Obese Women: Don't Diet!

"...you can eat what you want in moderation."

I like the idea, but I wonder. Can we also smoke in moderation? I mean some foods are just bad for our healthy. What am I missing?

Sixty-two women "studied" by an exercise psychologist, huh?

Here's an actual epidemiological study of 17 thousand men and women from January.

"Fat but fit" is a myth.

It depends on your view of moderation -- can you eat french fries once a year? once a month? once a week? Moderation is not a very specific term!

Moderation would not mean the same thing to all people. This doctor is an example of the lack of knowledge our medical system has about food. To say,change the way you eat, and then say eat what you want, is a contradiction. I hope she doesn't publish a book. She probably does not know what to change.

I think that we are all missing the main point, which is that most of the time the thing driving people to diet isn't about health it is about looks and how one is percived by others. You can be a larger person and be healthier than someone that weighs less than you. I am pretty sure that though I may be overweight I am healthier than other thin women who look good in a tube top. We are still nit-picking over something that doesn't need to be picked apart. So this woman took 62 obese women and taught them that they had to start excersizing, learning to read what they were putting in their bodies and to actually pay attention to when their bodies required food. How could this be percived as a bad thing? So they didn't see the fat melting off their bodies, well from any medical account that is the best way to lose weight. And more importantly they are LEARNING to take better care of themselves. The medical studies will keep coming and I can pretty much assure you that they will always find something to argue that another study supported. And if you actually read what this woman is saying it does make sense. Changing the way that someone eats only partly involves food. A large portion is the way that food is consumed not what is being consumed. And moderation is a very large part of healthly living since the reason for most weight gain is over-indulgence. This is common sense advice. Alot of the reason that people fail on diets is because they do not address the fact that their over eating has become habitual. There is something to be said about fixing the mindset and then fixing the body. How do we know that some of these women didn't end up losing alot of weight or just in general become healthier. And god forbid a fat woman can learn to love herself first and then try to fit into societies ideals. It is a funny thing what improved self esteem can do and for some people that is all the push they need. They have the tools at hand to make their quality of life better they just have to believe that they are worth it. Stop picking apart this study and go pick apart one of the other posts. Lets start with the one that claims spraying heaven knows what into your mouth can make you drop pounds faster than you can blink and only needs half your income to do so. Lets start tearing down that one and then move onto the posts that actually have some fact in them.

The authors are not medical doctors(MD). We know even less then exercise physiologists(PhD) :-)
I hope these women maintain the path this program introduces them to as over time it will be beneficial, after all, it took them a while to get to the fitness level they are presently at.

Mark, that depends on how fat. There is plenty of evidence that people whose BMI are in the overweight but not obese range, like 27-28, suffer fewer health problems than people who are in the low end of the HWR or slightly under the HWR). Of course that doesn't apply to the obese and morbidly obese.

Your study does not separate both, but all the paragraphs that talk about significant increased risks say "obese people", not "people in the study", which would include both.

Most of the people who I see dieting are rather on the unhealthy side maybe it's obese women/men don't eat healthy but a lot of them diet

This is about getting things in the right order. Learning to exercise, read labels etc etc, and feeling stronger and fitter is empowering.

Empowering enough to make you want to start looking after your body and putting good things into it.

Surely it's a better approach that just throwing a prescriptive diet at someone and expecting them to follow it for the rest of their lives.

I couldn't get things right till I got the right kind of training recommendations from Workouts

I think I have another step the woman must take:
Eliminate the trans fats.

And Fokes, Don't go on low fat diets. Don't go on low-carb diets or whatever. Eat the healthy fats, like fish oil, flax oil, olive oil, blend margarines, and moderate amounts of butter.

Going back to trans fats (made from hydrogenated oils), they raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol, sugnificiently reduces the quality of HDL cholesterol, block the absorption of nutrients, and may cause malnutrition.

To avoid trans fats, avoid the following: Most shortenings (There are new shortenings that don't contain any hydrogenated oils), most margarines (Take control, promise, benecal, and smart balance are the exceptions), and any processed foods that contain the word "Hydrogenated", "Margarine", or "Shortening"(except if it excloses anything in the parentesis afterwords without hydrogenated). Deep fried foods (cooked in any oils) are absolutely off limits, as well as baked goods baked in trans fatty shortenings.

from Robyn: "And god forbid a fat woman can learn to love herself first and then try to fit into societies ideals."

