Is losing weight really that difficult?

Is losing weight really that difficult?

Author
Discussion

SpunkyGlory

Original Poster:

2,321 posts

164 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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This is meant as an innocent discussion and I fully accept it is a subject area I can learn a lot about.

Over the past few months, as people around me are constantly trying the latest diet, I've been wondering more and more how difficult it is to actually lose weight. I will start by saying I am somewhere between an ectomorph/mesomorph and historically found it relatively difficult to gain weight. So I don't understand the struggle of losing weight as I can hand on heart say I have never once wanted to lose weight in my life.

But is it really as difficult as some people seem to think? I'm a firm believer in calories in vs calories out for weight control, and whilst I appreciate there are variables to this simple formula there can't be much more to it than that, can there? Count your calories, avoid foods high in fat and sugar, exercise a couple of times a week and if you're burning more calories than you're consuming you should lose weight. So what am I missing?

I have friends and colleagues who are doing the 5/2 diet, caveman diet, herbalife, drinking teas that essentially make you st yourself to lose weight and so on and so forth. They buy special foods, books, workout and nutrition programmes, spend all this money and seem to be stuck in a routine of trying a new fad diet for a month, not losing much weight and moving on to the next one.

Sure, it takes a bit of time to prepare healthy meals or go to the gym and people lead busy lives with work and kids. But they also have spare time to go to the pub 4 times a week and catch up on the latest 'Kardashian gets naked in the Essex Jungle', so are the majority of cases that they just aren't committed enough? My Facebook is becoming ever increasingly filled with guys are girls alike who are determined to get their beach body for the summer holiday in 4 weeks time and have just bought £100 worth of protein shake made from the semen of the Dalai Lama which is guaranteed to help. I'll let you know in 4 weeks if it has or not...

Like I say, I'm genuinely interested in this and have started reading more and more into the science of it dieting and how the body reacts to different regimes, and if I'm completely wrong and it's more difficult than I realise than feel free to put me in my place; I'm here to learn.

LordGrover

33,531 posts

211 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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The fatties get blamed, but if the mega-corps didn't make the convenience 'foods', snacks and drinks many would find it easier to maintain a healthy composition.

p1stonhead

25,489 posts

166 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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It really is as simple as calories in vs calories out. No special formulas, no stupid diets required.

Since xmas I have been logging everything on Myfitness pal and have steadily lost weight when running at a defecit. Guess what, the weeks I fk up and go over, I dont lose any.

Its nothing more than discipline which is the hard bit. Self control is all thats required. Its difficult though.

didelydoo

5,528 posts

209 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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Loosing weight is very simple, providing you're strict and consistent- cals in vs cals out is all that matters in the end.

The only hard part is having the will power to be strict and consistent over a prolonged period.

budgie smuggler

5,359 posts

158 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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p1stonhead said:
It really is as simple as calories in vs calories out. No special formulas, no stupid diets required.
No it's not, or do you really think eating a load of Yorkie bars and a bag of Skittles for every meal would be just as good for weight loss as eating for example steak or fish with green veg, butter beans etc?

Super Slo Mo

5,368 posts

197 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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You'd only need a couple of Yorkie bars and a bag of skittles to get a large part of your daily calorie allowance.

It's not particularly healthy but you'd still lose weight if you ate less Yorkie than you burned.

LordGrover

33,531 posts

211 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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budgie smuggler said:
No it's not, or do you really think eating a load of Yorkie bars and a bag of Skittles for every meal would be just as good for weight loss as eating for example steak or fish with green veg, butter beans etc?
Awaits Hoofy's response... hehe

grumbledoak

31,499 posts

232 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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Losing your extra stones of flab is very easy. Every gram of you went in through your mouth. Work it out!

But there is a massive amount of misinformation published by those who wish to make money from selling you 'foods' that are not very good for you. There is no source of objective facts on food, no global regulator to test new foods like seed oils and palm oils, and less legal protection for humans than there is for dogs and cats. It is up to you to work it out.

MacW

1,349 posts

175 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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LordGrover said:
The fatties get blamed, but if the mega-corps didn't make the convenience 'foods', snacks and drinks many would find it easier to maintain a healthy composition.
That simply exposes laziness, not victims.

Personally, I was lucky in that until my early 30's (about 10 years ago) I could eat pretty much whatever I wanted and still have a 29-30inch waist. However, whatever I wanted was not takeaways every night or frozen chicken kievs.

Around my early to mid 30's I noticed I was getting a bit larger around the middle so I made minor adjustments to my eating habits. I have never 'dieted', just made sure I cooked decent food and (this is important) stopped eating a meal when I was no longer hungry. Don't simply keep eating because your plate is not empty yet.

