I'm sorry you worked so hard only to have gotten back to square one. This doesn't make you a failure, this makes the diets you tried not right for you.Let's dive a little deeper into why diets don't work long-term.

Why diets don't work

95% of dieters regain the weight they lost within one to five years according to the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination

This isn't to say that it's the dieter's fault or that they didn't try hard enough. This means that oftentimes outside influences, such as social events where restricted foods are being served, take control and in turn the diet becomes no longer sustainable. Once the diet is no longer being followed, weight tends to come back. And of course, this leads to wanting to lose weight again and that's when we find ourselves in a vicious diet cycle, also known as yo-yo dieting.

They make promises they can't keep

We've all seen plenty of diet advertisements promise to help us "lose 20 lbs. in 2 weeks." That sounds awesome right?? This is the point where I want sirens to be going off in your head because this is a promise the diet can't keep. My motto is, "If it sounds too good to be true, it is." Diets tend to set us up for failure by setting unrealistic expectations from the beginning. It's pretty disappointing too when you force yourself to restrict foods you love and eat the same thing over and over again without seeing any results..trust me I've been there before too.

The Set Point Theory--we may not have as much control over our weight as we think we do

The Set-Point Theory suggests that our weight is predetermined genetically and hormonally. Of course, our weight can change through many external factors like diet, exercise, pregnancy, etc. However, internally our body may resist straying too far away from its set weight or point because that's where it likely functions best. The more our weight changes, the more our bodies resist, and eventually our brains send signals through hormones to try to get back to that "set point."

Check out the graphic below for a visual representation of the Set Point Theory.

Restriction → Deprivation → Overeating → Guilt

Restricting certain food or food groups not only makes for an unhealthy relationship with it but can also be our biggest enemy when it comes to being stuck in a diet cycle. Countless studies show that the more we restrict a certain food, the more we crave it. While you may be able to restrict certain foods like salty snacks and sweets for a period of time on diets, we tend to find ourselves craving those foods so much that we end up bingeing on them and feeling guilty about it after. And that guilt leads us right back to restriction, which is why it is so hard to get out of the cycle of dieting.

If diets don't work, then what the heck does?!

If you resonate with anything discussed above, you may be asking yourself "Then what does work?" Well, let me tell you a little about intuitive eating, which is not a diet.

Intuitive eating is a weight-inclusive approach to eating that incorporates being in tune with your body's thoughts, feelings, and emotions when it comes to making decisions about food. It teaches us to respect and love our bodies as they are meant to be and be mindful of not just what we eat, but how we eat.

When we practice intuitive eating, we allow ourselves to eat foods we once feared instead of restricting and feeling deprived of them. Just as research shows that foods we restrict are what we end up craving more, it also shows that the more we expose ourselves to a certain food, the less we crave it. Therefore we don't feel the need to binge on those foods anymore because we aren't depriving ourselves of them.

Ultimately the goal of intuitive eating is to create a healthy and sustainable relationship with food, not focus on the number on the scale, and eat foods that not only nourish your body but your soul too.

While there's so much more I could say on the topic of intuitive eating, I'm going to save the rest for another day. For now, I wanted you to at least have some idea of what it is because it's what I practice and what helped me break my diet cycle!

Now that you understand why diets simply don't work, you can now focus on ditching the diet and creating a healthy and fun relationship with food