Diets Suck – This is Why | Ep.42

This show is about freedom. Freedom from your constant struggle with food and letting the size of your thighs determine your worth. Join me weekly for no whole fat, unfiltered girlfriend kind of conversations that will inspire, teach and empower you. As we tune into our own body's wisdom and tune out of the diet industry lives, we can live our most radiant, pleasurable and fulfilled lives. My name is Chanci dawn. I'm a non diet nutritionist embodiment and mindset coach. But most importantly, I'm a woman on a mission to grow a deeply connected and conscious relationship with food and my body. And I'm here inviting you to do the same. Let's go.

Hello, you beautiful soul you welcome to today's episode. Today we're going to dig into the truth around the diet industry. What is so wrong about dieting? I did a couple of posts last week just about diets and my thoughts about diet and using the word diet. And there's been a lot of feedback. So the general consensus is that most women do not like the word diet. And I get it diet has this negative connotation because it should, right because of all the things that we have learned about on this podcast. And we're definitely going to dig in today. But here's the thing, if you are trying to lose weight intentionally is that if that is the goal, if you are restricting depriving, following a program with the intention of weight loss, you are dieting. Okay. So that's just what we say here on this podcast, if you wanted to find it differently, go right ahead. But for the sake of this, this is how we're looking at dieting, because it's really important right to call a spade a spade. If you are intentionally trying to lose weight, let's just call it what it is. Because when we do, then we could get real with ourselves what is actually happening here, first of all, why am I doing this? How do I think I'm going to feel when I achieved this weight loss? Right? What is it that I'm driving towards here? And then we get to question that and love ourselves through it, and also see how can I feel that way now, right? Also, we want to look at what's really happening because we want to do no harm to ourselves. And the diet industry has this warped message, that losing weight is healthy, okay. And losing weight is what we need to do, because it's going to solve all of our problems. Okay, so we need to look at the truth here. And I have compiled a whole bunch of facts here about what intentional weight loss can do. So number one, let's just remind ourselves, I did an episode A while ago, but let's revisit this, the natural weight setpoint. So this is the setpoint that your body functions really great at super healthy at your home or hormones are level, you have energy, you're sleeping well. You are eating and nourishing yourself amazingly. And you're also enjoying pleasure foods, and you're not obsessive with food, right? With counting calories with counting the macros with looking at the card count whatever it is, it feels free, and your body will settle at a really ideal weight for you. And this is all to do with homeostasis. So as soon as we intentionally start losing weight, your body will do a whole bunch of things to keep you safe. Plus, it'll gain extra weight, just in case you try to lose weight again, because it literally thinks you're dying. So it's like this is where she needs to be to be healthy. And no matter what, we are going to get her back to here. Okay, so let's look at the science. What actually is your body doing here to keep you safe? What is she doing in order to make you regain the weight to achieve your natural setpoint and opt in put on more to keep you safe in case you lose it again. So number one, when you go on low calorie diets, right when we restrict the calories and in order to lose weight, the enzymes that make and store your fat in your body actually double so they're like double time. So that's one we are actually made to regain more fat when we start eating again because of this. So think about that low calorie, you're restricting your body is like ah, ah, she's starving, she's starving, sends the message the enzymes double and then this creates more fat storage in your body. The other thing is is that slows your metabolism down. It makes your body more efficient at utilizing the calories by lowering the body's need for energy. Okay, so it's like we need less, we need less we're getting we're getting less, then your metabolism slows to accommodate this so that you don't starve. Okay, the next one, it it slows the rate of weight loss. So the more you die it the actual bless you will lose. And this is shown in for both rat and human studies. And I see this all the time, even in myself when I was a dieter, when I first started, like I think about my very first one, I was like, Oh, wow, like that weight loss came fast. And then I gained it back and then some. And then the cycle continued. And then the last time I ever attempted to diet, which was around five to seven years ago, I'm not entirely sure around them. I was like, Okay, I was looking at the Keto at the whole low carb. That's what was going on. And I was tempted. So I did it and my body didn't budge. And this is really the testament to this, the more you gain and lose, gain and lose your weight loss will slow down. Because your body does everything it can to prevent you from weight loss. Then another thing that it does here is actually it'll increase your cravings and your hunger. So when we restrict your brain launches cravings to make you eat more, it's like, oh, you absolutely need that salt, sugar and fat, it'll drive you to it. This is that primal brain, right? She's like, either you're being restricted and deprived, and I need pleasure, and she will drive you to the false pleasures. Okay, so it's like cravings galore. Or you're malnourished. And your body's like, I need nutrients here. So again, launch the cravings, this is all in service of you. But it feels absolutely crazy making, right it's like Ha it increasing all of these things. And then you feel like you have less self control, less willpower. And this crazy cycle continues and it's so hard to get off. With education and awareness, you will know why your body is doing this. And with this awareness, then you can go into