How Dieting Can Be Harmful To Your Mental Health

Have you ever started a diet? You know, those strict guidelines promising health, increased self-esteem, and weight loss?  It is estimated that the diet industry has a net worth of $72 billion dollars, all profiting from the glimmering hope of health (Tribole, E. & Resch, E., 2012). Our society also highlights the importance of a healthy lifestyle such as exercise, eating nutritious food, and fitting into a certain weight. You may even hear messages about how to eat or achieve health from family or friends. You are told over and over that you are not trying hard enough or failed based on the results of you following these rules. This feels like a never-ending cycle of attempting a new way of eating, feeling awful about oneself, and not seeing any benefit. What if our approach is wrong?

Repeat dieting can put a strain on your mental health in addition to your physical health. Sadly, dieting can disguise itself as a positive change versus negative or disordered eating patterns. Research suggests at least 35% of dieters progress into disordered eating patterns (Tribole, E. & Resch, E., 2012). Disordered eating is an irregular pattern of eating or negative view of body and self caused by the goal of improvement of health or weight loss. This is sometimes missed since it does not always meet the criteria for an eating disorder but can still be causing harm in your life.

How can this be when the diet promotes health and wellness? Diets focus on weight versus listening to your internal hunger cues or understanding how your body functions. Weight is not a behavior to be changed.  In addition, studies show that 2/3 of individuals who lose weight on a diet will regain the weight (Tribole, E. & Resch, E., 2012). The focused control with types of foods for meals, frequency of eating, and times of eating limits your ability to learn how to properly feed your body. This can leads to distrust of when you are hungry and can lead to underfeeding in your day. The process of undereating causes your body to feel like you are starving and attempts to conserve the energy you do have since you do not know when you will eat next.

Signs of Disordered Eating Patterns from Dieting

·      Ignoring hunger cues

·      Weight variations

·      Exercise to compensate for food intake

·      Increased fluid intake

·      Restrictive eating or decreased eating

·      Skipping meals

·      Repeated dieting

·      Negative body image

·      Increased thoughts around food

Mental Health Side Effects of Disordered Eating

·      Increased Anxiety: You may notice an increase of thoughts around your food choices. The food rules you have acquired are constantly circling in your head. Picking your next meal/snack feels like an overwhelming decision. At times, this can cause physical stomach distress based on the challenge you battle in your mind.

·      Decreased Self Esteem: Since dieting is usually motivated by the idea that you need to change your body, dieting can fuel a negative view of yourself. You constantly feel like you are not enough and cannot control the outcomes like you think you should.

·      Challenges with Relationships: Relationships become challenging when you are concerned about food. What if you go to a restaurant that does not offer foods which are healthy? What if others judge you for what you are eating? In addition to interfering with your ability to be social, you may feel the need to hide yourself from others. You start comparing yourself to others, causing you to feel less than.

·      Guilt/Shame: Food can be associated with moral value without us realizing it. If you eat something healthy, you may see yourself as “good”. If you eat something considered unhealthy, you view yourself as “bad”. There is the feeling of guilt is usually the instant reaction of eating certain food in the moment.

·      Negative Body Image: Usually diets are motivated for weight loss which is tied with your body image. The constant pressure to change your body or look a certain way starts to become prevalent in your thoughts. You may notice critiques of different body parts and insecurity about certain clothes.

Whether you are dealing with disordered eating patterns or actual diagnosed eating disorder, it is helpful to consider another approach. Intuitive Eating is one intervention which can help you learn to trust and respect your body, understand how the body communicates with you, and find what barriers stand in the way. This is a weight-neutral approach which focuses on compassion and curiosity to approach a new way to view health. As a Certified Intuitive Eating Counseling, I can help you start to challenge these negative thought patterns, develop skills to listen to your own body, increase awareness of mental health and physical needs, and start to work towards healing.

A practical way to investigate if you would like to challenge a diet-mindset or disordered eating patterns is to take time to reflect on your diet journey. Ask yourself a few questions about the experience.

1.     What diet(s) did I try?

2.     How did I feel while on the diet? How about after?

3.     What results were expected?

4.     What thoughts started from my diet?

5.     What influences my view of health? (society, family, friends, social media, etc.)

6.     What were the beneficial and harmful effects of the diet?

If you want to learn how to trust your body again, then contact us. Together, we can discover how to care for your health and body in a renewed way without the diet. Remember, you don’t need to figure this out alone!

The mental health therapists at our office offer counseling for a variety of issues including trauma using EMDR, depression, anxiety, grief, and couples counseling. We work with teens, adults, and couples. We also offer online counseling services which can be great for people with busy schedules or for people who live in parts of Pennsylvania with limited counseling options. You can check out our website to see the full list of counseling services that we offer. Or, Request An Appointment here.

Reference

Tribole, E. & Resch, E. (2012). Intuitive eating; A revolutionary program that works (3rd ed.). New York, NY: St.