Diet History, What's yours?

[NoSnacker]

I was thinking over my past history of dieting...and there were a couple times that I reached weights of 130 and then 144 which I held for a couple of years..how did I get there?

It was not due to counting calories, or points...I had 3 squares a day, breakfast, larger lunch, smaller dinner and no evening snacks, but on occasion. Definitely no snacking in between meals and at least 40 minutes of cardio.

So I guess at that time I was following No S and didn't even know it. How did I end up here, diets did me in and snacking.....

How about you, do you recall a time in your life that was similar to the No S way?

[SkyKitty]

Sadly I can recall no time in my life that was similar to No S. My family was pretty relaxed about snacks, sweets and desserts when I was younger. I was allowed a reasonable amount but they didn't encourage them and they weren't used as a reward or a comfort nor did they notice if I ate extra.

I did have more than I was allowed though, I was an unhappy and sneaky child. And a fat one too.

I ate badly, overeating and binge eating and making no effort to diet until at 230 pounds I joined Slimming World. I lost 42 pounds getting down to 188 pounds in a year but found it unworkable as a long-term lifestyle.

I started No S My this year weighing 196 pounds and currently weigh 193 pounds.

A tiny loss in weight but a huge loss of bad habits, insanity and guilt.

[milliem]

I don't really have a diet history and I haven't really paid much attention to my food habits until I started NoS. I remember being around a size 12 when I was 16, then gradually increased to a size 16 in my late teens/early 20s. I've been hovering around the same size, and the same weight (around 78kg or thereabouts) ever since. My family have always been food lovers and we ate a variety of good, home cooked food, mostly 3 meals a day. I do think we probably had a penchant for snacks and 'afternoon tea' too much than was good for us though

I've never been particularly unhappy with how I look but as I crept towards the 'obese' category I figured that for my health I should probably try and creep back down the other way!

[BrightAngel]

How about you, do you recall a time in your life
that was similar to the No S way?

No, there has never been a time in my life that was similiar to the No S way.

Judging by those people who find great success with No S,
I think that this is an enormous difficulty to overcome,
and I, personally, have not been successful at implimenting
no snacking, no sweets, or 3 meals for more than brief time periods.

My own success comes from recording all my food in a computer journal,
every day,
and working...every day...
to try to keep my calories the same or less than my body's energy burn.

I have shared here at the forum, many times previously,
that I think No S is much more successful for people
who have a history of this type of eating,
AND
for people whose weight has never been more than 50 lbs above normal.

[r.jean]

I do not have a history of trying multiple diets, but I have done Weight Watchers and a low carb regimen and was pretty successful at both....for the short term. Looking back, both diets included less snacking and less sweets. However, they were too rigid and I could not sustain the tracking and counting and daily deprivation forever. I felt like I failed if I deviated from the plan. That is why No S has been so good for me. This plan recognizes that being perfect is impossible and unsustainable. In addition I was never great at tracking what I ate, and I do not have to track here.

[Who Me?]

No S is the first "diet" I've ever followed. I have always been slim, but over the past few years I've noticed that my eating habits have gotten a bit sloppy.

I have a physically active job, and very good impulse control. We have free snacks *everywhere* at work, and my rule for myself has always been "Don't Start!" I don't know about anyone else, but I can't eat just one chocolate.

The last few years have been really hard. My partner was paralized, and I've had to deal with an astonishing array of illnesses. I started eating "regularly scheduled treats," even while we were improving the quality of our food overall.

This system has been good for me, because it gets me back to a very normal way of eating.

[Who Me?]

From a member's daily check-in:

You know what? I've never in my years of dieting considered just eating three meals a day. I've always counted points or calories or ate prepackaged diet meals.

I swear, the more I learn about the diet industry, the more I hate them. This industry keeps people on a never-ending cycle of unsustainable eating. If you never succeed, you'll always need to buy into the next diet. Loathsome!

[Naebird]

I fully admit I have never been on any kind of serious diet before. There have been a few times that I have tried calorie counting but I gave that up after less than a week. It just doesn't make any sort of sense to me. How do you figure out how much food is in Grandma's veggie soup? Or a homemade casserole? How bout my mom's stuffed squash? It just doesn't make sense to me and I don't want to always eat prepared foods that have the calorie count on them.

Now that I am thinking about it, I think I tried Atkins for about 2 days once and HATED it with a deep abiding hatred that I can't even describe. Sometime during the second day I broke and ate nothing but fruits and veggies and bread for about a week afterwards.

