"Diets Don't Work." Wait! What?!

Here's the best way to think of it in my honest opinion:

Diet foods are filled with crap ingredients. Diets restrict people beyond craziness. Carbs are necessary for healthy brain function. Protein is necessary for muscle growth. Fat is necessary for cell health.

If diets worked so well, then why is America facing its worst obesity epidemic yet? The diet industry is booming and yet so are our weights!

I think that despite the fact that there's evidence that dieting is bad for us...people are still misinformed and uneducated. The diet industry is confident in the fact that they can target desperate, depressed, dying, and obese people. When you'll do anything to lose the weight (and quick!), you'll listen to the people that are shouting out about the miracles they can perform for you.

I know I have.

It's hard for me to accept that they don't work, even though my track record offers more than enough conclusive evidence. Ultimately, I believe finding a healthy way of living that you can maintain is the best way to go.

I completely believe that diets don't work. I never understood the rationale behind putting food off limits. It's like saying "Don't look at that!" What's the first thing you do? Look. I've always allowed myself to eat what I want, in moderation. I look at what I eat as a combination of fuel for my body (I need x amount of calories if I am going to run x distance later, etc) and a bank account (If I have that slice of cake I cannot have x either because then I'll be in the red). It's worked for me.

I think dieting in the sense that it is used to lose 5 or 10 or 20 pounds for a specific event or to look better or fit back in your old jeans doesn't work. The typical diet plans sold all over the place include calorie restriction and strict rules of "I cannot eat this" or even worse taking a pill with who knows what ingredients in them, will generally lead me to a binge fest after I have met my goal of fitting back into those jeans. Until recently, dieting for me was a short term goal and not a long term goal to change my health. Had I read this chapter 2 years ago, I would have laughed and shut the book, but now, it made much more sense to me.

Dieting as in "practicing restrictive eating habits in hopes of losing weight" doesn't work. People need to relearn their eating habits, not simply deprive themselves. Deprivation isn't sustainable. Why do people keep buying into it? Because it's easier to think you can just eat certain products or buy a plan or live on cabbage or something than to learn how to eat healthfully and enjoy things in moderation. It takes more self control, maybe. A "diet" sounds like an easy fix, which people find desirable.

I thought this whole section made perfect sense. If you restrained your diet too much, it's hard to stick to it and if you don't, your body has learned to hold on to everything you eat for fear it won't get enough to survive. Totally makes sense to me!

Let's think about this, According to google dictionary- Diet Noun - "The kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats." This is the way I have been using the word diet for years. Using diet as a verb use to send me into an eating frenzy. Moderation, exercise, vegi's and protein is the key for me to stay fit and healthy.

Verb-"Restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order to lose weight: "it is difficult to diet in a house full of cupcakes". "I think we should toss out diet as a verb and all the crazy diet plans. You with me ladies?

I think a big part of the problem is that our culture holds up one body type (thin) as healthy and beautiful. I applaud the author for explaining in detail that women come in different shapes and sizes, and that we actually need body fat (and dietary fat) to be healthy. Some women are slim and healthy, others are curvier and still healthy. I am curvy but always felt that I needed to be thinner, and was constantly dieting. I would lose weight and gain it back, over and over. Now that I've learned to love my body's natural shape, I no longer need to count calories or watch what I eat to maintain a healthy weight.

Without realizing what I've done in the past many years, I now see that I have fallen into the "yo-yo" dieting syndrome. Sigh! I've gained more weight than ever, and I totally see how on-and-off dieting will do it.

~Virginia

i agree with felicepd..i've gone through two extreme diets in my life now and have only gained the weight back. i feel like i've now balanced out, and am eating whole foods rather than sugary low-cal diet foods, drinking less, and i feel great. i'm keeping balance and happiness in mind more than my jeans size.

this is a sore subject for me right now. i'm the last holdout in my family of january dieters. i wait till hubby is asleep to eat. geez! "lose it" "fitbit" "spark people" and weight lifting is the bulk of the conversation around here. i want to blog about it, but i've got a few family members who read me and i wouldn't want to sound like i am not encouraging. i think i'm going to buy this book.

Every time I have dieted, I have lost a little weight and then, bam!, it has come right back after I've stopped. Once I started to run consistently and eat whole foods (more than crap), my weight went down and has stayed steady. I believe in cutting down when you need to lose a little but dieting? Nope.

I totally agree with the diet's dont work! Every Diet I try I fail, becasue they tell me I can't have a certian food and then thats all I want, and I sabatage my self!!! You have to make a life change!

The reason they are everywhere is because when people get desperate they are willing to spend anything to feel better. Unfortunately they don't do their research, if they did they would never buy into it. It's amazing how fast people gain the weight back once they are off these diets!

The thing about diets is that they are temporary. Any temporary and particularly any extreme change to your eating is going to result in only a temporary change to your weight. Now, if you are temporarily above your normal weight, it seems like a minor adjustment is all you'll need. But a lifelong problem requires a lifelong solution.

I think people buy into fad diets and diet products for the same reason that people buy the crap sold in infomercials: people are always looking for a quick and easy shortcut to get out of doing real work. Just like the crap you'd buy from an infomercial, your diet is going to end up in a dust-covered box in the garage once the person using it realizes that it doesn't work nearly as well, or as easily, as the advertising claimed. Because the people who use these are focused on short-term solutions to what is essentially a long-term problem, it makes sense that over time, multiple failed short-term solutions will do nothing to solve the long-term issues and that the long-term issues will get worse over time.

