Diets don't work - Articles

Diets don't work - it's official

The route to fat loss is no longer about dieting. Scientists have known for some time that dieting doesn't work and that yo-yo dieting makes you fatter.

In one study in 1986, Dr Kelly Brownell, put rats on a series of weight loss diets between which they were fed normally. Each time they lost the weight on the diet, only to put it all back on and with extra, much more quickly than in previous attempts. Then, when they dieted again, the weight came off more slowly than earlier attempts.

And other researchers have come to similar conclusions:

In 2007, UCLA researchers Dr Traci Mann and colleagues conducted the most comprehensive and rigorous analysis of diet studies. Of the dieters followed for two or more years, 83% gained back more weight than they had lost. Five years after the diet 50% of dieters were 11 pounds heavier than their original starting weight. The research was published in the Journal of the American Psychological Association.

So why don't they work?

There are a number of reasons. Firstly, diets are usually seen as a temporary "fix". The fat is supposed to melt off and then the diet is over. But the underlying cause of the weight gain has not been identified and dealt with, so the liklihood is that the fat will go back on as the normal patterns of the person come back into force.

Secondly, diets are usually based on a plan or system and while it is possible to follow one of these for a while, it is not realistic or likely that you can follow a diet forever. So, there has to be an acceptance of responsibility; you have created a weight problem somehow. If you know how, you can then un-create it and create a different reality for yourself. However, this will be different for everybody because we are all different. There is no standard approach that will work for everyone.

Another reason that diets don't work, is because many of us become rebellious and feel deprived and so fall off the wagon. Diets can be restrictive and boring, or they take up too much time with food preparation. We have to be aware of our own likely sabotage patterns if we wish to successfully overcome overeating and lose weight.