Unapplicable Diet Solutions rant
 

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has had this problem. Diet Blogs, friends, family, books you name it all have advice for dieting don't they but don't you just want to scream when they say don't eat just one type of food and you'll lose 3 pounds in a week. Oh really? No kidding? Some of the foods that I often hear about:

Soda: Well, that's great except that I don't drink soda. Not even the "diet ones"

Fast Food: I've been to a fast food place 2 times over the past year. That's right, twice.

Icecream: I have maybe a cup of ice cream once a week. Usually it's fat free frozen yogurt to boot. Do you mean to say I'll lose three pounds if I don't eat that one cup?

Candy: I don't eat candy. Not even chocolate.

Processed snacks like twinkies or other baked goods: Nope.
Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks coffee: I don't go there. Yes I do use sugar in my morning coffee but I only use skim milk and I only have one cup a day.

None of which is to say that I am on a healthy diet (I eat way too much pasta and drink too much processed fruit juice) but it is very hard to find good advice that doesn't say eliminate one food from your diet and you'll magically lose weight. :mad:

Yes 2salads, I hear ya!! I know so many people who cut out soda and lose weight without even trying. And I feel like you - I don't drink soda, so where does that leave me? It's annoying!


:rolleyes:

How about pasta or fruit juice? Try cutting one of those out (without replacing them with other empty carbs) and see if it works...weight loss is pretty much calories in, calories out for most folks.

YES!! I see this all the time! Kinda like when i went to my doctor when i was in high school, saying i needed help losing weight, and he told me not to eat too many burgers and fries. I was like...i'm VEGETARIAN, not to mention i had a huge fear of eating fat (back in the low-fat craze)!!!!

Yep. The thing is is that by comparison to people who do drink and eat these foods I almost feel justified in my own diet. Yes, I might be having two bowls of pasta today but at least I didn't snarf down three cans of soda! ;)

Yes, I have been trying to do that. It's harder than it looks! :)

pasta is my downfall, too. i stopped keeping it in the house, because i can't seem to stop at a reasonable portion.

recently i purchased a spiral vegetable slicer. i use it to slice zucchini into long, noodle-like strands, and while it isn't pasta, it does satisfy my craving for twirling spaghetti noodles and i can eat two big bowls and stay on plan! i make my own healthy, tasty, veggie-rich sauces. fun gadget!

Doctors are the worst for this, imho. And the funny thing is for people whose problem are those types of food that's probably really good advice. But if that's not the problem...:?: Really these offers of advice tend to be about the advice giver being at least partially judgemental and somewhat ill informed. Yes, calories in/out is great but most people assume they know a person's diet just from their weight which is far from the truth. I know people who are so sensitive to carbs that even an apple can make them gain weight. It's really all about the person trying to lose weight to identify their unique problem foods and learn how to replace them in a healthy manner.

That's a great idea!

That sounds great. Where did you get it?

Spaghetti squash is another good alternative to pasta. I think people either love it or don't but it's worth a shot.

Yup. I had my doctor tell me to stop eating candy bars when I was pregnant because I was telling her I was gaining weight WAY faster than possible. I was 8 months pg and I was gaining 4 lbs a week. "Dont eat candy" I DONT eat candy, it gives me heartburn and I can do math...I am not eating an additional 2000 calories a day.

Oh. yeah. maybe she should have noticed the pre-eclampsia.

but more to this topic - yep. Just stop eating junkfood. I dont eat junkfood. I gain the most weight in the summer when all the fresh veggies lure me into culinary stardom.

:lol:
that made me giggle!!! (those darn fresh veggies!!!) ;)

I know the feeling as well - a few years back, I decided to give up ALL "processed" food - so, no candy, cake, donuts, chips, sodas, etc. AND I was walking SIX MILES A DAY, 5 days a week. (2 in the a.m. and 2 in the afternoon and 2 in the p.m.)

Six months. SIX MONTHS... with not one itty-bitty slip up!!! And guess what?!?!?! - not one.single.OUNCE was lost. Nope. Not one. Dang, no wonder I was so p***ed off and disappointed! :mad: :(

Sometimes you buy healthy ingredients and somehow wind up with a fattening dish anyway (hello butter!) And definately excercise is not immune from the "good advice" gurus. My husband eats more of the exact same diet I eat (plus goodies like half a pint of ice cream every night) and hardly gains a pound. I pointed this out to him and he said that I don't move enough then. He never works out! I walk three miles 4-5 days a week, do Wii Zumba once a week, and do Wii active 2-3 times a week. He sits behind a computer all day. What gives!?!?! :)

one thing you could try would be to replace your pasta with spaghetti squash instead. I find it to be an -adequate- substitute. Another thing I have heard is to dilute your juice a little bit?
I hope you find some 'useful' advice soon! i envy those people who cut out soda and lose 5 pounds in a week. :-P

For the pasta have you tried shirataki noodles? Those really help me :)

I totally understand about the frustrating advice. Even more frustratingly, it has worked for my dh. He gave up soda and chips a few years ago now, and lost 20lbs over a few months without much effort. Even now, when he wants to lose 5lbs, he stops eating chocolate for a couple of weeks.

My husband can eat twice what I do and still lose weight, so I understand your frustration. Careful attention to portion sizes and calories is essential for me to lose weight.

It's easy to eat more than you need of any type of food. Count calories, it's really the only "sure" way.

