7 really good reasons to stop dieting

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing that you’re someone who has tried dieting at least once before or maybe you’re like me or so many of my clients where life for many years has been all about dieting and trying to find THE ONE that will finally work, that you can be disciplined enough to follow till you’ve lost ALL the weight and then never put it back on again. Are you with me?

Here’s a question though…

Have you ever actually stopped and asked yourself why you haven’t been able to achieve this?

Most people don’t.

Most people think it’s something they’re doing wrong rather than what the ‘diet’ may be doing wrong.

Hmm… Interesting right?

Dr Helena Popovic, one of my favourite authorities on this subject, says ‘If followed faithfully, most diets produce short-term weight loss. However, not a single diet has been found to produce long-term weight loss and ALL diets produce rebound weight gain’.

And she’s not alone.

There is so much irrefutable evidence now to back this up.

I also talk to many clients on a daily basis that have a painful history of dieting that has not worked. If the research shows that 96-98% of people struggle with this same thing, how can it be EVERYONE’s fault?

So why don’t diets work?

So glad you asked! 😉

Here are all the reasons and they ain’t pretty. You may find some or all of them really resonate with you.

Diets lead to…

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1. Fear and struggle around food.

The very thing that’s meant to be life giving, that keeps us alive, becomes the enemy.

One of the biggest struggles my clients have around this is also confusion – what do I eat? What’s okay? What’s not okay?

One minute fat is the enemy, the next it’s carbs. All carbs?

This becomes both stressful and anxiety provoking, which in turn creates stress in your body whenever you eat and leads to a cascade of chemical responses, such as cortisol, adrenalin, insulin, etc., the result of which is that you won’t get anywhere with your weight issues.

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2. Moralism around food.

This is where we believe there are good foods and bad foods and you are either good or bad depending on what you eat.

This creates guilt, suffering and rebellion.

It’s also challenging to figure out how different foods affect your body, if you’re labelling certain foods as bad.

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3. All or nothing thinking.

This is where we fall into the trap of thinking ‘‘my diet must be perfect’ or I’ve failed’.

We also call this black or white thinking as there’s no room for shades of grey. We become governed by food rules, which almost always leads to perfectionism, self-abuse, suffering and misery.

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4. The ‘what the hell effect’.

Have you ever experienced this?

It’s the direct result of ‘all or nothing’ thinking.

You break your diet at one meal and you decide ‘what the hell! I’ve ruined my diet, I may as well have extra servings of everything’.

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And you end up eating more than you would have if you hadn’t been on a diet in the first place.

The ‘last supper effect’ is a close variation: you decide you’re going on a diet and proceed to eat everything you know you’ll never allow yourself to eat ever again, because you’re going on a DIET!

And if you’ve told yourself that you’ll start your diet on Monday (as so many of us do) and it’s a Thursday, guess what you’re going to be doing between now and Monday?

That’s right – what the hell’ing and last supper’ing all the way through to miserable Monday!

It sounds crazy and yet so many of us can relate.

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5. Encourage you to ignore or override your body’s hunger signals and lose touch with your body’s needs.

So many of my clients initially report that they find it hard to know when they’re hungry or even full, which is a direct result of dieting.

Dieting encourages you to follow external rules rather than checking in with yourself, asking ‘Am I hungry? What do I feel like eating? What does my body need or want right now? Am I satisfied?

How are you supposed to figure these things out for yourself if you’re always on a diet?

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6. Rebellion.

We don’t like being told what to do and we certainly don’t like being deprived, especially over long periods of time.

Having a critical, judgemental internal voice that’s bossing you around and telling you not to eat ‘bad’ food and to ignore how hungry you are is a sure fire recipe for disaster!

Can you recall when you were a child or teenager what happened when you got sick of being bossed around or told what to do for too long, either by a parent or maybe another authority figure?

That’s what I’m talking about!

Diets often reduce you to feeling like a naughty child. Not good if you’re an adult. Not good if you’re a child either!

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7. Physiological changes in the body that you will not be happy with.

Dieting slows your metabolic rate down, triggers your body’s starvation response so it works overtime to store instead of burn fat, results in lean muscle rather than fat loss, and reduces leptin levels (satiety hormone), which increases hunger and makes you feel lethargic.

This all sounds like a recipe for disaster.

And you are not the exception my friend!

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How do you feel now you’ve read all this?

I know, it can feel quite depressing to realise that all this effort and energy you’ve been putting into dieting has turned out to be unsustainable and downright misery making.

So, I hear you ask: What am I supposed to do instead? Indeed!

Let’s dive right in:

1. Firstly, can you lose the need to lose weight for a few months till you can figure out what’s going on?

Can you reflect on your personal dieting history or story? It can really help to write it all down.

What has worked? What hasn’t? Be really curious.

Think about the abovementioned points regarding dieting and how they relate to you.

Can you see patterns or trends?

2. Can you accept this is not going to be a quick fix?

I have found in most cases those clients who are willing to take their time and make slow habit changes, are the ones who experience the most success IF they have extra weight their body no longer needs.

3. Lose weight the way you will live it.

This means deciding for yourself up front that whatever actions you take, you’ll be willing to continue doing for the rest of your life.

Make a note of all those actions you’ve been taking that you know are not sustainable (i.e., they haven’t worked) and promise yourself that in the coming weeks and months you will not keep on doing these anymore.

4. Continue following my blog as we’ll be delving deeply over the coming weeks into sustainable action you can take that will mean that you’ll never have to diet again.

Promise!

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