The FastDay Forum

Now I appreciate I'll very likely get shot down in flames here by any Hairy Biker fans, but am I the only one who is finding their whole "Hairy Dieter" thing pretty irritating?

Don't get me wrong, I like them and quite like their cookery programmes but I am finding two fat men trying to make money out of telling people how to lose weight quite contradictory.

There's a feature on them in the Daily Mail magazine today promoting their new low calorie recipe book. The article tells how one of them has lost a "staggering" 3 1/2 stone. It then goes on to say how he's put 1 1/2 stone back on but is now trying to lose it again.

Now I applaud them for going on diets and losing weight. However, they are both overweight and despite having been on their diets, neither of them are anything like a healthy weight and yet here they are preaching about what we should eat and how we can cook low calorie meals. If they were both at a healthy weight then I wouldn't have an issue with it at all. If their low calorie approach is so good and works so well, how come they're both still very overweight? They're not really a good advert for what they're trying to sell. If they were both say 12 stone and looking svelte I would take my hat off to them (if I was wearing a hat ) and acknowledge that the plan they're trying to peddle works. However, when they're both still significantly overweight then I think they ought to shut up and come back once they're really in a position to sell it.

Chicken x

[carieoates]

I don't believe that you will be shot down with flames. Lol
We have a hairy bikers thread here, as most of us are "foodies" we are always searching for ways of getting those lovely dishes without so many calories. And what I like about their recipes is that they keep the flavours but drop lots of the calories especially those from carbs.
Yes it is always dissapointing when these celebs get us to buy their wares, then they have to reinvent themselves because they couldn't stick to it, we, on the other hand don't need to do this as IF is sustainable, and if we just chuck in a few fasts now and then whether it be liquid, eating window or zero cal, we can keep almost all the weight off without much hardship.
Just look at Lorraine Kelly, Kerry Catona, Etc....

I like some of the Hairy Dieters recipe book but it annoys me that the recipes don't give the kcal for each item (or at least put this information somewhere) so that readers can make their own substitutions in a straightforward manner - it would have been far more educational that way.

That said, I think it's in-line with usual weight loss experience that they've regained.* I think we're accustomed to famous faces deflating and expanding again and, to some extent, I think we're expected to mentally shrug our shoulders and accept that they're surrounded by food that they're expected to taste, All the Time. (A couple of the Bake Off contestants in past years said that they gained 10lbs or more during the period of the competition, just from the need to taste the recipes they were developing.)

Just about to go paddling so possibly more to say later But, I can't remember who wrote this but it's something like:

If weight loss is your only motivation, is it surprising that your motivation decreases as your weight decreases so diet/motivation fatigue set in together and you're primed to undo all of your hard work once you reach your goal?

ETA* Just found an item about them - I'd no idea one of them had a brain aneurysm earlier this year. All I can say is that I gained weight after an accident in which I had a head injury. Not only was I abruptly sedentary after it but for some time I had to rely on what/how others fed me and that was a disaster.

Yes, one of them has been ill and the article describes what happened. My issue is not that he has put some weight back on - I've no room to talk on that front!! - because it happens all too often and he says he's trying to address that now. My issue with them is that even when they lost the weight, neither of them were down to anything like a healthy weight. They were still both massively overweight but were trying and are still trying to sell this to us when, to be honest, I don't see any real evidence that it has worked.

[wildmissus]

I have the two Hairy Dieters books and they live on my worktop because they are so well used. We love there recipes but I have no interest in people getting on the band wagon to make a fast buck. Ok, it is catch 22 if they hadn't done that then I would have two great recipe books but you should see how many unused recipe books I have!!! I too have also wondered about there weights - yes they did great losing what they did but it looked like they both could have lost a lot more. I guess it is a case of do as I say not as I do! I am however looking forward to the release of their new book.

Well I for one am excited that they are bringing out a new book. I accept that the calorie counts are a bit nebulous but using their recipes has helped me stay on plan. I would also dispute that when they 1st lost weight they were still ' massively' overweight. Not skinny I acknowledge but there is some evidence that being a bit overweight is good for longevity and losing the amount they did would definitely have improved their health. There are plenty of people on this forum who have put back some or all of their lost weight and we support and encourage them to keep going

Oh I thought they'd managed to keep the weight off. They certainly look better than they did. I didn't realise one of them had been ill. I was impressed that they'd managed to keep the weight off for so long. (Are you sure you weren't looking at old footage?! )

I have both their "diet" recipe books on my Kindle. The only thing I've found, which surprised me, is the lack of flavour (sorry Oatesy). It must be the way I made them I guess...but I thought they would have been a bit more spicy! Maybe I need to try more recipes.

