose an extra 20lbs or so, and the extra skin will magically disappear. A girl in the comments section actually mentioned loosing a significant amount of weight, down to 125lb but had extra skin that she was concerned with...he advised her (note was not a doctor or nutritionish, just an over muscled "trainer") she would need to loose 20lbs more, getting down to 105lb, then she could work on building some muscle.
Didn't he say something about the fat still being in the loose skin? lol
One thing is for sure, I have heard most of these my entire life!! Everyone in my family is thin, so they all give me advice. I've been told to wear a tight belt around my waist to shrink my stomach, drink vinegar, eat grapefruit three times a day and on and on and on. The girls at work only eat yogurt all day. One rumor that flies around our workplace, which is probably not a rumor, is that to be promoted you have to be skinny. Forget healthy, some of these people are downright anorexic, but anyway.....
I saw that ---Originally Posted by WildThings
I came across a website that had a trainer who's advice on how to deal with loose skin is you *simply* need to loose more weight. If you have extra skin, you haven't lost enough weight...loose an extra 20lbs or so, and the extra skin will magically disappear. A girl in the comments section actually mentioned loosing a significant amount of weight, down to 125lb but had extra skin that she was concerned with...he advised her (note was not a doctor or nutritionish, just an over muscled "trainer") she would need to loose 20lbs more, getting down to 105lb, then she could work on building some muscle.
Didn't he say something about the fat still being in the loose skin? lol
Some of my co-workers have done the soup diet thing a time or two, and "helpfully" suggested that I try it. I also had people try to push some kind of energy bars on me. What I find funny is that these people go on a diet and are all gung-ho for two weeks, then get tired of it and give up...and I'm the only one there who's lost a significant amount of weight, through a healthy lifestyle I've kept up for more than two years.
Omigawsh, YES, that is so annoying! I know this is a common complaint for us weight-losin' chicks, but it IS so frustrating when I'm having some kind of indulgence and people look at me like "Are you crazy?! You'll never lose weight eating that!!" I just want to yell, "Don't you see that I already have lost some weight? I think by now I at least somewhat know what I'm doing..." I don't need their advice!
That reminds me of another friend of mine, who I've always admired as being really fit and having a totally healthy relationship with food--she always ate healthy like 95% of the time, but also treated herself without feeling guilty. Well, we were out for dinner recently, and I made some kind of offhand remark about the desserts on the menu looking really yummy, and she said something like "Yes, but I don't eat desserts anymore." I was shocked! Lo and behold, she says that she's trying to lose weight (um, she does NOT need to!) and that I've "inspired her." I just kept thinking, If *I* were your inspiration, you would know that you don't have to give up all the foods you love in order to lose weight! I mean, I'm happy for her that she's doing what she thinks is right, but I don't know where she got the idea that I lost weight by never eating dessert! That's a piece of advice that I would never give to anyone... I believe in everything in moderation, baby. Hehe.
I have heard about the grapefruit diet, the rice diet, protein only diet (that one went over REALLY well when I was shaking so bad I work I almost lost my job because my boss thought I had taken up crack smoking and was having withdrawals), the diet pills that are actually speed and that's exactly how your life will be. I remember taking these one morning and it hit me when I was driving to work. I was doing 80 on the freeway and to me I still wasn't going fast enough. I kept thinking, I am going too slow. It should get out and run to work. Honest guys I had to fight the urge to pull over on 95 and run instead. I did lose weight and in fact had sported a 6 pack for the first time ever in my life! Yeah I couldn't shut up and wanted to do cartwheels all over the house but hey I was thin! My daughter's father convinced me to do this cabbage soup diet. I remember shopping for the cabbage and the little onion bits that went in it made by Lipton. LOL. I must have been out of my mind! Thing is I was a size 6/7 and always convinced I was fat since I had slimmed down but apparently could not get over my insecurities so I found myself making some nasty soup. It stunk up the house and when I tried to eat it it took almost two hours. By day two I was fed up. My girlfriend did it and she lost all the weight in her stomach (she wasn't a big girl, just a little bit thick) and we all were amazed so I tried it again. Oh it was awful! I said screw this and just upped my cardio. I had to dig a hole in the backyard to bury it because I was afraid the odor would linger if I threw it in my garbage. I tried grapefruit juice despite having a disdain for grapefruits. I couldn't even get down one gulp. My body immediately rejected it. I did the vinegar drink too. Took one sip and immediately spit it out all over my kitchen counter. It tasted like pee. I read in a book some lady said to try it but she said try raspberry flavored vinegar. I did. It tasted like raspberry pee.
I'm a chocolate addict. (Chocoholics anonymous anyone?? ) I swear, no joke, someone once told me to do a chocolate diet. Just eat nothing but chocolate for your calorie intake. 1400 calories of chocolate. yeah thats healthy. apparently it's a really diet as well.
I could write a book on all the diet "advice" I've gotten over my life time. mostly from my grandmother. and mother for that matter!!
) but what I have experienced is lots of people seeing my success and trying to capitalize on it by latching on to some totally random aspect of my plan that they seem to think is responsible for all of my weight loss! And then they do it completely differently, but expect to see the same results!
I just kept thinking, If *I* were your inspiration, you would know that you don't have to give up all the foods you love in order to lose weight! I mean, I'm happy for her that she's doing what she thinks is right, but I don't know where she got the idea that I lost weight by never eating dessert! 
Hehe.
My daughter's father convinced me to do this cabbage soup diet. I remember shopping for the cabbage and the little onion bits that went in it made by Lipton. LOL. I must have been out of my mind! Thing is I was a size 6/7 and always convinced I was fat since I had slimmed down but apparently could not get over my insecurities so I found myself making some nasty soup. It stunk up the house and when I tried to eat it it took almost two hours. By day two I was fed up. My girlfriend did it and she lost all the weight in her stomach (she wasn't a big girl, just a little bit thick) and we all were amazed so I tried it again. Oh it was awful! I said screw this and just upped my cardio. I had to dig a hole in the backyard to bury it because I was afraid the odor would linger if I threw it in my garbage. I tried grapefruit juice despite having a disdain for grapefruits. I couldn't even get down one gulp. My body immediately rejected it. I did the vinegar drink too. Took one sip and immediately spit it out all over my kitchen counter. It tasted like pee. I read in a book some lady said to try it but she said try raspberry flavored vinegar. I did. It tasted like raspberry pee. 
