You’ve been there before. You are unhappy with your body, you so desperately want to lose weight. The only thing you know to do in order to lose weight is to go on a diet. This has worked before, or has it?
Well, if you’re being honest with yourself (and I hope you are), the diets never worked for you. Maybe in the short term, they worked if you consider the few moments you were at the dream weight you always wanted to be at. But in the long term, they didn’t work because here you are figuring out what diet to go on to lose weight, again.
A chronic dieter is someone who goes on diet after diet in pursuit of weight loss. You get stuck in the cycle of dieting, lose weight, gain it back, then try again. Typically, the longer you diet, the shorter the duration of each diet. You are quick to throw in the towel when you don’t see results. You think there must be a “better diet” out there to help you lose weight faster.
One of the many problems with diets like the ones you go on is that these short-lived diets will end up costing you more than you bargained for.
4 Side Effects of Chronic Dieting
1. Slowed Metabolism
If the diet that you’re on calls for a drastic decrease in caloric intake, your body compensates for this “starvation mode” by slowing the rate of your metabolism. While many diets make the claim that they will speed up your metabolism, they actually do the opposite.
2. More Challenging to Lose Weight
After years of fad dieting your body will have a more difficult time losing excess weight from fat. Chronic fad dieting also makes it harder to gain back lean muscle mass that you have lost. When you’re on a quick-fix diet, you lose mostly water weight and muscle, so when you do gain weight back, it is not muscle, it is fat. Therefore, although you may lose initial weight, the chances of you gaining even more fat back after your success is extremely high.
3. Altered Mood
What happens when you get hungry? You get angry! Not having the appropriate amount of food in your system can affect your mood because of hormonal changes and a lower level of blood sugar. With less energy being consumed, the more tired you become as well. Is losing weight in an unhealthy fashion worth being tired and in a bad mood for?
If you like this article, you’ll want to read these, too:
4 Reasons NOT TO DIET
5 Spices That Can Improve Your Health
3 Reasons Why You Should Never Diet Again (…And What To Do Instead)
4. Nutrient Deficiencies
Some diets restrict certain nutrients such as carbohydrates and fats or complete food groups, such as dairy. When you aren’t eating well-balanced meals, you are likely missing some essential nutrients that can lead to deficiencies and disease. Is being in a smaller body worth putting your health at risk?
The only way to stop dieting is to MAKE THE DECISION that you will never diet again and to embrace intuitive eating.Click To TweetThe One and Only Way to Stop Dieting
The only way to stop dieting is to MAKE THE DECISION that you will never diet again and to embrace intuitive eating. And to do this you need the following:
Commitment: Deciding to never diet again isn’t easy given the society that we live in. But when you stop and realize that the diets have NEVER given you the long-term results you’ve been looking for (and I don’t just mean a body size, I also mean a peaceful relationship with food), then it’s just a wee bit easier to make the commitment to learning how to live diet-free.
Direction: Just because you’ve proclaimed that you’ve given up dieting, doesn’t mean you know how to give up dieting. The diet mentality runs deep and often lingers for a while, pushing you back a few steps just when you think you’ve got it! It’s important that you have a step-by-step system to help you move from a place of restriction to a place of honoring your body by eating. You need direction and in my experience, a hand to hold along the journey.
Community: Giving up dieting and learning how to become an intuitive eater requires community support. Why? Because you are swimming against the current, in diet culture waters. They are deep and nasty and everywhere you turn you are bombarded with messages that tell you that your body is not right the way it is and the only way to change it is to restrict or avoid certain foods or food groups. Being in community with other women that are on the same journey is empowering and the support you need as you navigate these waters.