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There are currently 26 responses to ““Guess how much weight I’ve lost” – a spot-on mockery of diet talk”

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1. 1 On August 30th, 2010, Mary Sue said:

   Office dieter, family dieter, random person at a restaurant dieter– Heard ‘em all.

   Migosh, Catherine Tate looks awful in that clip.

   posted on August 30th, 2010 at 12:49 pm

2. 2 On August 30th, 2010, lowbudgetcyborg said:

   Catherine Tate is so funny!

   My workplace sponsors Weight Watchers,D: so my office dieters are way more cultish, and usually come in pairs or small groups.

   posted on August 30th, 2010 at 2:05 pm

3. 3 On August 30th, 2010, Buffpuff said:

   That made me laugh so loud I just startled the cat. I say this having just returned from cinema and cake to celebrate a BFFs birthday. “X has been on a diet.” said BFF, of the other friend who was there.”I’ve lost 26lbs!” said X. “Oh,” I said, in what I hoped was a neutral tone. Hope nobody expected me to jump up and down with pompoms because I ain’t playing.

   posted on August 30th, 2010 at 2:32 pm

4. 4 On August 30th, 2010, Ashley said:

   Not really. Dieters don’t talk to me. They hate me and wish I didn’t exist.

   posted on August 30th, 2010 at 2:41 pm

5. 5 On August 30th, 2010, MReap said:

   Donna Noble rules!!
   That’s a Doctor Who reference for you non-geeks

   posted on August 30th, 2010 at 2:53 pm

6. 6 On August 30th, 2010, WendyRG said:

   Oh gawd I love Catherine Tate.

   posted on August 30th, 2010 at 3:16 pm

7. 7 On August 30th, 2010, Twistie said:

   You know, this sketch just reminded me of why I am so happy I work from home and don’t have to deal with the office gossip.

   Unfortunately, nearly all of my friends currently seem to be starting a diet recently, My next door neighbor asked me the other day if I wanted to join her in her diet and weight loss program. I told her I might be interested in the exercise, depending on what kind it was, but no, the diet wasn’t happening. She looked a little confused. I just smiled.

   My neighbor is a terrific lady, but the weight loss talk is really starting to wear.

   posted on August 30th, 2010 at 3:47 pm

8. 8 On August 30th, 2010, Rachel said:

   I hear ya, Twistie. I work out of my home office most of the time and the cats don’t really care what they weigh or look like. My current job isn’t so diet-centric (well, until the company sponsored “Biggest Loser” contest rolls around), but it’s also much more diverse gender-wise. Not so surprisingly, I encountered this mentality much more in past jobs where the office was dominated primarily by women.

   posted on August 30th, 2010 at 4:12 pm

9. 9 On August 30th, 2010, notblueatall said:

   Love Catherine Tate! This skit always kills me, too. Sadly, I’ve been in that exact position though. A co-worker all smiles and pride, waltzing up to my cubicle, invading my serenity, and demands I guess how much weight they’ve lost. Just once I wish I could have said, “You’ve lost every ounce of etiquette, dear!” Never had the nerve to do anything but smile and nod. *sigh*

   posted on August 30th, 2010 at 6:12 pm

10. 10 On August 30th, 2010, Shinobu said:

    I’ve never worked in an office or had anyone try to talk diet to me. I’m just seen as being the awful dieter at home because I measure food to make sure it will last as long as it has to. I don’t look at the calories, only at the recommended serving and total weight, and it isn’t something I do just for things I eat. It makes me sad because I get judged for something I’m not doing and I don’t get offered yummy snacks.

    posted on August 30th, 2010 at 7:18 pm

11. 11 On August 31st, 2010, Jackie said:

    I know it’s supposed to be funny, but I can’t help but think how sad it is the blonde woman is so insecure. She’s practically engaging her co-worker in some sort of bizarre co-dependent support conversation. Like, “Guess my weight! Guess my weight! Waaaah! You made me upset, now I’m going to steal your cake, waaaah!” I would report someone behaving that way towards me to the boss, it’s like this manipulative girl I had to be in high school with.

    I’m not going to be someone’s emotional punching bag, because they can’t handle themselves. I almost want to talk to these kind of people, as if they’re the age they’re acting as. Like, acting like an excited 2 year old wanting praise over your macaroni art project? *claps hands* What a good girl! It’s like, do these people really want that? They are so desperate for attention, they will act like a small child to get it?

    posted on August 31st, 2010 at 3:11 am

12. 12 On August 31st, 2010, julie said:

    Hilarious! I don’t work in a culture of neurotic dieters, fortunately. Obviously, there are people who are mindful of what they eat, but that seems perfectly reasonable to me. The only, uh, amusing thing is one woman who keeps telling me I should stop eating fruit (and all carbs), because they make her fat, yet she’s always eating bread with ham/cheese, cheesy goldfish, candy. She did give up rice, which she was raised on, but I’m not giving up fruit (or any other carbs).

    posted on August 31st, 2010 at 9:26 am

13. 13 On August 31st, 2010, Alyssa (The 40 year-old) said:

    LOVE Catherine Tate! (I think her humor works so well because it often hits so close to home, lol!)

    (@MReap; one of my favorite Donna Noble lines is from “Forest of the Dead” when she discovers she’s not living in the real world: “I’ve been dieting!”)

    posted on August 31st, 2010 at 10:03 am

14. 14 On August 31st, 2010, DaniFae said:

    So funny, I get secondhand office dieter stories thanks to my husband. There’s a food policing dieter in his office, who is on record for taking peoples lunches/snacks and throwing them away, and telling people how diet soda is better for you than water, because the soda is diet, and the water is not.

