Dieting: Diets Don't Work!

Hello, Beautiful World!

I hope everyone is doing wonderfully well 😊. Before I get into this blog post (which will be a little different from others because it's not really a disorder), I'd like to say that I was so happy to read all of the wonderful comments on last week's post about how much you guys enjoyed it! I also LOVED working with and learning from Dr. Ashley on marital issues/couples therapy 💕. 

This week has been very eye-opening as many very awesome things happened! I finally figured out what my final product for my project will be... but I can't tell you. I know, I know, the suspense is too real! I'm so happy with it, and I can't wait to work on it 👏. I also got a job at a summer camp (courtesy of the amazing Mr. Chadwick and Mr. Carey)- I'm taking a very big step getting out of my comfort zone in terms by spending a month and a half away from home (if you know me, you'll know I'm a hugeeeee homebody). YAYYY! 

Getting to the disorder of the week (except it's not a disorder), dieting, we're going to begin with some facts/statistics about dieting:

• 95% of those who use dieting to lose weight gain it back.*
• At any given time, up to 50% of women are on a diet. **
• Up to 90% of teens diet regularly, and 50% of adolescents have tried dieting at some point in their life. **

What surprised me the most about these statistics was that even young kids try dieting! 

Before meeting with Kristine Sinner, the registered dietitian nutrition therapist at A New Beginning who specializes in eating disorders and healthy weight management, I conducted a survey and looked through everyday media relevant to dieting. Starting off the meeting by asking her what misconceptions clients ​may have regarding diets and nutrition, I learned that clients generally believe that eating dietary fat makes them have more body fat, and eating carbs will cause them to gain weight as well. Also, there is a common misconception that skipping meals is a good way to lose weight, but it actually causes weight gain in the long-term (I'll discuss this in-depth below). 

Kristine Sinner, MS, RDN

From here, Kristine and I discussed more about dieting using the survey questions as a basis:

Misconceptions:

• Myth: Eating late in the evening will make you gain weight.
• Truth: What leads to weight gain in the evening is due to the fat that people come home from work or school, kick off their shoes, turn on the TV, sit on the couch, and eat directly out of containers. They don't portion their food, thus eating unconsciously and mindlessly, increasing their overall caloric intake than if they'd had a mindful meal.
• Myth: Pasta makes you fatter.
• Truth: No one food makes you fat. Weight changes occur directly due to caloric intake. If you need 2,500 calories a day and eat that many, you maintain your weight. If you eat more than that, you gain. Think of it as a 'metabolic bucket.' What overflows from the amount of calories you need is stored as body fat not matter what food it comes from.
• Myth: Going on a diet is the best way to lose weight because you're cutting calories and carbs, which are bad. 
• Truth: Going on a diet is not a good idea because caloric restriction below what your body needs will only promote weight loss in the short-term; if it goes below 2,000 calories a day, your body will resist weight loss and will begin to compromise lean body tissue, such as skeletal and visceral, by taking those proteins to meet energy requirements. This will lead to a decrease in overall body weight, but will make it impossible to really eat normally again because your metabolism has been slowed down so much.
• Myth: Eating protein and carbs in different meals is the best way to lose weight. 
• Truth: You need proteins, carbs, and fat to be healthy. Your body needs carbs first for energy (between 50-55% of the energy your body needs comes from carbs), then it uses dietary fat for energy. Once your body uses those two forms of fuel, protein can be used to build muscles and drives metabolism. You need to have all three!
• Myth: Eating fat makes you fat.
• Truth: Eating too many calories of any energy yielding nutrients can lead to potential weight gain. It is all about calories in versus calories out.
• Myth: Certain foods help burn fat.
• Truth: Oxygen within the blood stream through aerobic activity is how the body burns body fat. The body can burn body fat in a sense with the deprivation of carbs by resorting to a secondary source of carbs, called ketones. These are a secondary preference for the brain to keep it fed, and the fat cells help create that source for the brain. However, it is only a short-term weight loss. 
• Myth: The more you work out, the more calories you lose. 
• Truth: Excessive exercise can lead to weight gain, because it leads to an increase in appetite. Moderate, consistent, regular activity is the key to weight loss.
• Myth: Skipping meals is a good way to lose weight.
• Truth: Skipping meals will lead to increased hunger, typically later in the day due to low glucose stores. You are more likely to eat more calories than if you had spread them throughout the day. Your choices end up being compromised and you are less inhibited because you're so frantic and you want quick, fast, hurried meals. You don't make time, and you end up gaining weight. 
• Myth: You cannot eat what you love and lose weight.
• Truth: We shouldn't love food; we love people. Food is to nourish our body. You can eat foods you like to the point of satisfaction, but wanting fullness from it is what creates weight gain. Be mindful of what you're eating, and eat slowly.
• Myth: If the label says "no-fat" or "low-fat," you can eat all you want and not gain weight. 
• Truth: A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Your body has the capacity to gain weight on anything if you eat more than your body needs.
• Myth: You cannot be overweight and healthy.
• Truth: You definitely can! BMI (body mass index) is a tool used to assess appropriate weight based upon height; but it does not differentiate between healthy and unhealthy. For example, a body builder would be considered potentially overweight because of his/her muscle weight making him/her weigh more; but that does not mean he/she is unhealthy. 
• Myth: You shouldn't eat between meals.
• Truth: You should eat snacks between meals to keep your metabolism rate stable and active.

