Why I Don't Diet: An Intro to Intuitive Eating

"Dieting will not make you thin, and being thin will not make you happy."

For me, going on a diet would be taking that first step onto the slippery slope of my eating disorder. Although this is the MAIN reason I don't diet, it is definitely not the ONLY reason. The concepts of intuitive eating were intertwined with almost everything we did at the Center For Change. The more I learned, the more my excitement grew as I imagined a life in which I wasn't a prisoner to food. The program we were taught was taken from a book appropriately named, Intuitive Eating, and was written by two registered dietitians (Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch). It is based on 10 different principles, with the very first being:

 1. Reject Diet Mentality

To reject diet mentality means to make a commitment to never diet again and to let go of all hopes that dieting will help you.When I say "diet" I mean it in every sense of the word. Ever since going to treatment for an eating disorder, I have not gone on any kind of diet. I also do not count calories, fat grams, carbs, etc. I do not restrict or deprive myself in any form, and there isn't a food in the world that I tell myself I can't have. I have also spent YEARS learning to disconnect any feelings of guilt from the act of eating.

The following are all the reasons I don't diet, and never will again:

Diets don't keep their promises

What does every diet seem to promise you? It promises that you will be thin and beautiful. Not only that, it promises you happiness and self esteem. A simple phrase that I repeat in my head any time I am tempted to diet is, "dieting will not make you thin, and being thin will not make you happy." As for the diet industry's promise that dieting will make you thin, I will let the statistics speak for themselves: 

• 95% of all dieters will regain their lost weight within 5 years (Renfrew 2003)
• Up to two-thirds of people on diets regain more weight than they lost within 4 or 5 years (UCLA 2007).
• According to the co-author of one of the most comprehensive studies on dieting ever conducted, "...dieting is actually a consistent predictor of future weight gain" (UCLA 2007).
• According to research conducted on kids ages 9-14, "...dieting to control weight is not only ineffective, it may actually promote weight gain" (Resch, Tribole 2012).
• A study conducted on 2,000 sets of twins, showed that "...dieting itself, independent of genetics, is significantly associated with accelerated weight gain and increased risk of becoming overweight." (Resch, Tribole 2012)

Now, as for thinness as a means to happiness- I can wholeheartedly and unflinchingly state that this is a bald faced lie. This is a lie that I bought into as a young, depressed, lost, naive, teenage girl. I thought there was some magic number on the scale that would automatically make all my problems go away. The truth was that no matter how low that number got, it never made me happy. Sure there was a temporary 'high' from losing weight, and compliments from others gave me a  'boost,' but this false sense of happiness and self esteem was always so fleeting. Soon the excited, happy feelings would be gone and I would be left wanting. This would eventually lead me to set a new goal for the scale, and so goes the cycle of an eating disorder.

Dieting causes damage to your body

Dieting causes a decrease in metabolism and an increase in binges and cravings. That right there explains many of the statistics listed above. According to a 32 year heart study, yo-yo dieters have "twice the normal risk of dying from heart disease." (Resch, Tribole 2012). It's also interesting that the risk factors held true for yo-yo dieters, regardless of their weight (Resch, Tribole 2012). Dieting can also change your body shape. Yo-yo dieters often regain their weight back in the abdominal area, which  increases risk of heart disease as well (Resch, Tribole 2012). 

Dieting causes damage psychologically and emotionally

My eating disorder started 'innocently' enough with my first diet. Little did I know what I was embarking on when it began. Not everyone that diets will develop an eating disorder, but they are 8 times more likely to than non-dieters (Resch, Tribole 2012). Dieting has also been shown to lower self esteem and create feelings of failure (Resch, Tribole 2012). With a success rate of 5%, who isn't going to feel like a failure? I know for me, every time I broke a diet rule or binged, I felt like something was wrong with me. I never stopped to consider that the problem might not be me, but the diet itself. Dieting only added to my already low self-esteem. 

Some final thoughts....

The decision I made 12 years ago to never diet again, and to put trust in this thing called "Intuitive Eating," has changed my life in ways I could have never imagined. Intuitive eating is not a quick fix, but a process. It is a concept that I am still learning and growing in to this day. I hope that I can accurately portray my own personal journey through the intuitive eating process, and in so doing, help others that may be struggling with food issues of any type. This post is only a small glimpse into the process. I intend to use this blog to explore all the principles of intuitive eating, and my experiences with those principles.

Sources

Resch, E. & Tribole, E. 2012. Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works. St. Martins Press: New York, NY. 

The Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders. 2003. Eating Disorders 101 Guide: A Summary of  Issues, Statistics and Resources.

University of California- Los Angeles. 2007. Dieting Does Not Work. Research Report. Science Daily  Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070404162428.htm