Why Diets Don't Work!

Have you been trying again and again to lose weight and nothing is working?

Have you tried diet after diet, seeing results, and then immediately gaining those 10 lbs back?

Have you followed these same diet "rules" over and over. oh ya girl, you know what I'm talkin' about...

I can't eat past 8pm...

Those are "good" foods and those are "bad foods...

Skipping meals will help me lose weight...

It's best to eat at the same time everyday...

Stay away from carbs and fats...

I'm not gonna eat or eat just a little because I have a social event tonight (gotta save my calories ;))...

And in the end, you end up feeling even hungrier, more deprived, and overall unhappy?

Girl, I feel you and I've been there. I've been that chronic dieter, trying to find solutions to lose those pesky extra pounds. With the constant ambush of the "perfect" body from social media and the constant push of diet products and pills, no wonder we are confused, overwhelmed, and overall disappointed with our non-existent progress towards our dream bod.

In this post I just wanted to address some ways both physically and mentally that dieting or restrictive eating can hinder your results of losing weight and feeling good. Depending on what your goals are, I think flexible dieting and intuitive eating can both be beneficial in creating long-lasting results and healing your relationship with food and your body. Learning to listen to your biological hunger cues and eat when you are hungry is so important in beginning to balance and heal your relationship with food.

Physically dieting messes with our bodies. It's technically a form of starvation that is voluntarily induced. In the book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works, Evelyn Tribole, M.S., R.D., shares how dieting impacts your body, proving why it's ineffective in achieving realistic results.

1.) Chronic dieting teaches the body to hold on to fat, especially when you start eating again (hence why you gain back those pounds you initially lost...)

Low-calorie diets and restrictive eating doubles the enzymes that make and store fat in the body. It's a form of biological compensation to help the body store more energy, or fat after dieting. (1)

Your body is desperate for food and nutrients and literally grabs a hold and stores it for energy because it doesn't know when it will get fed again.

2.) Chronic dieting slows the rate of weight loss with each successive attempt to lose weight through Restrictive intake.

You pretty much screw up your metabolism, so your body eventually tries to preserve, instead of adapt to the constant deprivation.

3.) Chronic dieting decreases your metabolism.

Metabolism is the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. Your brain slows down your metabolism to conserve energy and keep the body functioning on fewer calories.

4.) Chronic dieting increases binges and cravings.

Food restriction stimulates the brain to trigger a cascade of cravings, so you end up eating more. Our cravings tend to fall more towards sugars and fats. Anything in excess is not good for you.

5.) Chronic dieting increases your risk of premature death and heart disease.

Regardless of initial weight, people whose weight repeatedly goes up and down, known as weight cycling or yo-yo dieting, have a higher overall death rate and twice the normal risk of dying of heart disease. (1)

6.) Chronic dieting causes satiety cues to atrophy.

Dieters usually stop eating due to self-imposed limits, rather than inner cues of fullness. This combined with skipping meals can condition you to eat meals of increasingly larger size. (1)

7.) Chronic dieting can cause your body shape to change.

Yo-yo dieters who continually regain the lost weight tend to regain weight in the abdominal area. This type of fat storage increases the risk of heart disease.

Man...who knew the physical effects dieting played on our bodies, no wonder we feel so crummy!

Not only does dieting cause issues with our body, but it also effects us mentally and emotionally as well.

With dieting comes gradual loss in self-trust and confidence in ourselves. We begin to form an unhealthy relationship with food and our bodies. We start to internalize our diet "faults" and guilt from falling off track, binging, and gaining even more weight than when we first started. When we "fail", we begin to lose faith in ourselves, which creates feelings of low self-esteem, poor body image, and zero confidence in ourselves and our success.

Other ways dieting can impact our health depends on how restrictive you are and how long you continue to lead this life of cycling. Results of continued cycling can lead to lethargy, irritability, and anxiety, as well as dizziness, cold intolerance, muscle soreness, hair loss, inability to concentrate, low sex drive, and can even create food obsession and rituals, which can lead to eating disorders.

Depriving yourself of something you want (such as chocolate, that piece of cake, a delicious homemade pasta dish, etc.) can actually heighten your desire for that very item. Everything in moderation!

If we truly want to heal our bodies and minds from a lifetime of restriction we need to begin healing our relationship with food and ourselves. Don't you think we deserve to feel energized, full, content, happy, and confident.

Overeating and cravings are outcomes of restriction. Rules and restrictions keep you from listening to your biological hunger cues. When we listen to external factors such as diet rules, fads, etc., we learn to ignore our feelings of hunger and fullness. They begin to disappear and you end up losing that natural ability to understand and feel when your body is truly hungry.

One of the first steps in beginning to honor your biological hunger is to listen and learn what true hunger feels like.

In order to become more aware of your hunger ask yourself a few of these questions mentioned in Evelyn Triboles book whenever you eat...

Am I truly hungry?

What is my hunger level right now?

If you are unsure what hungry feels like, ask yourself...

When was the time I last felt hungry?

How did my stomach feel?

How did my mouth feel?(1)

Learning these hunger cues will help you become more aware and understand how your body feels when you are hungry so you can react in a positive way.

When you allow yourself to make peace with food, you allow all food types into your eating world. A choice for chocolate becomes emotionally equal to a choice for a peach. It also means that your food choices do not reflect your character or morality. (1)

Once you truly know you can eat whatever you want, the intensity to eat greatly diminishes.

Food LOSES its power when you know it will be there day after day. It becomes less important to you because you know it will always be there.

So to keep it simple and to the point, diets are nonsense and a waste of time. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of feeling tired and having an unhealthy relationship with food.

I want to be able to enjoy food, maintain my weight, and live my life without restriction and rules! I know YOU do too!

I feel that in order to live a healthy life, make peace with food, and achieve long-lasting results with your weight you need to make it a lifestyle instead of thinking short-term.

It takes patience and time, but when you learn to follow your hunger cues, properly fuel yourself to thrive, and learn to fix your relationship with food and your body, there's no limit into what you can achieve and how amazing and confident you can feel.

Let's start loving food and respecting our bodies :)

XOXO

Krista