Consumer Health Forums

I'm sure most of you can relate to that Peter Kay sketch "14 stone in a day..." - there's always somebody who swears by the new fad diet, whether it's the one where you eat nothing but soup for a month, or the Atkins style where you eat sausage bacon and cheese for breakfast and wash it down with a lard milkshake.

Well like most people, I have tried no end of diets over the years looking for the perfect quick fix. If you think about it, weight loss is so simple - eat less calories than you burn, and do more exercise... However in practice it's not quite so simple and it's near on impossible to lose weight without putting it all back on again within a couple of months.

For me, I just kept encountering the same problems over and over: the diets were dull - I enjoy food so if I don't have the opportunity to eat things I enjoy, I won't stick to the diet. Also a lack of diets out there - as a vegetarian, it is difficult to find a diet to follow, they just don't exist as apparently we're all really healthy so don't need to diet! And trying to adapt an existing diet just didn't work - for example there is the well known weight loss company which does the "red and green days" - a red day isn't much use for a veggie! And then there's the Atkins diet which is already nutritionally incomplete and dangerous - combine that with a veggie diet and it just doesn't work. Finally, the worst thing by far for me was weighing myself - I wanted to know I was losing weight so I could track progress, but every time I got on the scales I was embarassed by how much I weighed, and even if I had lost weight I felt like I hadn't lost enough.

I realised that diets just simply don't work. What is needed is a complete lifestyle change - this doesn't happen overnight. A change in attitude can only happen when we believe it is worth the effort and take the time to learn new ways of thinking - if we keep doing the same old thing, we will get the same result.

I'll go into this in a little more detail in a future post, but I have basically completely changed my eating habits and my whole attitude to food. And to track my progress, I've been monitoring my waist measurement instead of weighing myself. I don't know how the psychological connection works, but for me it has been so much easier. I've lost 6 inches from my waist in just over 9 months. I still have a long way to go, but I feel much better and healthier. I don't know how much I weigh, and I don't care. And whilst I wouldn't say I'm happy with the way I look, there's a noticeable improvement and I feel much more confident.

There's nothing wrong with monitoring your weight if that's what works for you, but don't get overly caught up in your target weight. Set a realistic target rather than your 'dream weight', and also remember that that there is no single ‘ideal’ weight for anybody. Health professionals now encourage you to aim for a weight loss of 5-10% over 3-6 months. The ideal rate of weight loss to remain healthy is 1- 2 pounds per week – so around a pound a week is great progress. With support and the right eating and activity plan, this is a realistic target for most people.


I would also add that this forum is a great idea for members to join a community where they can share their weight loss experience and receive help and encouragement along the way. I'm sure we've all felt alone at times on our weight loss journey. Times when we felt everything was under control but then something just gets on top of us and we turn to food.

By using this forum you can share your experiences and offer each other moral support, and perhaps if something like this had been around sooner I would have lost a lot more weight already! I'm the kind of person who is too embarrassed to go to a commercial slimming group, so an online community like this is great.

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Well done for losing weight Barra, I agree about the weighing thing it can be so disheartening if the scales haven't moved much.

If you have a lot of weight to lose then setting mini targets on the way is encouraging as you hit them.

I always think of every 2lb lost as a bag of sugar less I weigh, and then the achievement seems so much more worth the effort.

Well done Barra!

It looks like you've adopted a very sensible approach and been able to stick to it. A lot of sound advice there I've never been one for faddy diets. They simply don't work and mess up your system.

Keep up the good work!

Well done Barra! I've been trying to shift a few lbs but not really into dieting because I'm the only person I know who is on a medical high salt, high fat, high fluid diet to thicken my blood.

Wow - sounds like it must be nigh on impossible for you to lose weight if you are forced to consume high salt and high fat food.

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It's a right pain and all the doctor says is that I need to eat more chips, crisps and stop using lo-salt I know some people would kill to get this sort of medical advice but I'm just a young thing and although i'm not "fat" I'm at the top end of the "ok" BMI and I miss being a size 8 and I feel like the extra just makes my operation scars look worse. I asked to see a nutritionist to see if there's a healthier way of raising blood pressure but my GP is an old man and thinks that women should have some meat on them but at size 8 i was perfect fat:muscle ratio and still within normal BMI. It's almost like he wants me to be a size 40 and in need of surgery before he'll help.

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I wouldn't be able to cope with that - I hate salt, don't eat anything overly salty... it's sweet things that do it for me!

I can see your doctor's point to a certain degree, you can still be healthy without being a size 8. BMI is nonsense as far as I'm concerned, one of my friends is very fit, plays football several times a week, you can tell by looking at him that he is not overweight, yet his BMI says he needs to lose weight!

At the end of the day you have to find a weight you feel comfortable with - if that means being a size 8 then good luck with it, but don't get drawn in by all the media hype which says what a "perfect" figure should be. Perhaps start a thread of your own to keep a diary if you haven't done so already.

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I totally agree, well, not about the hating salt bit.. love salt
myself! lol But the BMI.. it's a bad way to judge and i can't
believe why so many of these 'experts' rely on it so much. I
remember when i was visiting hospital with mum once and they had
that chart up on the wall - weight, height, sex, age - and the
coloured bars you fell into indicated your BMI and 'fatness'. I
worked it out, and at the time i was superfit, and according to the
chart i was borderline obese! Yes, i was... dreadful... 6'2",
14.5st, 14% body fat and veins showing on my arms and chest.
Capable of running 6 miles after an hours weight training with
ease! And the chart said i was obese!? Get lost!

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34yrs old - 6'2 14st 20% body fat [] Target: 15st 11% Body Fat 300Ib bench press and 5 mile run twice a week by Christmas 2008!

Any advise I give is based purely on my own experience or opinion. It should not be solely relied upon as an authoritative statement of the law or as a source of medical advice. Please seek professional advice if in doubt. If this post has helped please click the +rep button.

Size 8 isn't a media thing, I've been size 8 since I was 16 and I was eating what I liked and dancing which kept the fat off I guess. I was fit then too but since this high salt thing came about I've gained quite a bit (almost a 14) and I don't feel as fit anymore, i don't feel fit at all really. At my lowest weight I was hill walking, mountain climbing, dancing, swimming and jogging but I've not been able to do any of that since the effect of the high salt kicked in but the doctor doesn't listen to the fact that I can't do what I've always done and just thinks i'm another wannabe skinny celebrity.

And Barra - I absolutely hate salt!

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I thought too much salt could cause health problems?