No-S is pretty much how I grew up excepting the "no-snacks" part. We were allowed a snack right after we got off of the bus, but it wasn't any big thing, some veggies, fruit, fresh cheese or peanut butter sandwiches. Always with the admonishment to, "Not ruin your dinner!!"

We were very active, we grew up on a dairy farm so there were lots of chores and TONS of fresh veggies, milk, eggs and meat. I find that I still like to eat that way. Fake foods are usually objectionable to me.

[chentegt]

When I was a kid, that's how we ate (no-s!)
I have cuban and spanish parents, and when we visisted my grandparents in Spain, they were the same. Sweets were special treats (including coke), left for weekends.
During my childhood and adolescence I was very thin, just eating like that. When I entered my 20s I forced myself to eat a lot (and train with weights) to gain weight, then try to "cut" ... but things got out of control habit-wise. When I got a job and got my own money, things got a lot more out of control LOL. Did very different diets but never stuck to them for more than a few weeks. Then I found No S Diet about 5 years ago, when I was starting to become very overweight...

[NoSnacker]

Thanks for all of these interesting comments!

At least we all found the No S plan to keep us sane and moving in the right direction!

[Who Me?]

I forgot to mention that I've been a vegetarian for something like 25 years.

[NoSnacker]

I forgot to mention that I've been a vegetarian for something like 25 years.

Vegetarian eating, I always wanted to try that way of life...I hardly eat red me, just chicken and fish.. Are you total vegan, do you include dairy?

Wow I'm impressed 25 years!

[Andie]

I was raised eating healthy meals, but also with a lot of "healthy snacks" and treats fairly often. I was overweight as a teenager (about 165lbs) and I went down to 135 a couple of times counting servings of different food groups. It worked well and is easier than counting calories, but it still was too much work to ever become a habit, and I gained the weight back each time over a year or two after I had dieted down.

In college my weight crept up to 179 or so with the extra stress and studying snacks, and then when I was about 22 or so I gained a lot of weight over my last year of nursing school and I went up to 207. I've been in the 205-215 range for the last 7 years or so, and haven't been able to lose it until now. I tried the south beach diet a couple of years ago and got into the high 180's but I found it too restrictive and immediately gained the weight back after I started eating "normally" again.

I love no S because it addresses my biggest overeating problems, which are permasnacking and having too many sweets. It really does put the common sense logic in to specific terms that makes it easy to follow. I also find I'm a lot less hungry eating 3 meals a day then when I was a snacker.. who knew?

[r.jean]

I have shared here at the forum, many times previously,
that I think No S is much more successful for people
who have a history of this type of eating,
AND
for people whose weight has never been more than 50 lbs above normal.[/color]

Bright Angel
After reading Andie's post above plus knowing my own success plus seeing others who have been successful...I am wondering what makes you think that those of us with over 50 lbs to lose are not as well suited to the No S plan? It has been an incredibly successful plan for me.
r.jean

[NoSnacker]

I love no S because it addresses my biggest overeating problems, which are permasnacking and having too many sweets. It really does put the common sense logic in to specific terms that makes it easy to follow. I also find I'm a lot less hungry eating 3 meals a day then when I was a snacker.. who knew?

I totally am with you on this one....especially the last sentence...

No S works, we just have to apply it's simple principles!

[BrightAngel]

I have shared here at the forum, many times previously,
that I think No S is much more successful for people
who have a history of this type of eating,
AND
for people whose weight has never been more than 50 lbs above normal.

Bright Angel
After reading Andie's post above plus knowing my own success plus seeing others who have been successful...I am wondering what makes you think that those of us with over 50 lbs to lose are not as well suited to the No S plan? It has been an incredibly successful plan for me.
r.jean

First, please note that I am very Pro-No S
as I am very taken with Reinhard's Habit concepts.

Also, the term "success" has different meanings to people
My comment was related to successfully dropping from the obese weight range
to the normal weight range and maintaining that loss.
I did not really address a partial weight-loss success, such as 10% etc.
I also did not address side-effects such as a psychological benefit.
Also, I did not address the success rate of establishing positive Habits.

I've observed, however, that at least a few common-sense modifications are needed
for most women to lose from obesity to a "overweight" or "normal" weight range.

During the past three years I have observed oerweight or obese women
who are not very far away from the edges of their official obesity borders,
lose to a "normal" weight range while using No S (with modifications).

However, I have seen very few women who are more than 50 lbs
above the top of their "normal" weight range,
drop to a weight within a "normal" weight range, and maintain there.