I've given up on the whole dieting "mentality." I'm working on living and eating healthy. That means taking care of my mental, physical, and emotional health. I don't think you can work on one without having the others in balance. When you're dieting you're only working on one leg of the three-legged stool. It just doesn't work.

I agree with Erin Browne, diets don't set people up for long term success. It is a temporary solution and most people have no idea what to do once the diet ceases and life resumes as normal. What actually is more difficult for me to stomach is that so many Americans buy into all of these crazy diets and starve themselves without thinking about the long term effects their actions have on their bodies. I understand the appeal of being thin, but at what cost? Thin doesn't equal healthy.

Dieting doesn't work, because the very idea of a diet is that is has a starting point, and an end point. Sure, you may lose weight successfully on the diet, but it's only because you've changed your lifestyle habits. As soon as you "end" the diet and return to your previous way of living, the weight will come back. Maintaining a healthy weight means maintaining a healthy (and sustainable) way of eating.

Though I've never tried dieting I have yet to meet someone who has tried dieting and kept the weight off. I have many friends who diet and they seem quite successful however a few months or even a year later they've gained all their weight back. I think diets can certainly be helpful, but I think in order to keep the weight off it needs to be a lifestyle change.

The only diet I've ever done was the Special K diet 5 years ago. It "worked" but only because it taught me some life lessons like eating breakfast when you wake up and choosing healthy snacks. Now I just try to eat better and more often and I'm losing weight like crazy.

I totally agree that diets don't work, yet I keep trying different ones because I cannot get the weight off and keep it off. When you are the 'fat' person, you just keep trying to find something that will help. And, the fear of NOT being on a diet and gaining even more weight keeps you plugged in to the pull of dieting.

I agree that a short term diet doesn't work if you don't learn how to incorporate the changes into your lifestyle. I do think that diets can work to help set someone on the right path. I've done the South Beach Diet and while it was hard to make it through that 2 week phase of no carbs, no sugars and no fruits, losing almost 9 lbs made it worth it and gave me the motivation to make changes in my eating habits.

I think what they mean to say is that diets don't work if they are extreme. I think if you are unable to live your entire life according to a diet it's going to fail and you'll go right back to how you were eating/living before. In order to lose weight I think it needs to be a lifestyle change, not just an eating change. If that makes sense.

diets give us that little bit of hope that our life can change so we buy a pill and keep our fingers crossed. We know, but sometimes just buying hope in a bottle is enough to get us going in the right direction and make the true changes we need to make that do work.

Can I jump on the diets don't work bandwagon? I've tried several and have loved the short term results, but let's face it - - it's a lifestyle change that's going to help me get and keep the body I want! The authors certainly provide enough explanation as to the why certain foods are adding on the pounds, but I really appreciated the appendix that gave easy to follow details about what was viable food choices for changing my eating habits for good.

I agree that diets don't work. Perhaps long term life style changes do, but it is rare to find someone who will make such a commitment.

To me, the word diet equals deprivation. When we go on a diet, that can be a signal to our brain that we are in survival mode. We do have to consider the workings of our brain and our body, especially our primitive brain and our hypothalamus when looking at weight loss or gain.

I like the authors suggestions about making moderate, healthy changes in our lifestyle and approaching the weight issue from a more reasonable and relaxed state of mind.

As far as the multi million dollar diet industry and our obsession with weight, you only have to look as far as the latest magazine or Hollywood starlet.

It makes sense in light of what they uncover about what is IN diet food and how it negatively affects our bodies. It's hard to wrap my mind around, but I'm really trying over here!! I am so tired of dealing w/ weight issues. I'm finally at a weight I like, but it's next to impossible to stay here. I'm hoping their method works! Go Clean or Go Home! :)

Seriously, who doesn't hate the word "diet"? It has such a negative connotation to it, and really just indicates something temporary. I really like the idea of a "lifestyle change." I feel like if you make a long-lasting change in what you eat, how you exercise, and how you treat your body, then the effects will be longer-lasting than a temporary diet.

I agree with creativefamilymoments below! We love the idea of losing weight quickly and diets can do that. The after effects are another story, but in the moment our society loves instant gratification.

I think small lifestyle changes made over time work but not big loss diets. Reading about how the hypothalamus works against fast weight gain was a good reminder for me.

I suppose that you could argue it's not the diet, but the lifestyle change that works. If you diligently track and measure and monitor, you may very well lose weight, but if those short term changes don't become long-term habits that positively influence your lifestyle, then you likely won't be able to maintain your loss. I think that is why the maintenance phase of any diet program is so critical. It is during that phase that you 'play' with what life is like post-program. It is when your body adjusts to the new normal.

I always had a feeling dieting doesn't work and then this book just solidified those feelings. I've known people (including myself) that don't diet but just eat well-balanced meals and take care of themselves and they are in great shape. I feel like when we restrict what we can eat, those things become more enticing to us and then we are more likely to binge and go overboard. But if we allow ourselves to eat things in moderation instead of punishing ourselves, those items will just become normal things instead of temptations while being on a restricted diet.

Diets definitely don't work, at least not for me. I can lose weight for a short period of time, but then I gain it all back (usually plus some) when I "quit the diet." I agree with the authors 100% on this one. I have lost about 25 pounds over the last year through incremental lifestyle changes. It's a lot slower than I'd like but I hope (fingers crossed!) that it's a little more lasting.