Ditch the Diet Mentality
Why short-term diets don’t bring long-term results
CUT TO THE CHASE
Research suggests that 80-85% of dieters regain all of the weight lost, plus some, within two years.
But it’s not because of a lack of willpower — our bodies have biological responses to counteract restriction and encourage weight gain.
Weight fluctuation from repeat dieting makes it harder to lose weight and increases the chance of long-term health issues and chronic disease.
Don’t get discouraged! Long-term results ARE possible with sustainable lifestyle change!
Every day, we’re bombarded with images of the “ideal” body. Most ads should, but don’t, come with a disclaimer: professionally styled, retouched and altered. It sets an impossible standard, but one that the diet industry assures us they can help achieve with juices, cleanses, bars, teas or a 30-day program. And we’re buying this message. In 2018, the weight loss industry reached a record $72 billion.
While we’re paying up in hopes of getting thin, the number of overweight Americans continues to increase. Over 70% of the adult population in the United States is overweight, with 40% being obese. These figures are staggering and have huge societal and economic implications. Clearly, our approach is not working. In fact, studies show that 80-85% of dieters regain all of the weight lost, plus some, within two years. That means they’re likely to… you guessed it… go back on a diet. Often times, it’s even faster than that. How many people do you know that completed Whole30 and celebrated on day 31 with pizza and beer?
It’s not that diets themselves are completely flawed. Whole30 (and many others) have great foundations, but the issue is their inherent short-term nature; having a distinct beginning and end. For many, the idea of committing to a way of eating for 30 days might be less daunting than committing to a life-long change, but this approach will only produce results that are just that – temporary.
Even if you aren’t avidly dieting, it’s likely that you’re impacted by diet-like thoughts: I can’t eat that, it’s too high in carbs. I was so bad with my eating today. I’ll get back on the wagon on Monday. To some degree, we’re all fighting the fight.
In order to achieve long-term health and weight management, we must ditch the diet mentality. That starts with understanding why diets don’t work and reshaping our approach towards sustainable lifestyle change!
WHY DIETS DON'T WORK:
No single way of eating works for everyone
You’ve heard me say it before and I’ll say it again and again… your optimal approach to nutrition, exercise and health in general is completely individual. It is based on your current state of health, activity level, genetic predispositions and ultimate goals. I bet you know someone who can eat whatever they want and not gain weight, and I bet you also know someone who eats like a squirrel and can’t seem to take weight off. That alone refutes the calories in, calories out theory. Without considering all of the factors that are specific to you when adopting a way of eating, you’ll fight an uphill battle from the start.
Underlying issues are not being addressed
When dieting, it’s easy to become so hyper-focused on food and exercise that you overlook the factors that caused the weight gain to begin with. Remember the concept of primary and secondary foods? There’s a strong chance that dissatisfaction with primary food – career, exercise, relationships, spirituality, finances, creativity, home environment or education – is manifesting in poor secondary food outcomes. Do you hate your job, and another awful day led you to go home and eat a piece of cake instead of working out? Do you have sick relative and fast food is the easy choice for dinner on the way to caring for them? Identifying the root cause(s) is an essential piece to addressing the habits. Without doing so, no way of eating will be effective for the long-term.
Foods start to get labeled as “good” or “bad” and you always want what you can’t have
Make no mistake – some foods are more nutrient dense than others and should be consumed in larger quantities. But when you start to associate kale with being good and cake with being bad, you crave and obsess over what is off-limits. The brain begins to register cake as being even more pleasurable than if it wasn’t restricted and sends out messages demanding it. It becomes much harder to resist that food and you’re left with self-shaming thoughts when you inevitably eat it. But that’s just the beginning of the ways your body starts fighting back against restriction…
Restriction is neither fun nor sustainable
Much like the diet industry wants us to believe that weight loss is the key to beauty, they also want us to believe that a lack of willpower is what’s standing in the way. Yes — it is mentally difficult to eliminate your favorite foods and reduce your caloric intake, but there are more powerful physiological factors at play.
After a few weeks on a restrictive diet, you will lose weight. That is because there is a sufficient fat reserve ready and able to support the change in nutrition that the body is experiencing. These quick results are what makes diets so attractive to begin with! But eventually, the body catches on to the fact that it is being deprived. Except, it cannot tell the difference between deprivation for intentional weight loss and from famine. Dating back to our hunter-gatherer roots, the human body has biological responses to protect us from perceived danger. When on a restrictive diet, our bodies interpret it as famine and kick into survival mode to preserve energy and fat reserves. It does this by:
lowering metabolism
shutting down non-essential systems, such as the digestive and reproductive systems; thereby altering hormone levels and chemical reactions in the body
cannibalizing muscle for energy
stimulating brain chemicals to signal for the quickest form of energy: sugar
So, when week three hits and you start eating everything in sight, it’s not lack of willpower. It is the result of biological responses deliberately occurring by your body to (in its view) keep you alive. The physical result? Weight gain. The mental result? Shame and guilt for “failing” your diet, which may start the whole yo-yo cycle over again.
Yo-yo dieting makes it harder to lose weight and can cause long-term health impacts
As part of the body’s response to restriction, it may draw upon muscle for energy. As a result, you can lose both muscle and fat; further lowering the body’s metabolic rate. When resuming a normal diet, weight gain is inevitable because your body has found a way to run itself on fewer calories and efficiently stores the leftovers as fat. As fat burns fewer calories than muscle, you’re left with a lower metabolic rate than when you started. It’s a vicious cycle — it’s not only why weight gain accumulates quickly, but is why it becomes harder and harder to lose weight each time you diet. The ultimate kicker for why we need to ditch the diet mentality is that each time, the body also becomes much more susceptible to health risks and chronic disease, including Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, major cancers, depression, respiratory problems and fertility problems.
SO HOW DO I DITCH THE DIET MENTALITY?:
Let this all really sink in. Assess your experiences and commit to adopting a long-term mindset — one that is fun, sustainable and makes you feel great about taking care of yourself! Keep an eye out for a future post on how to do just that, but in the meantime:
Get curious about nutrition
Food is fuel — it provides energy and nutrients for all of our essential bodily functions. The more you learn about how our bodies use food and the importance of nutrition, the more you will appreciate and even find joy in making healthier decisions.
Focus on how your body feels
Your body provides constant feedback on the quality of the nutrition and care it’s receiving through energy levels, hunger, emotions, stress, digestive function, etc. Draw connections between what is happening in your life, what you are eating and how you are feeling. Once you start to be more conscious of which food and habits are serving you well, you will naturally gravitate towards those options and away from ones that aren’t.
Gradually build healthy behaviors
Health is a constant process of trial and error to find what works best for you, and lifestyle change can be less daunting if you commit to making one change at a time. This week, complete a 30-minute workout two days after work. Next week, maintain the workouts and pack salads every other day for lunch. Before you know it, these changes will become habits and you’ll be well on the road to a healthier you!
