Why Diets Don't Work in the Long Run
A huge part of what I do as a health coach is to influence women to stop dieting and shift their thinking to long term health instead of short term results. This is incredibly more difficult to do than it sounds, and it wasn’t always my mode of coaching.
When I first decided to go to nutrition school, this was absolutely what I desired to come out of my business. I had found so much peace in healing my body naturally through food and proper exercise, and I wanted to share what I had learned with the world.
As I stepped into a new career in personal training that would allow me the flexibility to go back to school, I also picked up a new hobby in bodybuilding. I was in the midst of divorce and I was looking for a way to place value on myself. One common response to a bad breakup is, “I’m going to get into the best shape of my life!” There’s actually a saying in the bodybuilding world that rings quite true for me, “Breakups make bodybuilders.”
For me, bodybuilding provided a space to focus on myself and do something (I thought at the time) was healthy. What I couldn’t see is that I was isolating myself from friends that were helping me heal, because I couldn’t eat out anymore. And I was slowly creating disordered eating and harmful thoughts about my body.
Over the 4 years that I competed, I was constantly yo-yo-ing back and forth between very lean and overweight. After every show, my attempt to go back to my normal, healthy way of eating was completely disrupted by my intense food cravings, obsession with tracking and measuring my food, and my loss of understanding hunger and fullness cues.
Everything I had fallen in love with about nutrition and health had been replaced by an obsession with my weight, body fat percentage, and the macronutrient ratios I was consuming. And this carried in to the way I was coaching my clients.
I knew that my own confusion as to what I really wanted was impacting the way I taught my clients to achieve their health and wellness goals. I didn’t know if I wanted to be lean at any cost, or be truly healthy and at peace in my body, even if it meant I no longer had visible abs and my weight was higher than I thought it should be.
It took a complete wake up call to get me to know what I wanted, and that wake up call came in the form of a less than desirable blood test result. I had been prepping for 9 months for a show, I was leaner than I had ever been, and I was so proud of how I looked. I was exhausted, burnt out, and my cravings were insane, but all I wanted was to finally step on stage feeling totally confident in my physique.
Over the course of a few months though, my weight plateaued and so did my fat loss. No matter how much cardio I did, or how low we cut my calories, my body was no longer responding to these fat loss methods.
My coach asked me to have a blood test done and have my hormone panel checked. The results showed that my thyroid was no longer functioning the way it should be. My coach had seen this before, and he recommended I immediately stop my diet and remove all cardio from my routine. “You’re not going to be able to do this show” he said. I was devastated. “If you keep up with your diet and cardio, eventually it could seriously affect your hormones and your fertility.”
I have always desired to have kids, so this news was enough to draw me back. But I was so upset. I put on close to 20 pounds in a few short weeks because of the drastic change in my diet and exercise routine, not to mention I was struggling with binge eating from such a long phase of deprivation.
It took me a year to get to a point where I stopped gaining weight and started to get back to a healthy weight, and also eating a healthy, balanced diet without feeling guilt and shame over not weighing, measuring, or tracking my food.
Intuitive eating is something that, as kids, we don’t have to think about. We know what we want and what we don’t, and we eat until we are full. As adults, most of us are completely lost as to understanding what a healthy portion size is and what it means to stop eating when we’ve had enough.
The types of food we are eating also plays a huge role in having the ability to stop when we’re full, but that’s for another blog post.
I’ve read a number of articles recently that show that people who habitually diet actually slow down their metabolism significantly, and this can have long term effects. In one of them it said that if you took two people with identical height, weight, age, gender, body fat percentage and one of them had never dieted and the other had, the person who had dieted in the past would have a slower metabolism!
Do you ever wonder why you constantly have to diet to get in shape for events? As a personal trainer, I’ve worked with clients who hire me specifically for this reason. Constantly losing weight for vacations, birthdays, weddings, or summertime is not only exhausting, it’s extremely taxing on your body.
You don’t have to go to the extremes I was in my bodybuilding years to have a negative impact on your health long term. Going through waves of calorie deficits and over exercising, to over eating and under exercising will put you at risk. Especially for women. Our hormones are so sensitive to our diet and lifestyle choices and can affect our menstrual cycles and fertility.