    Needless to say, I avoid her like the plague at parties.

    posted on August 31st, 2010 at 2:17 pm

15. 15 On August 31st, 2010, Ashley @ Nourishing the Soul said:

    This is hysterical! I’m rolling because I can so relate. My MOTHER does the same thing… it’s never a good idea to guess!

    posted on August 31st, 2010 at 6:34 pm

16. 16 On August 31st, 2010, Willow said:

    People like “Diet-Soda-Is-Better-Than-Water” Woman need a primer in logic.

    posted on August 31st, 2010 at 10:21 pm

17. 17 On September 1st, 2010, Shinobu said:

    Throwing out other people’s food? I know if someone did that to me she better be prepared to buy me something else to make up for it! I can’t imagine some thinking they have the right to do that, let alone wasting someone else’s food and the money spent on it like that.

    I kind of find the “water isn’t diet” idea funny. Water doesn’t have calories, sodium, carbonation, or artificial things like diet soda does. Unless she believes the word “diet” on a product means it will make you skinny.

    posted on September 1st, 2010 at 12:42 am

18. 18 On September 1st, 2010, DaniFae said:

    I was horrified when I found out about the throwing away food thing, she’s like the Westboro Baptist Church of the cult of dieting. It’s really like a religion to her, even the dieters in the office avoid her.

    posted on September 1st, 2010 at 8:30 am

19. 19 On September 1st, 2010, Marianne said:

    I get this all the time in my office. I am the one who is losing weight. I don’t talk about it, I don’t engage people in any type of conversation about it, because I sort of feel like anyone’s body shape or weight is their own business, you know? But it is horribly awkward how many comments like “how much weight have you lost?” or “you sure are losing weight!” I get at work. And the thing is, I am clearly expected to take these comments as compliments and when I do not I have even been reprimanded by the person making the comment (as in “don’t just blow me off, you look fantastic!” as if I am just being modest instead of being clearly uncomfortable with the conversation and trying to change the subject). I don’t consider these comments an automatic compliment, they are just stating facts. Yes, I have, in fact, lost a few pounds, so what?

    And my condolences to the commenter who talked about how Weight Watchers is at her work… it’s at mine too, making Wednesdays a veritable mine field of a combination of body hatred and diet talk.

    I agree with DaniFae, for some people dieting is a religion. They aren’t people that I like to spend a lot of time with, but they sure are out there.

    posted on September 1st, 2010 at 9:20 am

20. 20 On September 1st, 2010, Alyssa (The 41 year-old) said:

    I was taking a Pilates class once, just before the holidays, and our instructor was talking about the party she was going to have. They had rented a chocolate fountain, and had to put olive oil in it to make it work. It was actually a very funny story about her and her husband trying to put this thing together, but one of the other clients, a nutritionist, kept commenting on how “disgusting and unhealthy” the chocolate fountain was. She then proceeded to grill (no pun intended) the instructor on what kind of food she planned on serving, and made snarky comments about all of it. Because, apparently, when you hold a holiday party, you’re only supposed to serve raw veggies and rice cakes.
    Then the OTHER client started chiming in about HER diet program and how much weight she’d lost. When the conversation invariably turned to me, I mentioned that I was doing Intuitive Eating. You would have thought I’s asked them to sell me their children, the way they looked at me and the things they said. The poor instructor was finally able to get us focused again on other things, but, needless to say, I never went back to that particular class again.

    posted on September 1st, 2010 at 7:45 pm

21. 21 On September 2nd, 2010, Willow said:

    I used to compliment people who were losing weight. At some point in the last year or so, I found this Web site and was surprised to realize that people may not wish to hear others’ commentary on weight loss. And then it clicked that others’ bodies are none of my business. My brother-in-law has lost masses of weight recently, yet I haven’t said anything about his weight loss (or the weight gain that preceded it) because…. it’s none of my business!

    posted on September 2nd, 2010 at 11:50 am

22. 22 On September 3rd, 2010, HairyLegs said:

    I work in a minefield of food policing, body talk, and food anxiety. We’re in cubicles, and whenever anybody goes to the kitchenette to eat anything, everybody else prairie-dogs up and checks it out, commenting “that looks so good” “oooh, I’m not eating carbs now, but if I were…” “oh, you’re being so good.” My cube-mate often stares jealously at my salad because I put things with carbs (like peas) in my salad, and her salad only has lettuce. A group of them go off to some sort of abs-abs-abs torture class at lunchtime, sponsored by our workplace as part of a ‘be healthy’ campaign, and they all come back limping.

    It really does my head in.

    posted on September 3rd, 2010 at 1:29 pm

23. 23 On September 4th, 2010, Janet said:

    Oh well…. I thought Catherine Tate (I could never remember her real name!) looked better as Donna Noble in Dr. Who. She was my favorite companion!

    posted on September 4th, 2010 at 9:29 am

24. 24 On September 9th, 2010, Gillian said:

    Hahaha. I can laugh at it now, but I was totally the annoying dieter: in the office, at home, out with friends. Was just thinking today how great it feels not to constantly terrorize myself that way.

    Thanks for sharing this. It’s hilarious.

    posted on September 9th, 2010 at 8:44 pm

25. 25 On October 13th, 2010, Jess said:

    I know I’m late to the party, but I just went to a wedding last weekend, and two of my tablemates spent half of dinner talking about their diets. I wanted to gag.

    posted on October 13th, 2010 at 6:52 pm

26. 26 On October 19th, 2010, Stephanie said:

    So funny!

    By the way, thanks for posting a version with subtitles; too many blogs post videos with out considering that they aren’t accessible to everybody!

    posted on October 19th, 2010 at 5:33 pm