There is NO Miracle Weight Loss that Lasts
Every day, you’ve probably seen some new “miracle weight loss diet” with before and after photos. But what you’re NOT seeing is “after” the “after” photos. That’s because for most people losing weight is not an issue. Soon you’ll get to a “plateau” or stuck at a place where your metabolism has slowed down so significantly that even the miracle weight loss diet is not working anymore.
Eat Less and Exercise More
At this point the Diet Guru will tell you that you have to eat even less. And they will also tell you in most cases that you need to exercise more. It's all Diet Industry lies and gaslighting to make you feel responsible from diet failure.
Guru: "Throw Out Your Fat Clothes"
I was incensed when I heard another Diet Industry Guru telling women that they needed to throw out your fat clothes to keep motivated to stay on a diet. While I agree with disposing of clothes, it would be the thin clothes in your closet that make you feel like a failure and taunt you every time you open your closet and see them!
Mindful Eating Gurus Lie
Maintaining Weight Loss is NOT About Discipline
So many of the women I know and have spoken to have been the most disciplined people imaginable. For years they avoided sugars, carbs, exercised until they could hardly breathe. And they still hit a plateau and some started regaining weight even while still on their diet regime! All you have to do is read about the Minnesota Starvation Study to see that dieting can do very damaging things to your body and mind!
Guilt From Regaining Weight
You struggled and followed that diet EXACTLY. And maybe you reached your goal weight. You went into a maintenance diet mode- still “watching” what you ate. For 95% of dieters this can happen during your diet or 2 months to 2+ years after you finished the diet, the weight started creeping back. In the beginning you might have ignored it, being exhausted from the strict diet you were on. But at a certain point you realized that the weight WAS coming back! The fear and guilt is overwhelming! Your body and brain has changed to actually MAKE YOU do things to regain the weight- even despite maintaining your diet and exercise regime!
Embarrassed To Show What Happened
You might have shown your "before and after" photos on Facebook, Instagram and other social media and gotten so many positive comments and requests for what you did to lose the weight. But at this point once you start regaining you won’t answer anyone. You feel guilty and like a failure. And you certainly don't want people to know you regained the weight. The diet industry is happy that you feel like that because they know that you blame yourself for the diet failure and you won't tell anyone. They know that you’ll be back trying another diet.
Diet Revolving Door
Getting stuck in the Revolving-Door-of dieting is caused by chronic or serial dieting and disordered eating. The bad news is if you try another diet after each diet failure, you will regain the weight, just like before. But the worst part is that each time you rebound and add additional weight from your starting point. That's known as yo-yo dieting or weight cycling. And weight cycling is very harmful to your body! And it’s NOT YOUR FAULT.
Unfortunately for us who have gained weight, the likelihood of losing and maintaining that weight loss is very small. Only 2-5% of dieters maintain their weight loss. If you're lucky you'll maintain about a 2 pound weight loss out of your very significant drop in weight.
Stress Causes Weight Gain Two Ways
Part of the reason that diets fail has to do with Emotional Eating, also known as Stress Eating. The way that stress causes weight gain is from actually changing your metabolism. Your body is responding to stress as though you were under attack. It even affects you sleep which has a strong effect on hormones that control your feelings of hunger and satiation. But you can learn how to turn off both ways that stress is affecting your weight.
Get control of stress now and prevent your weight from getting any higher. The other benefit is that this training affects all aspects of your life and makes you more resilient to stress and calm.
Contact me if you have any questions-
Learn to love yourself like your dog does- (even if you don’t have a dog, you’ve heard of unconditional love? that’s it!)
Love yourself unconditionally- just like your dog loves you!
unconditional love from a dog whether you are skinny or fat
Please share YOUR experiences with dieting- were you able to maintain your weight loss?