SubscribeWhat is No Diet Day?
This is a guest post from Cari Corbet-Owen
May 6th may not be as big as May 11th - Mother's Day - but I predict it's a day that will grow in importance. May 6th is International No Diet Day. It's history? It was started 16 years ago in the dining room of Mary Evans, the British director for Diet Breakers.
While it might have had very modest beginnings - it's a day that is growing in significance and is now celebrated in countries in the Southern Hemisphere like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. And in the Northern Hemisphere in England, Norway, Russia, Canada and of course the USA. Supporters wear a light blue ribbon.
There are good reasons why this day is gaining momentum.
Living a life of restriction and deprivation is proving to be counterproductive - all it appears to do is to lead to a life of either stuffing or starving with little in the way of something in between.
Since the 1970's scientists have noticed a peculiar phenomenon: the more we diet, the more obesity increases as this graph shows (Bacon et el. International Journal of Obesity 2002).
In the 1960 Keys study 36 men volunteered for a 6-month period of food restriction as an alternative to military service. (ref. 2) Within 5 months of food becoming freely available once more, all the men had regained their lost weight and on average had overshot their original weight by 10%.
Dr Bob Schwartz (author of Diets Don't Work) (ref 3) claims that he runs a successful weight-gain programs based on exactly the same principles people have been using in order to lose weight. Underweight people are put on a diet, then taken off it and allowed to eat normally. 'Within a few days they have gained all the weight back, plus some ... we put them back on diet for another three days ... we keep doing this ... until they are the weight they want to be.'
According to Garner and Wooley diets don't work for 95-98% of all people in the long term. Losing weight through suppressing appetite or through restriction and deprivation may well help you lose weight- but when it comes to sustaining that weight loss - diets fails dismally.
The No-Diet movement has been growing as a backlash to diet failure - with support groups such as OA, Body Positive or Hugs.
References
1. Keys, A. & Colleagues. (1950). The Biology of Human Starvation. Minneapolic, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
2. Schwartz, R.M. 1982. Diets don't work. Human & Rousseau (Cape Town and Johannesburg)
3. *Garner, D.M. & *Wooley, S.C. (1991) Confronting the failure of behavioral and dietary treatments of obesity. Clinical Psychology Review, 11, 729-780.
Written by Cari Corbet-Owen, clinical psychologist and author of Mind over Fatter and The Joy-Filled Body.
Editors Note: With regards to the above graph: While both the incidence of obesity and the incidence of dieting appear to have escalated in parallel, it is unclear whether a causal relationship exists. -- Jim
You know, the funny thing about OA apparently supporting No Diet Day is that when I went to a few OA meetings last year, several people were on a very strict OA-created Gray Sheet "food plan."
ReplyAaaaargh! I mean HOW ridiculous is that when it goes against everything else they supposedly preach. Thanks for letting me know this.
ReplyCari
A diet may sometimes end up being more of a challenge, than a benefit. That’s why you need to avoid some common mistakes if you want to successfully get yourself in shape again. I read about this at http://www.projectweightloss.com.
ReplyDiets don't work...but they sure make for a great business model
ReplyDidn't we discuss some point back about how exercise just makes one hungrier, and so is ineffective for losing weight?
So, let's see: (1) dieting doesn't work; (2) exercise doesn't work. Hum.
Is this why liposuction is so popular? ^_^
ReplyI think that whilst "diets" (in the sense of strict regimes and faddy eating plans) are almost certain to fail, healthy changes to one's eating patterns are set to succeed.
Of course people will put on weight if they starve themselves for weeks then suddenly return to "eating normally" ... especially if "normal" means the typical Western diet.
But making slow, steady, healthy changes, and becoming conscious of what you eat -- and doing some exercise -- is a great recipe for steady weight loss. The key is to make sustainable changes and to learn new habits.
Ali
ReplyIMHO, there is a big difference between eating a healthy diet about 90% of the time and being "on a diet" where certain foods are either restricted or banned. I have friends that go on diets where they only eat fruit for days or only cabbage soup or whatever. Diets that are very restrictive like that are bound to fail, but if you eat healthy most of the time and allow yourself treats every so often, it's a lot easier to eat that way forever. I don't look at the way I eat as being "on a diet" per se, but as a healthy way of eating. So I never have to worry about "going off my diet" or whatever. I do like the concept of "no diet day", but why not make it "no diet month" or something?
ReplySpectra, of course you're right, but I'm bothered by this article.
I've not spent a lot of time following the links in this article, but I think that your position is aligned with the "no-diet" movement. I think that the missing part is to accept that goals like "feeling good" or "being healthy" are positive, while goals like "looking hot" or "fitting into your skinny jeans" are negative. I think that this is all great stuff, too.
The problem is, normal is being redefined in front of our eyes. Look at the increase in "hefty" car seats for infants; the shower curtains in hotels that arch out; the growth in shelf space in drug stores for dealing with the ailments of Type II diabetes.
I'm afraid that "feeling good" and "being healthy" is being redefined in front of our eyes too.
Maybe the dropping expected lifespan for women in some areas of the US will be a wake up call.
ReplyRead my column on the G.A.O.M, Quito.
ReplyHi Quito - I'm absolutely with you that 'feeling vibrant, alive and healthy' are what to aim for! I think we need to take the emphasis of dieting to lose weight and place it on making healthier choices that are 'health-gain' based! But sadly many of those lose weight quick schemes that are so common place are not only a money-making racket as Mike points out, but also downright unhealthy.
ReplyCari
I think a lot of people probably do take the whole "no diet" thing the wrong way. They look at it like: "What the hell, I'm gonna eat whatever I want. It's NO DIET DAY!! Pizza and ice cream, here I come!" Which isn't the point of the "no diet" thing anyway. But our society likes to feel, like you said, that fatness should equal normal.
I will tell ya though, I haven't seen "hefty" car seats for infants yet. I'll keep my eyes peeled for one though.
ReplyHI Spectra - sadly I think you're right. We're such a diet driven culture that we automatically think that 'not dieting' just means the alternative is to pig out.
ReplyWalmart has the "Evenflow Big Kid Deluxe model" for $50 that is adjustable for children up to 100lb. This is a big step forward. I first heard about this from an NPR news story about the January Detroit Auto Show, which observed that the booster seat industry was sizing up. From a N-HANES study of data from 1999-2000, it was found that about 283,000 children in the US were at risk because the booster seats available weren't big enough for them.
ReplyChildren up to 100 lbs?? Holy crap, I could ride in it without breaking the weight limit. That is really scary. If your baby is 100 lbs, you need to put the kid on a diet and start making him toddle laps around the living room.
ReplyI've read that its those who alter their life the least who have the most success losing weight and maintaining their new weight. It comes to be a lifestyle, not a diet.
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