compassion and again choose that freedom. It doesn't work anyway. So why am I doing this shift? Let's do something different enter in embodied eating. Okay, so let's talk about more things that dieting does, it increases the risk of premature death and heart disease. Okay, this is so important to understand because of all of this information that is being thrown at you that weight loss is the healthy healthiest thing you can do. No, no, no, no, listen to this, a 32 year study of more than 300 people has shown that regardless of initial weight, people who yo yo have an higher overall death rate and twice the normal risk of dying of heart disease. These results are independent of cardio risk factors and held true regardless if a person was thin or obese. So the harm of yo yo dieting may be actually equal to staying obese. So no one is here. Like I am not here on this podcast saying that obesity is okay for you. Okay, I really want to make this clear. I am not saying that going and just like eating everything in your pantry and saying screw it to the diet industry, and I'm just gonna gain weight. And I'm gonna sit here and not do anything. Because this losing weight is unhealthy. Okay, I really want to make sure that's not what's coming across here. What I want to make clear and to really imprint in your heart is again to build that relationship with your body. What does she actually need to thrive? What does she actually need for fuel for movement ways that feel amazing to her. We want to feel great in our life. And that does not mean that we just eat all the things and do not move and let our entire body go. Right. Like that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying here is that the diet industry is screwed up in what they're preaching at us as what should be normal as what is healthy. It's so wrong. It is so skewed from reality. So then we get these images in our brain, we get these images and these thoughts that are fed to us that we're conditioned to believe that this is what we need to do to look acceptable and valuable. Okay. And then we get caught up in this $73 billion industry that actually doesn't work. So instead of this what we want to do is we want to look at health. How can I move how can I eat how can I nourish myself? How can I make sure I get the best leaps ever? How can I make manage my stress? How can I find more pleasure? Like this great, juicy, beautiful pleasure in my life? How can I create create more of the good, this is what we want to focus on, because when we do, we move towards our natural, healthy setpoint. And then we get to rest there. And then we're not in this crazy yo yo dieting that does so much harm to our body. So if we are obese, let's learn how to take care of ourselves. And if you need to lose weight, if you actually are obese, to the point where this is not healthy for you, right, if you're carrying extra weight, because of physical or emotional reasons, then we get to nurture ourselves through that, and your body will, she will learn how to trust you. And she will lose weight, if that's what healthy for her. And if it's not like for me, I actually gained weight. When I stopped dieting. And it has been difficult, I'm not gonna lie, like I've definitely had to coach myself and get coaching in order to learn how to respect and love my body where she is now. But now I do not go up and down on the scale, I stay consistent, and that is healthy. So I hope this, it makes sense to you. As I always say, if it doesn't message me, okay, DM me. And let's have a conversation about this. Because this really is really breaking through all of those falsities all of those lies that we've been told to get to the bottom of what is true. And if we really want to be healthy in this life, what does that actually look like?

Okay, so let's dive into more of these interesting points. I love learning all of this because it really solidifies it's so important to look for evidence, again, to show our brains why we are not going to diet anymore to show our brains why we're focusing on health, which is true health, right? Not what the industry thinks. It wants to sell us, not things that wants to sell us is working very hard to sell us. So there was a Harvard Alumni health study. And in the study, it was discovered that people who lose and gain at least 11 pounds within a decade or so don't live as long as those who maintain a stable weight. 10 pounds is not that much. How often have you gained and lost 10 pounds, I know I sure have a lot in my 45 years. So this is, again, that really important knowledge to know, we don't want to do this to our bodies anymore. We want to remain stable. And that is by tuning into our inner cues, and not the diet industry's lies. Now, when dieters are trying to lose weight, right, we usually don't stop eating. Because of those inner cues. We stop eating again, because of whatever diet we're on is telling us to stop how much we should eat when we should eat what we should eat. And this self imposed limit, rather than listening to our inner cues, actually conditions us to eat increasingly larger sized meals. And this happens slowly, right. But if you if you watch yourself, you will see that this is what's happening. Your brain is signaling to eat more and more and more. And it can be subtle, but it's very real. And in the end, what it shows is dieters usually actually eat more than they would if they weren't dieting. And this is another reason why we gain weight. Right? Like we are on say we're on the way again, we're on our program, we're doing so good. And then we have a weekend where we say screw it, and then we're in the pantry eating up absolutely everything right? Or we go out for drinks with friends. And we're like, whoa, I've screwed it up anyway, I might as well eat all the things and start again on Monday. Right? When we do that, that actually creates more food intake throughout the entire week than if it was if we were following our cues and eating for fuel and pleasure. Now this is a really interesting point. So when we diet and we yo yo up and down, up and down, it actually causes our body shape to change. And those who continually regain the lost weight tend to do so in their abs. And this increases the risk of heart disease. So, again, if we continue to