During the week I tend to cook chicken, fish or lean red meat. I'll eat rice and pasta with the occasional salad (Greek, with feta. Lettuce should not be used in a salad in my opinion. The feta is essential to me otherwise the taste is too bland) to accompany the meat.

I do this so that when I go out I can binge like a council estate lottery winner on burgers, pizzas and beer. Which I love smile

Everything I eat is tasty, I never cook something just because it's the healthiest option, it has to be something I enjoy eating too.

Like the OP, I've recently been curious as to how difficult it is to actually lose weight. As an experiment I did a month eating Greek salads (usually with some additional beetroot or avocado in it) with grilled chicken (marinated overnight to taste) or steak. If I was really hungry I'd add a couple of boiled eggs. I was still binging when I was out and paying for my meal instead of cooking it myself which was once a week on average. Breakfast is always a small bowl of granola type cereal and lunch is a sandwich or soup with some fruit.

My conclusion is that it's fairly easy to lose weight. It was totally unscientific as I haven't weighed myself in about 10 years but my trousers were looser and I could see a slight difference in my face and neck.

For medical reasons I do very little intense exercise, maybe an hour a week, but I use the stairs instead of lifts and I'm not afraid of walking instead of jumping on a bus/tram/etc. My job involves sitting in front of a laptop with the occasional stroll around the building for a meeting.

I don't do my food shopping at Harrods food hall and my total monthly bill doesn't exceed 200euros, I could buy cheaper alternatives if I chose to.

I fully understand that people are metabolically unique to an extent but, in my experience, the biggest failing point for most people wanting to lose weight is that they don't actually want to put any effort into the process.

BristolMotorSpeedway

653 posts

133 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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I tried lots of reduced eating/the odd fad diet over the years, never stuck to it for long enough to keep the weight off.

Joined a gym, probably ate more if anything, certainly didn't diet anyway and dropped 20kg in 18 months. It has stayed off for the following two years.

If I reduce exercise through lack of time, or eat more, then weight goes up a kilo or two. Reverse the pattern and it goes back down.

Not rocket science is it? But it took me a long time to find the balance and an exercise regime that I enjoyed enough to stick to. I absolutely understand why people find it difficult, and kick myself for being one of them for far too long!

alock

4,224 posts

210 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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There is an element of genetics involved and hence some will always struggle more than others. I see this with my two children. There is a switch in the brain that tells you when you are full and when to stop eating. How powerful this switch is compared to the pleasure in consuming food is what is key.

My daughter will always finish what's on her plate. In years gone by this would have been deemed a good quality as it is less wasteful. In today's consumer world, it means she always eats what's in front of her, even if she's not really hungry. Buffets are a nightmare. She's borderline normal / over-weight and we can see she will always struggle with her weight. If asked she would probably say we stop her eating the food she wants to eat and we are mean parents.

My son always stops eating the moment his body tells him he is full. When he was very young this could even be half-way through a mouth full and he would spit the rest out. He's past that now but he will often leave a single mouthful on his plate which needs throwing away. He is borderline normal / under-weight. If asked he would say he always eats loads and is never hungry.

Their weights are entirely linked to the calories consumed and hence can be controlled through behaviour. However their genetics will always make it much easier for my son to follow a healthy diet than my daughter.

LordGrover

33,531 posts

211 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
grumbledoak said:
Losing your extra stones of flab is very easy. Every gram of you went in through your mouth. Work it out!

But there is a massive amount of misinformation published by those who wish to make money from selling you 'foods' that are not very good for you. There is no source of objective facts on food, no global regulator to test new foods like seed oils and palm oils, and less legal protection for humans than there is for dogs and cats. It is up to you to work it out.
Pretty sure there are enough real foods to not need 'new foods'.

If your food was available just 50 or even 100 years ago it's probably fine. The issue is the manufactured and processed foods that are typically low quality, nutritionally poor and calorie dense.
It's quite hard to overeat fresh veg. hehe

RizzoTheRat

25,083 posts

191 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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SpunkyGlory said:
But they also have spare time to go to the pub 4 times a week
If they're in the pub 4 times a week the chances are they're not actually sticking to their diet.

Studies have apparently shown that the majority of people who go on a diet end up heavier. Why? Because they see a diet as a way to lose weight, then come off the diet and go back to eating all the things they used to eat and put it all back on again. A mate of mine did the "Lighter Life" diet where you only have their special shakes which amounts to 400 calories per day and puts you in to ketosis. Lost a load of weight, celebrated coming off the diet with beer and MacDonalds and has put it all back on again.

