The Innovative Therapist

Episode 2. This episode is all about why dieting does not work and the many ways in which getting caught in the dieting cycle keeps us distracted from the things that matter.

Very often, it keeps us from the good we want to do in the world.

Topics Covered

We talk about how dieting causes stress and very often preoccupation with food. Although many people assume that they are "failing the diet", many of their perceived "failures" (like binge eating) are 100% caused by dieting itself. But yet, we blame ourselves and start another diet or "eating plan" and keep the cycle going.Giving up dieting does not mean giving up any pursuit of your health. In fact, quite the opposite is usually true. Giving up dieting lets us see more clearly what matters and what we need to do logistically to improve our health, if that's what we choose. We just get to do it without all the diet-binge-shame BS. I talk about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment and how 36 men that were "starved" (put on a 1570 per day diet and lost 25% of their weight) became obsessed and preoccupied with food, and lost all interest in other things like hobbies, sex, etc (Keys et al., 1950). I discuss some of what this can teach us about the biological impact of dieting.I talk about the research study looking at calorie restriction without food monitoring (with pre-packaged meals) and how that increased cortisol, suggesting that calorie restriction itself inherently causes stress (Tomiyama et al., 2011) which makes us more prone to weight gain.

Learn More About How Dieting Fails Us

Check out my blog post for a comprehensive overview of the ways diet fails us (called "How Dieting Fails Us: A Comprehensive Guide").

Self Control is a Limited Resource

We only get so much "willpower" or self control in a given day, as it turns out. People with sustainable habits they feel good about are not fighting tooth and nail every single day to keep them up.

I wrote previously about how to use this knowledge in our favor and learn to make habit changes that can actually last over the long haul. Check out the post here: NEWSFLASH: No One Has Enough Willpower for Dieting.

Dieting Messes with our Biology

It isn't just in your head. Our body fights hard against our dieting attempts, and much of the weight regain people experience is due to this. Yet they blame themselves. There is solid research on the biological changes that occur after weight loss, and it does not bode well for the diet industry.

If this does not convince you that diets are failing us, and not the other way around, I don't know what will. Check it out here: How Dieting Messes with Our Biology.

Dieting Erodes the Very Things that Are Essential for Long-Term Change

We know from decades of research on motivation that we all need three psychological needs met to promote behavior change over the long-term: competence, relatedness, and autonomy.

Without these needs being met, sustained change in any important area of your life is unlikely. Dieting usually reduced all three, yet we keep dieting. More on this here.

Defining the "Diet Mentality"

An attempt to control your weight as the ultimate goal.The mindsets involved in a weight loss attempt, that comes from a place of external "should-based motivation".Often coming from a place of "I'm not ok" as I am now. Typically this is the message we get from the diet and weight loss industry. "I'm not ok, but I could feel SO great and confident about myself if I just lost weight!"It comes along with an assumption that whatever program or plan you are going on knows what you "should" eat.It is also based on the assumption that if you do XYZ steps "right" you will lose weight. Dieting attempts to give us a feeling of control, at least in the short-term.

The "Dieting Overlay" Covers Up the Other Stuff

This illusion of control is incredibly alluring, however, it distracts us from other important thingsOften we are so caught up in this ineffective cycle we waste a lot of time and resources that could be used on other thingsI think of it as a sheer black veil covering things in your life, both painful things as well as joy and other positive emotions

The Logistics of Healthy Habits Become More Clear

Unless you have a personal chef, you will likely have to do some work to figure out how healthy habits fit into your life. Once we remove the dieting overlay (the sheer black veil) we can see things more clearly and make adjustments that fit us and our preferences and goals.

Struggling with feeling "off track" or out of control with your habits but want an alternative to dieting? Grab my free audio download to walk you through the "how" of tuning in to your body and gaining control.

So Dieting Does not Work... Now What?

Take a step back and look at how dieting is impacting your life. What is dieting holding you back from? What would you do differently if you weren't concerned about your weight and/or appearance?Just notice when and where the diet mentality comes up for you. You don't have to change it yet, just notice. Notice how it makes you feel physically and emotionally. Just. Pay. Attention.Remember that giving up dieting does not have to mean not eating well or not eating in line with your goals. It does mean giving up the need to control your weight and choosing actions that you would do regardless of whether or not it influenced the scale. It does not mean not focusing on making changes that you want to make in your life with regards to eating, movement, maybe drinking less alcohol, etc. It just means you begin doing so from a place of taking great care of yourself and your body, versus external shoulds. For many, this takes some time and practice, so be patient with yourself.

