No Need for Dieting (Con't) It has been well documented that diets and trying to control our eating virtually always fails long-term - about 90 to 95% of the time - and dieting drop-out rates are high. But this study also poignantly illustrated that improvements to health and health behaviors with dieting are not maintained and in the end dieting actually worsens women's health and quality of life. The dieting group which had significantly increased their physical activity right after the treatment period, had returned to their initial levels by the end of the study. And most remarkably, there was nearly 200% more bulimia and eating disorders among the dieters compared to the nondieters. The dieters' self esteem and depression had also significantly worsened, which isn't surprising given most dieters are left with an overwhelming sense of failure. And the psychological and physiological effects, as well as eating problems, resulting from calorie restriction itself have been clinically documented, even among the healthy young men in the Minnesota Starvation Study. The nondieters, on the other hand, enjoyed extraordinary improvements in their self esteem and feeling good about their bodies, and less depression. Nondieting resulted in healthier eating and more normal relationships with food, less eating restraint and feelings of hunger. And the nondieters, by learning the joys of movement separate from an "exercise" or weight loss regimen, had nearly quadrupled their physical activity. They'd naturally made healthier habits part of their lifestyles by simply nurturing and appreciating the bodies they had. Dieting advocates continue to voice objections in mainstream media about the nondieting approach. In the March issue of Diabetes Health experts debated whether weight loss was the appropriate prescription for better health. Brownell said he did not like the HAES message "telling people to accept their weight and not worry about it." He told reporters there is no evidence that the HAES approach works any better than dieting. "People who say that you just need to eat right and exercise have no data that that works better than telling people to go and diet."
Now you know the real story.
MyPyramid Scheme |