The arguments against dieting are persuasive if your goal is to lose weight permanently. Diets tend to be short-term and, so, the weight lost from dieting is also short-term. In addition, changes that occur to your body during dieting can make it harder for you to lose weight in the future and can negatively affect your health.
Blunted Metabolism
Your body is designed to survive in many dire circumstances including starvation. Before the age of farming and supermarkets, our ancestors had to hunt and gather to obtain food. Whether or not they experienced famine or feast was dependent on many things such as rainfall, seasonal and climate changes and migration of herds. Genetically, you are designed to store fat when food is plentiful in preparation for when food is sparse. When your body recognizes a state of starvation or lack of food, such as occurs when you diet, your body will conserve your fat stores by slowing down your metabolism. Approximately 65 to 75% of your daily energy expenditure comes from your resting metabolic rate, the energy required to sustain your bodily functions. If this decreases, it can have a large impact on the number of calories that you utilize in a day.
Muscle Loss Instead of Fat Loss
Weight loss that occurs too rapidly will result in a greater loss of muscle instead of desired fat loss. Unfortunately, when you regain weight, it tends to be in the form of fat not muscle. The net result of dieting, therefore, is an undesirable change in body composition: decreased muscle and increased fat. A slow rate of weight loss of 1 to 2 lb. per week, along with consistent exercise, will maximize fat loss and minimize lean body tissue loss.
Yo-Yo Weight Fluctuations
Extreme dieting eventually leads to rebound eating. Once you return to a normal mode of eating -- or even a state of binging, depending on how much you've starved yourself -- your body will store the excess food as fat. This weight gain can potentially lead to more dieting if you're unsatisfied with the weight gain, and the yo-yo dieting and subsequent weight loss and weight gain cycle is set in motion. Each turn of the cycle leads to worsening body composition and increased frustration as your desired body weight is even further from reach.
Eating Disorders
The yo-yo dieting cycle or -- even worse -- the diet/binge cycle that is commonly set in motion by dieting can sometimes lead to more serious conditions such as eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. Although eating disorders are complex clinical conditions that have many facets, dieting is often a contributing factor in individuals susceptible to these conditions.
Diets are Temporary
One of the most compelling reasons not to diet is that diets are temporary! Permanent weight loss requires lifestyle changes, and dieting rarely instills these required changes.
References
- "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Overfeeding and Energy Expenditure in Humans; Tremblay, A., et al.;1992
- "Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism"; Groff, J.L. et al.;1995
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