Need Some Extra Help with the How?

If you are thinking, this sounds good Shawn but how do you actually implement this mindset shift?

I made this free audio just for that reason. It walks you through the steps to follow if you are feeling out of control with eating or noticing an urge to restrict, what the heck to do instead. I walk you through the steps of actually tuning in to your body and then making a plan for yourself from a place of self-respect.

Want More?

Click play to listen to this episode here or wherever you listen to podcasts. To make sure you never miss a new episode, go here to make sure you are part of my Insider's Community where you will get updates about new blog posts and podcast episodes and first dibs on new resources and programs!

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References

Keys, A., Brožek, J., Henschel, A., Mickelsen, O., & Taylor, H. L. (1950). The biology of human starvation. (2 Vols.). Univ. of Minnesota Press.

Tomiyama, J., Mann, T., Vinas, D., Hunger, J., Dejager, J., & Taylor, S. (2011). Low Calorie Dieting Increases Cortisol. Psychosomatic Medicine, 72, 357-364.

Episode 2. This episode is all about why dieting does not work and the many ways in which getting caught in the dieting cycle keeps us distracted from the things that matter.

Very often, it keeps us from the good we want to do in the world.

Topics Covered

* We talk about how dieting causes stress and very often preoccupation with food. * Although many people assume that they are "failing the diet", many of their perceived "failures" (like binge eating) are 100% cause by dieting itself. But yet, we blame ourselves and start another diet or "eating plan" and keep the cycle going.* Giving up dieting does not mean giving up any pursuit of your health. In fact, quite the opposite is usually true. Giving up dieting lets us see more clearly what matters and what we need to do logistically to improve our health, if that's what we choose. We just get to do it without all the diet-binge-shame BS. * I talk about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment and how 36 men that were "starved" (put on a 1570 per day diet and lost 25% of their weight) became obsessed and preoccupied with food, and lost all interest in other things like hobbies, sex, etc (Keys et al., 1950). I discuss some of what this can teach us about the biological impact of dieting.* I talk about the research study looking at calorie restriction without food monitoring (with pre-packaged meals) and how that increased cortisol, suggesting that calorie restriction itself inherently causes stress (Tomiyama et al., 2011) which makes us more prone to weight gain.

Learn More About How Dieting Fails Us

Check out my blog post for a comprehensive overview of the ways diet fails us (called "How Dieting Fails Us: A Comprehensive Guide").

Self Control is a Limited Resource

We only get some much "willpower" or self control in a given day, as it turns out. People with sustainable habit they feel good about are not fighting tooth and nail every single day to keep them up.

I wrote previously about how to use this knowledge in our favor and learn to make habit changes that can actually last over the long haul. Check out the post here: NEWSFLASH: No One Has Enough Willpower for Dieting.

Dieting Messes with our Biology

It isn't just in your head, our body fights hard against our dieting attempts, and much of the weight regain people experience is due to this. Yet the blame themselves. There is solid research on the biological changes that occur after weight loss, and it does not bode well for the diet industry.

If this does not convince you that diets are failing us, and not the other way around, I don't know what will. Check it out here: How Dieting Messes with Our Biology.

Dieting Erodes the Very Things that Are Essential for Long-Term Change

We know from decades of research on motivation that we all need three psychological needs met to promote behavior change over the long-term: competence, relatedness, and autonomy.

Without these needs being met, sustained change in any important area of your life is unlikely. Dieting usually reduced all three, yet we keep dieting. More on this here.

Defining the "Diet Mentality"

Episode 1. Want to get and stay motivated for healthier habits? Have you tried every diet in the book and are beyond frustrated with yourself that you haven't had the success you want? This week's episode is for you.

Welcome to the Motivation Made Easy Podcast!

What to Expect

This first full episode of the Motivation Made Easy podcast goes over the ways we are getting things REALLY wrong when it comes to our health and how we typically approach weight loss.

