The FastDay Forum

I watched most of the programme and agree with Silverbelle, the diets work, but leave people without the tools to continue once they get to their desired weight. Cutting out certain food groups, counting points etc. interferes with life and gets boring, therefore people ultimately fail. However I am not so sure I totally agree with Wendy's "vulnerable people being manipulated". We are all independent adults putting food into our shopping baskets and ultimately our mouths. We need to take responsibility for our own health, stop blaming society, the government, the weather! If we are fat its because we are taking in more fuel than we are burning up. Noone came out of Belsen fat!

I followed NHSguidelines for ages and just slid steadily deeper into overweight and Type 2. I only got things under control with low carb. Now with that combined with fasting I am better than I've been in years and yet it all feels like normal life and not any sort of eating regime.

I've noticed that lots of us have these long plateaus that actually seem to resolve themselves if you just trudge on patiently. It does seem like an adaptation period. I've a feeling that there wont be any stats to refer to though as it seems as though people only post when they are losing which must affect the stats.

Have to disagree JKW. When I go to the supermarket I make sensible choices. No so for everyone. Next time you are there, have a look at the amount of choice and variety and imagine how it would be if you were unable to resist. Yes, absolutely, everyone should take responsibility for themselves and stop blaming everyone else, absolutely agree but sadly, some people are unable for whatever reason. If they weren't, they wouldn't be overweight. Don't know if you saw the part where they said that if it weren't for returning customers there would be no business.

Yes Izzy, absolutely but the difference is that this costs nothing and the programme was about slimming clubs as businesses. There were stats about percentages of people that maintain afterwards and it was really low. The most telling part was when they said that if it weren't for failed returning customers they would have no business. I don't want to say who it was that said it in case I'm wrong, but I think it was a retired finance man from one of the big ones. I thought it was all very sad. This WOE won't be for everyone of course but at least there won't have been any wasted financial outlay.

On last night, one of the interviewed professors stated that beyond 26 weeks the body will stop responding to any diet plan and adjust and begin to gain weight up to and beyond the original weight.
Discuss.

Well, that has largely been my experience. Now, where are the experts telling us how to continue to lose weight even after the body stops responding? I can't accept that it is impossible and can't be done. So, what are we to do when all else fails? It reminds me of the other thread about the Australian documentary that claims that 97% of all dieters will gain everything back within 5 years. Those aren't very good odds.

What I found more interesting about that programme, was that the ideal weight chart that we all know, was drawn up by an insurance man and the numbers had no basis in science

Not only that, but in the US they actually adjusted the documents making the normal BMI lower than it had been and thereby increasing the statistics of "overweight people in America."

I'm sure it's not impossible, you just have to keep on keeping on. It's no good dieting then eating as you were, of course the weight will pile back on if you do.

The answer is as we have seen so many times on the forum is to eat like a thin person. I was always thin until fairly recently and the weight crept on unnoticed. I am now eating like a thin person again and will continue to do so.

Yes Izzy, they did and I was shocked to hear who had previously owned one of the slimming clubs. I don't think your comments were inappropriate, this WOE will remain free because there's nothing to do except calorie restrict on two days a week and be patient. Have a look at the programme if you get a chance.

This WOE won't be for everyone of course but at least there won't have been any wasted financial outlay.

No Financial outweigh - in fact financial gain as we save on the dreaded grocery bills!

I have been using this argument to buy allsorts recently - I think its starting to wear thin on the wife now though and she's seeing through it lol!

If there is any thing I have learned in all this it is that there is no going back to normal eating EVER.. If I go back to not fasting, not watching carbs/calories, not exercising I will without a doubt gain the weight back. Fasting is my new normal and any deviation will result in regain. I lost 50lbs on ADF more than 5 years ago and when I returned to not ADF I gained it all back plus a few more. It was during very trying financial times (OH unemployment) and I kept trying to have fast days. But, what I really had was a series of failed fast days turned to stress eating.

So, one thing that is different is that I have no intention of stopping fast days, but maybe decreasing their frequency. Another thing that is different is that back then I had no support system in place...no place to go to talk about the stress and struggles I encountered along the way. This website and a few others have really changed that and because of it I have stayed on plan for 18 months instead of the 7-8 months I made it the first time around.

