There are plenty of good treatments, it's just that people don't want to put in the work. They want a magic pill, book, or food to magically change their life. If you look at people who've maintained their weight loss, it's because they did an overhaul of their lifestyle and behaviors.

That doesn't seem right. If she eats so great and burns all those calories then why is she so big? I understand some of the weight could be muscle but that is discouraging for someone like me. I'm trying to lose weight and do more exercise but stories like these make me think, why bother. I get doing it for the heathiness factor, but I want to be at healthy weight too.

I worked at a place that had a 'health challenge' one year. It didn't have to do with weight per se, but it was more like you have to meet goals like X grams of fiber, X ounces of water.... I don't remember what else there was. Physical activity was in there though, and the ladies had a little jazzercise thing in the conference room at night sometimes. It was kind of funny and cute. They had fun. I thought that was better than a 'lose weight' challenge because everybody could participate. I was already too thin so I couldn't have really participated in a weight loss challenge, but I did participate in the health challenge. God, the bathrooms there at the office when EVERYBODY started eating a ton of fiber..... lol. It was something.

I'm the OP who doesn't eat things with an ingredient list. I never ate this way to lose weight and never said. I've never been really overweight. I do it to be healthy. If you've never been to a farmer's market, you're missing out. Great food and super nice people. And I feel better buying from a small, local farmer than some big food corporation. You can totally tell the difference between an egg from a truly free-range, naturally fed chicken and a commercial egg. Same for grass-fed beef. Grocery store tomatoes taste nothing like home-grown tomatoes. I have a small garden, but I admittedly sucks at growing things. But the things I do grow taste so much better than grocery store bought things. I also cook A LOT. Good shit too. I don't feel deprived at all. And it has nothing to so with weight.

Amen. I have a cousin who eats really, really well and exercises like mad. She goes to the gym several times a week, does those bootcamp classes, runs marathons, and the hikes she goes on - OMG. She hikes 10-15 miles every weekend and has done the big ones like Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Canyonlands. And she STILL weighs around 200lbs. Her upper arms are bigger than my thighs, and yes, she's had her thyroid checked. I on the other hand can lose weight very easily - all I have to do is moderate exercise. Some coworkers and I started a weight loss challenge where the goal was to lose 10lbs a month. I lost half of that the first week.

Everyone has their 'rules' for dieting and weight loss and they don't apply to everyone. I just wish people could remember that. What works for you might not work for someone else. I get so annoyed when someone says "You HAVE to eliminate XYZ or you will not lose weight!" or "I lost weight by doing this, YOU should do this!". No, every person has their own issues, their own eating triggers, their own metabolic issues, their own body chemistry. I personally lost weight and eat everything I once ate, just less of it. But I've seen people do the exact same thing and not have the same results. My best friend finally had success going extreme keto. (shrugs). I don't think she's wrong, it's what worked for her.

I hate this time of year because of the stupid weight loss challenge at work. It puts a giant bullseye on me because I'm *gasp* thin enough that I don't participate. I can't even eat my lunch in the break room without the damn billing department scrutinizing my food. Like, yeah. I eat salad and lean protein. Leave me alone.

I don't think an employee weight loss challenge is necessarily discriminatory to employees who are at their "ideal" weight. I think it's actually insulting to all of their employees. "Hey! So, hey...you guys are pretty fat! Actually, we don't care about you either way, but we might save some money on health insurance costs if you guys lose weight, or get to claim that we are into "promoting wellness," so if you could just lose 10-20 lbs for us, and that will be great. We'll even throw in ONE PAID DAY OFF! It will be great competing with your friends for that. Not exactly an even trade, but you guys won't know the difference, and you get so few perks you'll be willing to participate in this degrading nonsense, and actually thank us for it. So, have fun!" Capitalism is great, ha!

Our company is having a weight loss challenge. The winning team gets an extra 8 hours of PTO. There are a couple of us (myself included) who can't medically lose any more weight or are trying to actively gain weight to get healthier. So we can't participate and are by default not eligible to win the prize. Part of me wants to tell HR that it's discriminatory and part of me wants to let my anorexia come back in full force and lose 10 lbs to win the damn prize.

I'm the one who swapped poptarts for eggs and lost weight--I have had so many issues with food it isn't funny. I think the reason it's just so hard to have willpower is that there are so many processed foods out there that have way, way more calories than you think. For me, only certain things trigger my binge response (ice cream!) so I stay away from those and I do let myself have treats that I know I can have only one or two of. The main thing for me has been eating foods low in calorie density for the majority of my meals so I fill up on those and just eat a few processed things as treats because I get bored with just healthy stuff all the time. I think that's what you'll find most people who are successful at losing weight do--limit the processed stuff.