There are many reasons to STOP dieting, and evidence shows that diets will work until you stop working them.
Going on a diet is a temporary and band-aid solution to a long-term problem.
If you’ve ever lost weight and then gained it back again, there is a reason why.
Until you learn how to manage your mindset and your emotions when it comes to food, losing weight will always feel like a struggle.
Below you will find 43 good reasons to stop dieting.
- Diets are a temporary “fix,” not a sustainable way of living.
- Diets promise one thing – weight loss – and usually deliver another – weight gain.
- Diets tell you what you can’t have, not what you can have.
- Diets don’t recognize individual differences – metabolism, genetics, diet history, etc.
- Diets teach you to ignore what your body is telling you – hunger and fullness cues.
- Diets make you feel that you are bad for wanting food that is coined as “BAD” or that your body may need.
- Diets make you feel deprived and unsafe.
- Diets make you doubt your body, your abilities, your strengths and your willpower.
- Diets cut you off from what is pleasurable.
- Diets often mean putting your life on hold for weight loss, which may never happen, and if it does, is almost always temporary.
- Diets are a misplaced attempt to feel in control when other things in your life feel out-of-control.
- Diets allure you, like a lottery ticket. This is the one that will work…when we know that no diet, or restricted eating plan will work.
- Diets ignite a rebel response (the rebellious inner child) and actually make you want to eat more, making the statement “You can’t tell me what to do!”
- Dieters report being more stressed than non-dieters.
- Yo-yo dieting increases the likelihood of developing health problems.
- Diets are hard work that offer short-term results.
- Diets ruin your relationship with food.
- Diets distract you from enjoying other important aspects of life.
- Time spent thinking about trying to stay on a diet could be spent on a new skill, hobby or talent.
- Diets can cause obsessive thoughts about food, which may result in eating more.
- Diets don’t let you enjoy the “here and now” because you think in terms of “When I’m _____ then I will _____.”
- Diets trash your metabolism. Each time you diet, your metabolism drops more quickly in preparation. It is saying “Here we go again.”
- Diets trigger increased self-judgment.
- Diets make you feel hungry even when you’re not through an increase in the hunger hormone ghrelin.
- Diets turn you into an emotional hot mess – including loss of focus, moodiness, and “hanger”.
- Diets fight your body; they don’t support it.
- Diets increase our inner self critic…you know the one, the voice in your head that beats you up, tears you down and makes you feel like you are not good enough.
- Diets promote perfection. Life isn’t perfect. People aren’t perfect.
- Diets promote one ideal body shape and size.
- Diets tell you that you aren’t okay as you are.
- Diets are a one-size-fits-all approach for very individualized issues.
- Diets make you feel “bad” when you aren’t “being good”.
- Dieting is often an unhealthy road to what we think is “better” health.
- Diets don’t fix your life.
- Diets camouflage the real issues.
- Diets are a promise you make to yourself that you cannot keep.
- Diets make you think the problem is you.
- Diets tell you that you are only as important as your reflection.
- Diets don’t teach you how to eat – they teach you how to restrict.
- Weight gain after dieting can change body composition, result in belly fat, and subsequently, health problems.
- Diets are a punishment for something you didn’t do wrong.
- Diets take away your autonomy…YOUR right to choose.
- Diets suck…PERIOD!
In 2023, commit to not going on a diet and instead, mastering your mindset when it comes to food and dieting.
If you are ready to commit to learning how to master your mindset and your emotions and learn how to make long-term changes, click here to book your call with me.
