How To Stop Dieting

For so many of us, we have been on some type of diet “plan” for more years than we can count so how do we STOP dieting?? It sounds like it should be really easy, right? What does it even mean to eat normally?

The unfortunate truth is so many of us have lost touch with how to eat without a set of external rules to follow. We know not only intellectually but from our own experiences that diets do not work in the long term, yet we hold that sliver of hope that maybe this ONE is the one. You may feel that if you stop trying you will never get the body you think will give you what you want in life.

Others feel if they do not continue to diet they are just giving up on being healthy and that could not be further from the truth.

After being in different facets of the nutrition sphere for over 25 years, I will use my experience and expertise to give you the steps to finally stop dieting.

What Happens On A Diet?

Do you want to know how to gain weight? Go on a diet.

Yep. Sounds backwards, right? When we go on a diet and put our bodies in a caloric deficit, our body goes into starvation mode. Biologically, our bodies PROTECT us from an impending famine. We are not meant to survive by starving our bodies. Our bodies are miraculous and we have built in protective mechanisms that are there to protect us. This was proven in the Minnesota Starvation Project where back in 1944, healthy Caucasian men were intentionally placed on a low calorie diet. The experiment was done to help learn about the effects of famine in war time and how to help soldiers when they came home but it proved to be so important in ways that were not planned as a KEY study to educate about what actually happens to our bodies if we do not nourish it appropriately…and unfortunately so many of us do not.

Negative Changes in the Body When Dieting

Here are some physical and behavior changes that happen to humans when they do not meet their caloric requirements.

• When the body is in a caloric deficit, it slows down weight loss instead of speeding it because it prevents the body from burning fat.
• The body holds onto fat stores as a defense mechanism and the body will start using lean muscle as fuel. This leads to a loss of lean muscle mass and will decrease the bodies metabolism – resulting in a slowing down of weight loss.
• Your body has a “set-point” amount of weight/fat that it will stick to and it may not be the weight that you “want”.
• The higher the restriction of food, the greater the obsession with food. Restriction leads to obsession. This is seen over and over again and is highlighted beautifully in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment.
• Increased anxiety and depression are known to increase when decreasing calories and restricting food.

Check out my post on “Chronic Dieting Pitfalls: Why You Should Stop” for more detailed information on the dangers of dieting.

Steps on How to Stop Dieting

Letting go of external food rules.

This sounds pretty easy until you sit down and think of all the food “rules” you have in your life. Some may be obvious, such as, you do not eat past 7 PM at night. And some may be less obvious such as, you stopped eating bagels 5 years ago because of ” all the carbs” and now you just think you do not like them. My suggestion to someone starting on this journey is to sit down with a piece of paper, or open your note section on your phone, and write a list of all your food rules. It will take time because some may not even seem like rules because you have followed them for so long or you just thought you HAD to do them to stay healthy. Take your time. Little by little, let them go.

Allow ALL foods in your diet.

We are so programmed to have “good”, “bad”, “healthy”,”junk” labels to our food. You may have kept certain foods off-limits because you feel you can not control yourself around them (ironically you can not because when you restrict them it causes the obsession). Allow yourself to have all the foods. And not just once. This can be a process. When you allow the food and take it off it’s pedestal, it loses its power over you. The term is called habituation. The more you eat the food, the less “power” it has. I suggest not doing all the foods you have restricted at once. Maybe do one a week. It is ok to give this time. Think of how long you have followed your diet mentality!

Making peace with your body.

Notice that I did not say to “love” your body. I am not a fan of the body positivity movement. If it resonates and helps you, fantastic. No judgment here. I find it almost impossible to find someone who TRULY loves their body and there is no rule that you have to love your body. You HAVE a body. Just like you have fingernails. It is a neutral fact. I speak about “body neutrality” as a goal. You do not have to love your body, but you have to respect it. Feeding your body and not starving it is the first step of respect.

Detox your feed.

If you are on social media, this is a must. All day long you are inundated with messages. If you find that your newsfeed is full of thinspo, “health” influencers, people selling health products, lots of before and after photos, “what I eat in a day” posts, I would suggest doing a feed clean. You can stop following people or you can just have their accounts so they do not show up in your newsfeed (I do this a lot. I like the person but do not need their constant diet posts – or sports posts!). Once you remove the things that may trigger you, I would add in accounts that promote anti-diet, intuitive eating, HAES (healthy at every size) and throw some pet accounts too. There are so many amazing accounts to follow that support all the topics we have discussed in this post.

Learn about Intuitive Eating.

Letting go of dieting does not mean you are letting go of health. Intuitive Eating is a framework of principles that advocates getting in touch with your body to eat and move in way that feels good to you.

For ALL things Intuitive Eating, I suggest starting with my “Beginners Guide To Intuitive Eating“. I go over how to get started with Intuitive Eating and additional resources.

If you like to get your hands on a book, I have compiled my favorite books on Intuitive Eating and Anti-Diet. There are so many books and I like to guide people to the ones that add the most value AND are enjoyable to read.

In closing, I want you to remember how long it has been that you have engaged in some sort of diet. To think you could stop cold turkey and have no issues, is unrealistic. This is a process. But it is process worth going through to get your life back! You will find that you have so much extra brain space freed up that you can find more time to do things you actually enjoy more then stressing about macros, calories and what have you in the world of dieting.

I believe in you.