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@brooke, reading your original post made me think of one thing: "French Women Don't Get Fat" - really, your lifestyle seems to be very typical of the one mentioned in the book.

I lost weight on Weight Watchers. It could be construed as a diet, but it's meant to be a lifestyle change. Which is why it works for me. Not to say that I didn't gain some weight back. Sure I did. When I was stressed, I gained 15 lbs. Started measuring food again to remind myself what a normal portion is, lost it. Gained weight when I had a baby. Used Weight Watchers again to lose the last 20 lbs (had to give up that chocolate habit).

Having a healthy lifestyle is all well and good, but most everyone still puts on weight. Our metabolism slows down as we age if we aren't diligent about maintaining muscle mass and activity. The amount we eat gradually increases over time. Then we all need to smack ourselves and say, "oops, need to regroup". And we need to do it before those 10 lbs turn into 50.

We seem to be all over the board, just like the general population. Fad diets get you kick started and fad diets do nothing. All seem to agree that a lifestyle change is the only way to maintain any weight loss, regardless of how it came about.

I was very active until a horrific car accident. In the year or three that I was sedentary, the weight packed on. I was young and took it all off (90 pounds) in about 9 months - following the Weight Watchers diet and resuming walking and riding a bike (took years of physical therapy). I kept that weight off for about 25 years, until consequences of that accident coupled with a couple more accidents did in my back and knees. Now, it's a constant struggle that I'm losing. Interesting side note regarding heredity. One of my daughters was skinny at birth and will always be very slender, as was my mother and all of her siblings. She tries to put on weight. My other daughter looks marvelous, but has to watch every morsel she puts in her mouth. She said someone recently told her she is big boned and she knew instantly that she probably put on a few pounds. She'll have to struggle with this her whole life - she is built like the portly members of the family on both sides. Sometimes, life isn't fair. Have a piece of cheesecake........or a raisin.

i'm trying the bittman plan: vegan and whole grain until 6pm. details to follow.

I know it's an unpopular stance, but I think fad diets DO work if you use them in moderation. Sometimes the only way to break your unhealthy eating habits is to completely restrict yourself for a limited amount of time. I've done Atkins for a week, vegan for a week - it produces some results, which gives me the motivation to re-introduce the less healthy foods on a limited, reasonable basis.

I "diet" in odd styles.
No pizza (once for 18 months)
no bread/rice/potatoes/pasta (tough one)
low carb
hardly any carb (no carb was impossible I felt weak)
high in protein
low in fat
6 small meals
Eat dinner for breakfast
24 or less grams of fat (the most successful one ever)

Now I just eat off small plates. I take those small bread plates out and serve food on them. All the pasta that fits in a cereal bowl is all you can have. We also eat at least 5 fruits and veg per day. I once shoved some grape tomatoes in my mouth at 7 pm to make sure I had covered the 5.

Do diets work? Sure they do. Does "your diet" work? There is the question.
The no pizza diet has started again. Pizza is the devil.

I don't like the word diet - if you're serious about losing weight, think of it as a life style change. It is really not hard to not eat fried foods all the time and to eat more high protein, high fiber, and low fat foods. If you knock off about 500 calories a day, you'll lose weight. And this can be done without starving yourself or using fad diets. But I do agree that falling back into old patterns is just so easy to do. I lost ten pounds in ten weeks before a vacation, only to put it right back on after the bikini was no longer needed. My goal - find something every three months that is a goal and a reason to stay fit. Weather it is your vacation (which is a valid reason and a great motivator!), your wedding, your birthday, your anniversary, anything - find things that are three or four months out to look to as goals, and it makes things easier. I'm not sure that's a diet, though. But there is something to be said for goal driven weight loss and/or maintaining your weight/more active lifestyle by setting short term goals.

Fad diets don't. Education on proper nutrition and how it works on your body, controlling calorie intake, and exercise do.

Usually. There are very real conditions that can make any diet fail: hypothyroidism, for instance, completely sabotaged my otherwise healthy eating by making my metabolism so sluggish that even at 1,200 calories a day and regular (3-5 times a week) exercise, my then-28-year-old self could not lose weight.

I got it diagnosed, I got on medication, I started losing weight again.

But really, the education is what's important to me. Fiber and protein good. Sugar bad. Vegetables good. Portion control good. This is all stuff everyone should know, but not everyone does.

Short term diets lead to yo-yo dieting in most cases. An evaluation of what you would like to change about your lifestyle and then figuring out what small changes will lead to those goals, seems to be the most effective approach. Generally this entails healthier eating choices plus exercise and really being honest with yourself about your life and how you choose to live it.

