The Real Impact of Dieting (Part 1)

This week in my virtual mom’s group we were talking about the impact of dieting and restricting food on your life as a whole. When I have clients who are struggling to leave dieting in the past, one of the first things we work on together is to consider the impact that dieting has had on all facets of their life. 

We often think of dieting as something very normal and benign, and simplify it to success vs failure. But if you really think back along your entire history of dieting, was it really successful if you gained weight back, felt miserable the whole time, cancelled social events, couldn't go out with friends to eat because heaven forbid food be present, or had intense anxiety around eating or planning your meals for the day?

When most people think about the impact of dieting, they only consider the physical symptoms of dieting. Things like:

• An overall trend towards weight gain when cycling between diets
• Decreased metabolism
• Excessive cravings for carbs, particularly sugar, or whatever food is currently being restricted
• A disconnect from hunger and fullness cues
• Chronic fatigue even when you’re getting a good amount of sleep
• Hair loss
• Missed or inconsistent periods

But there is often so much more to dieting that we don’t consider. For the next few weeks I’m going to be posting about the other ways that dieting impacts your life beyond the physical. There are social, behavioural, psychological, and even financial ways that dieting can have a negative impact on your life. Start thinking back over the course of your dieting history. How has dieting or the pursuit of weight loss impacted your life? How much time and money have you dedicated to the pursuit of weight loss? Was it worth it?

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