The Dark Side of Dieting
It may surprise you to hear, but I am not a fan of diets. Despite the word “diet” being part of my job title as a dietitian, the science points to diets being far more harmful to our health and wellbeing than they are helpful. And while the word “diet” used to mean simply a pattern of eating, it’s now become virtually synonymous with “weight loss diet” – and that’s the type of diet that can have some serious downsides.
There are a number of reasons for this:
Diets don’t actually work very well. AT ALL. The vast majority of people - we are talking over 95% - who initially lose weight on a diet will gain it all back in short order (usually within 5 years or less). When dieters gain back the lost weight, they tend to gain even more weight than they originally lost.
Because diets offer only short-term “success”, we often try multiple versions of various diets throughout our lifetime, leading to weight cycling (regularly losing and regaining weight). The effect of weight cycling is actually more harmful to our health than simply being “overweight”.
Weight loss diets center around restriction – and we all know we want what we can’t have. Restriction typically leads to obsessive thinking about food. When we eventually (and inevitably) give in, we often eat to the point of discomfort, and end up feeling terrible for our “lack of willpower”, or about ourselves in general. The restrictive nature of diets mean they are truly designed to fail. And let’s be very clear – it’s the diet that is the failure, not you.
Our bodies are designed for survival and will do everything in their power to keep us alive. This means fighting back against the starvation that is the cornerstone of most weight loss diets. Hunger and satiety hormones change, making us hungrier – all the time – and less likely to feel full and satisfied. Changes to our metabolism mean we will burn fewer calories. Stress hormones can increase hunger and appetite – especially for foods that diets usually consider to be “off limits”. In essence, our bodies simply don’t like to lose weight, especially when weight loss is a result of food restriction.
The failure of diets is often transferred to the dieter – we tend to feel disheartened, stressed, and feel like failures ourselves. As a result, dieting can wreak havoc on our mental health.
Diets categorize certain foods as “good” and “bad”. These categories in turn end up making us feel bad about ourselves depending on what foods we eat. Food has no moral value. Food is food.
Diet culture perpetuates the feeling that we even need to change anything about our body size. Diet culture at its core suggests that people are more or less good/moral/worthy/valuable based on their body size. It also promotes the idea that body size is an important marker of health. In fact, body size is not a great marker of health. People can be in good health in both large and small bodies, and people can be in poor health in both large and small bodies.
Of course, what you eat is important for your health and wellbeing. And it’s always a good idea to include nourishing and nutrient-rich foods when making food choices. There are also medical conditions that may require the restriction of certain foods (like food allergies and intolerances, or celiac disease, for example), or the need to follow a more rigid pattern of eating – and that’s ok! It’s dieting for the express purpose of manipulating the size of your body, and being constantly told that you should manipulate the size of your body, that tends to be problematic. Remember, weight is not a proxy for health.
It’s also important to remember that nutrition is only one piece of the wellness puzzle. Your relationship with food is also important. As is being able to enjoy and find pleasure in food. Being able to use food to express your culture and heritage, or family traditions, or to connect with your social circle, is equally as important. Food serves many different functions. When we use it only to achieve a certain weight, or only to be considered “healthy” (by someone else’s standards), we miss out on all the other benefits!
Additional (and equally important) pieces of the wellness puzzle include moving our bodies, resting our bodies (and minds), easing stress in our bodies (and minds), and connecting with the community and world around us. There are also many factors outside of our individual control that will impact our health, including things like public health policy, social injustice, poverty, and access to health services. When we narrow our focus of health to the size of our body, or strictly on what we are eating (or not eating), we lose sight of the bigger picture. The sad reality, of course, is that diet culture and the world around us often forces our focus to body size, and it can be incredibly hard to let go of that pressure.
If you’re tired of dieting and are looking for help enjoying food and honoring your health, feel free to contact me for a free discovery call to learn more about my approach and how we can work together.