I do not know your numbers, and so perhaps you are an exception.
I have also seen many obese women lose and maintain around a 20 to 40 lb loss,
but who still remain inside the obese weight range.

As with every weight-loss plan, it takes a great deal of time
to see whether or not it will be individually successful
with regards to weight-loss.
Although usually people are attracted to the No S diet as a weight-loss method,
some who are partially successful, continue due to benefits they receive other than weight-loss.

[r.jean]

Bright Angel
Since many people do not post their weights, it is hard to say if you are right or not. However, I have faith that No S will continue to work for me even though I fall in the category you refer to. When I started I had 70 lbs to lose. As of my last weigh in, I have lost 38.2 lbs and my BMI is right at 30. I am leaving the obese range and entering the overweight range.

I follow Vanilla No S and use no mods. I have been at this for 8 months and have been through various life challenges without abandoning the plan. I have no reason to believe that I will not continue to be successful.

No plan works for everyone, and as you noted, everyone has a different measure of success. However, I will agree to disagree that people in certain weight categories are less likely to experience long term success.

[sheepish]

I fully admit I have never been on any kind of serious diet before. There have been a few times that I have tried calorie counting but I gave that up after less than a week. It just doesn't make any sort of sense to me. How do you figure out how much food is in Grandma's veggie soup? Or a homemade casserole? How bout my mom's stuffed squash? It just doesn't make sense to me and I don't want to always eat prepared foods that have the calorie count on them.

Now that I am thinking about it, I think I tried Atkins for about 2 days once and HATED it with a deep abiding hatred that I can't even describe. Sometime during the second day I broke and ate nothing but fruits and veggies and bread for about a week afterwards.

This is pretty much true for me too. I find it funny when people on the forum say things like, "Oh, it's easy to take weight off quickly with other diets but..." because I have never successfully taken weight off with any other diet.

I have periodically tried to calorie count and always given it up in disgust within a week - because, like you say, it's really REALLY hard if you cook stuff yourself and add a bit of this, a bit of that, etc. I once tried low-carb because it is said to be good for those with PCOS but it made me insanely hungry all the time (I can't figure out why it seems to make some people full for longer but others (like me) just ravenous but that's the way it is..) and I gave up on that within a week...

No S is really similar to how I grew up eating - with the one exception that my parents were big into fruit after meals. I sort of continue that - my feeling is that, if it's eaten at the table straight after the meal and I intended to eat it, it doesn't count as "seconds". My dad is my No S inspiration - he hates eating between meals. He sometimes has to because he's a type 1 diabetic but he hates it. He's an easy going person but one of the only things he rants about is eating on the street, he just thinks of it as a ridiculously uncivilised and barbaric thing to do. I look at the way that he enjoys his meals but automatically refrains in between, enjoys his desserts on special occasions but thinks they're too rich for every day and think.. that's what I want to be like and it's the behaviour that I'd want to model if we have children.

[wosnes]

No S is really similar to how I grew up eating - with the one exception that my parents were big into fruit after meals. I sort of continue that - my feeling is that, if it's eaten at the table straight after the meal and I intended to eat it, it doesn't count as "seconds". My dad is my No S inspiration - he hates eating between meals. He sometimes has to because he's a type 1 diabetic but he hates it. He's an easy going person but one of the only things he rants about is eating on the street, he just thinks of it as a ridiculously uncivilised and barbaric thing to do. I look at the way that he enjoys his meals but automatically refrains in between, enjoys his desserts on special occasions but thinks they're too rich for every day and think.. that's what I want to be like and it's the behaviour that I'd want to model if we have children.

I've posted this before, but when I started No-S I missed the one-plate rule. I started having one serving of whatever was being served. If it was on a separate plate or bowl (like soup or salad) or a meal served in courses -- so be it. It was about a year later that I realized there was a one-plate rule and then I couldn't see a good reason to change what I was doing. I will say that we rarely had dessert with meals. Usually, even on the holidays (or maybe especially!), dessert would be served an hour or two later. The only time I have dessert with a meal is when I go out to eat (very rarely now).

[jellybeans01]

I was a big Weight watcher girl. I started believe it or not at 16. It was good for me though because I was getting to be on the larger size. I remember going from 139 to 121. I was able to get a whole new idea of portion control and I really started to workout. This took me though college. After college I started again to loose the extra weight I also did it after all pregnancies. It does work for me but now with three little ones I just don't have the time money and energy to do points, plan different foods for me or buy the expensive diet snack stuff.