One study showed that 91% of college women are on a diet to lose weight. In another, 60–80% of young women are dieting despite the majority of them being an “average” weight.
I had the opportunity to speak to HackHer413, an all women, non binary online hackathon designed to increase technology skills, network and innovate, about how to connect with their own true voice and presence in their emerging career.
With these statistics in mind, I knew the majority of the women in my workshop were critical of their body size and were either actively trying to change it or wanted to. And, I also knew, in their minds, they believed they were doing the right thing. They had heard plenty of messages that they needed to have a thin body and dieting is the answer.
Which is why, despite offering them other insights and advice, I told them to stop dieting.
The Weight Loss Industry is Masterful at Convincing us to Buy from Them
Weight loss is a $72 billion industry filled with programs, products and professionals eager to tell us how to get rid of belly bloat, drop a few pounds, and get healthier. Companies like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers have massive advertising budgets to pay celebrities to share how their program has worked for them, including sharing before and after pictures as proof. Their advertising is compelling and sneaky. They promise an easy solution, one that anyone can do.
Half of All Americans are Dieting
In any given year, 49% of adults are on a diet to lose weight. We see calories on menus and advertisements that some restaurants are “keto” or “paleo” friendly. There is a good chance that if you haven’t been on a diet, you know someone who has. Conversations around which foods are ‘good’ and which foods are ‘bad’ is really diet talk in disguise. Yet, diet talk is a second language as we all know which foods fall into which categories.
You may have work colleagues that have tried “clean eating” or “whole 30”. They skip the bread basket, fill up on dark leafy greens and miss their glass of red wine in the evenings.
This may have you wondering, if I’m not counting calories, should I be? After all, if everyone is doing it, what could be the harm?
Diets harm. Here is why:
Consider the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, an 18 month long research study done in the 1940’s to understand the impact of starvation on young, fit men. While eating 1,600 calories a day, these men were anxious and agitated. While they lost interest in other passions in their life, including a loss of sex drive, food was all they talked about and read about.
I can relate. So can my clients. When I ask a new client how often they think about food, their quick response is, “all of the time”. Dieting becomes a part time job that hijacks our minds.
95% of diets lead to long term weight gain. Let that sink in for a bit. Oprah Winfrey and Maria Carey don’t share this truth with us. If you’ve ever been on diet, consider your own experience. If diets work, then why have you needed to look for another one?
35–60% of dieters exhibit eating disordered behavior, 20% of which turn into a clinical eating disorder. Dieting is extremely risky and significantly impacts our mental health.
Dieting disconnects us from our body’s signals. When following rules like, only eat a certain amount of calories, don’t eat past 7pm at night or don’t eat until 11am in the morning, our body’s signals get overridden by our head. This disconnection is dangerous, especially for those that want to make decisions with confidence and clarity. When our minds are so busy following rules, we forget that we have our own inner wisdom inside of us that knows exactly what to do. Ultimately, when we diet, we stop trusting our bodies.
Dieting is part of The Broken Promise of the Thin, Perfect and Successful, a cultural condition where we believe that we will be successful and happy in life if we are thin and perfect. Yet, when it comes to being thin and perfect, there is no stopping point or end line. We can never be thin enough or perfect enough.
As a result, dieting becomes a chore, something we must do to be happy and successful. We’ve been conditioned to believe thinness is the way. Yet, it’s not. If you’ve ever dieted and lost weight, were you ever content and satisfied? Did you finally arrive at a place where you felt successful and happy? Likely no.
When I lost over 15 pounds on Weight Watchers after the birth of my first son, I was worried and fearful I’d gain all of the weight back. And I did. See above. And blamed myself for my failure. I didn’t know the truth.
I received a note from one of the women who attended my workshop. She shared how she religiously plans each breakfast, lunch and dinner. And then feels so guilty when she doesn’t follow her plan and eats something else. She was tired of feeling so terrible about herself. I don’t blame her.
Maybe my plea to not diet was the permission she needs to stop engaging in such destructive behavior. I just hope she tells all of her friends.