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Independent readers have been weighing in on why losing weight feels so hard in the UK – while also sharing the methods that have helped them succeed.
Many said the odds are stacked against people from the outset, pointing to cheap ultra-processed food, oversized portions, constant snacking and lifestyles that involve far less everyday movement than in the past.
One reader contrasted this with France, arguing that better school meals, smaller portions and a more balanced food culture help prevent obesity before it takes hold – suggesting the problem is as much environmental as it is individual.
At the same time, commenters broadly agreed that weight loss is not complicated in theory.
Eating fewer calories by cutting out processed foods, reducing portion sizes, limiting eating windows or avoiding sugary snacks and alcohol were frequently referenced as effective ways to shed excess pounds.
Where many struggle, readers said, is keeping the weight off long term.
Exercise was widely praised for its health benefits, but rarely seen as enough on its own, while ageing, persistent hunger and deeply ingrained food habits were blamed for cycles of losing – and then regaining – weight.
Here’s what you had to say:
Something has changed
The shocking thing, looking at street scenes shot in the 1960s, say, is how slim everyone is compared to today. Something has changed, and to me the obvious issues are the type of food we eat, and the exercise that we (don’t) get in our day-to-day lives – nothing to do with going to the gym.
My parents didn’t have a car when I was young; they walked and cycled a lot every day. After we got a car, within a few years my father was seriously obese. I don’t think it’s rocket science. It’s staring us in the face, and I don’t think it helps to make excuses.
Convenience is the norm
I’m not saying it’s easy, but moving more does work. I’ve done two half marathons and on both occasions I lost weight and belly fat over the few months of training before the event. I could tell by weighing myself, looking in the mirror and by which hole in my belt fitted me best.
I also ate quite healthily during training.
I absolutely agree with promoting healthier food overall. Our society has convenience food sold as the norm now, and this affects us as a whole, but we do lose weight by eating better and moving more.
No easy answers
I think that the problem with restricting what you eat – or dieting, as we have always called it – can only work up to a certain point. Yes, you can lose weight by eating less and moving more, but it is the problem of sustaining that diet and exercise regime. It has to be ongoing; otherwise, as the article says, you begin to regain the weight you’ve lost – and sometimes more – as the body overcompensates when it perceives you are going into starvation mode. This is the huge problem people have: being able to maintain their ideal weight.
Plus, as you age, your metabolism changes and you need fewer calories – therefore, you begin to put on weight even if you are eating the same as you did when you were younger.
I do think that your gene pool has a lot to do with your weight, size, etc, but the fact that we live in an environment where food and sugary drinks (much of it highly calorific) are available 24/7 encourages people to constantly graze and to eat bigger and bigger portions.
There are no easy answers – even the weight-loss drugs have limitations: cost for one, side effects for another, some still unknown long-term, but most people put weight on once they come off them.
It’s the food environment, not willpower
I now live in France and have been thinking about what makes the difference. Not willpower, certainly: the French smoke and drink as much as everyone else.
Perhaps it starts in childhood? In France there are no ‘children’s foods’ served in schools: no chicken nuggets, no pizzas, no chips, no ultra-processed food at all. Every school dinner is four courses, starting with a salad, which the children eat because they are hungriest at the start of the meal, then a main of something like chicken, always with vegetables, then a cheese, then a fruit-based dessert.
Children have a snack when they get home from school and then eat dinner with their parents, eating the same food as they do.
The French diet is heavy on cheese, butter and cream, but nevertheless they generally stay slim. Ultra-processed ready meals are not the staple food. Food standards are high, so what ready meals there are tend not to be adulterated with empty calories and stuff that is not really food at all. Is that why they stay slim? Or is it because portions are small? Or is it because snacking between meals is disapproved of, and eating in the street just not done?
I have concluded that it is the total food environment that helps the French to stay slim, and that causes obesity in the UK and the US, not people’s willpower.
Ban empty calories
I would go further and think of ways of ‘banning’ empty calories, like sugary drinks, and indeed sugar in food and ultra-processed foods. Nobody needs this garbage, certainly not in the quantities it’s packaged in. And what about portion sizes food is sold in at supermarkets? It’s hard to find an appropriate portion size for food for one or just two. This, of course, is deliberate marketing to get people to buy more than they need and more than they should eat.
Another thing would be for government to subsidise and/or control the retail price of natural foods we all should be eating, like fruit and veg and organic produce, so everyone can afford to eat wholesome, nutritious, natural, unadulterated food (with no added sugar, which is addictive).
I lost 10kg in one year
I ate less and moved more and lost 10kg in one year. I stopped doing that as much and regained some of the weight. It does actually work. But the problem is people’s ability to stick to it is limited. You just need to find a bit more willpower and say no to that extra piece of cake or bar of chocolate or fatty foods – or reduce your portion size. You really don’t need all that extra food.
How little I need to eat
As a lifelong cyclist and runner, I was quite annoyed at the age of 69 to discover I had blocked cardiac arteries, but then realised I shouldn’t be too aggrieved as most of my male ancestors, due to heart disease, didn’t get much past the age of 50. Now 82, after three forms of cancer, which have restricted the amount of exercise I can take, I have been astonished how little I need to eat to avoid weight gain and the deposition of fat in my arteries, even though I cycle three times a week and do weight training on the intervening days.
I have no doubt that regular exercise combined with a healthy diet is the key to a healthy life, but without the fear of imminent death I would find it almost impossible to keep the calories under control.
Willpower worked for me
Some find it easier than others. Willpower worked for me. I feel that the dangerous implicit promise of a lot of fad diets is that they will minimise the requirement for willpower, and people give up when they discover that is not true. In my case, cutting out the empty calories – chocolate, biscuits and crisps – is sufficient to lose weight. Doing so is genuinely difficult, but I tell myself that since I’m not a six-year-old, I can cope without eating six-year-old’s party food for a while.
A lifestyle, not a diet
For the last five years my wife and I have lived the OMAD life. One meal a day at 7pm of foods that are not, or are minimally, processed. A salad with seven different vegetables every day. We no longer feel we are ‘on a diet’ as it’s a lifestyle. We have lost 39lbs each and have more energy than when we were 30 (we are 64).
Restricting when you eat
I’ve found an approach that works for me and a few others I’ve met, and that is to restrict my eating to between 11am and 7pm. I’ve found that my body clock adjusts to this quite readily after periods of non-adherence. Weight loss, or at least waist-size reduction, becomes apparent after just a few weeks.
Subsidised gym memberships
How about subsidised gym memberships? Maybe you pay an upfront fee and get a refund for all the time you are in the gym. Even just pay people to go, so that those who don’t still contribute to the expenditure to reduce the burden on the NHS.
Obesity is very costly to the nation, as well as unpleasant for sufferers.
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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