Good post, Robyn. These women are becoming fitter by many of the standards that medical doctors worry about ("Blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol fell"), and society is still trying to get them to see themselves as failures because they didn't lose weight.

Very good idea..but for obese people like me, A bit tough tu follow :-)

I believe that dieting is an essential part of losing weight and it's more of a health risk Not to lose weight than the other way around. Obesity is a serious health issue and lets not forget it's deadly. I think that anyone who considers dieting should take a good hard look at their lifestyle. That's where the change begins. Change your life, not your diets! Stick to something that fits you and your NEW lifestyle and the yo yo effects are gone forever...so are the health risks.

I relate to the weight loss issue, regardless of gender topic. I'm in my late 40's. To me, the hardest part about dieting is the hunger pangs. Then, you need to exercise to get that calorie deficit going, but can your joints handle it? I needed a way to lose a little weight upfront mostly through dieting to make it easier on my joints and to get a head of steam going, and then I slowly began introducing more intense exercise while sustaining my diet success. I knew if I could minimize those distracting, discouraging hunger pangs, I could get off to a good start.

I began using Z Trim, a natural grain-fiber-based fat replacement ingredient in my foods. I also began making a big smoothie in the middle of each afternoon which contained a quarter cup of Z Trim powder (blended with light juice, them I would add fruit, light yogurt, ice, etc. and blend some more). That's a routine that is working for me, along with Z Trim to replace portions of oils, butters, cream cheese, etc, called for in other recipes (tastes better then pre-packaged foods marketed as "light" or "low fat").

Oprah's physician, Dr. Mehmet Oz, praises Z Trim on page 90 of his new #1 best seller, "You on a Diet." Foods made with Z Trim are mnore filling, even though they contain fewer calories. You may find you won't be going back for seconds. It works! Good luck!

In the quest to follow strict low-fat diets - many people now find themselves with health issues that may well have resulted from malnutrition.

Do you have any evidence to support this statment? I don't doubt that it's true, I'd just like to see some research.

Oh and I'd amend this statment to read "In the quest to follow strict fad-of-the-month diets". I suspect that people are likely to suffer malnutrition from many types of extremist plans, not just low fat diets.

Hello! I would not think that 3lbs of weight loss per month is "a small amount" if I were the one losing it. By extension, that would be 36lbs in a year. In three years, that is 108lbs of weight.

I also wonder, did they measure body fat or body measurements or was it just the scale weight? I did some weight training a few years ago as recovery from an automobile accident that disabled me for several months. I weighted 147 and wore a size 10 when I started and I weighted 147 and wore a size 6 when I finished. By the scale I would have showed no weight loss, but I was smaller and more fit.

Remember homeostasis from biology? True body changes happen gradually. Abrupt changes (quick weight loss) are more likely to be experienced as upheavals that the body needs to correct (rebound weight gain). Real weight loss is a long term process. Three years will come and go and those women could be 108lbs lighter. That that researchers!

jj said:
Do you have any evidence to support this statment? I don't doubt that it's true, I'd just like to see some research.[...]

And you are correct - it tends to come from extreme fad dieting. I'm amended the wording slightly.

If you are looking for evidence - have a dig thru Regina Wilshire's comprehensive and scholarly research over at http://weightoftheevidence.blogspot.com/ - admittedly there is a low-carb bias -- but the evidence tends to speak for itself.

Take care.

Fair call. What I called "malnutrition" means those who take in very low protein and very low EFA. They tend to eat a lot of carbohydrate.
And you are correct - it tends to come from extreme fad dieting. I'm amended the wording slightly.

You may want to amend that back! LOL

I presented a poster at the NMS Scientific Sessions in January that analyzed four seven-day, 2000-calorie, menu samples published according to the accepted dietary guidelines (Food Pyramid, AHA, ADA and DASH) and all four were deficient in essential nutrients at 2,000-calories, published seven-day menus by each organization or government agency. That analysis only looked at vitamins, minerals and trace elements - further analysis is needed for EFA and EAA!

