“Although weight loss can usually be achieved through dietary restriction and/or increased physical activity, the overwhelming majority of people regain the weight that they have lost over the long-term.”
–The Defence of Body Weight: A physiological basis for weight regain after weight loss, Sumithran & Proietto, 2013
I can't stress it enough - dieting is bad news bears.
"Diet" is a confusing word because it can mean many things. For some, it is thought of as nothing more than the customary food and drink of a culture, a person, or an animal. In other instances, diets are simply lists of "good" and "bad" foods prescribed for medical reasons, such as the DASH diet or a diet to control diabetes. Most of us, however, would assimilate a "diet" with a temporary and highly restrictive program of eating in order to lose weight. For the purposes of this post, this is the type of diet I am referring to, and have a BIG problem with.
So, just WHY am I against that kind of diet? Well, LET'S DELVE IN!
1. For starters, as weight loss programs, diets DO NOT work! You may lose a few pounds or more, but the research shows that most people who lose weight by dieting will regain that body fat in 1-5 years. Dieting is a temporary food plan by definition, which is why it does not work in the long run. Moreover, the deprivation of restrictive dieting can often times leads to binging cycles when you get burnt out. And since your body likes you and wants to keep you around, it responds to overly-restrictive diets by dropping your metabolism to the floor, which over course makes it even harder to lose weight. A little counter-intuitive, right??
2. Fad diets can be pretty harmful. They may lack essential nutrients and they teach you nothing about healthy eating. Then, when you've "completed" your fad diet, you simply boomerang back to the unhealthy eating patterns that caused your weight gain in the first place. This is the beginning of the terrible "yo-yo dieting" cycle, which carries with it several other health concerns.
3. Overly restrictive diets can take all the pleasure out of eating, which SUCKS. If you want to make this journey a successful one in the long run, you've got to find a plan that is sustainable and realistic. Often times those definitions mean very different things to different people.
4. Dieting, along with the frequent and compulsive weighing that accompanies it, can lead to eating disorders. Research has suggested that people who diet are 8 times as likely to develop an eating disorder as people who don't.
5. Unscrupulous people can peddle "magic weight-loss potions," such as "special" powders and pills, to desperate people, costing them their money and time at best, and fatal health consequences at worse. Remember "fen-phen"? The diet drug that caused often fatal heart valve problems? And have you ever noticed that every diet product claims it will be wondrously effective "if used simultaneously with a healthy diet and regular exercise program?" Stop right there. Skip the magic potions--it's the healthy eating and exercise that are actually the effective ingredients.
6. Obesity and being overweight can be conditions that are caused by early life trauma. Some studies have shown that as many as half of the obese community had experienced abuse as a child. In these cases, overeating and obesity weren't the central problems, but instead attempted solutions. For these people, therapy might be a prerequisite to healthy weight loss. It could help clients identify the feelings and situations behind emotional over-eating and replace it with healthier self-care patterns.
OK, OK, I get it. You just want to lose weight before you attend your class reunion. It's totally cool to control portions and skip the desserts so you can resemble your svelte high school self. In fact, keep going with that plan--it's healthy eating. But let's get something straight here, skipping meals and/or starving yourself is not.
The first step towards permanent healthy weight loss is, somewhat ironically, to lose the diet and the diet mindset. Instead think about putting together a healthy eating plan that you could live with and enjoy for life. The best answer is to dieting, then, is: A lifelong program of everyday healthy, pleasurable eating coupled with regular exercise. To lose weight, eat less and exercise more. How boring! How prosaic! Yet how true.
Meal planning works because it is SUSTAINABLE! It allows you to eat things you enjoy and, though it may be a bit slower than a crash diet, lose weight over time.
If you need help putting something together, try using my free meal planning guide as a tool to your success. Along with the other articles you'll find on my website, the meal planning guide will help you establish a realistic, sustainable approach towards food that you actually ENJOY eating and WHY that food is good to eat!
Want to read more?