What Happens When We Diet?
Today’s Post by Kelsey Chadwick, MS RDN
Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “diets don’t work” and wondered what exactly is being communicated. Let’s talk today about what actually happens in our bodies when we diet. As you read this, you can think of “depriving” or “restricting” as synonyms for “dieting for weight loss.”
Research shows that dieting does not produce thinner or healthier bodies, but rather more preoccupation with our food and body, reduces our self esteem and increases weight stigmatization.1
A 2012 paper from the Nutrition Society journal online writes: “A single episode of [intentional] weight loss was found to increase the risk of becoming overweight by the age of 25 years almost 3-fold in women and 2-fold in men. In addition, women who reported two or more weight-loss episodes had an even higher (5-fold increased) risk of becoming overweight at the age of 25 years compared with subjects with no intentional weight loss.”2
Keep in mind that I’m not admonishing folks for gaining weight or drawing a line between health and weight; I am highlighting how weight loss diets lead to the exact opposite of their intended result.
At a cellular level, our bodies are still equipped to combat starvation. More specifically, our bodies can double the enzymes that make and store fat, which is a biological compensation to help us store more energy. Another biological mechanism our body has is to slow our metabolism. Specifically, dieting triggers our bodies to become more efficient at utilizing calories by lowering the body's need for energy. This can be seen in a study of participants of the television show The Biggest Loser who demonstrated significantly decreased metabolic rates six years after participating. 3
Dieting also increases binge eating and cravings. Research shows that after a period of food restriction humans tend to eat in excess of their energy needs. This is due to a complex array of physiological and psychological processes that are triggered by famine, even if the “famine” in question was a weight loss diet.
Perhaps the most startling consequence of dieting is the risk of premature death and heart disease. A study you may have heard of, called The Framingham Heart Study, observed that “regardless of initial weight, individuals whose weight repeatedly goes up and down - known as weight cycling or yo-yo dieting, have a higher overall death rate and twice the normal risk of dying of heart disease. These results were independent of cardiovascular risk factors and held true regardless of a person’s weight.”4
The pressure from diet culture can be overwhelming and hard to escape in today’s world. Acknowledging that dieting is the problem and not your “lack of willpower” is the first step towards a healthy and peaceful relationship with food. Not only does dieting take an emotional toll on our bodies and minds, it is also damaging to our health. If you feel you need support in navigating the process of breaking free from dieting you are welcome to reach out for support from a member of our team.
Bacon, L., and Aphramor, L. (2011). Weight Science: Evaluating the evidence for a paradigm shift. Nutrition Journal, January 10:9 [http://bit/ly/f4CKOK].
Dulloo, Abdul G., et al. “How Dieting Makes Some Fatter: From a Perspective of Human Body Composition Autoregulation.” Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0029665112000225.
Fothergill, E. et al. (2016). Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition. Obesity. doi. 10.10020oby.21538.
Lissner, Lauren, et al., “Variability of Body Weight and Health Outcomes in the Framingham Population,” New England Journal of Medicine 324, no. 26 (1991)