The science behind why diets don’t work
Although as a dietitian my title has the word diet in it, I am actually the kind of dietitian that encourages you to move away from diets. I want you to step away from WW. Ignore the whole 30 club. And most importantly, leave keto for children with epilepsy (as it was originally intended).
Why is that? Well it’s quite simple: diets do not work
Have you ever thought about this? Does this sound foreign to you? This is sometimes a shock to my clients. I’m sure you can all think of someone in your life who is a chronic dieter. That one person who is constantly switching from keto to paleo to intermittent fasting and the list goes on and on. The reason they keep switching is because diets are not sustainable and do not produce long-term success.
There are statistics that suggest that 95% of all diets fail, and even those who do lose weight will likely regain that weight in the next few years.
Now before you say to me “but keto did work, I lost 20lbs”. If you regained the 20lbs and are now trying to lose it again, the diet never really worked for you in the first place.
Think about our ancestors
Firstly, I want you to think about our hunter gather ancestors – they didn’t know when their next meal was coming. So at that time it was advantageous to be able to hold onto our weight. As a result of this, our bodies then adapted to hold onto fuel.
Now, while this was a beneficial adaptation in the past, we now live in the world of abundance where for many of us (if we are lucky enough), food is plentiful. Despite these environmental changes, our biology is still working against us when it comes to weight loss. When you go through a phase of strict restriction (aka most weight loss diets), our hunger/fullness hormones change. We have decreased leptin (which tells us we are full) and increase grehlin (which tells us we are hungry); therefore shifting us into a constant state of hunger.
Weight loss diets promise a quick fix to a long term problem
Additionally, weight loss diets tend to be a quick fix to a long-term problem. Instead of meeting you where you are at, they are one-size fits all. The issue with this is when you adapt a diet plan that isn’t aligned with your long-term lifestyle, the benefits will be as fleeting as you following it. For instance, while keto may help you shed weight initially, if you regain all the weight when you back to eating foods you enjoy (AKA carbs), then keto never really worked for you in the first place. Learning how to adapt healthy habits for life is key to maintaining health.
Diets may be a gateway to disordered eating
Not only are these diets not helping you adapt healthy, sustainable habits, but they also may encourage you to develop disordered eating habits. Research shows that history of dieting is a key predictor in future disordered eating.
They keep you on the restriction —> binge cycle
Additionally, one reason why diet culture is so successful in keeping people around is that the nature of it keeps you on a hamster wheel known as the restriction binge cycle as you see below. Diets encourage you to restrict your food, which then lead to intense cravings. What happens when cravings get to be too much? We tend to binge on them. Then we feel really guilty about the binge, so what is our response? Try another diet.
Long term dieting actually promotes weight GAIN not loss
So these diets are keeping you around by also making you feel like you keep failing. Research has found that history of dieting significantly predicted future weight gain, which means the more dieting you do the more weight you are likely to put on (not take off).
This yo-yo dieting can also cause detrimental metabolic effects. When you lose weight, even modest amounts of weight regain (2-6%) can cause plasma lipids, blood pressure, fasting glucose & insulin concentrations to revert back to baseline or beyond.
Dieting removes all the fun from eating
Lastly, dieting takes all of the fun out of eating. Food is such an important part of social interactions and our culture. It should not be stressful! I want you to remember, you did not fail the diet, diets simply do not work.
I’m sure many of you are thinking “ok, so if dieting doesn’t work, what if I want to get healthier?”
What does work?
I help clients make healthier choices all the time, the difference is the lens in which we look at these changes. Instead of providing them with a rigid prescription and removing their favorite foods, we come at it from a mindful, slow approach.
Let me give you an example. If someone is surviving on diet coke and fast food, our initial goal might be something as simple as add in one veggie/one time per day and drink water with meals. While this means their diet might still be largely fast food and diet coke, they are beginning to make small, sustainable changes that are more likely to stick.
Mindful eating is all about being present at mealtimes, tasting and savoring your meals and paying attention to hunger and fullness cues.
Mindful eating makes you think about how food is making you feel. When you start to eat more nutritious foods, your body starts to crave those things more regularly, which causes you to choose more nourishing meals. Diets have you remove food, while mindfulness encourages you to actually think about what you like eating. It encourages you to take ownership of your food choices and realize that nutrition is individual and not one size fits all.
Additionally, while diet culture would teach you to critique and hate on your body – mindful and intuitive eating helps you start to appreciate your body for all it does do for you.
For instance instead of complaining about the shape of your arms, mindfulness encourages you to thank your arms and being grateful that they allow you to do your favorite things (maybe cook dinner, hug your husband, etc.). It might sound fluffy at first, but the way we talk to ourselves can have big implications on our wellbeing.
Lastly – by avoiding diets you are never either on or off. So many of us feel like we are either being “good” around food and sticking to salmon and broccoli or “bad” and eating everything in site. With mindfulness, there is no judgement. There is no good or bad. Instead you start to look at your eating choices through a lens of curiosity. And since you are never severely restricting again, you never feel the need to binge either and it helps you find a middle ground.
Questions about this? Want to learn more about what I do? Reach out to book a consult today.
Research:
Maclean PS, Bergouignan A, Cornier MA, Jackman MR. Biology's response to dieting: the impetus for weight regain. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2011;301(3):R581-R600. doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00755.2010
Greenway FL. Physiological adaptations to weight loss and factors favouring weight regain. Int J Obes (Lond). 2015;39(8):1188-1196. doi:10.1038/ijo.2015.59
(n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2020, from https://www.nedc.com.au/eating-disorders/eating-disorders-explained/disordered-eating-and-dieting/
Lowe MR, Doshi SD, Katterman SN, Feig EH. Dieting and restrained eating as prospective predictors of weight gain. Front Psychol. 2013;4:577. Published 2013 Sep 2. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00577
Kroeger CM, Hoddy KK, Varady KA. Impact of weight regain on metabolic disease risk: a review of human trials. J Obes. 2014;2014:614519. doi:10.1155/2014/614519