Do Diets Work?
If you’ve been on a diet, have you been on one that actually worked? I want you to really think about it. Or maybe you’ve never been on a “diet”, but technically fit the terms of it - which is focusing on certain foods, and avoiding others. How did that work out? *This is with the exception that sometimes people have medical conditions that require a specific diet for the benefit of their health.
Was it difficult to stick to? Did you eventually give in to your cravings by eating a forbidden food or having a “cheat day”? Did you then “hit a wall”, which then led you to eat all of the foods your diet restricted?
If I were to tell you that you’re 95% likely to fail at anything…would you even start? According to the Council on Size & Weight Discrimination, there’s actually a 95% chance that you’re one of the of dieters who regain their lost weight within one to five years. Yes, you read that right. 95%.
The worst part is, when we do gain the weight back, we probably blame ourselves. When in actuality, it’s not us who failed the diet. It’s that the diet was designed to fail us. In a $60 billion dollar industry, why would they want us to succeed?
That’s the short answer. But WHY do diets fail? The best way I can explain it is by The Diet Cycle.
It all starts with one statement: “I want to lose (or control my) weight”. So, we go on a diet, or try to “eat healthy” (by focusing on certain foods and avoiding others). After a month or two - success! We have lost some weight. The diet must be working!
But meanwhile…our cravings are through the roof. We’re now thinking more and more about the foods that we can’t eat, and we’re starting to feel like we have less control over our food choices. So, eventually, we “cheat” on our diets, or “give in” to our forbidden foods. They may taste great, but strong emotions of guilt and shame arise. We then blame ourselves for our lack of willpower, which leads us to be even more strict this time.
Eventually, we just can’t do it anymore. It’s unsustainable and unrealistic, so we hit a wall, and now we’re eating all the foods we restricted. Maybe even more than before we went on the diet. Over time, the weight that was lost is regained.
Wait. But how did this happen?!
I just want to let you know, if this has been you at any point in your life, there are literal physical and psychological reasons why this happened. In other words, it’s not your fault. Here’s why.
Let’s start with the physical. Something that’s important to know that we don’t often think about, is that 2/3 of the energy that we consume actually just goes to the basic functioning of keeping our bodies alive! That means our heart beating, lungs inflating, kidneys filtering, brain functioning, etc. In addition, our body also needs energy to support daily activity, digest/absorb our food, produce hormones, recover from illness, and the list goes on.
So, when we aren’t eating the required energy that our body requires…something’s gotta give. Our metabolism slows, and often things inside our body just start to not work as well. That’s why common physical effects of dieting are:
Headaches
Fatigue/tiredness
Dizziness
Bloating/Constipation
Menstrual irregularities or cessation
Hair Loss
Muscle Loss
Reduced Bone Density
Slowed Metabolism
Loss of Hunger Cues
I don’t know if you’d voluntarily ask for any of these symptoms! They’re literally all happening because our body is trying to conserve energy to be able to function on a basic level. Maybe these symptoms sound manageable, but over time, even our basic functions start to slow down - our heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, metabolism, and brains all start to slow. Your body is slowing down to keep you alive.
Would you say that this is healthy, even if we do lose weight?
Well, maybe these physical symptoms don’t concern us as much as gaining weight or living in a larger body. I do respect how you feel about this, however I do want to make a case for the psychological dangers of dieting.
Have you ever been told to do something, and it made you want to do it even more? Going on a diet is not exempt from this brain game! That’s how deprivation works. When we are dieting, we are depriving ourselves of the foods that we “aren’t allowed” to have. Common psychological effects of dieting are:
Guilt and Self-Blame
Irritability
Anxiety and Depression
Difficulty Concentrating
Preoccupation with Food
Maybe we’ve been “good” on our diet, but then we go to a social gathering and are around foods we “can’t have”. At this point, we’re probably super hyperaware and focused on those foods. That can cause one of two unhealthy extremes: either isolating from social events to avoid the temptation or overindulging, sometimes even to the point of feeling ill. We blame it on our own self-control, but it really all has to do with being deprived.
Have you ever heard of someone going to jail for eating a donut? (If you have, please let me know), but food is NOT morally good or bad, yet we often think of ourselves as a “good” or “bad” person, based on if we’re eating “good” or “bad” foods. Nobody eats perfectly all the time, but we often tie our self worth to the food we’re putting in our bodies.
An example of a shame-spiral around food I commonly hear is: “I ate a donut, I’m such a bad person. I have no self-control, so there’s something wrong with me! I’m going to get so fat. Which means I don’t deserve love, and I’ll be forever alone!” Whoa! See how viewing food in this way can become a problem in how we view ourselves?
Dieting also promotes eating for external rather than internal reasons, which usually leads us to becoming pretty detached from what our bodies are trying to tell us. We face such overwhelming pressure from society to look a certain way, so it’s understandable that people will often go on a diet to “control” their appearance. However, that comes at a cost. When external food rules control what, when, and how much we eat, it is an easy gateway to develop disordered eating patterns. In many cases, these disordered eating patterns can become an obsession, which can lead to more serious mental disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia.
Chances are, when we’re dieting, we’re also thinking about food. A lot. As in, like most of our thoughts. There’s a reason for that - our bodies don’t not know the difference between a famine and a diet. AKA: Your body is in survival mode. When we have enough fuel, we stop thinking of food. When we need it, it predominates our thoughts. It’s a survival mechanism, so there’s good reason for it! Your brain is telling you to eat to keep you alive.
All of the above is very stressful, isolating, and definitely unsustainable, which is why most people aren’t on a diet for very long. If you’re feeling this way, you’re not alone and there is hope. A Registered Dietitian trained in Intuitive Eating (learning how to tune into your internal wisdom in how, what, and when to eat) such as myself would love to help you achieve freedom from dieting. Taking time to unlearn and debunk your diet rules, thoughts, and behaviors is a process. This will probably take some time, and that’s okay and normal! Every step you take towards healing your relationship with food is a step closer to food freedom!
