Diets do not work

[sarahmichigan]

Diets do not work long-term. They make you fatter and crazy. You will take the weight off and put it back on again. If commercial weight-loss plans really worked, you'd do them once, lose the weight, and you'd have corrected your "bad habits" for life.

But they don't work that way. They give you an unrealistic standard to live up to so you'll fail and keep pumping more money into the multi-billion dollar Weight-loss Scam industry.

And dieting often leads to disordered eating, compulsive eating, compulsive exercising, compulsive obsession with food and being "good or bad."

If you still think you're going to change your life through dieting, fine. I just don't want to hear about it. If one more person tries to convince me that Weight Watchers is a wonderful way to "modify your lifestyle" and it's not a "fad diet" I will start screaming like a crazy woman. So, please. Just. Don't.

Comments

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

I thought you were going to stop posting about this.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I should stop, because it's stressing me out. I'm not vowing that I'll never post about it again, but I need to take a break for a while.

[styggie.livejournal.com]

and bouncing your weight around is FAR more dangerous than having a little fat roll around your belly.

don't worry sarah - i for one am with you ;)

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

To quote the Rev, "Don't take any guff off those swine." :)

[zoe-1418.livejournal.com]

I'm with ya, too.

[shadowriderhope.livejournal.com]

*applause*

[peggynature.livejournal.com]

There was a conversation about this (Weight Watchers, specifically) on the forums at Big Fat Blog. I think we all expressed our disgust and disbelief with the success WW has had at positioning themselves as a 'healthy, non-diet, lifestyle approach' when they're pretty much the quintessential, basic energy-restriction diet. There may not be anything super weird or faddish about their plan, but that's the ONLY thing that's even somewhat 'normal' about it. Restricting your energy intake is NOT normal.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I was having a similar discussion on a friends-locked post. They're pushing WW through my company-wide email, and I've had to listen to my co-workers rabbiting on, in really unhealthy ways, about how "good" or "bad" they've been on their diets, and talking about horrific things like limiting calories for children and infants (*gag*).

I was telling an LJ friend that while I think WW is probably one of the lesser evils in the weight loss industry, they're being pretty Orwellian in their language. The "points system" is just a nice way of saying "restricting calories and portions" and their "core plan" is just another version of "don't eat white food/processed food/too much sugar" and all the other weight-loss dieting crap advice we've been hearing for years dressed up in prettier language.