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Part 3: DIET FAILED? Blame Your Stone Age Brain
FACT. The objective of dieting is to lose weight by restricting food or calorie intake.
For sure there are different motivations for making this decision BUT the underlying objective is to lose weight and achieve a different, trimmer body shape in the hope it will make you feel better about yourself.
However, there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that dieting does not lead to this ultimate goal. Instead, people who diet tend to gain MORE weight in the long run.
But why is this?
The obvious answer is dietary failure is your fault.
But the truth is it isn’t. And to explain why, check out these five reasons that explain why dieting is inherently unsuccessful…
1. Dieting initiates an archaic survival mechanism to counter lack of food
2. The evidence suggests in the long-run, dieting causes you to GAIN weight
3. Dieting is damaging physically, mentally and emotionally
4. Dieting distorts your relationship with food causing you to eat more
5. Dieting leads to more dieting
Let’s explore these reasons in more detail…
1. Humans instinctively react in a surprising way to restrictive eating patterns
Food is the fuel that provides the energy, proteins and other nutrients needed to grow and repair, to think and to breathe and to carry out all the other bodily functions that enable us to thrive.
Food is a necessity for life and your body is hard-wired to ensure you have enough to survive.
Dieting goes against this instinctive driver. That’s because when you make the decision to go on a diet, you’re effectively embarking on a restrictive eating programme that involves cutting calories, removing food types or both. Consciously this decision makes sense, but to your Stone Age brain – restrictive eating signals a famine…
If the body detects food is restricted, the archaic, reptilian brain automatically responds by initiating an instinctive survival process driven by the brain stem and the cerebellum.
This instinct responds to perceived famine and lack of nourishment by initiating strong cravings for food. As such you’ll subconsciously develop an obsession to eat. It’s the body’s way of focusing the brain to survive and proactively seek out food in situations where it’s scarce.
When you put dieting in this context (remember those early 20th century studies we discussed in Part 2) you can see why it can lead to a host of physical, emotional and behavioural consequences.
It means people on a restrictive diet, whether that’s restricting calories or cutting out certain foods, are highly likely to crave food to the point of obsession. And what makes this response even worse for a dieter is the body will crave foods that are high in fat and carbohydrates because these foods provide energy.
In addition, the body responds to restricted food intake by slowing down the metabolic rate to conserve energy – which in turn makes it even more difficult to lose weight.
As you can see, these instinctive responses to restrictive eating mean diets are inherently designed to fail simply because they make the dieter more likely to want to eat.
2. A restrictive eating regime leads to detrimental side-effects
If you don’t diet ‘sensibly’, you are in effect under-eating. In turn, your body is denied access to sufficient energy, proteins, vitamins and minerals to function effectively – and this lack of nutrition unsurprisingly results in side effects.
Here are ten common symptoms of under-eating that many dieters can experience.
1. Metabolism slows
2. Urges to binge
3. Obsessive thoughts about food, weight and body image
4. Feeling low, mood swings and even depression
5. Self critical
6. Distorted body image
7. Emotional and increasingly unable to cope with life’s challenges
8. Distorted and irrational thinking
9. Nervousness and anxiety
10. Panic attacks
Imagine how difficult it becomes to stick to a diet if you are experiencing some or al of these side effects…
3. Dieting distorts your relationship with food
Diet plans dictate and influence how you perceive and categorise foods.
Probably the most obvious is when a diet labels food as “good” or “bad”.
In reality there are no “good” and “bad” foods. That’s because rather like fashion this is subject to change and reframing by dieting experts (think back to the fat-free diets widely promoted in the 80’s as a way to lose weight. It’s now well known that fat is critical to our survival and should not be cut out completely). By making certain foods out of bounds and sinful, they subconsciously become even more attractive.
And given your restrictive eating plan is making you hungry and food obsessed and craving sustenance, you will instinctively want to eat more food than you need – and even binge.
This feeling of being ‘out of control’ around food causes great anxiety. Instead of being seen as life fuel, food becomes something to fear.
And the resulting side effects and emotional impact can be very challenging to address.
What’s more, the obsessive focus on food, counting calories and endless weighing can (and does) lead to eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia.
4. The evidence proves dieting causes you to GAIN weight
Evidence suggests the majority of dieters will experience weight gain as a result of dieting.
For example, back in 2007, UCLA researchers reported the findings of a study in American Psychologist. They found that whilst people did lose 5 to 10% of their weight whilst on a diet, more often than not, the weight returned. What’s more shocking is they found:
The study concluded that; “diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people”.
And these findings have been replicated over and over. For example, columnist Arabella Weir commented in the Guardian Newspaper:
“Dieting is just like marrying Elizabeth Taylor. Both endeavours are doomed to certain failure, yet everybody embarks on them thinking: "With me, it's going to be different. With me, it's going to work."
In short, diets don’t work. In fact, diets can make you fatter.
There are two key reasons for this:
5. Dieting leads to more dieting
Give yourself time; eat a healthy balanced diet, take sufficient exercise and your body will naturally return to its set point.
But because most people are unaware of the science behind restrictive eating, the gained weight becomes the signal to start yet another diet. BUT:
I hope you’re beginning to see that misery, frustration and ever-changing goal posts underpin most dieting strategies…
And because diets are inbuilt with inherent failure – it means when they don’t work IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT.
I want you to really hear that…
Instead by signing up to that summer diet, you’ve adopting an eating plan that’s destined to initiate a powerful, instinctive survival mechanism that aims to keep you alive by making you obsess and seek out food.
And I believe it’s this lack of understanding that causes untold misery for mil ions of people who face a daily struggle with food and their weight.
Some simply give up. But for others dieting becomes a lifestyle choice that’s driven by an on- going search for the Holy Grail and a desire to find the silver bullet for success and happiness.
And it’s not just the physical repercussions of this lifestyle.
In addition, countless people find their self-esteem and confidence is gradually eroded following the failure of successive diets.
And in Part 4 we’ll discover the true emotional cost of dieting…