Diets don’t work for many reasons. You can’t just blame it on your lack of willpower or your coworker’s daily doughnut drop off. The more times you turn to Atkins or Beyonce’s Master Cleanse to help you lose weight, the less likely you are to stick to it, and the more likely you are to gain the weight back, plus some.
A 2011 study of over 4,000 twins found that the more the participant dieted, the more likely they were to gain weight. If you go on a low carbohydrate diet and are avoiding bread, fruit and dessert, what’s the first thing you’re going to eat when you get off the diet? You probably won’t be craving eggs and cheese. And you probably won’t stick to just one slice of cake.
Dieting increases extreme eating behaviors
Dieting can lead to obesity and disordered eating up to 5 years later, according to a 2006 study. Dieters were more prone to binge eating, and extreme dieting behaviors like intentional vomiting and use of laxatives. Yikes! They were also more likely to be overweight. Is dieting worth all that?
Dieting changes your metabolism
When you diet (and can stick with it), you lose weight. When you lose weight, your body needs less energy (calories) to maintain your weight. When you gain the weight back after stopping the diet (which 1/3 to 2/3 of people do), you gain it back quicker since your body needs less calories than it did before you went on the diet.
Dieting stinks
Dieting is no fun. You have to restrict foods and eat what and when someone else tells you to eat. Dieting makes you hungry, cranky and no fun to be around. And studies are showing that diets don’t even work. But there is a big grey area between daily binging and extreme dieting. Listening to your hunger and fullness cues is the healthier way to lose, and a lot more enjoyable. Ditch the diet and trust yourself.
We didn’t diet on our weekend trip to Vegas! Here’s the view from our hotel room.
Why do you think that diets don’t work?
Nice! I wrote a very similar article http://theskinnywhitebuddha.blogspot.com/2011/11/why-dieting-never-works.html I Highly suggest Ancel Keys book the Biology of human starvation for anyone interested in weight lose or health in general.
The Ancel Keys study is so interesting- especially when you consider that the men were eating around 1700 calories per day. It’s a great resource.
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whats even more interesting is the re-feeding period. I have tried eating 10,000 calories in a single day, It’s darn near impossible. Ethan Sims study is similar as well. http://theskinnywhitebuddha.blogspot.com/2012/04/ethan-sims-and-overfeeding.html
I think one of the reasons fad dieting is so popular is our society has gotten so impatient! We need things NOW. Want an item from online? No prob! Overnight ship it, and it’s at your door the next day. Want to know the answer to a question? Not an issue, just whip out your smart phone and wiki it. So, we’re used to getting what we want…immediately! Therefore, the thought of dropping 20 pounds quickly (even if it’s more likely to be gained back quicker once we get burnt out) really whets our appetites, so to speak! We want everything now, so our bodies suffer when we decide we want to lose weight.
You’re right- people are willing to sacrifice our future health to lose the weight now. It’s hard to compete with immediate gratification.