Why diets fail…and what to do about it
Let’s face it - we all know that diets are not sustainable. There is overwhelming research showing that when the body is deprived, starved and stressed physiological processes go into effect that try to reverse what the body is perceiving as life threatening. Studies show that our bodies respond to sustained deprivation by slowing our metabolism, increasing our hunger and find ways to find the fuel it needs to survive. Essentially, a primal drive is initiated that creates a cascade of biological responses leading to unconscious overeating and obsessing about food.
How Our Beliefs Influence Weight Loss/Gain
It’s Monday, we are so excited. We jump out of bed, go about our routine, follow a diet, do our exercise, drink our water and we feel so accomplished at the end of the day. This can go on for a while, depending on our level of will power, goal or the reasons behind our change in behaviors. It could be a few days, week or a month before we start having our doubts about the new regime. Perhaps there was a day when we weren’t quite successful in making healthy eating choices, or we were too tired or too sore to work out like we had envisioned - but slowly but surely our optimism, and the novelty is wearing off. This is when our beliefs start to erode our optimism and momentum. Slowly an old familiar story might creep in like “oh, why bother…I’m just going to gain it all back anyways..” or “see, I knew you couldn’t stick to anything…” or “I’m overweight and always will be no matter what I do…”.
How our Brain Works on a Diet
How many times have you dieted, reached your goal weight and then several months later find yourself disappointed and again dissatisfied with your body because you have gained the weight back? How many times does a headline or picture catch your eye about a diet program with testimonial after testimonial about the success of the diet program. Weight-loss advertising is good at promising a thinner, healthier future self. It’s also really good at making us feel bad about ourselves when the diet fails - we often blame ourselves, our bodies, our lack of willpower for the failure. In reality however, the diet failed, not the person. There are biological processes at play when we diet - dieting and deprivation lead to increased hunger, and increased hunger leads to increased caloric intake. We need to break out of the diet/deprivation mentality in order to make any forward progress and lasting change. Unfortunately, we can not create a healthy body, relationship with food and lifestyle through deprivation or starvation.