I hate those stupid articles. "Replace your whole milk with skim and replace your fruit juice with the actual fruit and you'll lose weight!" DUH!
I also hate stuff like that Special K "diet"--replace two meals with a bowl of cereal and you'll lose weight! Um, DUH! What is Special K, 100 calories for a bowl of it with milk?
The only thing that has ever worked for me is a LOT of exercise (like for a long period of time each session on a very regular basis) combined with a diet that is mostly whole grains and fruit for carbs and moderate protein and low fat. I think some of us are just made differently and have slower metabolism and have to fight harder to lose it, and because of that, have never been able to regularly eat the kinds of stuff those articles say to cut out.
But the doctors saying "Oh just...." :tantrum:
I've been told to "just watch my carbs," "just count calories," "just cut back on the junk food," and so on.....NONE OF WHICH WORKED FOR ME. When I was younger and desperate to lose weight, I would basically starve myself and eat around 1000 calories a day while exercising up to three times a day. THAT worked. But I couldn't keep it up.
Okay....rant done. Sensitive spot with me! :frypan:

joyc21- i sent you a message, but in case anyone else is interested, i got the spiral slicer on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007Y9WHQ/...hvptwo=&hvqmt=

this is the one i bought. it is really lightweight plastic and seems pretty flimsy, but so far it works great!

I'm the exact same way. I only eat candy around christmas when my mom buys my favorite, skittles and puts them in my stocking. I don't eat too much fast food, only when it's necessary, like the end of the month when there's no food in the house and I roll pennies and end up with a few bucks. Dollar menu, lol. I prefer salty to sweet, my mom's got the sweet tooth, not me. I'd be much, much bigger than I am if that were the case. I'm just a cheese freak and our lifestyle hasn't helped with nutritious food options. So I totally understand how you feel. It feels like you've made some good choices, but when you look in the mirror, it shows you something different. Just take it day by day, that's all you can really do. Good luck. :)

My very favorite was some article and one of the tips was along the lines of "replace ciabatta bread in your daily pannini with thin sliced whole wheat bread and lose 15 lbs in a year!"

Yes, because I am sure the majority of people eat ciabatta bread panninis every day. (It might not have been exactly that in the article but it was something equally out there)

ROTFL Yeah I love when they tell you to switch one type of bread for another. Ultimately bread = carbs no matter the type and if you're sensitive to wheat gluten then what?

Ugh yeah. It's those stupid articles that kept me fat for years. I thought: "well I already DO all of that, so I guess I'm just supposed to be fat."

Nope! I just needed to learn what a proper portion size is. I ate whatever I wanted, just counted it all.

That narrows out a few things. But what do you eat every day? Do you keep a journal and measure out everything? Post it here and we can take a look at it. Sometimes healthy foods...(like cheese) will add up REALLY quick because the portions are sooooooooooooo tiny.

A lot of them say that because certain foods are a common problem for many overweight folks. You're right that it's not as simple as "cut this one food out and your diet will make itself", though. I look at that type of advice as more of a starting point for many, rather than a one-size fits all diet solution.

i know how you feel!!! except for chocolate i don't eat any of those things and it's so frustrating when everyone else is like "i cut out soda and carbs and i lost 30 pounds!" Seriously, even when i live my whole life without that stuff i still can't drop ten pounds!

Did you ever think that someone out there may be benefiting from those tips because they haven't started a diet and do them?

You need to be realistic in seeing that there is no one size fits all solution.

Men lose weight faster because they have more muscle mass than women and it takes more calories to support muscle than fat.

I think the underlying messages is, that the author found THEIR weakness, their trigger food and cut it out, which changes their diet and lead to other changes that helped them lose.

I gave up sugar, which led to a snowball effect and now I'm pretty close to my goal 1.5 years later. That doesn't mean that anybody who gives up sugar will have the same results. I tweaked along the way, I exercised too, I sought out help when needed. But the trigger was giving up sugar.

My husband, on the other hand, doesn't have a trigger food. He just likes to eat, A LOT. So for him portion size is key. I can make a completely healthy meal but if it's tasty he'll eat all of it when it was meant for leftovers. So for him calorie counting means he loses.

Point is. Find your trigger. Re-examine your life and look at what's causing you to gain weight. It took me a LONG time to be truly honest with myself about my sugar addiction but once I did, well, the rest is history.

I agree, but the fact is is that it's not presented that way. In fact magazines make money on people buying the magazine for those articles. Doctors give you a standard line instead of evaluating you. You're paying them to help you lose weight and they pass off judgemental advice without knowing you or your history and you give them money to do it.

Yes, again I agree, if we all didn't want to have a "quick fix" we wouldn't even bother reading these articles. Still the authors are not honest. There shouldn't be an "underlying message". It should be bold print instead of tiny print at the bottom of the page or the commercial on TV.

I think that those articles do help people with those problems, sure. I just want to see articles that put things in perspective. Especially the article that tell you not to start a diet without consulting your doctor and then your doctor turns around andtells you the same thing in the article. :dizzy:

I too have a problem with pasta. I cut out all refined carbs, from my personal experience, its the first 1.5 weeks that are horrible, and now its much much better.
Max 2 when I cut out sugar, it took me 2 weeks to not feel really bad cravings.

I just follow the general principle-if a food over...and over again causes you to go over your calorie limit and you just know that you can't teach yourself to not go over the cal limit, it may be best to go cold turkey at least for now. I think that applies if its a certain food, but if someone overeats everything in general, that might be another thing. I find in general, its usually some food group.

there are many obnoxious diet plans, but thats how they sell-as the Only and Very Last Diet you will ever need

I like the tone of the lean gains guy, he's ambivelent about breakfast, but has had success skipping them.