The Diet Cycle

Do you find yourself constantly dieting? Going from one diet to the next? One diet is successful for a little bit; you lose 5-10 pounds in the first few weeks and then your weight plateaus. After a while, you’re constantly thinking about food, when your next meal or snack will be. You’re constantly thinking about sugary treats and having intense cravings for those foods.

Eventually, you give in. And you don’t just eat one or two of those cookies. You eat a whole plate full. You think, “Screw it, I already had 2, I’ll just eat the rest and then keep with my diet tomorrow.”

Tomorrow comes and you feel so guilty about breaking your diet so you restrict your calories, only eating certain foods that are ‘diet approved’ and once again, you end up bingeing or overeating because you’re so hungry.

This is the diet cycle. It’s hard to get out of because you just keep thinking, “I’ll do better tomorrow.” But that doesn’t happen. And it’s not because you don’t have the self control. It’s because diets don’t work. Our bodies aren’t designed to run off 1000 calories a day. They crave lots of different foods and don’t do well when we restrict whole food groups or macronutrient groups (ahem… carbs). We NEED those foods.

SO HERE’S THE DIET CYCLE IN A NUTSHELL:

Diet/restrict your food intake. Then you feel deprived because you aren’t getting the foods the your body wants or needs. You’re not getting enough food and you’re not getting enough variety. So, you have overwhelming cravings and urges to eat and you end up bingeing. You then feel extremely guilty and crappy about yourself, so you go back to restricting to gain control. And round and round it goes.

If you’re tired of being stuck in this cycle, our dietitian, Emily, can help!

You can book a free call HERE!