My approach to motivation is rooted in Self-Determination Theory, a well-studied theory of motivation. This theory has been studied in controlled lab settings and long-term longitudinal studies across SO many areas, including health but also in education, sports, parenting, psychological treatment, and so much more.

In this podcast we learn about motivation and how it REALLY works, and how to apply it to our relationship with food, and beyond!

"I'm terrified I'm wasting my life."

Before we dive in to all things motivation, health and weight, and I wanted to share something with you.

I wrote this statement in a journal in the middle of the diet-binge cycle. And frankly, I kind of was. I was disconnected and distracted, self-conscious about my body almost 100% of the time, and generally feeling like a failure, though no one truly knew the depths of this pain.

I’m here to tell you it’s never too late to gain control of your eating, respect your body, and live a life that’s TRULY consistent with your values. But you need to take the first step.

One of the very first steps in developing truly autonomous and body respecting motivation is to clarify what actually matters to you. Not your mom, not your sister, not your best friend, YOU. 

The more you reflect on this, the more you can connect your values to your behaviors in a sustainable and empowering way. 

Grab the free guide at DrHondorp.com/goals and get started today. I promise you, it’s never too late to stop dieting and start truly living.

The Field of Weight Management is Missing the Mark

Let's dive in and get started with some of the MANY ways the diet and weight loss industry and the weight management field in general is missing the mark. I should know, I had been a part of it for many years now, as a researcher developing and delivering weight management interventions for NIH-funded research trials.

A few of the ways we are failing (as a field)

The 78 billion dollar weight loss industry (as of 2019) and the ways they profit based on things NOT working for us. Repeat customers, they need. (Said in a yoda voice).The 3 Key Psychological Needs we all have when it comes to any sustained habit changes (autonomy, competence, and relatedness; Deci & Ryan, 2012) and how almost all of the ways we approach weight loss and dieting reduce these, making is VERY hard to make changes that stick.

How calorie restriction causes biological stress and increased cortisol which is one of the MANY ways dieting undermines our ability to achieve our goals and reduces our sense of effectiveness (Tomiyama et al., 2011). You see, we need to feel some degree of success to want to keep going long-term. Makes sense, right? Well, the fact is that MOST weight loss programs result in weight gain over time, not loss. At some point we need to start looking at the system, not the person.The ways we GREATLY overestimate the impact of weight on our health, and how little of a role it truly plays based on science. This doesn't mean that weight does not matter. Most people I work with will tell you it matters very much to them, however, the ways in which we are told it matters and that we "need" to lose weight, are actually not often true. In fact, there's good data that focusing on weight loss will take you away from your goals, not towards them. Most importantly, we talk about what the heck can be done about this? How can we improve things on an individual and larger systems level?

Health at Every Size® Movement - How Does This All Make Sense?

There are many studies I could cite demonstrating the misunderstanding of weight and health and their link. However, the one I'll start with is a study by Matheson and colleagues (2012). In this study, they:

Measured risk of death between those in higher weight ranges and those in the "normal" weight range (the body mass index is crap, but it's what we have). They looked at how many folks were doing 4 health habits, these habits were: 1) Regular exercise, 2) Balanced eating with fruits and veggies, 3) Not drinking alcohol to excess, and 4) Not smoking.When they measured those in the "obese" BMI range, and they weren't doing any of the 4 behaviors, there was an increased risk of death compared to the overweight and normal ranges. However, this doesn't mean that weight was causing increased risk of death. We know that weight bias or stigma plays a HUGE role in our health and can definitely worsen it, so that alone might have been the cause. The reality is, we don't KNOW the cause, we can only speculate.However, when people in the obese range were doing all 4 healthy habits, their risk of death was the exact same as those in the normal and overweight ranges.This suggests that we can pursue health promoting behaviors at any size and gain benefit from it.We talk in Episode 16 about the Health at Every Size® Movement and many of the myths about it, including that HAES® does not claim that everyone IS healthy, or that weight loss is bad, per se, it's just that we need to take a whole picture approach, versus what we currently do. Which is essentially, say, you are X weight, you must lose weight.

The Holy Grail of Sustainable Motivation - And Why Weight Loss Focus Wont Get You There

We dove deeper into Self-Determination Theory and the three key psychological needs we all need for long-term habit change and autonomous motivation (the holy grail of sustainable motivation).

