Please Stop Trying to Lose Weight

Written by: Leianna Massie, RDN, LDN

I don’t have a problem with people who want to lose weight.

Who wouldn’t in today’s world?  Being in a larger body, a NATURAL body, any body that isn’t “perfect” has been shamed so much that it’s hard to not want to change yourself to fit the ideal. I get that, and I can empathize with that. I do have a problem with the demonization of larger bodies to make weight loss more desirable. I do have a problem with diet culture making us feel like it’s normal to lose weight and then making us feel like we’re not good enough when we can’t, or when it doesn’t last.

Diet culture gives us the tools and instructions to fight against our own biology, against our own survival mechanisms, and then tells us to try harder when it doesn’t work. What they don’t tell you is if you’re not losing weight, it’s not because you aren’t trying hard enough. In fact, you’re probably succeeding all too well. You’ve dieted so well that perhaps your DNA has instructed your body to store more fat; to slow your body processes down and decrease your metabolism; to feel hunger stronger than you’ve ever felt it before; to crave foods high in carbs and fat; to wear you down until your “willpower” runs out and you can finally give your body the energy it’s been (literally) dying for.

When you stop following the rules of the latest diet trend and your biology takes over, you begin to eat all of the foods you’ve been avoiding.  You might even eat them so often and in such large quantities that you fear you may never stop. This is where most people panic and seek out the next diet or weight loss strategy.

And the cycle begins again.

Let’s say you decide to break free from the pursuit of weight loss and lean into the fear of not being able to stop eating all of those delicious high fat and high carb foods that you crave so badly. What will happen? I can’t make any promises, but I can relay my own experience with ditching diet culture and what I have observed with my clients. You will start to feel calmer around those foods. You will stop thinking about those foods all the time. You will start to feel like you have a choice in whether you eat them or not. You will choose to eat more balanced meals. You might even crave vegetables or forget that you bought ice cream two weeks ago and find it in the back of the freezer unexpectedly.

This is what it feels like to have a better relationship with food. Once you free yourself from the food rules and with that, the desire to change your body, you can start to eat more intuitively. You can start to eat enough food to fuel your body and eat the foods you enjoy eating more often. You can eat food without feeling guilty, or feeling like you need to “make up for it.” You are finally working WITH your biology rather than fighting against it.

As for weight loss, I can’t tell you that you will or won’t lose weight. What I can tell you is that you will eventually feel much better than you ever did while losing weight, and…

that just might be worth the risk of the unknown.