If you’re sick and tired of popular diet culture, use International No Diet Day to explore how to stop dieting and stay healthy anyway.
May 2022. This article is independently written by Shelby Golding. All opinions given are hers. Shelby has been certified as a personal trainer and nutritional specialist since 2007. In 2008, she found her passion for writing about these topics and hasn’t looked back.
Diet culture emerged as early as the 18th century when an English doctor used a diet of milk and vegetables to counter obesity. Since then, over a thousand different diets have emerged, each with its unique health claims. Some are designed to help you lose weight, others to counter certain diseases and illnesses, and more are based on whatever “fad” is trending online.
International No Diet Day, or Eat What You Want Day, is celebrated on May 6th to remind everyone that health is more important than size. Social media and popular marketing portray certain body types as good and healthy while others are considered bad and unhealthy. But the size and shape of your body aren’t the only indications of health.
In particular, women are encouraged to fit a specific body image and clothing size. In addition, they’re encouraged to use diets to counter insecurity about their body image. But the number on the scale or your clothing size matters much less than overall health.
Keep reading to learn how to stop dieting and stay healthy so you can live your best life without shame.
Stop Dieting
Dieting takes many faces, from calorie restrictions to strict meal plans and times. Unfortunately, while your diet does play a role in health, most diets in popular culture do more harm than good.
Here are a few ways that popular diet culture is harmful.
Here are a few ways that popular diet culture is harmful.
1. It Focuses on Weight as a Number
Yes, there is such a thing as a healthy weight. The caveat’s that everyone’s healthy weight is unique to their body.
The international standard for a healthy weight -the BMI (body mass index)- has recently come under fire as an inaccurate portrayal of health. While a “healthy” BMI does correlate with a lower risk of disease and illness, the system doesn’t leave enough space for a wide variety of human conditions.
The international standard for a healthy weight -the BMI (body mass index)- has recently come under fire as an inaccurate portrayal of health. While a “healthy” BMI does correlate with a lower risk of disease and illness, the system doesn’t leave enough space for a wide variety of human conditions.
A few things that can affect your weight that have nothing to do with overall health are a woman’s menstrual cycle, muscle composition, and time of day.
If you want to know if you’re healthy without looking at the scale, consider your diet, exercise routine, frequency of your bowel movements, sleep quality, and how often you get sick. All of these factors are much better indications of health than the number on a scale.
2. It Encourages Unhealthy Relationships With Food
To stay healthy, you need to eat. Issues like anorexia or bulimia, which stem from an unhealthy body image, cause major damage to your body. For example, fatigue, hair loss, and digestion issues are all common complaints among people with anorexia. Over time, anorexia can even cause nerve damage and poor brain health.
On average, people need about 1200 calories per day to fuel necessary body functions like breathing, digestion, sleep, and movement. Your brain uses more than a fourth of that just to think!
Diets often label foods as “good” or “bad,” a mentality meant to keep you from straying off the designated path. No food is inherently bad or good. It’s your relationship with food that matters.
On average, people need about 1200 calories per day to fuel necessary body functions like breathing, digestion, sleep, and movement. Your brain uses more than a fourth of that just to think!
Diets often label foods as “good” or “bad,” a mentality meant to keep you from straying off the designated path. No food is inherently bad or good. It’s your relationship with food that matters.
3. It Doesn’t Account for the Individual
Most diets claim that anyone will see results if they closely follow the program. If you eat so-and-so calories and burn this many working out, you will drop the pounds. But restrictive dieting only provides short-term results. About 80% of people who successfully lose weight while on a diet eventually regain that weight plus a few extra pounds within a year of the original weight loss
The truth is that some diets don’t work at all, and others don’t work for your body specifically. Conditions like hypothyroidism, gout, arthritis, and cancer will all affect your body’s ability to lose weight and influence what you should and shouldn’t eat.
Overall, popular diets like intermittent fasting, paleo, and vegetarianism can be healthy as long as you’re aware of how it’s affecting your body. Build body awareness that’ll help you stay healthy even without a diet by discovering your body’s preferred weight, figuring out how many calories your lifestyle requires, and any medical conditions that influence your weight loss.
How to Stop Dieting
To learn how to stop dieting, you first need to change your mentality. Focus on making shifts that you can sustain for the long-term instead of the short-term (and sometimes dramatic) gains that you might get from dieting. Sustainable weight loss and lifestyle changes will ensure that any weight you lose will stay off.
One way to stop dieting for good is to find the common healthy elements in popular diets. For example, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats appear in most diets. Meanwhile, sugar, refined carbohydrates, saturated fats, and alcohol are usually on the “to be avoided” list.
Then all you need to do is ensure that you are eating 90% healthy food and only 10% of the foods you should avoid. Diet, like most things, benefits from moderation. You shouldn’t have to cut out ice cream, donuts, and beer forever. But it’d help if you found a balance with the healthy foods you eat.
One way to stop dieting for good is to find the common healthy elements in popular diets. For example, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats appear in most diets. Meanwhile, sugar, refined carbohydrates, saturated fats, and alcohol are usually on the “to be avoided” list.
Then all you need to do is ensure that you are eating 90% healthy food and only 10% of the foods you should avoid. Diet, like most things, benefits from moderation. You shouldn’t have to cut out ice cream, donuts, and beer forever. But it’d help if you found a balance with the healthy foods you eat.
Stop Dieting, Stay Healthy
Of course, a healthy diet isn’t the only factor you need to maintain health. For example, if you lose weight using only your diet, you may lose both fat and muscle. To maintain muscle tone, you’ll want to incorporate regular exercise into your routine. You’ll also want to get regular checkups, limit alcohol and cigarettes, and maintain a healthy sleep schedule.
International No Diet Day wasn’t created as a cheat day for you to throw your rules out the window and eat whatever you want (although that’s an option). Instead, it’s meant to be a celebration of the healthy body image everyone’s striving for with their diet.
To celebrate this year, take some time out of your day to analyze your diet. Think about your relationship to food, why you chose to go on a diet, and what you hope to accomplish. By using this opportunity to dive a little bit deeper, you might learn how to stop dieting for good.
International No Diet Day wasn’t created as a cheat day for you to throw your rules out the window and eat whatever you want (although that’s an option). Instead, it’s meant to be a celebration of the healthy body image everyone’s striving for with their diet.
To celebrate this year, take some time out of your day to analyze your diet. Think about your relationship to food, why you chose to go on a diet, and what you hope to accomplish. By using this opportunity to dive a little bit deeper, you might learn how to stop dieting for good.
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