How To Avoid Diet Culture And Start Eating Intuitively

Diets have been around for generations promising all types of quick fixes for how to achieve weight loss and supposed health. From ‘drop a dress size in a week’ to ‘lose 21 pounds in 21 days,’ these fad diets focus on quick wins and short-term goals but negate your body’s health, according to Chanelle Nelson.

But what happens when the 21 days are over? Are you really better off? Isn’t it better to learn how to lose weight in a sustainable way?

“Losing weight is easy, but keeping it off is what requires real, sustainable solutions that are less sexy, but more effective,” said Keith-Thomas Ayoob, Clinical Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

According to The Council on Size and Weight Discrimination, 95% of diets fail and most people regain the weight in 1-5 years. Graphic by Blessing Emole

According to The Council on Size and Weight Discrimination, 95% of diets fail and most people regain the weight in 1-5 years.

“The way we get there is not through rigid diets and exercise rules, but by changing our thoughts, our habits and our lifestyle,” said Chanelle Nelson, host of the Moms who Know podcast.

Habits are the key to avoiding diet culture and getting healthy for good, she said.

Sally Duplantier, nutritionist and health coach explains why people are so drawn to dieting:

We want an easy fix: Most fad diets are focused on quick turnarounds and wanting to see fast changes. Duplantier said it’s just human nature.

“We want a diet that we can follow for X number of weeks, ideally days, and the pounds will be gone,” she said.

We define ourselves by a number: The fixation with numbers often starts at an early age and continues throughout life, according to Duplantier.

Duplantier gives examples of test scores in school, performance reviews at work and the constant occurrence of numbers in the wellness fields – blood pressure readings, heart rate monitors, steps per day, calories burned and of course, the number on the scale.

“These numbers are important, but the problem is when we are so obsessed that it defines our self-worth,”  she said.

We think Thin-is-Better: “Our culture still seems to favour thinness,” Duplantier said. However, she counteracts that in the past 25 years there has been a shift from the Rubenesque body type favoured in the 19th century to an emphasis on fit body types.

Rubenesque is a full-figured woman with curves that are described as shapely. Often times used to refer to plus-size women.

“We may have a conscious or unconscious bias around ‘fat people,’ she said examining the lazy and undisciplined stereotypes. Duplantier said even people with ‘normal body mass index’ want to pursue thinness which she believes is mental conditioning.

“The media perpetuates this idea of beauty ideals that is seen in magazines and the movies. Being successful and being happy is often tied into this weight pursuit,” said Deirdre Smith, a Syracuse University dietician.

Smith recalls a quote by Naomi Wolf, a feminist author, saying “a culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.”

Three ways to avoid diet culture

1 – Focus on your behaviours

Constantly thinking about your weight and trying to manipulate your body can leave little time left in your day, Smith said.

“I encourage many people I work with to let go of the desire for weight loss and instead focus on healthy behaviours,” she said.

If you’re not enjoying your exercise routine or find it punishing, Smith suggests replacing it with physical activity that makes you feel good. The most important thing is focusing on “eating in advance, eating throughout the day, honouring hunger and fullness cues and movement that feels good in the body,” she said.

Lastly, stop tracking your calories, Smith said. “It requires a lot of discipline and consistency and each person can respond to it differently.”

Intuitive eating allows you to acknowledge your hunger and fullness cues. Graphic by Blessing Emole

2 – Don’t cut out whole food groups

“Our bodies need carbohydrates,” Smith said.

According to Amanda Miller, a registered dietician, diets that want you to eliminate grains, completely avoid fats or some other food group are extreme.

“The bottom line is that healthy eating can and should incorporate all food groups and be accepting of all foods,” Miller said.

Diets tend to lack a long-term plan and Miller said the only two options are following restrictive diets forever or relapsing.

3 – Eat Intuitively

Emma Nacewicz, a nutrition blogger, recalls people praising her for her 60-pound weight loss not noticing the fact that she formed an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise.

“I would run a mile and a half to the gym, workout for an hour and a half and then run home,” she said.

Tracking her calories became an everyday occurrence. “I was eating only five types of food: oatmeal, eggs, chicken, broccoli and rice,” she said, “that would be it.”

Nacewicz said losing her period made her realize her lifestyle wasn’t right. “I wanted to be able to eat what I wanted and still be healthy. That’s how I found intuitive eating,” she said.

Intuitive eating is making yourself the expert over your body and nurturing your body rather than the biology of starvation. There are no imposing guidelines about what to avoid or when to eat.

Nacewicz said it’s fueling yourself properly and focusing on being healthy and balanced.

“I wanted to look like those girls thinking it would land me a job, a boyfriend and make me successful,” Nacewicz said. “Now I know there’s much more to me than my weight.”