There are unfortunately many ways we are setting up people for failure with how the dieting and weight loss industry approaches weight loss. It's time to understand, so we can make a change.

Life is too short to keep doing the same ineffective thing over and over, my friends.

Ways To Use This Information to Move Towards Optimal Health and Well-Being

FAQ: Instead of focusing on weight loss and dieting, what should we be doing instead?

Great question, there are many things we can feel effective with when it comes to our health.

Focus on habits and feel great about it. Although we cannot always control the number on the scale or what society tells us is healthy, we can control our habits and how we take care of ourselves. Just look at the above graph. We do have control, but focusing on weight loss and that pesky scale is distracting us from what works, and leading us to lose faith in our abilities in the process. There are many areas where regular and joyful movement and nourishing nutrition can make a HUGE difference in our health, energy levels, and quality of life. You can feel effective, but almost every time, focusing on weight loss undermines that feeling. It’s time for a new approach.Make changes based on what's most important to YOU. We know a lot about the science of motivation, and the fact is, making changes from a place of freedom and choice, not external pressure means we are more likely to keep up the changes. So how do we do this? You can start by changing the way you talk to yourself. Perhaps ask yourself "What do I really want? What do I want to focus on?" Want some help with the HOW? I break down the 5 steps to tuning in to your body as a learned skill in this free audio.Spread this information and work together. Reducing misinformation is key to reducing shame and weight stigma and to feeling understood and accepted. Share this podcast with family and friends. Let's actually talk about how what we are doing isn’t working and commit to spending less money on diet and weight loss products and more money and time working on things that matter.Consider other things you could focus your energy on instead of calorie counting. This could be learning some new plant-based recipes, or maybe it has zero to do with food. Maybe you want to free up time to focus on a side project that really jazzes you, or work on a new hobby or passion. Or just spend more time getting present with the people in your life. It does not matter what it is, but it's important to take time to reflect on what's truly important to you, and then take action towards it.

Don't Miss an Episode - Join The Insider's Community and Hit Subscribe Now!

To make sure you never miss a new episode, go here to make sure you are part of my Insider's Community where you will get updates about new blog posts and podcast episodes and first dibs on new resources and programs!

Follow Me on Instagram * Facebook * Pinterest

References

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Self-determination theory. In P. A. M. Van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (p. 416–436).

Matheson, E. M., King, D. E. & Everett, C. J. (2012). Healthy lifestyle habits and mortality in overweight and obese individuals. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 25, 9-15.

Tomiyama, J., Mann, T., Vinas, D., Hunger, J., Dejager, J., & Taylor, S. (2011). Low Calorie Dieting Increases Cortisol. Psychosomatic Medicine, 72, 357-364.

Have You Ever Asked Yourself...

How can I stop emotional eating or binge eating and gain control over my eating habits?Can I truly learn to love my body?I am addicted to food?How can I get and stay motivated to make lifestyle changes?Is it possible to have a healthy relationship with food?

The Motivation Made Easy Podcast is Here!

Each week I'll bring you science-backed information, strategies, and inspiration to:

Master your relationship with foodGain control of your habitsRespect your bodyAnd free your mind to focus on the things that truly matter

What Is This Podcast All About?

In this Introduction Episode, you will learn:

How I came up with the title of the podcast including why I hesitated at first, but ultimately decided on Motivation Made Easy: Body Respect, True Health.How my experiences professionally and personally will bring a unique perspective to these discussions.The ways in which we will embrace uncertainty to learn from opposing viewpoints. Examples include: 1) the research and patient care world, 2) the eating disorder and obesity world, 3) the prevention and treatment world.

Types of Shows:

Dr. Hondorp talking about personal stories, motivation science, tips, and strategies to master your relationship with foodInterviews with experts in fields of psychology, nutrition, body image, and much moreStories from real people about how they navigated their relationship with food

Subscribe So You Don't Miss An Episode!

New episodes will come out each week, so make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss one!

To grab my FREE audio guide to stop diet and take control of your habits, go here.

Click here to join my insider's community to get the inside scoop on everything going on with the Motivation Made Easy podcast and The Psychology of Wellness.