In my opinion dieting does not work. Not in losing weight in the long run, not in making anybody happier. In fact, I think dieting is harmful. Today I want to elaborate on that. I don’t think I know any women who has never been on a diet. And if I do, it’s a minority. I’ve been on diets myself. And I don’t even know at what age I started anymore. Over the years I’ve learned that it does not do any good to anybody. Not to society, not to individuals. Here’s why dieting is harmful.
Dieting affects our mental health
Most people go on a diet because they want to be skinnier. And they want to be skinnier because society tells them this is what they should look like. We think being skinny makes you happy. But I think that’s bullshit. And I also think that dieting is therefore harmful to our mental health. I think aiming for being skinny is never going to make you happy. If we want to be happier, we have to work on accepting ourselves and the way we look. I believe that’s the real solution to happiness. Accepting yourself and society accepting you. And I am not saying this is easy, far from it. Especially because society does not accept fat people (yet!). Tackling that problem is essential. In order to do so, fatshaming has to stop.
Dieting is not the solution
But let’s just say dieting does make you happier. Even if this were true, dieting is not the way to become skinny in the long run. Sure, a diet can make you lose weight in the short foreseeable future. But everything I’ve read about dieting concludes: the majority (I honestly believe it’s over 95%) of diets fail in the long run. Most people are back on their original weight from when they started the diet after a few years. A diet is successful for about a year or so, but not in the long run. If we want to be healthier (which does not equal being skinny), we have to change our lifestyle in a way that we can maintain it. And it should be focussed on lifestyle, not on weight. This takes small steps over a long period of time.
Dieting harms your body
Now, there’s consensus about the fact that diets don’t work in the long run I believe. But I don’t know if there’s scientific consensus about what I am about to say. But something I personally believe and have read a lot is that if you diet often, this makes it only harder to maintain a stable weight in the future. That’s because your metabolism is confused every time you diet. Your body thinks it’s in survival mode and will change your metabolism, making it more efficient with the energy it’s given. I honestly don’t believe this can be good for you. And it also makes dieting inefficient for the goal of weight loss.
And besides the metabolism, I also feel like dieting is bad for your entire body. If you eat a very low amount of calories, I honestly believe this affects your organs, bones, muscles, etc. If you eat very little it’s hard to give your body the vitamins and minerals it needs. That’s why I think that dieting is bad for your body on the long run. Personally, I think that’s it’s best to keep a reasonably stable eating pattern over the long run.
Fatshaming is an industry
Looking past the fact that dieting simply does not work and is harmful to our mental health and metabolism, we also have to realize that dieting is an entire industry. Fatshaming is an industry. It’s an entire industry aiming to make money off of our insecurities. They purposely want to make us think that being skinny will make us happier and that we are not okay the way we are. Once they’ve made us collectively insecure, they can ‘help’ us by offering ineffective diets. They promise us happiness when we lose those 5 kilos. But after those 5 kilos we only feel unhappier. And on the long run those 5 kilos are gained again and then we resort to the dieting industry again. Diet shakes, dieting books, corrective underwear, dieting programs, dieting supplements, and the list goes on.
I’ve written an article once before about how dieting distracts us from what is really important in life. In the time we’ve spend hating our bodies we could’ve done wonderful things. And the same accounts for the money we’ve spend on dieting products.
Sustainability of the dieting industry
I’m not going to dive into the sustainability numbers of this industry (I would guess they’re hard to find). That’s because this is an industry that shouldn’t exist at all if you’d ask me. The dieting (read: fatshaming) industry serves no legit purpose. I wish it didn’t have a future at all. It only causes misery, like self-hate and eating-disorders. In my view, their sustainability numbers should be at zero. That’s why I’ll never support the industry in any way. And at the same time, I actively try to fight fatshaming in my daily life.
Yours sincerely,
Romee