Had a bit of a realisation yesterday about the problems with "diet culture", during a conversation with one of my colleagues, "Sue".
Sue was talking about needing to diet. She had lost some weight for her daughter's wedding in July but has since gained it back, and she was saying that she "needs to diet to lose some weight before my holiday when I'll gain weight, then losing more before Christmas when I'll gain weight, then losing more before my next holiday when I'll gain weight".
Sue won't start dieting today because she's got a party on Saturday so there's no point dieting for two days before then, and there's no point starting on Sunday so she'll start on Monday and have "a good 14 days of dieting" before her holiday.
Sue said she likes dieting in the winter - "I get all my diet foods into the house then I have a bubble bath so I'm away from the kitchen and all the smells of food that my husband is eating"
This stayed with me for a bit afterwards. It felt like such a weird perspective on losing weight. Sue clearly sees dieting as a tool to temporarily lose weight before you inevitably gain it back. There's absolutely no way this woman is ever going to permanently lose weight unless she completely shifts how she thinks about dieting. She can't just rely on "diet foods" and bubble baths to stop her eating excessively!
And she's completely resigned to gaining weight on holiday - why can't she eat in moderation?! She's just got two modes - dieting ("I can only eat diet foods and nothing else") and eating excessively.
I think this is the problem with "diet culture" as Instagram/Tumblr talks about it - fad diets and yo-yo dieting are never going to lead to permanent weight loss because they're only ever seen as temporary things. You diet for a while then you go back to eating normally. But eating normally is what made you gain the weight in the first place! You can't be trusted to eat normally! You need to permanently change your eating habits or you'll keep losing and gaining the same weight over and over again.
It made me really sad and kind of angry. I've been using MyFitnessPal and the CICO philosophy and have lost 15kg in just over 3 months - I fully intend to make this a permanent change, I know that I will need to continue to be more conscious and aware of my food choices even once I reach my goal weight to ensure I don't slip back into old habits. I really wanted to try to share some of the LoseIt wisdom with Sue but I don't really know her well enough to call her out - plus I ended up debating Brexit with her earlier that day, and she didn't seem the kind of person who is open to alternate viewpoints!!
My conclusion is that the oft-criticised "diet culture" is not synonymous with weight loss. I think that so many of the problems with diet culture can be dodged by using evidence-based weight loss methods and seeing them as a permanent lifestyle change rather than a temporary fix.
I'll get off my soapbox now!
[link] [comments]
from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2HyjqZz
No comments:
Post a Comment