So now you’re wondering, “How do I stay healthy and fit year round without dieting?” Here’s my best tips and what I work through with my clients:
HYDRATE. If you are dehydrated you’re setting your body up for a host of health issues, and a few extra pounds. Our organs need water to function properly, and if you aren’t drinking enough pure water throughout the day (not coffee, juice, soda, etc), your body will store excess water to make sure everything keeps working as it should. This results in 5-10 excess pounds of water (hello, bloating!), dull or dry skin and hair, brittle nails, urinary tract infections, cravings, and headaches.
Start with a goal of drinking half your weight in ounces of WATER only. For example, if you weigh 140lbs, drink 70 ounces of water. Start drinking water first thing in the morning to rehydrate your body after sleep. Do not chug a ton of water at night if you didn’t hit your goal, just try to hit it the next day. If you’re drinking coffee or alcohol you need to drink more, as they both dehydrate your body.
QUALITY + QUANTITY OF FOOD. The type of food you eat and the amount of food you eat are key to staying healthy and looking and feeling your best. Knowing how your body responds to certain foods is key, and paying attention to hunger and fullness cues to know when you need to eat and when it’s time to stop. Focus on eating food that fills you up (protein, complex carbs, healthy fats) and lots of veggies. Eating high quality, whole foods, will keep you satiated longer and prevent blood sugar crashes and cravings.
When you eat, sit down, put your phone away, and eat slowly. Eating on the go or while we’re distracted with devices can easily lead us to overeat. It can take up to 20 minutes for leptin and grehlin, our hunger and satiety hormones, to kick in. If you’re scrolling through Instagram and inhaling your food, you’ll probably miss that cue!
If you notice bloating or digestive issues after eating a meal, take note of what you ate and see if you have the same reaction every time you eat that food. You could have a sensitivity to that food and need to eliminate it for a while.
*With the exception of allergies and sensitivities, no food should ever be off limits, as this creates a diet mentality and binge eating behavior. Create boundaries or special occasions for foods you love that aren’t necessarily healthy. I love chocolate, but I know that eating chocolate all day will not serve my health or my body. I keep chocolate covered almonds at home and I’ll eat a few when I feel like it, but never overdo it. It keeps me in control of my food choices and not deprived from things I love.
MOVEMENT. Find exercise you enjoy doing, or someone you enjoy spending time with to exercise with you. The gym can be intimidating for a lot of people, but you don’t have to be a gym member to be fit! If you can afford it, hiring a personal trainer can help build confidence in the gym if that’s what you really want. But there are tons of other ways to stay healthy if lifting weights isn’t your thing!
Take a dance class, join a martial arts studio, go rock climbing, find a pool and swim some laps. Moving your body daily is what matters. In fact, walking is one of the best exercises you can do! Walking has a huge influence on our hormones (specifically cortisol) and can therefore promote fat burning in people with high stress simply by lowering their cortisol levels!
Community is also a huge motivator when it comes to exercise. Find a class you enjoy and make some friends, or bring friends along to a class you love!
SELF CARE. If you’re eating all the kale in the world but not managing your mental, spiritual, and emotional health, you’re never going to feel your best. Make time each day for things that bring you joy and peace and help you manage your stress levels. Some of the ways I practice self care is praying, journaling, talking with friends, being creative, reading, taking a bath, cuddling with my husband or my daughter.
This is often the most under-practiced part of wellness and, in my opinion, the most important. I keep saying it, but hormone health is what keeps you healthy, lean, and happy. If you’re not taking care of yourself, your hormones are going to be out of whack from stress.
Chronic stress can lead to weight gain, disease, infertility, skin issues, poor sleep, reliance on caffeine or other stimulants, anxiety, bruxism, poor relationships, and more.
Small, simple changes can have a huge impact on your health long term. We often underestimate what these little changes can do over time and instead focus on quick fixes that lead to short term results.
When it comes to your health, creating healthy routines will take you a long way. And making room for flexibility will keep you on track.
Any questions? Feel free to leave them below!