Here's a statement I frequently hear from people who are dieting.

"I'm trying super hard to not get discouraged,
but I'm not seeing enough results
even though I'm sticking to my diet."

Even though we are "responsible-adults" in almost every way, when it comes to dieting and weight-loss most of us are like spoiled children, expecting to receive something we simply have not yet earned.

Each of us lives inside an individual body, and bodies differ as to how fast they lose weight ... even when they eat exactly the same amount of the same foods.

Our ONLY real CONTROL over the size of our bodies is the food we put into our mouths ... AND, we have the ability ... although it is difficult... to control our behavior with food.

Eating less is the CAUSE of weight-loss.

Weight-loss is the RESULT of our eating BEHAVIOR.

  We DO NOT have any control over the speed of our weight-loss, and until we understand and accept this, we are not going to have the PATIENCE, and the PERSISTENCE, that it takes to continually, day-after-day engage in the kind of eating behavior that CAUSES weight-loss.

There is really no WAY that any one individual body can lose weight faster than it can when strictly following a diet that allows only a tiny bit of food intake, ... for example one such as the 5-bite diet.  Even a total water fast would BARELY increase one's weight-loss speed.  So, if you feel that a very-low-calorie-diet such as the 5-bite diet is a good choice for you, personally,  I say do everything you can to stick with it, no matter whether your weight-loss results are fast or slow.

Yesterday I answered a question from a member of a forum that I frequent.  I'm doing that again today. 

         Forum Member Asked:  

"What percentage would you say .. of those with above-normal BMI's are seriously obese? I'm pretty sure the morbidly obese comprise under 10%, but would you include others in the seriously obese category?"

 I found this an interesting question.  I thought about it; did some research; made some rough calculations; and came up with the following answer. 

There are "official" stages of obesity, using the BMI. 

Stage 1 is 30 - 34.9 BMI -- obesity

Stage 2 is 35  - 39.9 BMI -- severe obesity

Stage 3 is 40 - 49.0 BMI - morbid obesity

Stage 4 is 50 and up BMI - super obesity

Personally, I would include most of the Stage 2, severe obesity people into what I term the "seriously obese category", depending on the number of years they've spent above Stage 1.

About Percentages … roughly based on a 2010 survey of the US population,

73% of the US population is overweight or obese. 

The Percentage breakdown for women over the age of 20 is: 
 

64% of women over 20 - either overweight or obese 

36% of these women - are obese. 

The Percentage breakdown for Obese women over the age of 20 is: 

36% Obese. with …  

Stage 1 --Obese = 17%

Stage 2 -- Severely Obese = 11%

Stage 3 -- Morbidly & Super Obese  = 8%

However, note that these are the percentages of the overweight and the obese women within the general population.

When considering only the Diet Community population,  the Overweight and Obese breakdown is approximately 100% of the diet community population, rather than the 64% that is within the general population.

Of that 100%, there is no way to actually KNOW the breakdown between overweight and obese.. but common sense and my observational skills tell me that most women who join dieting communities are commonly near or above the obesity borderline, so the percentage of those obese dieters joining diet communities is higher than the 56%  which would be allotted through changing the 64% to a 100% breakdown. 

Assigning percentages of those obese dieters to stages 1, 2, 3, and 4 would merely be further guesswork.  However, if we based percentages proportionally.. which, of course, would be inaccurate…. Approximately….

47% of these obese people would be stage 1 - obese,

30% of these obese people would be stage 2 - severely obese

22% of these obese people would be stage 3 or 4 - morbidly or super obese

Dragging this out to absurdity…

the percentage of the dieting community which is obese .. rather than overweight.. could be at least  two-thirds (63%) or higher..more than one-half (52%) of that two-thirds would be severely or morbidly obese. ..meaning about 33% of 100% would fall into the category of severely obese or above. 

The absurdly-inaccurate general calculations above support my own personal estimate which is that probably about one-third or higher of the diet community population consists of women who I would term as "seriously" obese.  

 Twenty-two years ago, my own highest BMI was 52.9 which placed me into the Stage 4 category - super obese.  However, my lifetime of continual dieting allowed me to spend the majority of my years between the ages 20 and 50 with a BMI from 35 to 39 -- within Stage 2, the severely obese range. It has only been within the past 9 years that I have been in the "normal" BMI range.

The No S Diet by Reinhard Engels is a diet book that I recommend, and there are several articles discussing that diet in the DietHobby Archives.  I recently received and answered a question in a forum that I frequent, and due to its relevancy, decided to also post it here. 
 

A Forum member wrote: 

I realize I've never understood how you use No S.
Do you stick to 3 meals, but also track calories?
And continue to experiment with food types or limiting calories?

