Every day I hear at least a handful of women talking about their new diet, whether it’s on the 6 train heading to work, at my local downtown NYC coffee shop, or at yoga.
It makes me cringe because diets truly do not work, no matter which one you choose. They make you overweight and bloated, and today I’m gonna go over the 5 reasons why.
It makes me sad because women – and men too – torture themselves by denying their cravings, and sometimes, even their physiological needs.
They start a diet with the best intentions – they want to look and feel great, and they might even want to help support the environment by eating organic, grass-fed, humane food. Awesome.
The diet might work for a few months, or even a year, but then it stops working. They might lose weight initially, but they always gain it back, and then some.
Here are the 5 big reasons why:
1. In most diets, at least one food is totally demonized, making it the forbidden fruit. Any time you tell your brain you absolutely 100% cannot eat something, you’re gonna crave it like nothing else. It becomes an obsession and a compulsion.
You’re really “good” for two weeks or even a month, until you finally cave from the physical craving and emotional-mental restraint. You eat an entire cherry pie, two whole pizzas, or whatever’s your diet demon du jour.
Whatever it is that the diet gods ban is exactly what you’re gonna crave, and not just one portion – the whole thing.
2. They demand you make a zillion changes at once. Almost every modern diet recommends you stop eating sugar, dairy, gluten, alcohol, and coffee…all at once. This isn’t sustainable, and it intensifies that dangerous forbidden fruit factor I mentioned in #1, making a massive binge much more likely to happen.
When you remove one thing at a time and truly notice the difference in how you feel, it becomes second nature to say no to it. Not because you want to punish yourself, but because you love yourself, you honor your body, and you want to feel great.
3. Most of them put you on a strict eating schedule that doesn’t honor your body’s natural rhythm. This is a big one. Ever been on a diet that demands you eat every three hours, or even every 1-2 hours? Or at the opposite extreme, ever been on a plan where you have to fast?
An imposed eating schedule screws up your body’s natural rhythm. Your body wants to eat when it wants to eat, not when Mr. Diet says GO!
This can lead to obsessive behavior, because if you “have to” eat at certain times you’re forced to ignore your hunger signals when it’s not time. This leaves you constantly thinking about food and your next meal.
An eating schedule can also lead you to eat when you’re not actually hungry, which screws with your digestion and causes weight gain.
Every person is different, and to optimize your health you have to listen to your body and eat when you’re truly hungry, without obsessing over a set schedule.
4. Tons of water is recommended, to superficially mask hunger. This is a mistake. Water might temporarily make you feel superficially full, gurgly, or even queasy, but it does not satisfy true hunger.
Sure, if you’re very dehydrated you might mistake your thirst for hunger, but it doesn’t actually fill you up – it hydrates you.
If you’re genuinely hungry and you drink a lot of water, you’ll still be hungry afterward. Water also dilutes your digestive enzymes, making elimination less effective. So, it’s a good idea to avoid chugging lots of h20 with your meals and snacks.
5. Salads are pushed as appetizers to fill you up so you can avoid French fries. Raw vegetables by themselves on an empty stomach actually stimulate hunger, so they’re gonna lead you to eat more food.
The only thing that’s going to truly satisfy you, prevent binges, and help you reach your best weight naturally is eating whatever you want, when you’re actually hungry, and until you’re satisfied, not bursting at the seams.
I used to be a serious emotional eater in my high school and early college years. I would eat until I was absolutely STUFFED, and no salad would’ve stopped me.
If you’re away from good food for too long and want to naturally balance strong hunger, try a broth, a satisfying smoked fish like sardines or salmon, or some high-quality sourdough super-fermented bread with grass-fed butter, if you can handle gluten.
Focus on chewing and breathing, and remember that you’re not stuck in the desert – food will show up soon.
Are you a dieter? I was for YEARS. Have you personally experienced any of these 5 traps? Or like me, all of them?
Share in the comments below.
Do you have a friend who’s always starting a new diet every Monday? Send this article to her.
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