Do Diets Work? Week In Week Out

Since 16 I've been on a diet, and tried every diet under the sun.

Across Wales, hundreds of thousands of women are on a mission to lose

weight. Women like these three mums, trying

different techniques including hypnosis? Just listen to the sound

of my voice. ..calorie counting? There's a few

prawns and a wrap for my lunch. OK, off you go.

..and sweating their way to the perfect body.

Hopefully next week I'll see an improvement again.

So does dieting work? One expert says it's time we kicked them into

touch. Dieting is part of the problem, in

fact, dieting is making us fat. But are Welsh women ready to end

their life of diets? I don't want to walk into the room

and be the fat bird in the room. One, two, three, go!

Anyone who knows me knows I do not enjoy exercise.

This is me at my worst now, starting back at the gym tonight.

Lisa, from Hawarden is trying something new.

This time I've got to come back and focus more on food, what I'm eating,

as well as the exercising. After a summer break, it's back to

the gym and she's ready to battle the bulge once more.

First, it's weighing up the problem. I'll definitely have gained weight,

but I'll take it tonight, and I've got to work on it. Where's she

hiding? ! A lot but not as bad as what we thought. Hello, I've decided

to have a little go on this hypnotherapy for a gastric band.

In Pontypool, 42-year-old Gaynor is trying a different route to get her

back the figure she was proud of years ago. Obviously I've got

pictures, the night before I got married. Glacier is! -- Luka Glass

's. That would be a fantastic weight to be, but I don't think I'd ever

get down to that again. I don't want to look at myself in a full length

mirror. I don't want to look at myself in a full length mirror or

shop. People make comments. Even walking through Cardiff young lads

spit at me and call me fat, which is upsetting. Shall I pop my car down?

Gaynor is a confident business woman, but she's conscious of her

weight and first impressions. I work in a very male-orientated

environment work-wise with my job. Look, it is Brad Pitt.

She's desperate to lose weight and she wants to try something new. You

have an operation but it is through hypnotherapy. How about next

Wednesday, about half three? First consultation - game on!

Do you want to go for a walk, Alf? Treat's for the dog, not for me.

Married mum-of-three Karen has just returned home to Cardiff from a

holiday in America where naughty food is all too tempting. You know,

what they say about America - big portions - Pecan pie, ooh, really

nice. But actually, I found that I hadn't put on any weight on

holidays, but since coming back I've put on a few pounds, so I've got to

nip that in the bud. I have so many eating is out. I have put on a few

pounds. Today I must rein it in. She's going back to the tried and

tested and her plan is simple. Eat less and count the calories. I'm in

the zone. I am feeling positive. If I could bottle it I'd make a

fortune. Hopefully it will just take me through just a few weeks, just to

lose that a few pounds and make me feel better again.

Post holiday, pre-Christmas, our three women are looking to lose

weight and they're not alone. A BBC Wales survey has found two thirds of

us have been on a diet. And women are twice as likely to diet than

men. Lisa loves going away for weekends

in Nefyn with her partner Phil and Shane the dog. She loves life and

lives it to the full, but she always wants to be slimmer. I've been

battling with my weight right through from high school from 16. I

think I've probably dieted 80% to 90% of my life - just one diet to

another diet, quite sad, really. I have always swung from one did it to

another diet. Just looking for the next dig that would work quicker.

Always different, always hoping for better results. Success is when you

feel happy within yourself and if you are comfortable with your own

body. I would rather Lisa remain the way that she is. Rather than someone

who is simply drinking cups of coffee every night and not enjoying

herself. Unless she starts getting massive! Then I will tell her it is

time to stop. When I can't get in the car! And you have to pull me

out! Here is my draw full of books. I

think everyone else has one of these - Dieting for Dummies. That's my

diet drawer. I keep it here because you never know when you might need

it. Worrying about her figure and food

has also been part of Karen's life. I always remember my mother being on

a diet - constantly dieting. I grew up in a house with three brothers,

so my mother would come home with a bag of goodies and my brothers would

be straight in there looking for something to eat, and I thought if I

don't get in there early there won't be anything left. Boys would eat us

out of house and home. I remember my friend being able to

get into skinny jeans and I had a big backside and never wanted to

wear a skirt as I was conscious of my shape.

Hello, you ready? I think so, a bit nervous. See how it is.

Gaynor is about to try mind over matter, the Hypno-Band technique.

Diets tend to be short-term and a lot of people can keep the weight

off but that is the main percentage rather than the major percentage. So

in order to change things I believe we must start afresh and that is

where the Hypno-Band comes into play.

Have you had hypnosis previously? No. What do you want to lose

weight-wise? I'd like to go on dress size, actually. Ideally I want to

get down to a size 12/14, yeah. I will take you into a trance; you

need to want to do it. I know you want do this, but it's not a magic

bullet. Relax you are falling into a sleep.

