The other afternoon I stopped by a friend's house after work. The friend, let's call her Karen, was watching the Tyra Banks show. The show was about dieting. I wasn't paying too much attention to it, since I was there to visit and catch up with Karen, not to watch T.V. Anyway, another woman, Janet, showed up to visit Karen too. Karen has known Janet for a long time, but I'd never met her before.
So we're all sitting there and then the blond diet guru woman on the show starts talking about how we should all eat five mini meals a day if we want to lose weight. I commented that a diet like that would be hard to do for anyone with a full time job and no real time to eat every few hours. Then Janet said that she thinks eating five times a day would be easy to do but that she personally would not because that would be too much food. WHat? The recommended calorie count promoted by the show was 1200 calories a day. 1200 calories is too much food?
Then Janet, who is quite slim, announced she's been dieting, has lost ten pounds and wants to lose ten more. According to her she eats between 400 and 800 calories a day and can't understand why anyone would want, or need, to eat more.
A few questions on my part revealed that Janet has black coffee for breakfast, a vegetable salad for lunch and another salad with a small piece of fish or chicken for dinner. She said she's lost weight fast and never had so much energy.
I so wanted to say, "Good for you but you won't be able to starve yourself forever and when you start eating a little more the pounds you lost will all come back and they will bring friends. I used think a diet meant eating as little as possible but the human body does not like being deprived and sooner or later it will fight back."
But I restrained myself. And I didn't mention my eating plan (I refuse to call it a diet) which consists of 1500 daily calories of healthy foods divided into 3 meals and one snack. And I've been losing weight. True, I haven't been losing as fast as Janet (she claims ten pounds in a month with a starting weight of 135) but I know the weight I lost will stay off.
Crikes and she thinks that is all a person should need or want?? The RDA for a woman is 1800 - 2000 a day! A little less if trying to lose weight but a daily intake of just 500 calories a day is drastic and unhealthy, especially for someone who is only 135lbs! That's my goal weight!
I used to be real yoyo dieter and I'd do it just like this.... starve myself until I was happy with the way my body looked, then forget about it and pile on twice as much weight (of course because my body was in starvation mode and stored whatever I ate as fat for the next dry spell!). You're absolutely right - for a long term plan, starvation is not the way to go. You can not starve yourself for the rest of your life (unless you want the rest of your life to be a very short period) and when you eat after starving you put on weight so fast! I'm only just learning this and trying to lose weight sensibly. Its a shame there are people out there who don't understand what is healthy and what is not.
Well done for keeping shtum, I am not sure I would have been able to do the same....!
I agree she's a bit on the ...um...let's say aggressive side. However, I have a bit of a beef about the 5 mini meals. I eat six mini meals and DO work full time. I don't find it difficult at all with a little pre-prep work. A "meal" doesn't have to be cooked. A "meal" for me can be a yogurt and an apple or it could be 3-4 oz of meat, a serving of a vegetable and a serving of a carb. I try to keep them around 200 calories each. If need be, it only needs to take maybe 5 minutes to consume a meal. I like to linger over the meals I consider to be breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Anyway...just didn't want to discourage anyone from trying to this who might want to. I love this change I've made.
I actually eat 6-7 times a day as well and also work full time. I have a desk job and even on busy days, it’s not difficult to get up, walk to the break room and eat a snack really quick. I think it has done wonders for my metabolism. I honestly don’t think I could go back to eat “three square meals a day”…I would probably feel stuffed after each meal and I don’t like that feeling.
However…this lady sounds craaazzy. Anything less than 1000 calories a day is pure madness. And I’ve never understood this one…seems like women who eat really low calories always drink black coffee…does that help them starve or something? You’re absolutely right…she will gain her weight back and then some. She was obviously trying to sound like she is above the want or need of food…which in reality no one is.
Keep up your good work and good job biting your tongue!
I eat several times a day, and have found that is what works best for me. I have three main meals, and two or three smaller ones that usually involve yogurt or a handful of nuts, or some fruit. I think your friend must have been exaggerating - or flat out lying - about the 400-800 cals a day. That's...unthinkable! The body needs a minimum amount of calories just to function!
Anyway, good for you for holding your tongue. It can be extremely frustrating discussing weight loss techniques with some people. Just do what works for you and let others worry about themselves, and try not to go crazy listening to their, erm, different ideas.
So eating snacks counts a 'mini' meal! I didn't know that! So in a way we are all eating 5-6 meals a day.
I always eat a couple of hours or so, keeps me filled up. And I always have a healthy dessert after my dinner in the evening. I feel less likely to snack (until lately that is!)
I don't know what I would have said to that woman. She was obviously blowing her own trumpet. What she's eating isn't substainable. I only eat 1200 calories and I really fill up on the good stuff. Sometimes I can't eat 1200 calories in a day cos I gorge on veggies. But what she's eating- isn't a rounded diet. I can understand why you didn't say anything, because it was at your friends house and doing that might have been seen to be impolite.
I don't listen to skinny girls who give advice on eating. Skinny doesn't mean healthy. I know lots of skinny women who don't eat all day long and then gorge on one meal. I know lots of skinny women who never eat breakfast. I know lots of skinny women who all they eat is salads. Sorry but these habits have nothing to do with a balanced healthy diet for me and I refuse to look up to them just because they're skinny.
