When people try to lose weight.....

[nancylebov]

I've been hanging around in the fat acceptance community for a while, and there's a strong consensus there that trying to lose weight is a pretty reliable method of making your life worse, with many anecdotes (read the comments-- and they don't even include the stories about eating disorders which started with diets) and some science. On the other hand, for the world in general, mentions of efforts at losing weight get a lot of encouragement and stories about weight loss which improved health and quality of life.

This is a rather striking mismatch. Even better, I've asked at scholarly fat acceptance group about whether there are studies which look at weight loss efforts for the whole population-- how many people have tried what, and what the outcomes have been-- and I haven't gotten any answers. There are studies looking at the results of particular diets, but that's a different question. Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, but it's at least possible that the study I want hasn't been done.

So, I'm going to try some completely informal, unscientific, non-ethics-checked questions to an audience which hasn't been randomly selected. If you've tried to lose weight/fat, what methods have you used? How has it worked out? On the whole, would you say your life is better, worse, or about the same as the result of what you've done to lose weight?

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Everything that I have done specifically to lose weight over the last twenty years has been unsustainable, and I have always gained back and then some. I have psychological triggers with robust and alienating defense mechanisms that I would not have had I not tried to pick up an eating disorder in the name of weight loss.

My current efforts to gain stamina, on the other hand (work towards a daily average level, and upon reaching 90% compliance, reset the level at 110%), have resulted in doubling my normal capacity for activity in a year, which has definitely improved my quality of life, and probably my health along with it. I don't know whether any weight loss has occurred, because I've not been measuring that. My clothes seem to fit about the same.

[venturous]

oh, dear.
I know there are some studies, sound and large sample size, that show about 5% of weight losers are 'permanantly' successful.
I've worked hard at this on many angles, including therapy and religion, psychiatric drugs, pretty much everything but surgery, and if I lose it, before long I will regain some, most all or more of it. Most recent ride: 2 years weight watchers lost 85#, maintained for 2 years, lost job and began regaining, today, 7 years after beginning the WW journey I am net 30#.

Its exausting.
I'm writing a story now about my 22 year old self, 20# overweight and CONVINCED that I was hideously fat and no one would ever want to touch me.
today, I weigh 312

[olimay]

Here's the basics of my protocol:

• Eat fewer calories than you expend


• Eat enough protein to keep your lean body mass


• Do resistance (strength) exercises to maintain strength and muscle mass


• Limit chronic physical stress


• Let nutrition do most of the work for fat loss

This rationale is mostly based on Lyle MacDonald's advice, which is very un-tricky and comes from basic biology.

In my case, a lot of improvements have accompanied my attempts to lose fat while maintaining or gaining muscle. I feel physically better, but that is much more because of better nutrition (primarily high protein intake), greater attention to things like sleep, and effects of weight training than decreased bodyfat or anything like that. But I also like the improvement in my appearance quite a bit, and that has some impact on my quality of life, too.

I care a lot about strength and athleticism--even aesthetically, I would rather stay at the same BF% than never have a shot of getting stronger. But if I can improve in both, I will. Most of the time I look forward to the strategy and the work involved in all this, which is a really helpful angle that not everyone has.

What does the fat acceptance community think about people like bodybuilders, who systematically manipulate their body composition on a regular basis?

[nancylebov]

I can't remember much discussion of body builders, though there's some mention of the bodybuilding ideal as something which has spread into mainstream culture and leads to unreasonable expectations for most men.

[morgynleri]

I haven't actually tried to actively lose weight (the attempt was more to have a healthier diet/routine), but when I have lost weight, it's been because I've been more active and eaten more meals I've cooked from scratch. And I haven't actually had much of a difference in a roughly fifty-pound weight differential in how I feel. There are some minor bits of annoyance with body-shape, but that doesn't correlate in my mind to my weight (regardless of whether or not weight and body-shape are *actually* connected, they don't in my head, which is all that's important here).

I would prefer to be a bit more in shape, but I figure that if I can haul around the 18ft by 18ft canvas tent roof without assistance, and I can spend hours in the pool without needing to get out because I'm exhausted, I'm actually probably in better shape than I think (or that main-stream thinking would conclude I am because of weight and body-shape).

And I do find that if I'm in a head-space where I can get myself to cook my meals from scratch on a regular basis, it's easier to stay in that head-space, and I'm happier for the chance to play and experiment with flavors and textures in my food. Physical activity... *wobbles hand* If I'm trying to keep to a particular routine, I get bored or cranky. If I just try to work in some sort of movement into my day that's not deliberately exercise, I'm happier, and I feel better.

So...

Methods used for loosing weight - diet of paying attention to what I eat and making things I'm enjoying eating, and varying levels of higher-than-baseline physical activity

Has it worked - *snorts* I weigh between thirty and fourty pounds more than I did when I first started loosing weight as a side-effect, so no, it hasn't taken the pounds off. Body-shape hasn't really changed, so may or may not have taken some fat off.

