You don't need diet clubs to lose weight

Edward W. I couldn't agree more. Weight control is so simple - if you burn more calories than you consume, you'll lose weight. I pity people who pay good money to join some madcap scheme to learn a 'secret' of weight loss. If you are fat, you are eating too much. I've given that 'secret' away for free because it's not a secret and it's not even difficult to understand. Eat balanced meals and take moderate exercise and it will come together sooner or later. If you can't even follow that simple rule, you must want to be fat. Fat women are tragic - spend so much time worrying about the size of their backside, that they don't put any time into planning their meals and exercise so it's no wonder they are obese. Mothers are the worst, as they blame their kids for taking up so much of their time that they don't have time to eat properly or exercise - sad! Stop making excuses and sort yourselves out!

I would doubt I would suffer from calcium loss, I eat such a healthy diet, but thanks for the tip. I eat plenty of cheese, cream in my coffee, a little meat and fish. My main item of food is loads of salads and low carb foods like olives, cheese, a few eggs per week. I will bear what you say in mind. I think I will only be on this diet for a few months, because I probably only need to lose another stone and I'll be done. I will then stick to a low carb diet, rather than no or very little carb diet.

Hi Nikki,

A very high protein diet can lead to loss of calcium in the bones so it can be worth getting bone density checked if it is a long term eating plan rather than a "diet".

Well done on the weight loss though!

It is similar to the Atkins Diet, Slim. I have a very low metabolic rate, with very low blood pressure, and I have lost 6 kilos since the new year, which is phenomenal for me. I have cut out all carbs.

Carbs are poison - we do not need them. A diet rich in protein, some animal fat with loads of lovely vegetables and salad and natural foods like meat, fish and eggs is the way for me. Unless you are young or an athlete, you do not need carbs - a hunter-gatherer style diet is much better than these low fat, low carb diets.

I went from 87.5kgs down to 78kgs in 3 weeks.

I followed the Dr Pierre Dukan regime: basically 5 days of protein only, for example;
Breakfast; scrambled egg and smoked salmon (as much as you want)
Lunch; breast of chicken (remove the skin) as much as you want
Dinner; slab of white fish (as much as you want). IMPORTANT No oil, No butter, No milk just black tea or coffee and loads and loads of water. Balsamic is your friend. After 5 days the same but add in green vegatables a few carrots BUT NO sugar rich veg like sweet-corn. IMPORTANT No potatoes, No rice, No pasta, No bread AND No Booze. Those 10 days are the 'attack'.
In the third period I added in an occoasional glass of wine with water. Five months on I'm at 78.5 and now I read packets and go for high protein foods mainly and I leave carbs alone, I thought it was the drink making feel tired, it wasn't, it was the carbohydrates LEAVE THEM OUT. Ready to do an 'attack' again and get down to my target 75 then I'll start working-out. In between times I had a full Christmas and just last week went on an unscheduled session and had 6/7 pints of bitter so you don't have to change your life style forever just watch what you eat overtime. Good Luck

touche!!! Stupid fat woman f*cking kill me. What is the purpose of a nutritionalist?? seriously???!! that job title should NOT even exist. You want to lose weight, you fat ignorant f*cks???? take the god d*mn spoon out of your mouth and move your big cheeseburger eating a$$es!! you don't weigh five hundred pounds because you have a thyroid problem :( or "genetic predisposition" it's because you like food too damn much and don't like exercise enough. spitf*cks.

Miserablemoaninggit and to everyone else who is trying to lose weight, good luck and aim to enjoy the food and/or exercise you opt for.

Cauliflower, thanks very much for taking the trouble to give some details of your fantastic weight loss. I've decided not to purchase any more cakes, biscuits or sweets - I mentally calculated how many I had consumed over the space of just a couple of days and it was quite surprising how much they all quickly added up. I've been buying the so-called 'lighter' biscuits, but I've been looking at the calories in them, and they don't have that much less than the 'full' versions, so to speak. Also, I've stopped taking any sugar now in my tea as a result of your post. I've tried the sugar substitute stuff, but the 'after taste' is too awful, so I've just cut it out completely. Getting used to it, I hope! Went out yesterday and bought a load of celery (which I love) and carrots, and have washed and prepared them and put them in a big tupperware container - to snack on, now that the biscuits have gone. I'm not keen on cabbage but love spinach, so bought a load of that too, fresh and frozen. I think I definetely need to exercise also, but finding it bloody difficult with this awful weather. However, will see how it all goes. I certainly agree that I need to change my long term behaviour. I've tried the diets, the fads, the short term 'starvation' periods etc, and none of it really works. Thanks very much for the advice!

Miserablemoaninggit, with the "minor calorific adjustments" theory ringing in my ears I set a ceiling of 2,000 "perceived" calories per day ("perceived" meaning the assumption of an optimism bias of 10%, with the real term intake probably being 2,300 calories). To meet that, some foods had to go onto a 'rare treat' basis, such as a fry up or cakes/sweets - that was quite difficult initially. Some foods had to change, eg. semi-skimmed rather than full milk, light spread rather than butter, sugar substitute rather than the real deal, fowl rather than beast. Some foods had a daily ceiling in themselves eg. bread and potatoes. Some new foods were tried, loved and adopted eg. porridge and green cabbage, both of which I hadn't had since a child. Some foods were unrestricted, mainly vegetables. There's a lot I haven't said here but you get the drift. Anyway, point being that in terms of sheer mass I probably ended up eating more. After the initial few weeks, my taste definitely changed and I settled into a pattern of being satisfied AND losing 2 -3 pounds every week. Fast forward 18 months and having attained my weight loss, I was able to allow myself some extra room to manoeuvre above the 2,000 calorie target. Fast forward 20 years and I am still on this diet, except I don't regard it as such, rather as something second nature.

Miserablemoaninggit, I keep reminding myself not to feel smug about this for I reckon I just got lucky with something that worked for me. Good luck to everyone else who tries their own way.. In my case I'm afraid that I have nothing to offer in the way of a "neat" methodology or plan, rather it's the application of some home-spun and possibly dodgy science. What I mean, is that when I first set out to lose my weight, I realised that a long term successful outcome would depend on a long term change in behaviour. Which ruled out temporary, including crash diets. Whatever I put in place therefore had to be at least bearable and preferably pleasurable. It also occurred to me that it had been over the long term that I had put the weight on in the first place. So I arrived at a conclusion which I can best explain by paraphrasing (very badly) a certain character in David Copperfield: "Daily intake 2,500 calories, daily expenditure 2,600 calories, result happiness. Daily intake 2,500 calories, daily expenditure 2,400 calories, result misery." In other words, I convinced myself that the aggregate effect over the long term of relatively minor adjustments in calorific intake would have the desired effect and that this could be best achieved not by eating less, but by changing (only some) of the foods I eat. Just popping out the door to work but I'll do a second post later to summarise some of the changes.

Cauliflower, quite simply, you have my admiration. To go from 21 stone to 11 stone is a fantastic achievement and my admiration is tinged with some real 'envy'. I know you might say it is obvious, but I'd love to hear a few details about your low calorie diet, if you wouldn't mind. I'm struggling with my weight and have had some success, but I'm finding it difficult to maintain a steady weight.

Can I gripe about your gripe? For many thousands weight and self-image is an important part of their lives, whether we like it or not. Slimming clubs, gym, diets do genuinely help people to lose weight in a way that they feel comfortable with (sometimes after a few wrong turns!) and in many cases for not a lot. The value in coming to 'centres' is in the contact with others and those who can provide the motivation - which is often hard to find! By all means knock the shysters but there are many good people out there who help people with more than just their weight issues.