Why Your Diet Is Ruining Your Diet
A little picture into what happens both mentally and physiologically when you go on a diet and why that could be the very thing keeping you stuck, frustrated, and unhappy in your body //
I get it. You’ve been tricked into being on a diet for most or all of your adult life and you’re baffled by me, a nutritionist, telling you exactly not to do that. It’s confusing.
But, I am here to tell you that it’s not just my opinion. It has been scientifically proven that strict dieting can actually result in weight gain over time. For those of you who have been constantly on a “diet” for quite some time, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s time you knew the truth: your “diet” is most likely the thing ruining your diet.
What do I mean by that exactly?
In a desperate and determined effort to lose weight, we often pursue drastic calorie restriction for a period of time. Typically, this calorie restriction will result in some weight loss making you feel as if you’ve accomplished your goal and have “fixed” your weight problem. In reality, this act of restriction creates imbalances in your body that are not as onboard with your weight loss as you are or as society is.
An article published by Medical News Todays says that “every year, around 45 million people in the U.S. go on a diet, primarily with the aim of losing weight. However, research has indicated that up to 40 percent of people who lose weight regain more than half of it over the subsequent 2 years.”
This very consistent regaining of weight after a diet can be attributed to many things OTHER than a sheer lack of willpower.
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that blood tests showed that average levels of several metabolic hormones (including leptin, ghrelin, and insulin) had changed causing higher hunger levels as a result of drastic weight loss. As expected, the participants also reported being hungrier -- both before and after eating a meal -- than they had been at the study's start. One year post weight loss, they'd regained about 12 pounds, on average, which was about 40% of their initial average weight loss. Follow-up tests showed that their hormone levels had only partially stabilized. Their hunger levels remained elevated as well (CNN Health).
Hunger hormones do not drop along with your weight. In fact, they increase.
Why does this happen?
Evolutionarily, your body is trying to keep you alive. When it’s fed too little, it is doing all that it can to get you some more fuel, including increasing how hungry you feel. In theory, the hungrier you feel, the more you would eat. However, we usually choose to not listen to these desperate cries for food from our body and suffer the consequences.
In addition to this clever hunger mechanism our bodies have, they have another very effective way of keeping you alive during times of starvation: slowing the metabolism (dun dun duuuuuun!). “Metabolism is the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy”, as defined by the Mayo Clinic. The faster this process is carried out, the faster it burns up the food you consume to be used as body fuel, which can be linked to a lower body fat percentage. It’s a dieting buzzword. Everybody wants to speed that baby up, am I right? Unfortunately, if you’re unhappy with the current speed of yours, you have mostly your parents to thank, because genetics are the single biggest factor of your metabolism speed.
There are, however, ways to speed it up (ex. strength training) and ways to slow it down: dieting. Dieting slows your metabolism for the same reason it causes your hunger levels to increase: your body has your back. It is trying to keep you alive! Thus, when you under feed it, your bod is so smart and helpful that it slows down all of metabolic processes that burn oodles of energy in order to conserve that energy and fuel for future more critical use. THANK YOU LORD for creating us with this survival mechanism so that we didn’t all starve to death and go extinct during long periods of time between meals back in the day. Now a days we have much more food availability and rarely need this amazing adaptable technique for survival. Instead of being used rarely for survival, we trigger it ourselves accidentally on purpose. We may not be aware we are slowing down our metabolism, but we do purposefully put our bodies in starvation mode. AND HERE’S THE THING — diet culture tells you this is healthy. That if you put your body in starvation mode that it will just start burning everything right up and you will become a supermodel triathlete.
NOT TRUE.
One popular modern way this has taken form is the keto diet.
The keto diet is a very strict low carb or no carb diet that triggers ketosis in the body. It has been proven to be useful for children with epilepsy and for those with type 2 diabetes as well.
It is also used for weight loss. This, however, has been proven to do more harm than good.
**Side note: every time I speak out against specific diets, I am, of course, not including those who are required or encouraged to follow a medical diet. As stated in the example above, the keto diet is a fabulous form of medical aid for those with epilepsy as well as those with type 2 diabetes. Just the same as a gluten-free diet is fabulous for those with Celiac. Just the same as a high calorie/high fat diet is fabulous for those with Cystic Fibrosis. If you are living in a state of disease, follow the medical guidelines for your specified diet. I am speaking to those not living in a state of disease. Moving on.
Lisa Cimperman, R.D.N., a clinical dietitian at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio says, “For starters, most of the lost weight is water weight…Once your body enters ketosis, you also begin to lose muscle, become extremely fatigued, and eventually enter starvation mode. Then it actually becomes even harder to lose weight”.
The obvious reason starvation causes you to lose weight is because you aren’t eating.
……….
If you aren’t sleeping, you aren’t in need of any less sleep, you just are not doing it. You’re not training your body to need less sleep. You are just going to crash SUPER hard once you do finally lay your head down. You cannot sustain your life without sleeping enough. Just the same, you cannot sustain your life without eating enough.
Your body catches up.
And oftentimes overcompensates to ensure it’s never put through that kind of stress again.
HELLO YO-YO DIETING.
If you really want to enact change in your body, nourish it well. Feed it. Take care of it. Move it. Water it. Stretch it. And for the love of God don’t starve it.
If you want to learn more about how to stop your crazy diet cycle and finally form a healthy, sustainable relationship with food and your body, I encourage you to sign up for my 1:1 virtual nutrition counseling.
In this 6-week program, we break down all the unhealthy habits you’ve formed with food and build up healthy ones. You will learn how to finally free yourself from the yo-yo diet cycle and be able to exist as your most present, most confident self. I cannot wait to work with you and help you find food freedom!
If you have no idea where to start and just want to get some questions answered before committing to a full 6-week counseling program, try my 30 for 30 Ask Me Anything session where I will help set you up on the path toward discovering food freedom on your own.
I hope this post brings you encouragement and confidence in ditching your diet! It may seem counterintuitive, but rest assured knowing you are actually doing your body and your metabolism a favor by simply listening to your body instead of counting your macros and logging them on My Fitness Pal (we’ve all been there).
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to comment on this post or hit me up on the contact page. Or, find me on any of my socials.
XOXO,
Kaitlyn
Disclaimer: The information I provide is based on my personal experience and my experience as a Nutritionist. Any recommendations I may make about nutrition, supplements or lifestyle, or information provided to you in person, on this meal guide, or on my website should be discussed between you and your doctor because altering your diet involves potential risks. The information you receive in my emails, programs, services, and products does not take the place of professional medical advice.