Life better/worse/the same - when I was actually employing the above, better. But not because I lost weight so much as I was enjoying my food, and I was keeping up with what I needed to be able to do, physically.

[madfilkentist]

The most successful method I've found has been simply to keep a list, using an iOS application, of what I eat each day. Not exact calories, just keeping myself of everything I eat. It produced good results for a while, I felt better, and my blood pressure went down.

My current work situation has reduced my opportunities for exercise, so I'm up again, but still not up to levels I had been at.

[andrewhickey.info]

I have twice lost serious amounts of weight -- about six stone when I was sixteen, by walking twenty miles a day and eating nothing but a single can of stew a day, and in my mid-twenties, by going on the Atkins diet, when I lost two or three stone. In both casesI found it impossible to stay on those diets for any length of time, and put more than I'd lost on once I fell off the wagon. I've tried less extreme diets several times, and they've done little or nothing.

I'd say my life is slightly worse as a result of my attempts to lose weight, just because I took in a lot of artificial sweeteners when I was sixteen, which triggered a lot of migraines.

[jesse_the_k]

I'm a 5'3" female of peasant heritage, and my weight hovered around 140 lbs with lots of exercise (vigorous walking at least three miles a day, plus swimming 45 minutes 3/week). When I got unwell in 1989, I spent three years exercising vigorously in hopes I was merely deconditioned. Now I understand my limits: I have around 30 minutes of vertical in a day. I'd rather spend it standing up cooking healthy meals, getting in and out of chairs, and playing with the dog than walking around the block. My principal exercise is 20 minutes walking on days I don't swim, and 30 minutes swimming on days I don't walk.

Eight years back I weighed 205 lbs, and the MD said, "metabolic syndrome," and the nutritionist said, "just lose 10% of your body weight," and the acupuncturist said, "why not try a gluten-free diet?" So I started a 1500-calorie, high-protein, good-fat, GF diet. Oh boy was it portion-controlled: I weighed and logged everything I ate. In around 12 months I'd lost 60 pounds, down to 145 lbs. The GF change was outstanding: I got two more hours of cope in every day and less abdominal pain. However, my relationship to eating was no longer healthy. I was finally able to quit measuring and logging after three years.

Going from the "fat lady" clothes store to the "woman's" section was convenient. Getting new clothes was fun (although I'd really loved the style I'd developed when I was at my heaviest). Getting new respect from people who'd automatically dismissed fatty me was infuriating. I gravitate towards fat people; I felt like I'd let them down by losing weight. Spent three years around 145 lbs.

But recently, I started a new medication which brought 10 pounds. Then surgical menopause changed the shape of my body dramatically, which meant the clothes that still "fit me" were no longer comfortable. I was torn between restarting the intensive portion control, or seeing if there was a way for me to be happier with what I eat. There was: The Fat Nutritionist!

I'm up to 160 lbs (more or less, I only weight once a month). I feel comfortable eating what I want. I have many deprivations in my life; I want to enjoy what I can. I love to cook for others as a way of showing love; I now cook for myself in the same spirit.

[firecat]

I've lost weight three or four times and gained it back plus more.

The only times I've been able to lose were the times when I exercised 90+ minutes every day AND cut my calories by 30%-50%. This isn't sustainable for me because it takes every bit of my spare energy, and it doesn't feel healthy when I am doing it. I usually felt good for a few months after letting up a bit. I started to regain immediately, but not at a super-fast rate.

I sure envy people who can lose weight through simple tricks like cutting out everything whose color or name starts with 'W'.

Am I better or worse off? I don't know. I don't think weight loss necessarily messed up my metabolism. From certain bits of family lore, it seems like my metabolism has been set to "not fat enough" from birth.

[zana16]

I've lost a huge amount of weight (40-60 pounds) twice. Both times, I gained it all back in spite of being pretty reasonable about eating mostly healthy food. I am at the point of "not worth the trouble"; it's actually a lot less energy not to hate myself all the time.

Quite naturally when you think about it, your body interprets diets as starvation. It's really no wonder the body downregulates the metabolism; it's afraid you'll starve again in the near future, and it needs to be ready! And a lot of people throw it even further out of whack by engaging in voluntary starvation again.

[liviapenn]

So, I'm going to try some completely informal, unscientific, non-ethics-checked questions to an audience which hasn't been randomly selected. If you've tried to lose weight/fat, what methods have you used? How has it worked out? On the whole, would you say your life is better, worse, or about the same as the result of what you've done to lose weight?

One big problem is that "weight" is the wrong metric to be measuring. My roommate (30s, female) has been working out in the gym regularly for a year or so. Every time she gains ten pounds, she goes DOWN a few clothing sizes... because she's toning up and gaining muscle. But if she told someone, "I've been working out at the gym and now I fit into smaller clothes," they'd say, "How great that you're losing weight!" But that's the opposite of what's happening; she's gaining weight. And it's improving her health and her quality of life.