I'll go against the grain here and say that you should've spoken up. I don't know how much you weigh or how far you are on your journey but if a 135lb woman preached to me about eating 500-800 calories a day I would laugh at her. Yes I am much fatter than her but that doesn't mean I'm uneducated and stupid about good nutrition. It's time to speak up and say I WILL NOT STARVE MYSELF TO BE SKINNY!
Thanks for the replies and support. I'd eat more often at work if my breaks were longer. I get ten minutes in the morning and ten in the afternoon and I use the time to take a brisk walk around the block. I don't have a desk job and my only real time to eat at work is during lunch (I get an hour for that). After I eat I walk for half an hour.
And I always make sure to eat a good breakfast because I know I'm going to need the fuel.
Wannabeskinny-- I'm actually very close to my goal weight and have been for quite some time. I weigh less than Janet does right now. The weight is coming off so slowly that I only weigh myself every three months, otherwise I'd get too discouraged.
Magrat - good for you for walking on your breaks. That's a nice way to break up the work day, too, by getting out for a bit. If you wanted to snack on your walks, you could think about taking portable foods with you - nuts in a little tupperware container, or some crackers and cheese, or fruit.
Congrats on being close to your goal weight, that's awesome.
I think you were right to keep your mouth shut. Everyone thinks they're an expert on weight loss -- and, actually, we're no exception. I try not to chime in with my own philosophies unless asked.
However, with respect to the following:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magrat
I commented that a diet like that would be hard to do for anyone with a full time job and no real time to eat every few hours.
I work full-time in a senior leadership position and easily have 4-8 meetings a day, every day. I eat b'fast at home, mid-morning at work, lunch at work, mid afternoon at work, and depending on how late I stay, maybe again in the afternoon at work. Then I eat dinner at home. Every morning, I pack enough for the midAM, lunch, and midPM, and keep cottage cheese and yogurts in my fridge at work, in case I work late. I always have my real dinner at home, but going from 3pm to 8pm without food makes me feel awful.
Last edited by rachinma; 03-18-2010 at 07:25 AM.
Reason: OMG - spelling!
You did the right thing not engaging her on the subject. Lots of folks (I am guilty of this myself at times) love to pontificate about how their way of losing weight is the only way. And lots of folks have outmoded ideas about how to do it and aren't interested in hearing thoughts to the contrary. I don't think you'd have had a productive discussion with this woman on the subject.
By the way there is a school of thought that advocates for extremely calorie-restricted diets as a way of increasing longevity, based (among other things) upon some rat studies that showed longer lives in calorie-starved rats. I don't recall the exact numbers but 800-1000 sounds about like what I remember of it. Personally I'd rather enjoy food now than have a slight statistical chance of living a little longer, but I do know a couple of people who have adopted this approach.
One more thought: whether you find it easy to eat at work or not depends most strongly on what sort of work you do and what the particular rules of the workplace are. It's going to vary widely according to those individual circumstances. I can eat at my desk whenever I want to and I have access to a refrigerator at work, which makes planning small meals easy. So even though I have a full-time, relatively stressful job, the small-meal plan wouldn't be hard for me to execute. Someone who works on the retail floor of a store might be discouraged from eating on the job, and have to plan to eat during scheduled breaks. I can think of many scenarios in which one's job makes it impossible or easy to plan to eat several small meals, or anything in between.
I agree with what people have said. Do what works for you. And keeping mum is the simplest way to deal with people with their own miracle cure.
I confess I drink a ton of black coffee instead of breakfast (minimum of 20 oz). But I'm night owl who staggers out of bed at the last possible second in the morning and isn't hungry until lunch. I admit I use coffee like a drug- perks me up and makes me feel full. But I try to eat a balanced lunch and dinner.
I hate it when diet gurus profess one way to lose weight. For me, sometimes one things works for a while and then stops working. My brain is constantly undermining my efforts to achieve a calorie deficit. I need to mix up my strategies.
I'd bet $100 that she's eating more than 800 calories a day. She may well think she's telling the truth, but IME people who are very ignorant about weight loss (and this lady sounds like she is) often seriously delude themselves. It may be that every day she plans to eat 800 calories, but when she has a piece of cake at work it "doesn't count" because it's so-and-so's birthday, and when she goes out for dinner the next night it "doesn't count" because it was date night for her and her SO, and when she picks up pizza on the way home the next day it "doesn't count" because it was for the kids, really, not her. End of the week there may be only one day where she was perfectly on plan, but that's the "average" day because everything else was a special occasion.
She's probably eating less than she was, and she's probably losing weight, but I bet she's not being honest with herself or you.
I Didn't Say Anything
However, I have a bit of a beef about the 5 mini meals. I eat six mini meals and DO work full time. I don't find it difficult at all with a little pre-prep work. A "meal" doesn't have to be cooked. A "meal" for me can be a yogurt and an apple or it could be 3-4 oz of meat, a serving of a vegetable and a serving of a carb. I try to keep them around 200 calories each. If need be, it only needs to take maybe 5 minutes to consume a meal. I like to linger over the meals I consider to be breakfast, lunch and dinner.
