My co-workers are discussing the latest diet fad and I am going to flip page

[PrimalJewishAmericanPrincess]

"Dr. Ian K. Smith's Shred is the answer to every dieter's biggest dilemmas: how to lose that last twenty pounds? How to push through that frustrating plateau? What to do when nothing else is working? Here, Smith has created a weight loss program that uses all he knows about strategic dieting in one plan--like putting all the best players on the field at once to create a can't lose combination. Shred combines a low GI diet, meal spacing, and meal replacements. Those who follow Shred will constantly be eating (every three and a half hours!), four meals or meal replacements (soups, smoothies, shakes) and 3 snacks a day, over a six week program. Shred also introduces Dr. Ian's concept of "Diet Confusion". Diet Confusion, like muscle confusion, tricks the body and revs up its performance. In the same way you need to vary your workout to see results, switch up your food intake to boost your metabolism"

Co-workers discussing this RIGHT NOW and I can't believe how often this happens. Instead of asking the power-lifter, bad ass girl in the office, they buy the latest thing and don't even bother to ask me how I do it. I gotta say, it burns a bit. Oh,and the chick on this diet is constantly complaining about her aches and pains and regularly falls asleep at her desk. I can't wait for this epic fail.
Rant.over.

[osgoka01]

I feel you. I eat a huge steak or burger salad every day whilst my co- workers (who are all overweight & "dieting") snack on 100cal Oreo packs and delight in how "good" they are being.

As a reformed low cal/low fat gal, I get it, I really do. But at the same token, I have really leaned out eating WAY more than them, yet they refused to hear me/try any of the Paloe principles. Le sigh.

[Mr. Anthony]

If you're in good shape, never underestimate the ability of others to rationalize your way of eating with "But you just have a high metabolism." I might have a relatively high metabolism, but that's not why I look like Spiderman with my shirt off.

[magnolia1973]

Shred also introduces Dr. Ian's concept of "Diet Confusion". Diet Confusion, like muscle confusion, tricks the body and revs up its performance. In the same way you need to vary your workout to see results, switch up your food intake to boost your metabolism"

I'm not sure I disagree with that premise. Could it say, be beneficial to go from IFing to say, 3 meals and 2 snacks a day of good, primal foods if you are seeing a stall in weightloss?

I think nothing good can come from "meal replacement" products though....

[foodiegoneprimal]

I always feel so weird going out to lunch or dinner with co workers. They all get "healthy" sandwiches or wraps, and I always order the "artery clogging" small sirloin with broccoli and butter.

[Mr. Koozie]

I'm not sure I disagree with that premise. Could it say, be beneficial to go from IFing to say, 3 meals and 2 snacks a day of good, primal foods if you are seeing a stall in weightloss?

I think nothing good can come from "meal replacement" products though....

Almost all diets work. They’re just not sustainable as people will gain it all back, and then some. They might also feel like crap along the way. I work in an office full of mostly women. Not a one of them is even close to being healthy but I hear a lot of diet talk and I cringe. I don’t tell anyone what works for me and one reason is because I’m a man so I would immediately hear the “You men can get in shape as easy as turning on a switch no matter what you eat” canned response. For me that couldn’t be further from the truth.

As for the diet talk around here, I’ve heard plenty of talk about raspberry ketones which I think is a Dr Oz endorsement. Another coworker is on Sensa. They are not getting any results.

[magnolia1973]

I dunno, I can see where eating 3 primal meals plus 2 primal snacks a day could be just as sustainable as 2 or 3 meals a day. Purely from a concept standpoint to work within PB that I had not considered. A lot of women seem to not get great results on PB and maybe there is something to more frequent meals with a female metabolism. Just replace the typical carb snack with something protein/fatty.

But yeah, anything like Sensa and Rasberry Ketones are bullshit. They bring to mind the old grapefruit extract drops....

[sbhikes]

I have never quite understood women's culture. It's like there's a secret society for women and they all understand all the stuff that goes with it but I never did. One of those things is the "going on a diet" thing. I honestly think they really don't ever intend to actually succeed on it. I'll give an example. I told my mom about Primal/Paleo and she was all excited to try a new diet. She emailed her friend from way back to tell her about this great new diet and her friend was all "oh wow, I've been looking for a fun new diet to try." So they were all set to try this great diet but got hung up on the fact that Primal and Paleo don't have specific rules or meal plans. They both just ate as much food as they could, didn't bother trying to go with the spirit of these diets which is that they are for obtaining lasting health, and they didn't lose any weight, so they're like hey, that was fun, what's the next diet to try. I think you see this all the time around here, too. People just think if they eat the allowed foods they'll lose 10lbs when the diet is not for weight loss specifically but for obtaining lasting health. (If you want weight loss, you have to eat less, but Primal/Paleo makes that so much easier to do.) So then it's on to the next thing because they never did bother to understand WHY do you give up vegetables oil and WHY do you give up grains. They just wanted a fun new toy to play with for a while.

[PrimalJewishAmericanPrincess]

Today this individual had a fried fish sandwich, french fries, and a lemon raspberry cupcake (it was a birthday, so that makes it ok). I sat and enjoyed my casein shake..excited by the little balls at the bottom that turned into casein pudding.

[Mr. Koozie]

I have never quite understood women's culture. It's like there's a secret society for women and they all understand all the stuff that goes with it but I never did. One of those things is the "going on a diet" thing. I honestly think they really don't ever intend to actually succeed on it. I'll give an example. I told my mom about Primal/Paleo and she was all excited to try a new diet. She emailed her friend from way back to tell her about this great new diet and her friend was all "oh wow, I've been looking for a fun new diet to try." So they were all set to try this great diet but got hung up on the fact that Primal and Paleo don't have specific rules or meal plans. They both just ate as much food as they could, didn't bother trying to go with the spirit of these diets which is that they are for obtaining lasting health, and they didn't lose any weight, so they're like hey, that was fun, what's the next diet to try. I think you see this all the time around here, too. People just think if they eat the allowed foods they'll lose 10lbs when the diet is not for weight loss specifically but for obtaining lasting health. (If you want weight loss, you have to eat less, but Primal/Paleo makes that so much easier to do.) So then it's on to the next thing because they never did bother to understand WHY do you give up vegetables oil and WHY do you give up grains. They just wanted a fun new toy to play with for a while.

I totally agree with this. I’m a man working in an office with about 40 women and when one of them tries a new diet and talks about it at work, the other women will sit there and listen with the utmost fascination. They want to hear everything about it and then decide if it’s something they can attempt. They don’t care one bit about the details.

Last year one of them did the HCG diet and raved about it. Inject yourself with a pregnancy hormone every day and eat 500 calories per day. Sounds miserable to me. That’s got to be the most unsustainable diet ever. Why do people do these things to themselves? It’s so easy to eat Paleo or Primal, in my opinion anyway.