My experience of the “Fat Club”
I joined last night – a child belonging to one of the new members referred to it as ‘fat club’. It wasn’t how I thought it would be. I had hoped for a small group of supportive people all with similar goals. Instead it was a massive money making machine full of people (primarily women) with little else in their lives. The sensible people got weighed then left and it soon became apparent why they had legged it so quickly. Those of us who were new had to stay for the full session and were treated to a room full of miserable looking middle to old age people arguing about a raffle (the prizes included tinned beans and cheap diet lemonade). I lost the will to live at this point. Then began the public humiliation of a variety of members by the person hosting the group. Each name that was called out was given their weight loss or gain and condescendingly asked to declare their weight loss target for the next week (and woe betide them if they didn’t lose it). To me, this sort of information should be discussed and imparted in private on a one-to-one basis. It was not a supportive environment contrary to their advertising claims. The consultant allowed one particularly uneducated, loud-mouthed, annoying woman to take over the whole group. I got so bored that I upped and left before the end.
As for the actual diet plan, last night in the introductory discussion (in which the consultant failed to tell people exactly how it worked), I could not see how it would be possible to lose weight following the plan. Today however, I can see how as it forces you to really think about all the lovely extras you can have. For example, I thought a simple bowl of soup and a slice of bread would be a perfectly good lunch. Wrong! This little meal would account for two thirds of your sinful allowance. In addition, I was very smug in thinking I could swap chocolate (read snickers – I love snickers) bars for cereal bars and win all the weight loss. Wrong again – the best cereal bars are worth half the points and my favourite – the 9Bar – is worth almost all of them. Basically the diet forces you to view treats as treats, rather than items with which to stuff ones face with on an hourly basis.
You are allowed certain foods in unlimited quantities (for my plan I can have things like pasta, rice, potatoes and baked beans in unlimited or ‘free food’ quantities). The diet I’ve successfully followed in the past (Dr Clark high protein, low carb) banned these types of foods so eating them all the time when I’m supposed to be dieting to lose weight is alien to me.
Fortunately I have three months free from my GP so I will stick with it for that time and see if it actually works. My target weight is 9st 1.5lbs. Last time I was disciplined enough to diet and exercise I got down to 10st 6lbs. Most people thought I was too thin then but I could still see some rolls of flab. I haven’t weight under 10st since 1994 (17 years) so this will be a challenge. It’s got to be done though; fat women don’t get husbands (if you’re offended I don’t care. You don’t have to read this)!
