Diets Suck. Seriously, Stop Dieting. They Don’t Work (Here’s Why).

Do literally anything but go on a diet this year.

Stop dieting forever. Photo by Ursula Gamez on Unsplash.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Diets suck. Do not diet. I’m going to tell you why you should stop dieting forever, but you don’t have to take my word for it — just trust the research that proves diets don’t work. ​

The Best Diets in 2021 (Snort)

None. None is the answer. There are no best diets in 2021; there are no best diets ever. And you should run far, far away from anyone telling you about the best new diet they’re trying this year. Similarly, mute, unfollow, and block any Instagram #fitspo accounts preaching the same. ​

Why Diets Suck More Than a Straw ​

Diets don’t produce long-term results. Photo by Liam Johnson on Unsplash.

Diets suck because they are designed to fail. They are designed to make you think you’re worthless and that you lack a basic human skill called discipline. 

They’re designed this way because they intend to make you grovel at the feet of the diet Gods, which are actually just billionaire salespeople who are really good at making you believe that various pills, potions, and powders will propel you into the version of yourself you think you should be based on malevolent societal standards. 

Diets suck because there are so many of them and they’re all yelling at you about their touted benefits and how they’re going to transform your life and turn you into the fitness model with fake boobs on Instagram. 

Diets suck because they are money pits and they create fake food rules that ruin your relationship with the very thing you need to survive and they do. not. WORK. Seriously — this isn’t just anecdotal (although anecdotal evidence is valid when millions of people have hauntingly similar anecdotes). 

Regardless, actual scientific research proves that diets aren’t associated with long-term weight loss: 

• A 2020 study in The BMJ looked at 14 different popular diets and found that NONE — not a single one — produced weight-loss results that were measurable after a year. As for health markers, only one diet (the Meditteranean diet, which is actually a lifestyle and not a fad diet), resulted in measurable health improvements after a year.
  
• According to Boston Medical Center, nearly 50 million Americans go on a diet each year. “Yet, Yet, nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese,” the website stabs. Something’s not right. 
  
• Calorically restrictive diets do weird things to the hormones that control your appetite and your mood, leaving you with an impaired ability to understand your body’s hunger and satiety cues, and also just leaving you in a crap mood. 
  
• Research shows that adherence to a diet is more important than the type of diet, which is why restrictive diets always fail. You can’t stick to it, so you won’t see long-term results. 
  

Need I continue?

What to Do Instead of Follow a Diet Designed to Fail You

Don’t force yourself to live on green juice. Photo by Jan Sedivy on Unsplash.

Dude, just… take care of yourself. Look, I know it can be hard. This post is only as scathing and as blunt as it is because it comes from someone who spent years — so many years — in the grips of an eating disorder and body dysmorphia. 

I spent far too much of my life avoiding social functions, eating in secrecy, and purging in embarrassment (and more secrecy). I spent too much time drinking green juice and coffee instead of eating food, battling hunger pangs during 90-minute college lectures. I spent too much time lifting up my shirt in the mirror, twisting and contorting my body to find the best angles, pinching the skin on my thighs, and sprinting on the treadmill to undo calories I thought I didn’t deserve. 

Do literally anything but that. Do anything but hate yourself enough to embark on yet another diet. Do anything but punish yourself for craving food; anything but refuse to allow yourself a basic human survival need. 

Instead, focus on establishing lifestyle habits that promote overall health. 

Here are a few tactics that helped me: 

1. Refuse to give a crap about what anyone else thinks. If you want to eat healthy, eat healthy. Social support is a massive part of successfully improving your health, but if no one around you wants to support your endeavors, you’ll have to learn to be utterly unbothered by what others think of your eating habits. 
2. Surround yourself with likeminded people. This is key for anything, not just eating. But it helps a helluva lot when it comes to eating. It’s easier to enjoy nutritious meals when your friends and family members also want to. 
3. Eat the foods you’re scared of. If you have a fear of certain foods because you think they’re “bad” or “dirty,” keep those foods in the house and eat them whenever you want until you’re not scared of them anymore. I tell you, when I started keeping ice cream in the house on a regular basis, I would literally forget it was in my freezer — when just a year prior, I was afraid to keep ice cream in my house because I didn’t trust myself not to eat a whole half gallon in one sitting.
4. Disassociate food and morality. Food does not have morals. Food is just food. I used to associate the types of food I ate with my moral worth, thus leading to guilt and shame when I would give into “bad” foods.” Now, I see no moral value in any food, thus I have more control over food (and food does not control me). 
5. Eat to promote performance. If you look at food as a tool to enhance your performance (in the gym or just in general), food becomes more black-and-white. You’ll learn which foods make you feel good and which foods make you feel like crap. Those are the only guidelines you need to fuel yourself properly so you can absolutely crush your day. 
   
6. Eat for mood. Again, only you know which foods make you feel on top of the world and which ones make you feel like a steaming pile of poop. Mostly eat foods that give you energy and keep your mood high; occasionally enjoy the foods that are yummy but make you tired or irritable. ​

Smarter Sweat takeaways

There is room for nutrient-dense and less nutrient-dense foods in a healthy eating pattern. Photo by Vitalii Chernopyskyi on Unsplash.

Clearly, we’re not a fan of diets here at Smarter Sweat. And the beauty of independently blogging is that we can *loudly* voice (er, type) that disgust. 

The funny thing is, the primary definition of “diet,” as defined by Oxford Dictionary, is “the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.”

This definition is the utter opposite of what most people perceive a diet as in modern society. To most people, “diet” means use absolutely every ounce of willpower I have and by any means necessary, restrict all foods that aren’t “pure” and lose as much weight as possible in 30 days. 

Do what Oxford Dictionary says. Establish a habitual eating pattern — a mostly nutrient-dense but also enjoyable one.

References

1. Ge L, Sadeghirad B, Ball GDC, et al. Comparison of dietary macronutrient patterns of 14 popular named dietary programmes for weight and cardiovascular risk factor reduction in adults: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised trials [published correction appears in BMJ. 2020 Aug 5;370:m3095]. BMJ. 2020;369:m696. Published 2020 Apr 1. doi:10.1136/bmj.m696
   
2. Boston Medical Center. Nutrition and Weight Management. https://www.bmc.org/nutrition-and-weight-management/weight-management.
   
3. Journal Of The American Medical Association. "Study Finds That Adherence To Diet, Not Type Of Diet, More Important Factor For Losing Weight." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 January 2005. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050111122137.htm>.
   

By Amanda Capritto

Amanda is the co-founder of Smarter Sweat. She's a certified personal trainer, health coach, and functional fitness coach. She also owns another business, where she writes about all things fitness, nutrition, travel and lifestyle. 

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