Although I have personally dealt with severe obesity, for all of my life, I have no ultimate answers or ultimate solutions for people who are severely obese. I've come up with personal observations and possible solutions, and here in my personal blog, DietHobby, I talk about these issues a great deal. I've made no secret of the fact that my own personal weight-loss and maintenance requires constant vigilance, and ongoing experimentation.

 In my opinion,  "Diet Head" is a negative term useful only for those who are exhausted with their dieting failures, and who wish to avoid taking further personal responsibility for their own ongoing food choices. I reject that concept, and I have learned that ... for me...any short term "peace" that comes from giving up personal vigilance over my food and weight issues has always resulted in a very rude (and unmerciful) awakening.

My own choice is to consistently approach my food intake mindfully, to be constantly aware of how my food and my weight relate to each other, and to purposely choose to view "dieting" issues as an enjoyable "hobby".

  I understand why people would feel they don't have a clear understanding of my personal dieting practices. My own personal diet / food-plan / way-of-eating has a great deal of flexibility.            

The only thing that I am concisely "rigid" about is my choice to track and log ALL of my food EVERY DAY into a computer software food journal. I have done this every day since September 20, 2004... It is now an enjoyable HABIT, and my computer history tells me that "0 out of 3503 days have missing data".

 My computer food journal automatically gives me access to extensive nutritional information about my food, including calories. I see that information every day, so it is something of which I am constantly aware.  Since I have ongoing information of how my own weight relates to my own calorie ingestion, I pay attention to that calorie number and I consistently work toward keeping my ongoing calorie averages low enough to avoid weight gain. Sometimes I feel frustrated, but shame or guilt is not part of my personal mind-set.

  The No S concept that has been the most valuable to me is the Habit concept. I've found No S to be flexible enough to be valuable for my own long-term use. Over the years, I've used No S principles in many different ways, and I really like the support I've received from Reinhard for that process.

There are times when I practiced "vanilla" No S, exactly as recommended; I learned very quickly that, for me, following a basic "S" day plan without modification would take me rapidly back into morbid obesity, and I've experimented with many different "S" day, modifications.

There are times when I've experimented with the specific number of meals in my "N" days, trying out modifications involving having more and having less daily meals. There are times when I've experimented with various other modifications, sometimes independent personal modifications, sometimes these modifications which involve combining No S principles with other diets.

Except for my consistent daily food tracking Habit, I am quite flexible about involving myself with food-intake experiments. Sometimes I've combined No S with experiments of different food types. Sometimes I've combined No S with experiments of higher and low calories. Sometimes I've modified No S to fit in with other food intake experiments.

 My ongoing pattern is to engage myself in a variety of dieting experiments.  I continue to do this because I have not yet found ONE single way-of-eating that will allow me to maintain my large weight-loss in a sustainable and enjoyable manner.

  At present, what is sustainable and enjoyable for me is the habit of searching and experimenting.  Anyone interested in the details can access the hundreds of posts and videos through my DietHobby Archives, or by following my ongoing DietHobby posts.

Working to control one's eating behaviors is EFFORT.

Weight-loss that occurs from skillful eating behaviors is a RESULT.

Although we are responsible for our EFFORTS,
we are not responsible for our RESULTS.

Eating Behavior skills for becoming thinner can be acquired, and using them can help accomplish that task. But even with the consistent application of the same eating behaviors, people's weights will vary. Weight is only partially determined by factors under our control. As we look around and size one another up, we have to stop thinking that a variation in size means a variation in effort.

Belts and bathroom scales measure RESULTS.

They do not measure EFFORTS.

 
 
Human physiology accounts for many variations among us. Genetic mutations exist which result in greater or lesser energy efficiency, and other variations in metabolism influencing the propensity to gain, retain, or lose weight.

While most people are vulnerable to the obesigenic influences of the modern world, some of us are far more vulnerable than others. All of us can lose weight when calories in are less than calories out, but it takes very differing efforts for some of us, than for others, to get There from Here.

Weight is neither a behavior, nor a choice.

Almost no one can wake up and decide exactly what to weigh... no matter which diet they decide to implement in order to become thinner. 

Many Thin people put far less Effort into their eating behaviors than the Efforts that are put forth by Fat people. Variation in size doesn't equal variation in effort. It is important to recognize that even the best application of eating behavior skills will not turn weight Results into a Behavior.

We don't ALL get the same RESULTS from the same EFFORTS.

22 years ago at age 47, weighing 271 lbs. at a height of 5'0",  I had an RNY gastric bypass, open surgery, with NO removal of any intestine, which means that every calorie I eat is still digested, and still counts. 

