Around half of Americans plan to go on at least one diet this year. But, the majority of those diets will fail long term.
Trish Brimhall, Nutritious Intent, joined us with why she says we should all just ditch dieting.
She says the average diet only lasts about six days, and repeated dieting signals the body to burn less and store more.
Trish says, "Dieting damages one of the longest relationships in your life – your relationship with food."
She explained that diet behavior is more than just counting calories or following rigid restrictive meal plans.
There are also subtle signs of diet culture:
Comments like, "have you lost weight – you look good."
Editing photos to alter body shape or size.
Exercising more based on what you ate
"I was good today because I ate . . . or I was bad today because I ate"
Tying diet or restriction to higher moral standards or character – dieting is not superior or a badge of honor or sign of strength.
So, if dieting is off the table, what should we try instead? Trish says to:
- Pay attention to hunger and fullness signals.
- Be consistent with feeding your body with multiple meals and multiple food/nutrient groups per day.
- Cook more.
- Eat together as a family more frequently.
- Get to know and love plain water.
- Have enjoyable, satisfying eating experiences regularly.
You can learn more mo Trish at nutritiousintent.ccom.
