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The real issue is nobody wants the slow and steady option. If you are overweight you can lose a pound/month with only a few minor changes to your diet. You won

The real issue is nobody wants the slow and steady option. If you are overweight you can lose a pound/month with only a few minor changes to your diet. You won't feel any more hungry than you usually do. You won't feel a lack of energy or ability to think. But a person who is 60 pounds overweight won't do this because it will take 5 years to lose the weight. Instead they will jump from one diet to the next to the next binge to the even stricter diet and in 5 years be no better off than when they started.

silencio 12y ago
It's frustrating. You get a LOT of fat shaming, you get discouraged at a slow pace, you don't see the firsthand/obvious benefits for a long time. I've lost ~30lbs since February, which is around one pound a _week_. I still can't tell the difference. The only thing that's changing is the number on the scale every week. Still the same clothes, the same fat arms, the same belly fat. Just a little more fit because I've been doing more exercise. And because I'm female, I get the additional hassle of being assumed I'm pregnant when I'm not, and clothes are hard to fit (and I can't even look at plus sized clothes most days... too big for me, what). I aim to lose another 50lbs or so (the low end of normal weight) in the next couple years and I need to maintain the diet/exercise I'm doing now in general, but I only do this because I need to be in good shape for trying for kids in the future and for myself/my spouse. Can't think about any other objective because I will fail miserably if I do. I don't see myself ever fitting into my little black dress, or avoiding fat shaming from random strangers... not even walking around with a huge grin on my face for crossing the 30lb mark at a weighing at the doctor's office counteracts how terrible shaming feels. :(
glenra 12y ago
People who have been fat and then lost weight have a different metabolism than people who stayed at the same lower weight throughout. Most people who lose a significant amount of weight gain it all back and then some within three years. Your theory that losing slower would be more sustainable than losing faster is interesting, but do you have any actual evidence for it? If calories in/calories out were all there was to it, shouldn't it take no willpower to merely stay at the lower weight once achieved, regardless of how quickly that loss were achieved? As for me, I think the real issue is that we still really have no idea why people have collectively gotten fatter and thus have no advice to give that consistently works to completely reverse that process. What we have are guesses as to what might work. And most of these guesses are wrong.
- sheepmullet 12y ago
  "Your theory that losing slower would be more sustainable than losing faster is interesting, but do you have any actual evidence for it?" I think losing weight quickly for a short period of time (4-6 weeks) works very well (e.g. V-Diet). I also think losing weight slowly over the long term (max 1 pound per month) also works well. I think most people try somewhere in the middle of the two extremes and it just doesn't work. Trying to lose weight quickly for an extended period just doesn't work for all but the most motivated people. For evidence in support of losing weight slowly and almost effortlessly take a look at the book Mindless Eating. It covers a lot of interesting research.

silencio 12y ago

It's frustrating. You get a LOT of fat shaming, you get discouraged at a slow pace, you don't see the firsthand/obvious benefits for a long time. I've lost ~30lbs since February, which is around one pound a _week_. I still can't tell the difference. The only thing that's changing is the number on the scale every week. Still the same clothes, the same fat arms, the same belly fat. Just a little more fit because I've been doing more exercise. And because I'm female, I get the additional hassle of being assumed I'm pregnant when I'm not, and clothes are hard to fit (and I can't even look at plus sized clothes most days... too big for me, what). I aim to lose another 50lbs or so (the low end of normal weight) in the next couple years and I need to maintain the diet/exercise I'm doing now in general, but I only do this because I need to be in good shape for trying for kids in the future and for myself/my spouse. Can't think about any other objective because I will fail miserably if I do. I don't see myself ever fitting into my little black dress, or avoiding fat shaming from random strangers... not even walking around with a huge grin on my face for crossing the 30lb mark at a weighing at the doctor's office counteracts how terrible shaming feels. :(

glenra 12y ago

People who have been fat and then lost weight have a different metabolism than people who stayed at the same lower weight throughout. Most people who lose a significant amount of weight gain it all back and then some within three years. Your theory that losing slower would be more sustainable than losing faster is interesting, but do you have any actual evidence for it? If calories in/calories out were all there was to it, shouldn't it take no willpower to merely stay at the lower weight once achieved, regardless of how quickly that loss were achieved? As for me, I think the real issue is that we still really have no idea why people have collectively gotten fatter and thus have no advice to give that consistently works to completely reverse that process. What we have are guesses as to what might work. And most of these guesses are wrong.

sheepmullet 12y ago
"Your theory that losing slower would be more sustainable than losing faster is interesting, but do you have any actual evidence for it?" I think losing weight quickly for a short period of time (4-6 weeks) works very well (e.g. V-Diet). I also think losing weight slowly over the long term (max 1 pound per month) also works well. I think most people try somewhere in the middle of the two extremes and it just doesn't work. Trying to lose weight quickly for an extended period just doesn't work for all but the most motivated people. For evidence in support of losing weight slowly and almost effortlessly take a look at the book Mindless Eating. It covers a lot of interesting research.