gain weight because we're restricting and we're depriving and then our body puts more and more on it's the dieting that's causing the excess weight gain, which leads to the heart disease. Now some other side effects are headaches, fatigue, Dry skin and hair loss. It lowers your body's temperature. So you use less energy. Menstrual issues. So many women lose their periods when they lose too much weight reduces your ability to feel hunger and fullness. And I will find this so often with clients when I'm start working with them. They're completely disconnected. And this is where we really need to re sensitize ourselves to relearn, what does hunger feel like? How do I feel when I'm full, to be able to really start listening and then honoring these cues again, and it makes it more difficult to decipher between true hunger and emotional needs. This is so important to understand our emotions need to be felt, right. And one of the reasons why so many of us are suffering in trauma have so many triggers that have not been worked through is because we're eating our way through it. We're buffering, right, we're distracting with food, rather than actually feeling these emotions. And then when we're dieting, this is often why binging happens, it's because these emotions are coming up, and we're trying to diet, and then we're feeling all these feelings, and they're so difficult to feel. And we don't actually know how because we haven't been taught. So then it's like, Screw it, I'm just going to eat all the things. And then after I feel so guilty, I'll start again, tomorrow, I'm just going to eat everything and the cycle continues. This is so sad. And if this is something that you find yourself caught up in, totally, totally just immerse yourself in so much compassion right now. It's okay, it is okay. But you don't have to stay where you are embodied eating. And really learning how to listen to your cues, also means you start to learn how to feel and process those emotions. And when you work with me, this is what we work a lot with. And the last physical impact that I have down here is it reduces total amount of muscle tissue. So if you are doing a program, especially something like very low carb, whether it's keto or just low carb, or whatever you want to call it, and you're seeing the the scale go down rapidly. Usually, first of all, that's water weight in the beginning, right, and then muscle tissue, your muscle tissue is being eaten. This is so common and a very actual very scary side effect of that type of dieting. So pay attention to these, okay, and again, we don't need to beat ourselves up. We don't need to go in fear. This is a wake up call. Okay, this is the truth. This is actually why what dieting does. Now, let's do it differently.

So let's talk about the psychological and emotional damage that diets do to us. Diets are so strongly linked to eating disorders. Most girls don't look in the mirror when they're younger, and go, Oh, I hate my body. And then all of a sudden, they're in an eating disorder. It happens gradually. And there's a study where it showed that dieters are eight times as likely to suffer from an eating disorder by age 15. than non dieters, this is so important to understand. When we die it, it is so easy to like find ourselves on that slippery slope, where all of a sudden, we are caught up in disordered eating and full fledged eating disorders. And it can happen very subtly. And the other thing that's really scary about this is when women gain weight, we tend to get complimented. So I urge you not to compliment other women, when you see them losing weight, we have no idea what's behind that. And especially for these young girls, this is not something that we should be talking about ever. All we want to do is talk about true health, K things that really improve self confidence and self esteem. Let's focus on that. Now dieting is very stressful. And it's actually correlated with feelings of failure, lowered self esteem and social anxiety. So I don't know about you, but personally, I have missed out on some very important events because of my own issues with self esteem. Even my grandpa's funeral, it was a big reason I didn't go because I was so caught up in my low self confidence and my diet that wasn't working at the time, and I just couldn't bring myself to go and I was feeling so shitty about myself and I missed such an important event like it kills me now to think about this. So think about this for yourself. Have there been things that you have not gone to things that you have really So sold yourself short on because of the diet industry's lies. And if there is, hello sweetheart compassion, tons of compassion, let's just get curious. And let's not let that happen again. Dieting really erodes confidence and self trust, when we think that we don't have enough self control and willpower, when we are caught up in these diet industries lives and this yo yo cycle, it always feels like we're the failure. And this really, really, really impacts this belief and this relationship in ourselves. So this is where we get to make the choice, we get to make the choice now with this awareness and the education that we are not the ones failing, it's the diet that is failing. Please, please imprint that as truth in your beautiful body. There's nothing wrong with you. We are absolutely perfect in our chemistry in our brain chemistry and how our body creates this homeostasis for ourselves to keep us safe. We are equipped for health your body wants to be at its best health. And when we think that what the diet industry is lying to us is the truth. It takes us away from that it pulls us away. And it also pulls us away from living into our full potential. Putting all of this great energy we have into the things that really really matter. Right. So let's just bring back our power. Bring back our confidence, bring back the self trust in yourself and in your beautiful body. Hey, my friend, thank you so much for tuning in today. This is such an important topic. Please message me if you have any questions at all. And as always, please share this with another woman in your life who needs to hear it. link arms together, my friends, we can change the world one woman at a time with this truth. I love you have a beautiful good day. Goodbye.