cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
How to Rid Yourself of the Diet Mentality and Stop Dieting Once and For All - Self
As a registered dietitian, the most common emails I get from readers (besides compliments from those who agree with me and angry messages from people who really, really don't) are messages asking me about the best way to go about dieting for weight loss.
The thing is, I don’t prescribe diets per se. (I also don’t give advice over the internet to people who aren’t clients, sorry!) If a client comes to me with a goal of weight loss, we explore their desire to lose weight together to understand their motivations for wanting to do so, their attitudes about food and eating, and, if I feel that they're in a healthy place psychologically, we come to an agreement about how to help them reach their goals in a healthy (physically and mentally) and sustainable way.
So, why don’t I prescribe weight loss diets? For starters, most of them fail in the longterm. There’s a good amount of research showing that the majority of people who lose weight will gain it back over the next few years. But thanks to the constant barrage of messaging about ideal bodies and weight loss, many of us are tempted to keep trying the next diet, in the hopes that it will be the one that finally delivers. (Spoiler alert: It won’t.)
As a registered dietitian, the most common emails I get from readers (besides compliments from those who agree with me and angry messages from people who really, really don't) are messages asking me about the best way to go about dieting for weight loss.
The thing is, I don’t prescribe diets per se. (I also don’t give advice over the internet to people who aren’t clients, sorry!) If a client comes to me with a goal of weight loss, we explore their desire to lose weight together to understand their motivations for wanting to do so, their attitudes about food and eating, and, if I feel that they're in a healthy place psychologically, we come to an agreement about how to help them reach their goals in a healthy (physically and mentally) and sustainable way.
So, why don’t I prescribe weight loss diets? For starters, most of them fail in the longterm. There’s a good amount of research showing that the majority of people who lose weight will gain it back over the next few years. But thanks to the constant barrage of messaging about ideal bodies and weight loss, many of us are tempted to keep trying the next diet, in the hopes that it will be the one that finally delivers. (Spoiler alert: It won’t.)