Reminds me of the time a friend of mine said he wanted to eat healthy. He didn't need to lose weight, but just wanted to eat better foods...nothing wrong with that! I watched as he grabbed a salad out of the fridge and proceeded to DOUSE it in dressing! I didn't say anything but I sure felt like chuckling!

I went out to eat with my friends this morning. My breakfast was 500 calories. Theirs were over 1000 each.

I go out to eat with my friends on Friday...for fish dinners.
They are 200# overweight. They order deep fried battered fish and french fried potatoes. And corn smothered in butter. And large cokes. And a large dessert.

I order baked fish and mashed potatoes, a green veggie and lemon water.
I'm full. I tell them mine is 1/4 the calories.

They tell me they are out to enjoy their food, and don't have time to count calories. They believe in exercize and go for a walk twice a week around the block. I don't think they know what a calorie is.

I asked them last week how they are doing on their diets. They both got angry with me. They tell me it is impossible to diet all summer.
They can't go on a diet in the summer because "there are just too many parties and picnics to go to all summer." Free food.

In the winter, it is still "there are just too many Holiday events to attend." More free food. Can't turn it down if it's free!

One lost 20 pounds early in the spring, but gained it all back. She blames it on "the parties." It's the party's fault, not hers.

This goes on all year: Free Party Food! Let's hog it down!
Pigging out is more important than being healthy. If it's free...pack it in!

Geez... :(

<~ ~ ~ ~ wonders why anyone would post a picture of their meal on FaceBook... ?? aka...is anyone really interested in what you're eating???

I think I know the answer. It's called the "flash diet". Turns out that posting pictures of your meals is even better than journaling in terms of correlation with actual weight loss. (Maybe it's partly because you might get feedback when you do things like eat calorie-laden chef's salad thinking it's low calorie.) Here's an article I just googled... I heard of this some time earlier...


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...se-weight.html

Funny how often the Daily Fail gets quoted on this site. You non-Brits do know what kind of a newspaper it is, right?

Interesting study. I can't for the life of me see how taking a photo yields quicker results than jotting something down, unless it's a Polaroid, and it doesn't sound like that's what they used. It's noteworthy that they talking about "shaming dieters into eating less". I don't calorie count as part of a shame mentality, I calorie count so that I know exactly what I'm eating and can balance it correctly. I could make two healthy-looking meals, roughly the same amount to eat, both looking nice to photograph, and one could be much higher in calories than the other if I did something as simple as adding a handful of almonds. However, I can see the point in taking pictures as a way of avoiding snacking, where a picture has a lot more impact than just writing it down. It may also depend on what you react to more strongly. Oddly, I think I do better with a textual representation, despite being a visual thinker. Perhaps it's because of the greater accuracy, which eliminates time spent in guesswork? Calorie counting really doesn't take long if you just use appropriate software, and I certainly don't do it hours afterwards, I write down the calories for something before I eat it.

I grabbed it cuz it was the top result in my search and a quick glance told me that it had the same sort of info I remembered. The newspaper may not have the best rep, but it's really the study itself that matters.

I've found that when I'm logging I do generally do better at losing (but not always!). So, I'm not really sure why it is so useful.

It's really amazing how much damage advertising (and decades of bad nutrition advice being disseminated publically) has done to our perception of what's healthy as a whole. Salads are advertised as healthy, and this idea of salad=healthy is so ingrained... when in reality at most restaurants, the burger is fewer calories and fat! Of course home-made salads can be amazingly healthy (and delicious), but I'll never trust a restaurant salad.

;) you sort of learn how to offer advice when you think you can....and then you learn when not too.

You know so many people just don't care!

Often...you know who are the ones that really don't? The thin people! They are Thin....they don't have to worry about 'healthy' ....um...Hello! Healthy is the Goal! Sure, I can run with the Best of them now...but when you see that I'm getting faster or that I'm getting stronger...don't wonder why...ask yourself how not! I eat well and I perform well because of it!

but I agree with everyone...even what I thought was healthy and good when I was obese was 'in a small sense' but no where even close! lol. Crazy!

Yes, but the media often wildly distort studies and research, to the point where they can literally report the opposite of what the study found. Admittedly the reputable papers and websites do this too, but I certainly wouldn't rely on the Daily Fail to report the fact that the earth moves around the sun correctly.

Oh My Gosh Yes! All my friends and Family love all my meal ideas and are always interested in what I'm eating!

Just started blogging more about it cause it's easier to Blog then get my inbox full of questions and suggestions all the time!

Just like being here...people like sharing :)

Criticizing your friends and having an air of arrogance around them isn't going to help them lose weight. Just keep doing what you're doing and set an example. If they follow it, great. If not then it's their decision. If they ask you for your opinion, then give it. Otherwise just keep your opinion to yourself.

Not everyone is ready to lose weight. Some will never be. Making others feel bad about their weight is NOT the way to go about getting them to lose it.

Like others have said, maybe she's on Atkins.

My cousin's wife does the same thing with her eating. Her idea of a "healthy" salad for lunch is a huge plate of iceburg lettuce literally drowned in full calorie/fat ranch. And then of course, she's still hungry, but claims the little "bites" (she claims, but last time I checked, a handful of something is NOT a "bite") of chips or whatever she has between then and dinner don't count. She's also using Slimfast shakes and that Sensa stuff over anything she deems unhealthy so she won't eat as much of it. I don't say anything to her because she gets an attitude about it (I've tried to be helpful, but learned to leave it alone) but I seriously want to laugh when she compliments me on my weight loss and then wonders out loud why I'm losing and she's not even though she's eating "healthy" food.

I completely agree. If one of my friends seriously looked at my plate and told me that their food was 1/4 the calories of mine? Wow. They would not be my friend for much longer.

I don't know why it bothers people so much when other people aren't as well informed about nutrition - it certainly took me a number of years to figure it out, and I definitely used to think that all salads were healthy, because that's what restaurants/media/others all seem to be telling us.

Also, you do have to consider when being so judgmental about others' choices that they might have a different diet plan than you do. I'm low-carb, so sometimes I eat things that might at first glance look artery-glogging disgusting to people who are just calorie counting or watching fat. And I would be really offended if a friend thought they knew more about my diet than I did.

My first job was working at Micky D's when I was in high school (10th grade), and when they introduced 'healthy alternatives,' being salads, I was astounded to find out that even the grilled chicken salad had an enormous amount of fat in it. Some people automatically assume it's 'healthy' because it's *grilled* chicken, nevermind the cheese and not-so-light dressing they put on top! I really thought that they were /injecting/ the chicken with fat, or something... how do they get chicken breast to hold so much fat!! I'm just glad I bother looking at nutrition facts before I judge whether something is "healthy".

I was just thinking about this today- how many people truly do not know what a healthy meal is or how calories/fat work.

One of my male friends is very, very big and constantly talking about his troubles losing weight. I think he thought that anything his mom might have made for dinner was "healthy" and nutritious and not that bad for you. Like a giant hunk of meatloaf with lots of mashed potatoes and bacony green beans. And pretty much anything that was served with a glass of milk had to be healthy.

Another friend has been trying to slim down and goes to the gym with some frequency, but then when she gets done working out, she "treats" herself to a visit to Starbucks- usually lattes and muffins are involved. I don't think she realizes that even a strenuous workout will probably not burn the five or six hundred extra calories she's taking in!