Women are under huge pressure to be far thinner than is healthy or

normal, we are constantly bombarded with images of sports women being

derided for being overweight. We do have a much skewered view of what is

a healthy weight in our society. Dr Katie Thirlaway believes women

are particularly sensitive to social pressure and the desire to slim and

trim, and that's why so many will go to any lengths to diet.

If people are stigmatized because of their weight, if they feel bad or

depressed because they think people are judging them because of their

weight, that draws people to more high-calorie food to comfort eat.

They are less likely to participate in activity classes or to go out and

do things and feel they are going to be stigmatised. And once you have

experienced it a few times, the anxiety that you might be

stigmatised prevents you from getting outside and into activities

that would control your weight. Our three women have lived in a

world of dieting for years. Karen, Lisa and Gaynor have gone around and

around. You name it, they've done it. Atkins. Slimming club.

Slim-Fast. The commando diet. Eating with attitude. You basically live on

nothing. Cabbage diet. I have tried everything, the list is endless.

But shedding pounds costs many more. In fact, across the UK we spend ?2

billion a year on diet programmes and products, money spent largely by

women. Clinic in Chester for 4:50pm and that's it, I'm going to thin.

One of my friends had been on a diet and I thought I could do the same

thing. Realistically, that diet, I could never sustain it. I lost two

stone, but as soon as I came off, they went back on and the rest. Very

sad. I've spent hundreds of pounds,

thousands. I fall for it every time. What with slimming class, buying the

scales, the books - I've spent a small fortune.

I get up in the morning and I am like a zombie, a zombie for hours. I

find myself at the fridge. I do not eat during the day, it makes me

second. It might be all too tempting, but do

we know how to avoid fatty food? I do have regular meals.

These people in Newport are being encouraged to eat the good stuff to

stay healthy. Quite scary when you think 60% of the Welsh population

are overweight or obese and almost a quarter us, 23% are actually defined

as clinically obese. So with the right diets can we avoid

the obesity time bomb? Gaynor is on her way to her second

session of hypnotherapy. She says she can see a difference. I have not

weighed myself but my clothes feel a lot less. I am feeling a little

things like when I put my seat belt on, there is less to put around

myself, which is a good sign. Usually at dinner time I work

through being starving until I get home. I have been having a sandwich.

A sandwich at lunch time which has made things better. And then on your

next breath out, allow your stomach muscles to relax. Just be aware how

wonderfully comfortable you can feel. There we go. Here ends your

second session. What we will do at the next session, which will be your

first session, that is your operation session. Are you looking

forward to that? Guess. Superb. Lisa is cooking a healthy family

meal. It's all part of the plan. She says she already feels better -

she's lost over five pounds. But years of yo-yo dieting are

praying on her mind. I want quick results, I've always put weight back

on - there's part of me that thinks it will go back on. Which is not

good getting your head around. I think what I find most frightening

is there is no plan. Nobody has given me a diet sheet. I

have always had something to follow. Now it is being told that you can

eat everything in moderation. It is difficult to understand that. That

sounds silly, doesn't it, coming from a grown-up, but yes I'll stop

tomatoes from my friend's garden. Karen knows what to do. She has been

counting calories for 30 years. But temptation is never far away.

Tonight I am going out with the girls and we are going out for

something to eat because I have not seen them in a little while. For my

breakfast I ate quite light, soup and salad for my lunch, and then I

will eat quite heartily tonight, but I will not have any dessert. Won out

for dinner again, the girls are here and they are looking forward to

their meals. But what's to eat? The fish cakes were nice. With plenty of

choice, she is struggling. Will it be salad or something a little more

tempting? I am going for the beef dish. All our women are worried that

when the diet and they will put on the pounds again, and they are

probably right. People who diet and failed to lose weight or gain the

weight back afterwards are more likely to fail the next time I'm at

so you get into a cycle of what some people would call yo-yo dieting, and

what we sometimes do say is that you are at a higher risk of disinhibited

eating. Once you have failed at a diet, you are more likely to eat to

excess. But there is one kind of diet that is often comfort to

women. The slimming club. When I first got a goal with

Weightwatchers, that was my gold measured -- member badge, but I will

never be that weight again. I keep it as a reminder. Here, they are

celebrating another pair of outsized trousers that will not be needed

anymore. Clubs like this seem to have the edge and weight loss. It is

the support that we give our members. We become a family. I came

near because I bought a pair of trousers that was size 24 and I did

not like it. I do not want to left anyone in my group down, myself or

my kids, anybody. The swimming classes, they work for me. I ? I go

to different ones, depending on what mood am in the stop I always end up

going back to the support more than anything, and for someone to say, it

yes, you have lost weight. I could know that I lost weight and I would

still go to slimming. When I go there, people say, yes, you have

lost weight, and I say, I know. They are also housing pounds and calories

at another club in Penarth. Groups like this have been used by GPs to

lose weight, so why are they not used in public health campaigns? We

have been speaking to decision makers in the health service, and

what they tell us is that they would love to work with Weightwatchers,

they have seen the evidence and know that we are a safe option, but they

simply do not have sufficient funding to offer all of the adults

in the population access to services such as ours. Slimming clubs can be

part of the solution, but Dr Thirlaway has doubts. I would not

want to paint everyone with the same brush, but the diet industry as a

whole is part of the problem, because if you want a long-term diet

industry and you want to make money, you really need people to be

constantly dieting. The third person is going to run with the bell.

