So, You’re in the Apocalypse: Why Diets Don’t Work.

Picture this. You’ve just been informed that a famine is imminent. Food will become increasingly scarce. People are panic buying. Reports have come in: looting has begun. Stores are running out of food, unable to restock. Maybe it’s the apocalypse.

What do you do in this scenario?

You could escape to your own private island on which you have developed a self-sustaining farming model. But since that is probably unlikely for most of us, you would choose the most reasonable option in order to ensure your survival, and start storing all the food you can find, right?

This is essentially how the human body works when faced with the threat of dieting.

Let’s get something out of the way first: The conscious restriction of calories, ‘weight-watchers points’, carbs, fats, sugars, specific foods, whatever the subject of restriction — however you want to spin it — is dieting by definition. And, according to science, no diet has been shown to work.

“It doesn’t matter what dieting rules you impose on your body consciously, it lives by its own genetically programmed, unconscious and irrevocable rule set. You can fight it, but ultimately it will utilise your intake of calories in the way that is most effective for continuing life. Your biology will always win.”

I just happened to develop Anorexia through the restriction of calories. Via the strategy of continuous elimination of food, I chased my imagined perfect number. And when the scales revealed it to me, I discovered another perfect number to chase. In order to continue losing weight, I further restricted, but the ever-elusive perfect number just became smaller.

Eventually the weight loss plateaued, and to notice any decrease in that number, required consuming hardly anything — a few pieces of lettuce, maybe a banana, sometimes a muesli bar; on my most “successful” days my diet consisted of a few cups of coffee, or nothing. In fact, at the worst point of the disorder, I was GAINING weight whilst eating only a couple of pieces of fruit per day.

So, how does this work? What does this mean for dieting?

Let’s go back to the apocalypse analogy where you’re storing food due to its scarcity. Your body is an intelligent organism whose sole purpose is to ensure your survival, so it does what you would logically do in order to survive in a period of scarcity: it stores food. And it does this through a variety of built-in biological processes.

It doesn’t matter what dieting rules you impose on your body consciously, it lives by its own genetically programmed, unconscious and irrevocable rule set. You can fight it, but ultimately it will utilise your intake of calories in the way that is most effective for continuing life. Your biology will always win.

“…when your body starts to detect restriction (which it perceives as starvation) your metabolism begins to slow down… your body begins to prioritise fat storage.”

Here’s what you’re up against.

Research demonstrates that our bodies have a set weight range and will fight to ensure that we stay within it. This can be likened to a thermostat. It is a sort of self-regulation. In this house (your body), if the temperature is too low (losing weight below your set weight range), the heaters will fire up (gaining weight) to get to the relevant temperature (your set weight). The colder it is, the more heat will be necessary in order to achieve this. That is to say, the more weight you lose outside of your set weight range, the more your body will compensate through weight gain.

Think of a pendulum. The further it swings one way, the further it will swing on its way back, it’s all a matter of momentum. So to with your biological pendulum; the greater the restriction/period of restriction, the greater the consequent weight gain.

In a sense, our bodies are biologically engineered to be anti-diet.

“…the longer you diet, the more hunger you will experience whilst simultaneously feeling less full after consuming equal amounts of food.”

Metabolic Response.

Another anti-diet mechanism your body relies on is variations in metabolic rate. A correctly functioning metabolism will naturally fluctuate as necessary to maintain set weight range. But when your body starts to detect restriction (which it perceives as starvation) your metabolism begins to slow down dramatically, which in material terms means your body begins to prioritise fat storage.

It does this because, to your body, fat is a slower burning energy source and slower burning energy means a greater chance of survival during a famine (or a diet). It’s also useful for maintaining body heat, and protecting vital organs — other key survival functions. Put simply, if you try too hard to lose weight, your body will think it’s starving, and your metabolism will make sure you gain weight.

Diets — 0 : Body — 1.

Hormonal Response.

The next anti-diet program your body runs is hard-wired into your hormones. A clever little hormone called Leptin is responsible for regulating your hunger cues. Produced by your fat cells, high levels of Leptin reduce your appetite (except in the case of Leptin resistance), whilst low levels of Leptin trigger increased appetite. What this means in practical terms is that the longer you diet, the more hunger you will experience whilst simultaneously feeling less full after consuming equal amounts of food.

Often dieters and disordered eaters will attempt to fight against this with “willpower”, but no amount of willpower is enough to gain conscious control over hormone production. At its worst, this fight turns into a binge-purge cycle, and “winning” it will mean either recovery, ending your diet, or death.

Diets — 0 : Body — 2.

“The lack of ability to continually maintain a diet is not a sign of mental weakness, it is a sign of a functioning biology doing its best to protect you from starving.”

Neurological Response.

Finally, our anti-diet bodies utilise neurological changes to combat weight loss. Your brain, in order to further conserve energy, shifts from physical hunger cues to mental ones. Meaning you become psychologically more focused on food, which can quickly become obsessive. Once food obsession sets in food appears more appetizing, you notice when others have it more often (and when you lack it), and think about it more frequently.

For instance, I used to frequently watch ‘What I Eat in a Day’ videos on YouTube; look up recipes of foods I would never allow myself to eat; and spend hours in grocery stores, staring at the food I could only dream of eating.

With this kind of mentality, worth is added to food as it then becomes a reward; a commodity with moral value. Thus, the food(s) your diet tells you to restrict suddenly become more difficult to resist.

Diets — 0 : Body — 3.

“…as we’ve come to understand, if you go to war against your body, you will end up gaining weight long-term, not losing it.”

Again, sheer willpower will be ultimately ineffective. Your body does not know if you are intentionally starving it — all it knows is that it is being starved in some form. Your internal thermostat, metabolism, hormones and brain will keep pushing you to eat whatever it is you’re restricting, because its job is to keep you alive. The lack of ability to continually maintain a diet is not a sign of mental weakness, it is a sign of a functioning biology doing its best to protect you from starving.

Fact is, diets don’t work, because our bodies are not made to diet. And, as we’ve come to understand, if you go to war against your body, you will end up gaining weight long-term, not losing it.

So if you’re planning on dieting, don’t do it. Be content with your body’s natural set weight range. Learn to love yourself, and stop listening to anyone or anything that tells you otherwise. Your body will always look after you, it’s your responsibility to let it do its job.

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