How Dieting Steals Our Motivation

Episode 2. This episode is all about why dieting does not work and the many ways in which getting caught in the dieting cycle keeps us distracted from the things that matter. Very often, it keeps us from the good we want to do in the world. Topics Covered We talk about how dieting causes stress and very often preoccupation with food. Although many people assume that they are "failing the diet", many of their perceived "failures" (like binge eating) are 100% caused by dieting itself. But yet, we blame ourselves and start another diet or "eating plan" and keep the cycle going.Giving up dieting does not mean giving up any pursuit of your health. In fact, quite the opposite is usually true. Giving up dieting lets us see more clearly what matters and what we need to do logistically to improve our health, if that's what we choose. We just get to do it without all the diet-binge-shame BS. I talk about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment and how 36 men that were "starved" (put on a 1570 per day diet and lost 25% of their weight) became obsessed and preoccupied with food, and lost all interest in other things like hobbies, sex, etc (Keys et al., 1950). I discuss some of what this can teach us about the biological impact of dieting.I talk about the research study looking at calorie restriction without food monitoring (with pre-packaged meals) and how that increased cortisol, suggesting that calorie restriction itself inherently causes stress (Tomiyama et al., 2011) which makes us more prone to weight gain. Learn More About How Dieting Fails Us Check out my blog post for a comprehensive overview of the ways diet fails us (called "How Dieting Fails Us: A Comprehensive Guide"). Self Control is a Limited Resource We only get so much "willpower" or self control in a given day, as it turns out. People with sustainable habits they feel good about are not fighting tooth and nail every single day to keep them up. I wrote previously about how to use this knowledge in our favor and learn to make habit chang