Confused and Bewildered

[donjon]

I have had a nosey on some of the other forums on here and I have been left totally confused.

I appreciate that no one likes to carry extra bulk but why would someone want to go on a restrictive diet when their BMI is 25.7, especially if that person is a man and is over 6ft

I know many of the VLCD's say you should have BMI of over 25 before joining but I feel that if someone is just a miniscule amount overweight the companies, especially one where you have to go and get weighed weekly should not be encouraging people to partake in a diet of this extreme. I wonder if they are just counting the cash.

I wonder if companies should raise the BMI limit, as I think those will a stone to lose are using these diets as a quick fix solution and they do not have time to address their eating habits in the 4 weeks that it would take to achieve their goal. I do not think that BMI should be the be all and end all as it does not take into account the gender or the proportion of body fat to muscle. Would it not make more sense to use waist to hip ratio for these type of diets

What are the rest of your thoughts on this matter?

 

[weasey]

I certainly think that if people use a vcld short term they are far more likely to be using it as a short term fix. I also agree that bmi is flawed as it doesn't take into account the body fat ratio. However, if someone is 6 ft tall and has a bmi of 25.5 say then they are the same proportion overweight as someone who is 5 ft tall and has a bmi of 25.5 as it does take height into account.

I think the best measure is body fat percentage as it doesn't matter how tall you are and it does differentiate between genders. However, it's difficult to measure accurately so isn't ideal. All of the others are flawed in one way or another.

As to the diets being about making money - well yes, they are. They are businesses which aim to make profits. They can be ethical in their approach. If someone wants to lose a stone and uses a vlcd to do it then they may learn something. If they used a different approach and it took longer would they learn any more? Someone like me who has a lot of weight to lose will take longer and will learn more, but then I probably have more to learn - such as don't wait until you're more than 9 stone heavier than you want to be before doing something about it! So doing something when there is only 1 stone to go seems quite sensible in some ways!

 

[BordersGirl]

I'm not at goal yet but have considered using S&S during maintenance to do something quickly post a holiday or Xmas etc. so that I can nip any weight gain in the bud quickly before it becomes an issue. I know how it works, I know I can make it work for me, and it's quick which means I can pretty much address the issue in a couple of weeks or so before returning to normal maintenance levels.

 

[Pheonix2010]

when i was much younger and wanted to lose 10lb for a holiday , I used slimfast , with a low carb evening meal , not that much different really


each to their own , Im confused now becausue im not sure why his height is relevant , your bmi takes you height into account , maybe he has a hot date and wants to look his best

either way its up to the individual to figure out what works for them and what doesnt

Ill be using s and s or something similar for the rest of my life I think , even when Im at goal , ill do it for a few weeks to lose holiday weight or just to get rid of an extra stone that has crept on over time (hopefully that wont happen as ill daily weight anyway )

for many years in my 20s I carried around an extra stone of weight and I tried various diet plans but to no avail , had someone told me about this I may have given it a shot , unfortunately I ended up with 4 stone to lose , still not sure how it happened