Written by Sarah Ortiz, RD, LD
Have you ever felt pressure to lose weight or go on a diet in the name of “health”? Especially in the new year? Additionally, have you ever tried a diet or plan, eventually fallen off, and chalked it up to a lack of willpower or motivation? If so, you are not alone; this is called the diet cycle.
Around this time of year, many New Year’s Resolutions focused on health and wellness might begin to go awry. Today’s topic aims to help you see that you are not alone in feeling the effects of the dieting cycle, why this cycle occurs, and how it might impact your health.
What is the Diet Cycle?
I imagine most of us in today’s society have felt a desire, or even pressure, to lose weight and/or change our bodies at least once in our lives. When we feel this desire, oftentimes the first urge is to begin a diet of some sort. In the beginning, following the rules of a diet may be easy, or even fun! However, eventually we start to feel deprived of whatever the chosen diet is restricting, and cravings may arise. We may also begin to feel burnt out with the rigidity of following the diet’s strict rules and, honestly, may even start to feel bored with it. At some point, we feel the lack of flexibility that diets offer and eventually “give in” or “break the rules.” This may breed feelings of guilt, shame, disappointment, or failure. These negative feelings often lead to the desire to lose weight and/or change the body, and the cycle begins again. See how this cycle can continue over and over again?!
Have you ever felt stuck in the traps of this cycle, hoping and pleading that the next time will be different? As a non-diet Registered Dietitian, I often spend time explaining and processing that it is not you who failed the diet, but rather that the diet(s) have failed you. This is sometimes a foreign thought. After all, we live in a society that is constantly promoting the next fad diet while praising weight loss efforts and shaming us for our inability to follow restrictive eating and exercise rules. However, when we look at the science behind dieting, our eyes can be opened to see how they truly do. Not. Work.
Why Diets Don’t Work
Our body is made up of powerful systems that have a single goal: keeping us alive. When we begin a diet that restricts our energy intake, our body does not know the difference between restricting to lose weight and restricting due to famine or starvation! Our bodies are incredibly smart, as they continue to work to keep our organs functioning optimally in response to the perceived threat of starvation. This means that the body will adapt in ways such as slowing down metabolism, shifting energy focus to major organs and away from digestion (hello constipation when we are under-fueled!), and so on.
Impacts of Dieting
How do we define the success of a diet? The most common way diets define “success” is through weight loss. Although it is common to lose weight while following a diet, several studies have shown that the majority of dieters end up regaining the weight that was lost, and sometimes gain even more.1,2 Losing weight and re-gaining it is often referred to as weight-cycling, and has been associated with higher risk for things such as3:
- Mortality
- Inflammation
- Muscle loss
- High blood pressure
- Disrupted metabolic function
- Emotional distress
And to top it all off, have you ever wondered whether weight-loss diets ACTUALLY improve health? A 2013 study reviewed 21 randomized controlled trials with at least 2 years of follow-up and examined long-term health outcomes, including blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, and lipid levels. It was concluded that there was no clear relationship between weight loss and improved health outcomes. Essentially, there is limited evidence that weight loss improves health; rather, health-promoting behaviors may improve overall health.4
Now What?
If you’ve made it this far, you may be wondering, well, now what? If dieting doesn’t work and can actually increase my risk for adverse health effects, how can I improve my health? Great question! Working with a weight-inclusive healthcare team (which can include a Registered Dietitian) to break the diet cycle and focus on implementing health-promoting behaviors may be a great place to start.
References
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17469900/
- https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-10-9
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4132299/#B20)
- https://seven-health.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Tomiyama-et-al.-2013-SPPC.pdf
