Ditch Dieting
Health at every size and intuitive eating
T
he pursuit of weight loss has created a billion-dollar
industry, but it’s an industry that data trends suggest
hasn’t really contributed to creating a leaner or even
healthier America. According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention’s National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey, the prevalence of obesity in 2015-2016
in the United States was 39.8 percent among adults and
18.5 percent among youth. Traditional diet programs, while
perhaps successful in the short term, have largely failed
when it comes to long-term weight loss maintenance. Some
research even suggests the direct association of frequent
dieting with weight gain, begging the question, “Should
you ditch dieting for good and try a different approach
to improving wellness?”
This spring, instead of focusing solely on weight loss,
consider taking a new health-centered but non-diet
approach to behavior and lifestyle change. Health at Every
Size® (HAES) and intuitive eating are two approaches
that focus on creating better relationships with food and
one’s body. Some studies found that a non-diet approach
to eating and behavior change was not only associated
with psychological well-being and improvements in body
image but also with improvements in metabolic health—
including blood pressure, lipid levels and cardiorespira-
tory fitness. Worried that decentralizing weight loss as a
focus will contribute to weight gain? Research suggests the
contrary and has found that study participants who took a
non-diet approach didn’t gain weight. In fact, participants
who took a non-diet approach often maintained weight
or inadvertently achieved weight loss, although weight
change was not a goal. Research has also demonstrated
that participants engaging in a non-diet approach allevi-
ate body dissatisfaction while improving eating habits and
lifestyle. Creating a more mindful approach and eating by
internal cues is a more adaptive eating style and perhaps
even “radical” change for chronic dieters. This approach
doesn’t disregard therapeutic dietary modifications for
health reasons, like incorporating a Mediterranean style
of eating to improve cardiovascular outcomes, which is a
common misperception. Instead, it embraces a holistic
approach to eating and encourages learning to eat in
an attuned manner. Although more research needs to
be done, especially with diverse populations, HAES and
intuitive eating approaches are challenging traditional
diet culture, embracing body diversity and providing new
strategies for self-care and health promotion.
Find out more about the Be Nourished clinic and Body
Trust® approach at benourished.org.Alison Massey, MS, RD, LDN, CDE, is a registered dietitian and
certified diabetes educator in Frederick, Maryland. She blogs at
alisonmasseyrd.com.60 May/June 2019