Ditch the diet Part 1

​How often this month have you already heard the phrase New Year New You with some form of dieting or exercise to lose weight programme attached. It’s everywhere you look from television, magazines and social media this is the time of year to make resolutions and one of the most common ones appears to be about becoming a different person and usually involves losing weight in some form or other. The implication is also there that unless you lose the weight you will not be ok and if you follow the latest diet plan and /or exercise programme you will lose weight and be OK and if not, then you didn’t try hard enough.

It’s not that simple if it was we would all be the same size.  However that is not the case and when you get down to it there is no research anywhere that shows  long term success for weight loss for anybody other than a very small percentage of people. In fact the research shows that when people lose weight the majority have the weight back on within a year and most of the rest within 5 years.  There is also evidence that a lot of these dieters end up heavier than they started and many dieters end up with anxiety and depression.  There has to be a better way to feel good about yourself and look after your health.

There is and it’s the non-diet way, now many people talk about this but those that give the impression that you will lose weight on this method are just pedalling another form of dieting in disguise.  I am not saying nobody loses weight this way some do and some don’t but the way this works is to take dieting and weight loss off the agenda for good. I can hear your cry, “but I need to lose weight for my health, to look good and to let others know I am an OK person”. However the non-diet method, which goes under a variety of names including Well Now and Intuitive eating, has been shown to help people’s health by increasing self-esteem and body satisfaction and can also lead to eating a healthier diet not focusing on cutting out food groups or indeed focusing on eating a set amount of portions as it is based on your appetite and satisfaction which is not the same every day.

So if you struggle with yo yo dieting, perhaps with poor body satisfaction and feel it’s your fault for not being able to keep to the diet it’s maybe time to try another approach. When choosing be careful to pick a programme that doesn’t have  losing weight as one of the goals because whatever approach it is calling itself e.g. healthy eating, wellbeing course, boot camp or even a non-diet approach if losing weight is seen as one of the primary outcomes it is just a another diet.  One thing to bear in mind for this or any time of year is be gentle on yourself and your body.  You are always good enough.