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7 Reasons Why You Should Break Up With Dieting

Updated: Jul 21, 2019

Most people assume that dietitians are all about diets...well not this one! Here are my top 7 reasons why you SHOULDN'T start that new diet or cleanse that your mums best friend lost 10lbs on last month...


1 - Diets don’t work!

Weight loss isn’t easy, in fact, it can be really freaking hard. It’s especially hard when what you’re doing to lose weight aka dieting, doesn’t even work. And in a twisted world, we seem to think that the harder the diet is to follow, the better the results will be.

Well, let me tell you...90% of people who lose weight from dieting re-gain that weight within two years. The majority of those people will actually gain more than they originally weighed. Let me ask you this; if diets work then why do we need new ones? There are new diets coming out all the time and the weight loss industry is growing. If diets worked, wouldn’t the industry be getting smaller? Yet here we are, in a diet-obsessed world and an ever-growing weight loss industry.


2 - Diets make you obsessssssed

This is one of the BIGGEST reasons why dieting doesn’t work and why it makes you miserable. Diets create divides between foods. It says there are good and bad, foods that make you gain weight or lose weight. Diets tell you to stay away from bad foods. However, as soon as you are told, or tell yourself not to have something, that thing becomes the only thing that you want to have! Your mind takes over with thoughts of food, eating it, not eating it, waiting to eat it, just eating a little bit of it, eating a version of it that is ‘healthier’. When you diet, you're always thinking about food!

Another way diets make you obsessed is through tracking. Often diets will tell you to track what you eat, to count the calories and grams of sugar. Before you know it you won’t be able to be around food without mentally adding everything up in your head. I don’t know about you but I hate maths, and the thought of doing calculations every single time I eat, really takes the fun out of a doughnut, or even a “healthy meal”.


3 - Diets mess with your metabolism

I see woman after woman trying to follow restrictive, low calorie diets, thinking they are doing what's best for their body. In the long run, low calorie diets mess with your metabolism, slowing it way down. This slow metabolism now makes you gain weight, quickly, the second you eat more than your allotted low calorie amount. Maintaining a low calorie diet is hard but it's even harder when your body literally needs more and so drives you to eat 24/7 until you give in. Now fixing your metabolism isn’t impossible, no one is too far gone. But the longer you diet, the harder and longer the process is going to be.


4 - Diets make you feel bad about yourself

Diets have this way of making you blame yourself when it all goes wrong. When you fall off your diet, you’ll feel like you are the one that’s failed. You’ll think about the 2 or 3 people you know that were “successful” on it and assume that because it worked for them, the problem has to be you. You’re not strong enough, you’re not disciplined, you have no self-control… then you feel bad about yourself and promise that you'll go HARDER next time. In reality, it’s not you that is the problem, it’s the diet. You might be able to look at 2-3 people who the diet has worked for, but I guarantee there are hundreds more who it didn’t work for and feel just like you.


5 - Diets focus on calories instead of nutrients, and weight instead of health.

Most diets focus on calories and weight. Because yes you have to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. However, there is SO much more to health than just your weight and so much more to nutrition than just calories. What is the point in being your “ideal weight” if your blood pressure is high, you’re pre-diabetic and your cholesterol sucks? Food is so much more than calories, it’s even more than it’s nutrients, it’s comforting, it’s social, it hits our senses. We’re selling ourselves short and missing out on so much by focusing just on calories.


6 - Diets steal your time, thoughts and energy.

So many of my clients come to me because they are exhausted with trying to lose weight. They are consumed with thoughts of calories, foods to avoid, when they can eat, how much to eat, how long to wait until they are allowed to eat. They are confused, frustrated and they just want to throw in the towel. When you’re on a diet you are usually thinking about it ALOT. A study at Cornell University found that we make over 200 food-related decisions a day. That is about 13 an hour, 2 every 10 minutes. If you’re on a diet, it’s more than that! What if you replaced those food thoughts with something that mattered more? What could you achieve if you weren’t thinking about food every 5 minutes?


7 - Diets are zero fun

Food is delicious, but diets will tell you that you can’t have your favourite cookies, carbs or wine. I think food should be enjoyed, not binged on, or restricted but truly enjoyed without making you feel bad or guilty. You might think I sound insane but it's 100% possible for everyone.


Breaking up with dieting isn't easy but it IS possible and it IS worth it. If you want help to heal your relationship with food and find the freedom that you're longing for. Get in touch for an initial consult today and we'll get started on your journey together.

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