I'm a bit overweight (bmi just over 26) but like food too much to diet so try not to eat too much really unhealthy stuff and get out for a run a few times a week. Since I've started running 15-20km/week (1300-1800 kcal according to my Garmin) I've started slowly losing weight. The NHS BMI tool reckons that sitting at a desk job and doing 2.5 hours exercise a week counts as Low levels of activity, but I'm guessing there's a hell of a lot of people doing less exercise than me

malks222

1,851 posts

138 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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yes it is very easy to loose weight, your body will burn an amount of calories per day (this is different for eveyrone), if you eat less calories that you burn off, you will loose weight. this can be done by a combination of diet + exercise.

i think what everyone over estimates is how much their body burns in their daily routine. i have started wearing an activity tracker watch type thing (I know they arent an exact science but it helps) and it can really shock you how inactive you are if you have a desk job. i can literally sit at my desk for 3/4hours in a row without moving. a very inactive day could easily see me burn less than 2000cals, i really need to make an effort in the evenings to do some activity (gym, sport, or even just walking). If i go to the gym and do some cardio in the evening i will usually get my daily calorie burn up to about 2500cals, so dont just assume the average male burns 2500cals in a day just living a normal life.

then the next thing is, your food intake, do you really know what your consuming? i've started weighing out all my portions for food (ok this is only really possible at home). but it starts to shock you how much you could be over eating.simple things like, swap rashers of bacon for bacon medallions, instead of oil use fry light spray, swap coke for diet coke/ water/ squash. realise crisps/ chocolate etc... can suddenly use up 10/20% of your daily calories (but your still hungry and have 12hrs of the day left to get through) alcohol.........

so if you guessing how many calories you burn and then dunno how many calories consume, then its very easy to see how 'diets' dont work. the hardest thing is sticking to what your doing. if your trying to do it on diet alone you may be super strict mon-fri maintaining a 500cal deficit every day (2500cals defeicit across the week) then think great i'll have a takeaway and maybe a couple of beers at the weekend as a treat, then wonder why your not loosing any weight.

grumbledoak

31,499 posts

232 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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LordGrover said:
It's quite hard to overeat fresh veg. hehe
It is pretty hard to overeat butter, too. Until you add flour and sugar...

budgie smuggler

5,359 posts

158 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
LordGrover said:
budgie smuggler said:
No it's not, or do you really think eating a load of Yorkie bars and a bag of Skittles for every meal would be just as good for weight loss as eating for example steak or fish with green veg, butter beans etc?
Awaits Hoofy's response... hehe
A Randomized Trial Comparing a Very Low Carbohydrate Diet and a Calorie-Restricted Low Fat Diet on Body Weight and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Healthy Women
Bonnie J. Brehm, Randy J. Seeley, Stephen R. Daniels, and David A. D’Alessio
http://press.endocrine.org/doi/full/10.1210/jc.200...




Joey Ramone

2,150 posts

124 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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I generally exercise 4-5 times a week, fairly intensively, and my weight remains constant at about 14 stone. I recently went through a bout of severe depression, did no exercise whatsoever but also ended up eating only one tiny meal a day. I lost nearly a stone in a week.

It's food that does it. Exercise is a massively inefficient way of disposing of calories compared to not ingesting them in the first place.

p1stonhead

25,489 posts

166 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
quotequote all
budgie smuggler said:
p1stonhead said:
It really is as simple as calories in vs calories out. No special formulas, no stupid diets required.
No it's not, or do you really think eating a load of Yorkie bars and a bag of Skittles for every meal would be just as good for weight loss as eating for example steak or fish with green veg, butter beans etc?
Ignoring health issues; you are saying if I eat 1000 calories of veg, or 1000 calories of chocolate, and then burn 1000 calories, the chocolate will somehow stick around longer?

Genuine question I dont know. But there are days when I just eat crap but still stick below my target 1500 calories and days when I eat a lot of veg etc and do it too. Didnt know they were any different and weight loss seems to be consistent.

Mr Will

13,719 posts

205 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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It may be as simple as calories in vs calories out, but that doesn't make it easy.

If you just try to cut calories your body will try to fight it. You'll get hungry, you'll crave all the worst things, you'll feel tired and lethargic so you'll exercise less. Maybe you've got the willpower to overcome that, but it isn't easy. It only takes a few slip ups to undo all your good work.

A lot of these diet "fads" aim to offer solutions to these problems, to make it less of a battle. What worked for me was eating earlier in the day - a large breakfast, decent lunch and only light snack in the evening (rather than an evening meal). This let me cut my calorie intake without undue hardship and the weight dropped off easily. Trying to cut down on my intake earlier in the day was significantly harder and I doubt I could have kept it up.

The real key though is that you need to find something that works for you in a way that is sustainable. You can't diet for 6 months then go back to your old habits and not expect to end up back at the same weight.

AndStilliRise

2,295 posts

115 months

Friday 22nd May 2015
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Joey Ramone said:
It's food that does it. Exercise is a massively inefficient way of disposing of calories compared to not ingesting them in the first place.
Spot on.