If a "lifestyle change" promotes weight loss...It's a diet

Photo by Robert Katzki on Unsplash

A common place for many dietitians to end up in their careers is working with weight-loss to some degree or fashion.  For some, this means talking to patients in hospitals about healthy eating, and why their BMI declared them someone ripe for calorie counseling.  For others, this means running their own business to help people lose weight and keep it off. And then there are those who work for weight loss clinics/programs to help form "healthy" meal plans and so that these programs can claim more reliability by saying they have dietitians employed in their programs.

I was not an exception.  I have worked in the weight loss industry as a practicing dietitian.

And during that time, one of the behaviors that really stood out to me about the people I saw, was that no one wanted to tell anyone that they were dieting. Despite the fact that the majority of adults in America are actively dieting at any given time, no one wanted to actually admit to friends, family members or co-workers that they were dieting. Why was this?

Because the term "dieting" has fallen out of favor.

You would think that the downfall of the term, would coincide with a downfall of the actual practice, but it has been replaced with an even more shadowy, insidious term of "lifestyle changes".

And some people really believe that it is different than dieting. They proclaim that they aren't "restricting" completely normal foods (rice, beans, dairy, meat) they are just "cutting back". But when I point out that that is the same thing, I'm met with disdainful looks, rolled eyes, and an explanation as to why it isn't dieting (despite my education, knowledge, and actual existence in the weight loss industry).

Regardless, it is still dieting. If your reasons for cutting back any foods is based on weight loss, "getting back on track", or to "cleanse" your system, it's a diet, and it's bullshit.

It seems like the vogue thing to be doing with your body is to be slimming it down, toning it, and shaping it to be smaller but without straight up saying you are.  That you are somehow making a "good" lifestyle change by forcing your body to subsist on less than 1,000 calories a day, ignoring your body's hunger signals, or trying to burn off more calories than you consume in a day!

The healthy thing you can do for your lifestyle, body, and health is to actually honor your body. If you are hungry PLEASE EAT. If you want to lift weights or go to dance classes because it makes you feel good, PLEASE GO. If you want to cut down on dairy because your stomach will make you sit on the toilet for 3 hours after you have milk, then PLEASE cut down on it.  If you want to cut down on meat because of the ethics of the meat industry PLEASE do it.

But if your reason for cutting anything out is to see a (bullshit, and meaningless) number on the scale change, PLEASE rethink it.  Remember that diets DO NOT WORK.  Read between the lines whenever anyone is promoting a new "lifestyle" change, miracle product, or cleanse, because all it is, is a diet under a more acceptable name.

Trust yourself, trust your body, and live a life without dieting noise.