It’s Not You, It’s Me (If Diets Could Talk)
“I just can’t lose weight. I don’t know what’s wrong with me!”
“I have no willpower around sugar. I just can’t stop eating it.”
“I lost a lot of weight on Keto and now it’s all come back and then some. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
I have heard variations of all these statements over the years and time and time again my client thinks they are the problem, when in fact, the problem is the diet. All diets promise the allure of better health, weight loss, happiness. Yet, what all of them fail to mention is that a reduction in calories typically leads to worse health outcomes, obsession with food and increased risk of developing an eating disorder. The most updated studies show that the majority of people that diet will lose the most amount of weight in the first 6-12 months with a steady increase in weight over 2-5 years. A whopping 95-98% of people will gain all the weight back, and often more. So, what is actually happening?
Our weight is mostly influenced by our genes, just like our hair color, height etc. We all have a general weight range our body is comfortable at that may fluctuate as we age, go through puberty, have children, experience life stressors or trauma. When we diet, our brain kicks into survival mode which sets off a chain reaction to help the body regain weight and prevent further weight loss (for more details about the “hunger hormones” read Anti-Diet or Sick Enough). The more I started to understand eating disorders and diets, the more amazed I was at how hard our brain and body work to keep us alive. Our brain doesn’t know that we are actively dieting to lose weight. Instead, it goes into survival mode, assuming there must be a famine and it is doing everything in its power to get the body more food and back to a place of safety which means abundance of food (aka calories!) If you’ve ever dieted, you know the obsessional feeling toward food, especially the forbidden stuff!
And yet, diet culture sells us the lie that “if you just move more, eat less, only eat this food, don’t eat that food” we can all look the same, have the same health status and be immensely happy. But do you know what’s not happy? A starved brain. Most people report increased unhappiness, depressive symptoms, anxiety and obsessions when they are starved for food on a regular basis. They also report increased brain fog, irritability and fatigue. And the worst part about it is the shame they feel from believing it is all their fault that they can’t diet successfully.
Does any of this sound familiar to you? If so, we can help. Our therapists in Lehi know how to help you ditch the diet once and for all. We can help you learn how to listen to your body cues and learn to develop a relationship to food that is peaceful, flexible and based on the principles of Intuitive Eating. Healing your relationship to food requires taking steps to introduce all foods again, learn hunger/fullness cues and change your belief system around food being a binary of good and bad. We also work with trusted dietitians that know the science behind food and bodies, and can help you develop flexible food habits without dieting. We can’t guarantee weight loss, and in fact, take an approach that encourages you to let go of numbers and scales, and instead focus on taking care of your mind and body by consistent eating, moving your body in ways you enjoy, good sleep and stress management.
So, maybe it’s time to break up with dieting and recognize YOU were never the problem in the first place. The diet was.