Slimming clubs work when people who are slimming work with the plan.

That is easier said then done. Iran a slimming group for around 12

months, I think it was. The whole idea of going into it was because I

believed that would be it, once again, that would be it. I would run

the group, I had been successful on the eating plan, so I knew what I

was doing and I knew what it was all about. But you have to have the time

to plan ahead, and he just could not work out. Gaynor is back for another

hypnotherapy session, and this is the big one. You have lost, but it

is a minimal amount. That is good, you're going in. I am just going to

drop the blinds down. I am just going to pop my light on. OK. You

ready then? Comfy? You are vaguely aware of the day to day noises, the

surgeon is ready to begin your gastric band. Leaving your stomach,

now the size of a golf ball. Now you can relax for a moment as you are

taken to the recovery room. From this day onwards, you will find that

you feel full, even after only a very small amount of food. Why is --

eyes wide open, rested and relaxed. Eyes wide open, Gaynor. It feels...

There was some deep breathing, but this time, I actually feel

really... The suggestion that you have had an ascetic could make you

react in the same way, because that is what your memory tells you. --

and an ascetic. Dr Thirlaway look at all of the tactics of our ladies.

What do she make of Gaynor's plan? If she can make some sustainable

long-term changes to the way she leads her life, that will be a good

thing. Whether the hypnotherapy is able to help her, I would not like

to say, but if it was able to help her change her habits for the

long-term come it then that would be a benefit. It is another night out

for Karen, and more temptation. She is resisting, but is she enjoying

her tuna as much as her brothers are enjoying their stake? Tasty. Do you

know what I mean? This week, it seems to have gone to pot a little

bit. I am these die managed to say the same -- stay the same. I think

real-life gets any way sometimes. It is difficult. I can cope with that.

It is a great shame when people who are not particularly ever weight

cannot get on with enjoying their lives and eating and exercising

healthily without worrying too much. Back at the beach, Lisa is

facing her biggest challenge since she started cutting down. She is on

another weekend in Nefyn with her partner. Eating out has plenty of

temptations, but this time, she has a plan. I am here and I am going to

enjoy it. We have friends at us so we

I am just going to stick to my meals if need be, and eat fruit in

between, but not snack on all of the sweet treats that I would probably

snack on. You are not having the bread pie? Those sandwiches do look

lovely, don't they? Some cider. I was very impressed to see Lisa take

in some exercise and decide not to diet, and I am very hopeful that if

she continues to be more physically active, she will maintain her weight

and maybe even lose a little bit of weight by not thinking about it and

not worrying about what she is eating. The BBC's Living Longer

Survey showed that the vast majority of people in Wales who went on a

diet and lose weight. But long-term, over half of them put weight back

on. RB getting the right advice? We have been trying -- are people

getting the right advice? I think we need to move away from this as a

strategy and focus on encouraging people to be healthy, to eat high

quality, healthy food, and to take more exercise, to move more in their

daily life, and is not to think about weight and weight loss. The

Welsh Government says it is currently reviewing its strategy and

obesity to take in more exercise, but it says it already has a

multilayered approach which is not focused solely on weight loss. When

you stand... So how are the personal strategies for our three women

working out? Just a slightly different angle to show it. Gaynor

is updating images for her website and business. It must be nice to be

able to feel that comfortable. I wish! I would be like a woman

possessed. Despite her worries, there is a smile on her face. So,

has behaved in a band made a difference? -- has the hypnoband

made a difference? I am eating things that I enjoy. Apples, I am

actually thinking I fancy them now. As for Lisa, she has lost eight

pounds, but she has been here before. Because I have always put

weight back on, there is probably a bit of me now that thinks that it

will go back and, but it is just persevering with it and staying

positive, isn't it? Even on a Saturday, I just don't get it.

Another birthday meal. And despite the many temptations, Karen hasn't

managed to maintain her weight, but what of the future? -- has managed

to maintain her weight. Will I ever be happy with my weight? I do not

know. There are times when I put the scales away and think I will not

weigh myself, and then weeks later, I think, oh, these are getting a bit

too tight. I am a yo-yo dieters. Always have been, always will be.

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