The sad and depressing part of this story is the realization that I lost more weight in 8 months the first time around than I have in 18 months this time.

Another episode just concluded and more nuggets of industry lies revealed. The two generously built Katys exercising towards the end was quite telling I thought, the premise being that fitness is more important than weight/size/shape.
I have done the gym thing ten years ago for a couple of years, not something I will return to as it didn't give the effect I sort. However a ten hour day spent out and about having fun with 3 and 6 year old grandsons once a week is very effective for a couple of pounds weight loss and a couple of decades mental age loss!

I found yesterday's programme very interesting. It made me realise that I use the word 'slim' as shorthand for 'healthy' and 'fit' and, as the two Katys showed, that simply isn't true. Certainly made me reassess how I think about my health.

I take full responsibility for my yo-yo-ing weight for the best part of my adult life, but I do think that the diet and weight-loss industry have much to answer for, in much the same way as tobacco companies. My great fear is that I'll lie on my death-bed thinking, I really wish I hadn't spent so much of my life obsessing about my weight!

I guess the time to de-obsess (so to speak) is NOW, whatever age we're at. In my case, better late than never.

Great thread & some thought provoking points.

I agree re slimming food/clubs etc. There's no reason why any of the can't work resulting in good weight loss and maintenance is all about mind-set and self control. I don't consider any of the many options available to be 'bad' if they kick-start a healthier way of life.

So what if they're businesses?

My personal experience is that I lost 8 1/2 stone in a little under 6 months on a "food replacement (shakes) diet) over 4 years ago. I needed the regime and weekly meetings to get my head straight and finally do something about the weight that had pilled on over the previous 20+ years and it worked brilliantly. In fact I felt I was 1-2 stone lighter than I really had intended.

Over the next 4 years I've put weight on a couple of times but each time done something about it once my clothes began to feel too uncomfortable (now as a bloke I tend to wear baggier clothes and always did at heavier weights, so this can be quite a large swing weight-wise). The latest having been 5:2 which I've been on & off (holiday) for the past 5 months.

I'm still 6 1/2 stone lighter than 4 years ago, is this because I'm in some way lucky or extra motivated, no! It's simply that having gone through the process of weight loss seriously for the 1st time in my life I decided to make a couple of simple lifestyle changes: Walk every day, weigh at least monthly; be honest with myself.

I've always thought that BMI figures are grossly simplistic as there's no allowance for body build or activity levels, but again they're simply a "tool" to be used. Its just such a shame that the medical & diet world has become so obsessed with the numbers.

I found the Scandinavian guy with the port in his stomach really disturbing. It allows him to overeat and still lose weight as he empties a third of his stomach contents straight into the toilet 20 minutes after eating. I fail to see how this is helping him to learn to eat sensibly and normally. In fact, I'm struggling to see how it's any different to bulimia!

I found the Scandinavian guy with the port in his stomach really disturbing.

I still feel ill when I think of it. Gross! How on earth can that be considered OK? The waste of food alone is criminal.

The uber cynical US surgeon rubbing his glands with glee at the thought of the rec. BMI coming down & increasing his market for bariatric surgery was also breathtaking.

I have resurrected this post because this show filmed on ABC tv in Australia tonight. We've just seen the Men who Made us Fat series and now the Thin one has started. It was interesting but, as many others on this thread have said, I found it unsatisfying. I would have like more of an investigation into why diets don't work. I know, it was an expose of diet business and it showed how they make millions from people's failures and that's why people keep coming back. If it worked they wouldn't need to keep coming back. They would have the secret. But what i think is interesting is why diets don't work. And will this one? I know that if I stopped fasting twice a week, I would put on all the weight I have lost. I have stopped losing weight at the moment and am on my winter plateau. However I live in hope that when winter is over I will start to lose again. I believe my body is adjusting to the new weight and when it thinks this is the normal weight it will be possible for me to lose some more weight. I imagine I will have to live like this for the rest of my life. So, in a sense, it isn't a diet. It's a changed way of life. What did other Aussies think of the show? I read a review on line which criticised it because he lumped all diets in together, where as low carb diets are very different from calorie restriction diets and he didn't make that clear or investigate the low carb diet - Dukan - in enough depth.