@CanadianFoodieGirl - re Think she was trying to make you enjoy your breakfast less in order to appease herself? Yes, I'm quite certain this was the case. I wanted to give her a smart-arse answer so badly, but I also had that little part of me that felt for her, which is why I ended up just sitting there with that idiotic smile on my face. Grrrr! If the tables were reversed, I would have never thought of making a comment like this.

also, @CanadianFoodieGirl and @christel and all - I agree about exercising, even though I'm guilty of never doing it purposely. But like I've mentioned before, I walk. Whenever I was/am upset or excited or whatever, I would always go for a walk instead of reaching for food (I physically cannot eat when I'm not relaxed). If I had a bad day at work, I'd get off the bus 5 stops earlier and walk home to sort out my thoughts and feelings. Like some people are emotional eaters, I'm an emotional walker. I actually never realised how good a thing it was (other than the fact that walking always makes me feel better, of course). So I'd think that people who hate exercising could probably find something like that, that they would actually enjoy doing so it's not a chore or something they have to do, but something they want to do.

Again, it all comes down to doing and eating things one enjoys - or to enjoying things one eats and dos. Lifestyle works, diets never do.

I agree with the majority here.

It comes down to this:

1. Diet vs. lifestyle, weight loss vs. maintenance and health:

-Make lifestyle changes. I think the term "diet" has taken on negative connotations and attempts to reverse this fail. It's up to dieters to change their perceptions. Was there ever a time when "diet" wasn't a "bad word"? I ask this earnestly.

-If you're trying to lose weight eat less & move more.

2. Mindfulness:

-Knowing why you're eating and listening to your body, as a few have suggested above. I've been saying for awhile that bodies are self-regulating but that people aren't in tune with their bodies anymore. In an ideal world people would eat when they're hungry, sleep when they're tired, etc. The body is one unit - your brain and stomach work together. Let them. Be mindful of your needs.

-Be aware of what you're putting into your body and why in the context of food's purpose. Would you rather consume foods and beverages that might be high in calories but are also high in nutrition or would you rather eat something that's high in calories with no nutritional benefit? I wish I could say that I'll chose the avocado over the ice cream but in other areas I'm pretty good. There are some edible products that I refuse to buy because I don't understand the concept beyond "tastes good" and they don't taste good to me.

3. The mental aspect, attitude and self esteem (not just related to diet):

-Don't beat yourself up or think of yourself as a failure if you violate a self-imposed (or diet prescribed) rule. Humans are fallible. Get over it and more on.

-Don't look at it as "discipline" or "will power". Those result in unrealistic expectations.

-Start with small changes and build up. Don't try to do to much at once. Doing so is one of the reasons people have trouble following through and "fail".

-Avoid words like "fail" and "failure". They're subjective, self perception words. Learn from each unsuccessful attempt to meet a goal and decide how to improve for next time, again in realistic, manageable steps.

@lawofmurphy: I agree with you but also acknowledge that 20 minutes is better than nothing and there are cases in which it's acceptable.

@brooke:
I can think of some responses for your former co-worker. One involves, "I hate you for that!" ... "For acting like a c*** and projecting your self-esteem issues onto me." Think she was trying to make you enjoy your breakfast less in order to appease herself? A small part of me would want to eat mass quantities of high calorie food in front of her in retaliation. Part of me also feels sympathetic towards her, though, and wouldn't want her to feel worse about herself.

(Also @brooke:) Like you, I'm naturally slim. This is partly genetic (yay for my mother's DNA!) but also, as in your case, my parents set a good example. It is crucial for good eating habits to start at home and for parents to encourage exercise. For years my mom got up early to use exercise videos before work and I have a memory of playing with my friends in the corner of our moms' aerobics classes at a community centre (I must have been 4 or 5 and said memory involves Smurfs figurines).

And forget about moms projecting their own insecurity, prejudices, and food fears on their children. I've seen girls with self-esteem issues caused by their mothers and children put on diets by their mothers. Not cool. Encourage physical activity and buy/cook nutritious food! There's too much processed crap manufactured right now.

I'll stop now.

"No Way" ~ Never met a diet that could tame me!!

Perky I can't agree more with your statement. But I say WAY because I also believe that the word 'diet' has the wrong typical conotations.

In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. - Wiki

So yes, mass-marketed "diets" shouldn't work because everyone has to make choices based on their resources and lifestyle.
It is all about your habits (I think); as long as you make the correct choices when faced with a decision of what to eat--this is a diet. Am I way off here anyone?

Diets - NO WAY

Moving yourself towards a healthier lifestyle and modifying your diet as part of that - WAY!

And what better way to do so than by cooking!?!??? I yo-yo'ed 25-30 lbs up and down TWICE during my last three years in college, and now that I'm working a steady job and got my crap in order, I've managed to maintain my weight for about a year and a half now (give or take 5 lbs fluxtuation) at what I was before I started gaining weight in college. Learning to make vegetables taste good, eating more of them and less meat, cooking more than eating out, plus being more active has worked. I wouldn't call it a diet, espeically since I had corndogs for dinner last night, but overall, I've moved to a much healthier place and THAT has been working for me.

One of my favorite food blogs (Kalyn's Kitchen) is based around the South Beach Diet, and it seems to have worked wonders for her. I haven't been driving to try it, but her recipes are delicious so I'd say if going on "a diet" is part of moving towards a healthier lifestyle overall, then it can work.