The celeb who's lost weight and kept if off (using 5:2) is Philip Schofield. He looks pretty good!

But, yes, I think most peeps on this forum enjoy a bit of Hairy cooking...sorry!

Bean

I'm sure their recipes are great and, as I say, I do like the pair of them. It's like going to see your 17 stone GP who tells you to lose weight. Hypocritical. Take a look in the mirror before you start lecturing everyone else.

I think I might launch a diet book. There's clearly money to be made.

Oh yes, a lot of "celebs" do that don't they. They deliberately pile on the weight...and then release a DVD on how to get your shape back. If only it were that easy

I hate to say this but the HB diet recipe book i borrowed from my Beau stilll lies untouched on the shelf...been there months
I must get outa my FOP way of cooking ( Freezer- Oven- Plate) and start cooking like i used to many moons ago
Beau has no need of diet recipes,is pretty slim,but uses HB diet book regularly ( well he used to til it ended up on my bookcase) x

You just went to what is easier Candy! I do the same. Lately, as I improve I have bean able to cook poached eggs but I never used to be able to stand for too long. And cooking whilst sitting in a chair isn't that easy is it.

I don't know what I would do without my HB diet cook books, this is the best way for me to get great food on the table even on fast days. Said that I can understand why some is wrung the wrong way on the business side of it, but like any cook book writer - diet or not, they are in it for the money. What I have a wee bit of problem with, is the HB diet club and how they push for it on FB. I think they lost a good bit of weight and if they found a good way to do it, why not tell the world? I think the HB have an ongoing plan to loose weight although Si had an aneurysm that got in his way for while. But like me he seem to be back into the saddle.

I wish they would hook up with the 5:2 way, it would be a win-win situate for all.

I tend towards the 'progress not perfection' school - I've seen too many people (women mostly) who were within touching distance of a goal weight and then threw so much at getting there that when they 'failed' they gave up completely and regained. tbh, I think there are so many unknowns of weight loss that I wish more of us could be satisfied with celebrating what we achieve along the way rather than wait until we've achieved what feels like an arbitrary scale number.

I haven't seen the HD series but I know several overweight, middle-aged people who were inspired to buy the books and cook from them. And, there's a reasonable chance that some of those people have lost enough to be helpful to their metabolisms and wider health even if they could stand to lose a bit more.*

*I've not been happy with the notion of weight or BMI has a proxy for evaluating someone's current health or likely health risk factors for some time. My own experience of having a normal BMI while being 'normal weight, morbidly obese' by body fat level has cemented that: I'm now 'normal weight, normal/overweight' by body fat level but I doubt most people can estimate that by looking at me (or anyone else, for that matter).

It's like going to see your 17 stone GP who tells you to lose weight. Hypocritical. Take a look in the mirror before you start lecturing everyone else.

At the time of my last Dxa scan I weighed 117lbs. However, because I'm sarcopenic (low muscle mass) that is so commonly associated with obesity-it's known as sarcopenic obesity-that the HCP advised me to lose weight. I politely asked how much weight she would recommend that I should lose, and could she advise me on how to do it without running the risk of losing more of my lean body mass/muscle mass and it took her aback.

The leaflets that I was given were all about how to lose weight and encouraged me to exercise more ('Try for 20mins of activity a day'). I kayak 4 days a week and strength train x2 a week in addition to walking a fair amount in the course of most days (and we'd discussed that when filling out the intake form).

The HCP was, of course, visually much heavier and plumper than I am - and after the faux pas about the weight loss effectively told me that hers is related to her RA and how she makes an effort to walk her dogs every day. I didn't think it was hypocritical of her to give me the advice tho' - I just thought it came out by rote and was inappropriate to the point of being unhelpfully wrong.

A long way round to say, I think most HCP's are under such time pressure that they don't feel that they have the time to look at or listen to the person who's in the room with them - far less tailor the advice. It does niggle at me tho' because I knew enough to think that - I don't know if other people might have felt that they should go away and try to diet down to an unspecified lower weight or that they weren't being active enough.

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