Why dieting makes it worse
Let’s talk about why dieting makes it worse for you. I’m going to share why it’s time to ditch all of that dieting bullshit and break-free from the whole yo-yo dieting cycle once and for all. This is for you if you find you can’t stick to that diet. You keep going back to your old habits and piling all the weight back on again, plus a little bit more each time.
You can watch the video I made about this or keep scrolling if you prefer to read.
You can’t stick to any of the diets you’ve tried. Or maybe you’re not even trying to follow some kind of diet plan, but you still struggle to stick to the changes you want to make. You just keep getting bigger every time you try and eat better. You’re bigger than when you first started. Plus now you have this frustrating love-hate relationship with food, where you love it, but you hate it because you associate food with gaining weight.
You just feel rubbish about your food and yourself.
Sound familiar? Here’s why dieting makes it worse and it’s time to ditch all that dieting bullshit.
Dieting encourages you to change too much
This is a problem I see over and over again. When you talk about dieting, slimming or going on a diet – you’re often trying to change too much. You follow some kind of strict plan or get given lists of rules you need to follow. Maybe you’ve been told loads of foods you have to eat or loads of foods that you’re not allowed to eat. It’s too much to change. What you’re trying to do is just too different from your normal eating habits.
When you change too much, it won’t last very long, it won’t be sustainable. You’re less likely to keep big changes going long-term coz human beings are creatures of habit. We like to do the same thing; what’s easy and comfortable. Even if you’re not following a strict diet plan, you might still be trying to change too many tweaks in one go. Stop making it too difficult for yourself. It really takes time and effort to build new habits. When you try to do too much, you get overwhelmed and disheartened, then you give up. This is why I recommend tweaking your normal eating habits, but stick to one or two tweaks to start off with. Take it one step at a time and build up those new habits gradually.
Dieting focuses on losing weight fast
The next reason why dieting makes it worse for you is, it encourages fast weight loss. So many diets and slimming clubs really focus on weight and that number on the scales. It’s all about the weight loss and they applaud you for losing 5 pounds in one week, but it’s just not sustainable! The body likes to stay nice and stable; it likes to stay the same in the long-term. When you lose weight too fast it’s usually because you’re doing something too drastic and restrictive.
When you restrict yourself too much by limiting your energy intake too much or you may be cutting out whole food groups or food that you love – you’re more likely to end up having more cravings. This is because you’re not giving your body what it needs. Cravings can lead to overeating and bingeing. When you severely restrict yourself your body thinks there’s a famine and wants you to find easy energy. That’s why you crave the fatty, sugary foods to get that quick-fix energy. Then when you give up on the diet or trying to make all those changes, the body thinks “phew! What a relief the famine’s over!” Then it’s time to replace all that weight you’ve lost and ‘get ready for when the next famine might come along’!
The body can get pretty efficient at doing this. Which is why you can end up getting bigger each time, because you put all the weight back on again plus a bit more. You’re body’s trying to protect you from starving in a famine and losing so much weight that you can’t function. This is why I recommend focusing on building healthy habits rather than focusing on the results. The results will follow eventually I promise, if you focus on making changes that are sustainable and keep doing them for life. Which leads me nicely onto the next reason why dieting makes it worse…
Dieting doesn’t encourage you to change for life
I see this so often, people aiming to make the changes to get to their target weight without thinking beyond. You think “I’ll just follow this diet plan or just keep going to slimming club until I get to my target weight and then I can stop”. The thing is weight management doesn’t work like that. It all comes back to your daily habits; how you’re eating, how you’re exercising day-to-day, in the long term. That’s what has an impact on where your weight is and your fitness level or your general health.
Whatever you do to lose weight or eat better or get fitter, you need to do it forever, if you want the results to last forever. It’s about recognising that you need to be ready to change forever. Again it comes back to taking it one step at a time, being prepared for long term effort. You need to remember that having a little bit of a relapse or a slip-up is a normal part of changing behaviour. It’s about recognising it takes practice, patience and perseverance to build those new habits. Another reason to focus on the habits, not the results. What can help you with this is learning to build your self-motivation. This is something that I teach my one-to-one clients or you can learn about on my ‘No More Diets’ course.
