What does it mean to be anti-diet?
It happens like clockwork, every New Year's advertisements ramp up with messages about how you can get “healthy” or “lose weight" in the New Year. The targeted ads to lose weight or change your body start increasing. Conversations begin revolving around “lifestyle changes.” Things you are pretty sure are diets disguised as wellness or pretend to be “in the name of health”. It can be difficult to pick through what is truly in your best interest, and what isn’t
Can I start by saying… Wow, being a human with a body in our culture is just plain HARD sometimes. While this can be exhausting, I promise it doesn’t have to be this way! You do not need to constantly be trying to change your body to fit into a made up ideal.
The $58 billion dollar diet industry thrives year round. It was created to shame people into hating their bodies, which in turn making a handful of people LOTS of money.
A few reasons I hate diet culture —- (& yes, hate is a strong word)
Diet culture convinces people that weight gain is automatically unhealthy (and unattractive for that matter)
Diet culture makes people believe they are personally responsible for their weight
Diet culture tells people they can control their weight with a product or restriction program
When weight is regained, diet culture tells people it’s their own fault, and sell them another program/product
Diets fail 95% of the time.
We have been convinced that:
It is impossible to be fit AND fat at the same time
All people in larger bodies MUST lose weight in order to improve their health and fitness level
All people in larger bodies are in poor health
Everyone can lose weight IF they just follow the proper diet and regular exercise program
The main reason people regain lost weight is THEIR failure to comply with prescribed diets or make long-term commitments to weight loss.
I am here to tell you, none of this is true.
When scientists try to prove the efficacy of dieting, the results don’t prove anything. The National Institutes of Health was given $15 million to study diets for 15 years. But research was canceled two years ahead of schedule. The official reason for canceling the study was “futility.”
They could not find any evidence of benefit for the diet intervention they were studying. It was impossible for the statisticians to find any way to make the data show that dieting was helpful. The data could not show dieting could help prevent strokes, heart attacks or deaths from cardiovascular disease. So they cancelled it.
Reminder:
Here’s your reminder that your body is just enough as it is. You have a right to exist in the body you exist in. Period. You are absolutely worthy as you are now and I have compassion for how difficult it can be to keep perspective when our culture is so critical and for lack of a better way of putting it: obsessed with thinness.
Anti-Diet Does NOT Mean Anti-Health
Being against diet culture doesn’t mean being against health.
To the contrary, I and every other anti-diet health provider I know are very much in favor of helping anyone who wants to pursue well-being (whatever that means for them) using truly evidence-based, diet-culture-free interventions like the Health At Every Size® framework.
A few ideas on how to fight back against diet culture in your own life (and in turn, allow yourself to lean into body respect)
Avoid weighing yourself and focus on how you feel
Ask to skip the scale at your next doctor’s visit
Don’t focus on weight loss when exercising; think of healthy goals like relieving stress, feeling joy, or increasing energy
Some places to start to learn more…
While this will look uniquely different for each person, here are some places to begin:
Listening to podcasts that take an anti-diet approach. Start here: Maintenance Phase, Food Psych, Body Kindness.
Reading books or listening to audiobooks that work to dismantle diet culture. Start here: The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor, Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison, The F*ck It Diet by Caroline Dooner, Intuitive Eating (most recent edition) by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.
Working on setting boundaries with those who are dieting. Whether that be limiting time with folks that are dieting or even practicing your favorite way of saying, “Hey, can we change the topic?”
Make your social media a SAFE and INCLUSIVE space. Fill your social media with body diversity and anti-diet accounts. Unfollow those accounts that make you feel less than or like you need to change.
Find community! The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness hosts free, clinician led groups throughout the country for those wanting to heal from their eating disorder.
Working with an anti-diet therapist and dietitian to support you in your journey of making peace with your body. You can click here to learn more about my services.
What I want you to remember above all else is that it is not YOU who is wrong: it’s the culture we has been created in our society. Creating a space that is anti-diet is a radical act. I am here to stand alongside you on this journey!