Some things that can be misconceptions or truths, depending on the case:

• Although eating small, frequent meals does not necessarily boost your metabolism, it sure does help maintain a stable, consistent one. Your metabolism is set based upon your activities, your age, and what you eat. Eating in small, frequent portions keeps your metabolism active, and prevents the tendency to store calories. 
• People say that coffee, green tea, and milk can help you lose weight. Caffeine has been touted in some cases to increase heart rate, and thus increase metabolism in the short-term. However, it would not lead to considerable or substantial weight loss. Milk, on the other hand, has been shown to help with weight loss because it is a nutrient dense food that contains carbs, proteins, and fat, which you need to reach a point of satisfaction to trigger cues which let your brain know you are full. 
• Skipping breakfast makes you gain weight. Well, not necessarily. It doesn't, so to say, 'make you.' There is no cause and effect relationship. If you skip breakfast, you are more likely to overeat later, thus gaining weight. Dieting has a 99.5% failure rate, and it's a $65 billion industry that is also failing. 

Since the media plays a huge role in how we perceive things, I also asked Kristine how she felt regarding the portrayal of dieting in Little Miss Sunshine, The Devil Wears Prada, Bring It On, Mean Girls, Elf, and celebrities. 

• Little Miss Sunshine: "When you eat ice cream, the fat in the ice cream becomes fat on your body. So if you eat a lot of ice cream, you might become fat, and if you don't, you'll stay nice and skinny."
• This is completely wrong because it views food as the enemy, and implies that there is a cause and effect relationship between food and weight gain. No single food will make you fat. This message encourages the dichotomization of food into good and bad categories that will ultimately make a person feel bad about him/herself. 

• The Devil Wears Prada: "Well, I don't eat anything and when I feel like I'm about to faint I eat a cube of cheese. I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight."
• That's no bueno. It's self-sacrifice for the superficial pleasures of vanity.

• Bring It On: "I want you to think of what you ate today. Got it? Now cut that in half. This is called a diet, people, everyone start one today! Darcy, you should stop eating. You see, when you skip a meal, your body feeds off its fat stores."
• This is also no good. It's addressing external controls versus internal control cues for eating. No one knows better than yourself when you're hungry or satisfied. It's a classic case of should's and supposed to, which can't occur when it comes to weight and control. 

• Mean Girls: "I can't go to Taco Bell, I'm on an all-carb diet."
• People often make decisions in a vacuum, so they don't even know why they're doing what they're doing. We look more into what we wear than what we put into our bodies. For example, when you're shopping for clothes, you consider it's price, functionality, color, etc. When it comes to what to eat, you just eat without considering nutritional value, how it can help your body by preventing diseases, etc. That's kinda sad, isn't it?

• Elf: "We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: Candy, Candy Canes, Candy Corn, and Syrup!"
• It's realistic for an unrealistic elf, but not humans. Food isn't always about taste; it's also got to be about nutritional value. 

• Celebrities going on extreme diets for movie roles
• When in Rome, do what the Romans do. When you're getting paid heavily to do something, anyone can do anything. If money is your motivation, as opposed to your health, then it trumps health sometimes. 

So where do all of these misconceptions regarding dieting come from? Magazines are one source of such myths. They're written by journalists, not nutritional experts! Advertisements and the dieting industry are also hugeeee sources. They're just companies putting catchy words out there; they're only trying to make a profit. Also, dieting is a learned behavior, passed on from generation to generation. You can be predisposed to dieting, but being exposed to a multitude of variables (media, etc.), you become more vulnerable to it. Similar to this, what is your family's focus? Is it religion? Vanity? Politics? Family time? This sets up one's mindset, and if the answer is vanity, then dieting becomes a learned behavior. Genetics loads the gun; society pulls the trigger (as Kristine so eloquently put it). 

 I hope you guys like my Week 8 post! Thank you all for following me on this enlightening journey, and showing me so much support!

Lots of love 💗,

--Saleena

Sources:

*Nutrition- Dieting and Eating Disorders (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2017, from http://www.healthunit.org/nutrition/hottopics/dieting/dietfacts.htm

**Facts and Statistics About Dieting (2015, July). Retrieved March 29, 2017, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/390541-facts-statistics-about-dieting/