Dieting and Weight Loss

MD

Dieting and weight loss promotion has been big business since the 1920’s. Yet, despite having more so-called solutions to ‘fix’ our bodies, on average as a society we are getting bigger. With the dieting industry now being a multi-billion dollar industry, unfortunately promoting short-term weight loss has become a very profitable but very unhealthy system for a lot of us. Something is a miss; so what can we do?

 Why are diets harmful?

 Most people would have tried or considered trying a specific diet at some point in their lives. There can be a range of reasons why you may choose to change your eating but by far the most common reason is weight loss.

 A higher weight can be a risk factor for disease, however the over-emphasis on losing weight and a “weight centric” model of healthcare is not helpful for most people. Perhaps you can relate to this if you’ve tried your hardest to stick to a diet; you might see your weight changing but it eventually becomes too difficult alongside everyday life and you “fall off the wagon”.

 Weight loss, gain and obsession

For most people, diets and active attempts to lose weight (especially if done in a short period of time) will eventually end in weight regain. Many people find that their weight is higher than when they first started the diet; this is not a failure on their part but a normal body response to dieting.  Does this sound familiar to you?

The more times you try to diet and restrict your eating, the harder it becomes to lose weight. This is your body trying to protect you from what it thinks is a period of stress. You may also find that you become more preoccupied about food and food decisions, which can also lead to disordered eating.

 How to spot harmful dieting and weight obsession in yourself and others

 Here are some examples of when dieting or food obsession might be affecting you or someone you care about:

 ●        Changing your eating purely to change your weight

●        ‘Banning’ certain foods from the house but overeating them when they are available 

●        Constantly thinking about food but dread making food decisions

●        Relying on ‘cheat days’ to stay in control for the rest of the week

●        Always crave sweet foods intensely in the afternoon

●        Using food as the main way to soothe emotions

●        Lost sense of hunger and fullness or finding it hard to identify them

●        Excessively fearful of what a food will do to your body / weight (unless you have an allergy or intolerance)

●        Starting to avoid eating socially

 RED FLAG

If a company is actively promoting a specific way of eating as superior to another OR claims to give the ‘secret’ in exchange for money or membership, this is a big red flag that they are there to make money and not support your health!

 There is another way!

Weight is not a behaviour, therefore a goal to lose weight is not specific enough and instead needs to be tied to a deeper and measurable health behaviour. Additionally, weight loss does not always equal an improvement in health.

By adopting a more ‘weight-neutral’ approach to health, the opportunity to improve physical and mental health broadens. A weight neutral approach to eating includes diving deeper into your experience with food and your body to build a longer-term approach to health. This includes reducing judgment and increasing curiosity to actually empower yourself and others to look after your health, not make it a chore or unpleasant.

This approach is often mistaken for a ‘free for all’ or an ‘eat whatever you want whenever you want’ approach. This is not the case because instead of a focus on weight and food restriction, the focus is on improving food variety, recognising how foods affect your true sense of wellbeing and improving understanding of body cues and behaviours.

Many people find that when they adopt a weight-neutral approach to health, they struggle to find other ways to measure their health or success to feel like they have direction. If this is you, try instead focussing on improving some of the following health measures directly.

What other health measures below are important to you?

●        Blood results (cholesterol, blood sugars, blood pressure)

●        Your mood and mental health

●        Pain reduction (joints, muscles, etc)

●        Gut symptoms (bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, reflux)

●        Energy

●        Sleep

●        Food behaviours (binge eating, cravings, hunger - this is often best done with support from a dietitian)

●        Others?

 5 starter tips to build a healthy relationship with food

 Aim to focus on health measures other than weight.

  1. Instead of tracking calories, try tracking how often you get hungry or get specific food cravings.

  2. Get curious about how you talk about your eating/body or other people’s eating/bodies.

  3. Give yourself the space to ‘get it wrong’ and experiment with listening to your body. A sense of failure can lead to hopelessness and increase binge or dieting behaviours.

  4. Speak to a dietitian and psychologist about your eating patterns.

 For more support to build a healthy, long term relationship with food, speak to a dietitian who understands the weight neutral approach to care.