Have you ever gone on a diet only to find that you lost the weight and then gained it all back on, plus some more?
That’s because DIETS DON’T WORK and here are a few reasons why…
- Diets can cause weight gain in the long run – Research shows that about 95% of people who lose weight by dieting will regain it in 1-5 years, with most gaining even more than they originally lost! Since dieting is a temporary food plan, it won’t work in the long run. Discovering healthy eating habits that you can stick to throughout life is the key to maintaining your weight, not the so called ‘yo yo dieting’ which will forever keep you swinging from one weight to the other.
- Biologically, diets slow down weight loss –
When we’re stressed, we produce high-levels of cortisol and adrenaline (the stress hormones). These hormones cause our body to slow down the rate at which we burn calories. Eek! So don’t cause your bod any extra stress! - Diets don’t get to the root cause and create sustainable, long-lasting change –
What we eat is important, but changing the type of food we ingest alone doesn’t really create long lasting change, because it doesn’t touch on the deep rooted beliefs, patterns and behaviours that form our food choices and eating habits in the first place.
If a diet only focuses on food choices and doesn’t touch on “why,” we keep reaching for foods that diminish our energy and health, then we can get stuck working only on the surface level. For example, many studies have proven that early life trauma can cause obesity and weight-gain throughout one’s life. It helps to identify the feelings and situations behind emotional over-eating with a therapist, coach or councillor so these unconscious, self-sabotaging habits can be recognised and replaced with healthier self-care patterns.
In order to make sustainable changes in our eating habits, we need to explore why we eat, how we eat and who we are as an eater.
Long-lasting change comes from making shifts on both the external level of food choices and eating behaviour, as well as on the inside, which we know as the psychology of eating. The mindset that we ‘bring to the table’ consciously or unconsciously is the key to our relationship with our food and body 😉
By creating a positive relationship with food and body we will actually support our biology and psychology in generating the ideal conditions for reaching our natural weight. Dieting is concerned with the exterior, but eating psychology deeply addresses who we are as eaters.
Food for thought!
If you’re having trouble getting to the root cause of your unhealthy eating patterns, let’s chat. I’m here if you need me 🙂