Dieting focuses on food being ‘good’ or ‘bad’
Dieting makes it worse for you, because there is too much focus on food being ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Labelling food like this doesn’t help you build a healthy relationship with food. Instead you see yourself as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ depending on how you’ve eaten. This dieting mentality leads to more cravings, which then leads to more binges. When you label food as ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’, or tell yourself it’s ‘banned’, it’s usually the food that you love. When you tell yourself something’s not allowed, you want it more (I know I would!). Then when you have it you feel great coz it tastes so good, but it’s a short term feeling. Feeling good is quickly replaced by guilt coz you were trying not to have it. Then you see yourself as ‘bad’, you’ve failed and you might as well give up! You tell yourself you might as well give up trying to change and just keep eating. Then you feel even more guilty and before you know it, you get stuck in that guilt-binge cycle. Not a happy place to be.
Even labelling food as ‘good’ can lead to overeating. When you label food is ‘good’ or ‘healthy’ sometimes you can see that as meaning ‘unlimited’. Then you think you can eat as much as you like and end up overeating that way rather than learning to follow your appetite. Focusing on filling up on ‘free’ foods doesn’t teach you to look at why you’re eating or learning to eat when you’re actually hungry and stop when you’re satisfied. This doesn’t teach you to eat regular well-balanced meals or focus on building a healthy relationship with food.
Lots of reasons why dieting makes it worse!
This is why it’s time to ditch all this dieting bullshit! Forget dieting, slimming or going on a diet and tweak your habits instead. If you’re not sure where to start, what you need to change or how to get back to eating normally again download my free guide to healthy eating, where I share with you my super simple hack to help you put together balanced meals. Use the guide to make it easier for yourself!
Ditch dieting forever, because you deserve better.
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I will help you ditch dieting forever, either with my 1-2-1 support. Or if you prefer to work independently, you will learn all the skills I teach my 1-2-1 clients, on my ‘No More Diets’ online course.
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My Weekly Round-up! AKA; what I’ve been up to recently…
- Tea of the week has been the infamous second coffee! I usually only have one in the morning, as I’m not very good with too much caffeine (I get palpitations from proper coffee!). But this week it’s been needed after regular night-time interruptions from Genevieve!
- I’ve managed to keep up my exercises as well as walking along the brook after school drop-off most days. I’ve done my little exercise routine at least twice maybe three times this week (I can’t quite remember!). If you’re wondering, it includes a mix of a few yoga moves, some stuff I learnt from doing Pilates years ago plus strengthening moves like push-ups and squats.
- Family challenge ’22 Hills In 2022′ update: We tackled a biggy – Caer Caradoc, which is STEEP, plus there are a couple of blind peaks. Sam & I used to walk up here a lot before we had Genevieve. It was a useful hill to include in our prep for walking the Yorkshire 3 Peaks! So we were expecting Genevieve to find it tough, but she did amazing – only a little complaining about tired legs. She did it without being carried and even said a few times, on the flat bit, that she was enjoying the walk. She loved flying her kite again at the top.
- Still haven’t been to the library for more books, but we did have fun at the weekend at a wildlife day. We got to try a spot of bug hunting and pond dipping. Also our friend Sam from ‘Scruff Stuff‘ was there showing her collection of found skulls and feathers. On the way home we stopped off to visit Lilleshall Abbey, which is a lovely place for a wander and some hide ‘n’ seek!
- Bird Nerd Report: It’s been all about the kingfishers this week – I’ve seen at least one on 3 of my walks! This morning I also saw a sparrowhawk flying past carrying a poor dead bird for its breakfast! The other day I saw 3 bullfinches – haven’t seen any of those in ages.