Thank you Judy, and I like the way the post conversation has went from critizing to giving ideas. The scale is not the true measure of weight. Like Goddess states you can lose fat and not see anything move on a scale. Muscle is heavier than fat is. It is all about toning the body. A fat person who still has fairly good muscle tone will look thinner than someone who weighs the same with no muscle tone at all. When you are obese starting anything can be tough but it gets easier the longer you stick to it. And as for what Phil said I agree the hunger pangs are a hard part of trying to stick to a diet. But in the same sense the more you work on eating less the more your stomach will shrink. Then it will take less and less to feel full. I was told once that it takes four weeks to get the body used to a new lifestyle. Really in the scheme of things that is not that long a time to go through. Yes it is very tough to start but one you get the ball rolling and are committed to making major lifestyle changes it gets easier until you almost forget what your old habits were. That is the problem with these crash diets. We look for results within days, most of the time we are starving ourselves and in the end we say enough is enough and go back to the lifestyle that we were living before. Behavior modification works the best. Don't attack certain foods(although common sense should kick in. If you only eat doughnuts and drink pop it isn't going to help) Don't make a pointed effort to avoid things because it's a general rule that we want what we can't or shouldn't have. But most importantly start looking at your new lifestyle in the most positive way that you can. If it isn't fun or important than you aren't going to but the effort in to do it.

Great post, Robyn, I had thought for a minute that all the reasonable people had disappeared from this blog :).

I think teaching the women about hunger and fullness cues was a huge step in the right direction. The whole program sounds so much more useful than what a conventional "diet" guru would offer.

The main issue is that people need to be able to transition their minds, not just their bodies, from being excessively overweight to being thin.
Without this transition, long-term success for weight loss and better health are almost an impossibility.
People need step by step instructions on how to lose the weight and keep it off forever, not just a lesson on moderation and fitness.
There's a new diet plan out there that's about to sweep the nation, so now's the time to check it out!

This new plan can help obese people change their lives forever without going crazy in the process!
The Logic Diet is not presented by a doctor or fitness expert, but by someone just like you, who struggled with weight issues all his life.

Robyn, Russell Lawrence - thank you!

I don't understand why we're saying 4kg is no weight loss in 3 months? It is! These people have been overweight for a long time, maybe since childhood, and 4kg in 3 months by just changing people's perceptions on food, hence modifying how they eat, is the best way to do it. A diet is a quick fix, and once you lost the weight, what happens? Most people put it back on and some more.

While I was never really overweight, I've been from BMI 19 to 26 through various cycles of extremely unhealthy eating patterns - I would not say I had an eating disorder (yet?) but very seriously disordered eating. At my heaviest weight, I realised that I was actually still attractive, although slighly chubby, and that it didn't matter that much, that I was young and lucky to be in good health, and that I had to learn to love my body and treat it accordingly rather than binge/starve cycles. I then lost weight steadily and very slowly over a period of 1 year and stabilised to a BMI of 21, just by not dieting anymore, but aiming to eat more fruit and veg, 3 meals a day, NOT weighing myself more than once a week, and most of all, eat guilt-free, a bit like these women. People asked me how I manage to lose so much weight, and when I tell them I didn;t diet and just aimed to be healthier, and that it took 1 year, they're always disapointed. They wanted some sort of miracle cure.

Thanks for your post. My wife and I just purchased a new bowflex gym from www.clubexercise.net they update the best price on all exercise equipment daily.

obese women need to be put on calorie restriction. Not too drastically. All of the other suggestions are great, but this is about saving someone's life! Obviously, moderation is the issue. Like someone in serious debt, they need a budget.

Skinny and fat are both beuatiful. Both should be supported in a healthy way. But there comes a time when fat crosses the line to obesity, which is in fact a bad decision. Obesity comes with health problems,discrimination, lower self confidence (a lot of the time)shall i countinue? Obesity is indeed pointless, harmful,and DEFINETLY NOT beautiful. Obesity is way over doing it. So you shouldn't be coming around saying 'skip the diet' when ppl boarder line of obesity could stop,and stopping would/could result in diabetes, heart problems, and the fact that some ppl (obese) ppl can't even move b/c of the extra weight. Support skinny/fat not obesity hun. PEACE.