With the start of the New Year, we are inundated with dieting messages. Most diets promise far more than weight loss - not only will we be thinner, but healthier, fitter, happier, and overall better. But is that really true? If you hit that goal weight, will you be a different person? What if instead of starting the diet, you knew the catch - that diets simply do not work and can be physically and psychologically harmful? 

Physical Harms of Dieting

Research has shown us that diets do not work - we are talking about extensive statistics - about 95% of all diets result in people gaining back the weight they lost within 2-5 years. Due to the effects dieting has on our metabolism, it often results in individuals gaining back even more weight than they initially lost. In the constant pursuit of a smaller body, many people attempt diet after diet; continuous weight loss and weight gain, known as weight cycling, is also harmful to overall health. 

Psychological Harms of Dieting 

In addition to the failed weight loss statistics, let’s look at how dieting interferes with our daily lives. Often, dieting takes up a huge amount of our mental space - constantly thinking and obsessing about food all day long. It’s utterly exhausting. 

Start with the scale. We often become obsessed with the number - and if it’s “good” or “bad,” it can dictate how we feel about the entire day. We tend to reward or punish ourselves based on what we see and use weight as a benchmark of success or failure.

And then there are the logistics of the diet. Typically, diets have strict rules - we are allotted a certain amount of food in a day, we can only eat at certain times, or we are restricted from eating certain food groups, etc. Often, being on a diet means we are bargaining with ourselves all day long. If I eat this now, I won’t eat that later. Or, if I eat this, I will put in an extra hard workout at the gym. We do not trust ourselves to feel hungry - we drink water instead. These dieting “rules” can impact how we physically feel all day long - we may feel tired constantly, shaky, or have intense cravings.  

Dieting can often impact social situations. One of two scenarios often happens when we are invited out for a friend’s birthday dinner. Scenario 1: We either enjoy everything and then feel immensely bad about ourselves because we “broke” our diet. Or scenario 2: we go, and we feel uncomfortable because we can’t have the piece of cake or share the plate of appetizers.

Other things that can happen in social situations are constantly comparing and worrying. We compare what we eat to everyone else at the table - are we eating more? Are we eating the wrong or right thing? What will people think of me based on what and how much I am eating? 

The dieting cycle is relentless. It may work for a short period of time until you break restraint and eat (or overeat) that forbidden food. The guilt that ensues is hard to swallow. You feel like a failure. Ultimately, we eventually say we will start again…and back into the cycle we go.

If not dieting, then what?

I ask you to consider this: what is the diet promising you? Why do you want to go on it?

If the real reason for the diet is health, there are many ways to achieve health goals without changing the size or shape of your body. (And yes, there is research to back this up!) You can work on stress management, improve your sleep, spend time on your spiritual and emotional health, find joyful movement, and incorporate gentle nutrition.

Again, if we bring this back to the statistics of how many diets fail, we must ask why we keep doing this to ourselves.

Instead, think about how it would feel to:

• Have a different relationship with food? One that did not make you feel guilty for eating certain things or like a rockstar for eating others?

• Let go of the perpetual goal of making yourself a certain size or shape?  

• Not have the goal of every single day be to shrink your body?

• Allow yourself to be loved (by yourself and others) just the way you are? 

Intuitive Eating can help you repair your relationship with food and your body. It can be a different way to take care of yourself without intentionally pursuing weight loss. Want to learn more? Reach out to us! We would love to learn more about your journey and how we can support you in reaching your goals.