The doctor's recommendation for post-surgery eating was simple. "Eat three meals a day of whatever food you want, but make half of each meal protein; avoid fried foods and sweets; and have no carbonated beverages."

My surgery was done when the procedure was still considered experimental.  At the time, it was performed here in California by only a few doctors. To get surgery, people had to travel to San Diego, stay in the hospital 2 or 3 days, then stay at a local hotel for an additional 10 post-surgery days before being released to return back home.  Follow-up care was received once a month during the surgeon's visit to one of the nearby temporary clinics located in various cities throughout California.  About five years later,  surgeons all over California began setting up specialized practices for weight-loss surgery, and coordinated with nutritionists who made specific post-surgery diet recommendations like protein shakes etc. That happened several years before laser surgery became common.

The first year after surgery my body would tolerate very little food.  Eating more than one-quarter to one-half cup of food at a time made me feel uncomfortably stuffed like after Thanksgiving dinner.  

I frequently experienced Dumping syndrome, which is caused by food passing too quickly into the small intestine. This caused immediate symptoms of flushing, weakness, fatigue, dizziness, and an intense desire to lie down. Severe episodes include feelings of nausea, and even stomach cramps.

I experienced severe dumping symptoms after just a swallow or two of fruit juice; or one or two bites of fried-or-greasy food; or a bite or two of any sweet like cookies, cake, pie, candy. I also became lactose intolerant. Milk made me feel ill, and even the tiniest bit of ice cream, with it's combination of milk and sugar, immediately made me lie-down-with-dry-heaves-ill.

Therefore, due to my weight-loss surgery, that entire first year my food intake was somewhere between 200 to 600 calories a day, which caused my weight to drop from 271 down to 161 lbs .... without dieting. This happened while I ate however much I could, of whatever food my body would tolerate.  The reason I did not binge, cheat, or quit, even when my weight-loss was slower than I believed I deserved, was because it was physically impossible for me to do so. 

Most people think that weight loss after WLS always happens rapidly.  That immense amounts of weight fall off everyone's body every week, 5-10-15 pounds, week-after-week, like on the Biggest Loser tv show.. only maybe even faster. 

However, Real Life AFTER a Gastric Bypass Surgery, works just like Real Life BEFORE a Gastric Bypass Surgery.  Even though after a RNY surgery Everyone has a smaller stomach, and Everyone eats just a small amount, the rate of weight-loss continues to be an individual matter.  Some people's bodies simply drop weight faster than other people's bodies, and surgery doesn't change that fact. 

Below is a graph of my own individual weight-loss results. This is what happened to MY body during the 64 weeks after a RNY gastric bypass surgery.  I did not diet during that time, but the surgery severely restricted what I ate, and the amounts I ate. I was physically unable to cheat, and I was physically unable to quit.  Plus, of course, I was strongly motivated to lose weight.  Remember, I was a 48 year old, sedentary female who was only 5 ft 0 in tall.

For the next 2 to 3 years I maintained in the 160s while eating as much food as my body would tolerate, however, my stomach begin stretching, and my body began to tolerate more food, and again, I had to begin dieting to keep my weight down.

For the next 10 years, I worked at dieting to keep my weight down, but my weight kept creeping up. I felt I simply could not bear weighing over 200 lbs again, after all my effort, pain, and expense. My struggle to avoid gaining more weight allowed me to maintain in the 190s for several years.  In September 2004 I began logging my food into DietPower, which is a computer software food journal that I discovered online.

At that point, I begun losing weight, and about 16 months later, after working to eat a daily average of approx 1230 daily calories, I reached my goal weight of 115 lbs.

During all of the 8+ years since that time I've been working to maintain at or near that goal weight.

SO ....to summarize the NEXT SEVERAL YEARS: 

Without Dieting

Maintained in the 160's the following 2 ½ years until weight crept into the 170s.  

Started Dieting again, with following Results.

Back to the 160's for 4 months, then weight crept back up into the 170s.

Maintained in the 170's for 2 years, then weight crept on up into 180's. 

Maintained in the 180's for 2 years, then weight crept on up into the 190's

Maintained in the 190s for 2 years,  

          Next

Started Dieting Successfully - began tracking food daily using computer software.

September 20, 2004 - weight 190

January 27, 2006 - weight 115

8+ years later, now in 9th year of dieting to maintain weight-loss.  

Total Summary: 

            Weight                        Weight                  

Pre Surgery …...     241            Reached.... ...... 161  =   110 pound Loss

Post surgery …..     161      Regain….....… 190   =     29 pound Gain

Food Tracking...     190           Goal reached….115  =      75 pound Loss

For further information see the section ABOUT ME here at DietHobby.