We knew it: Diets are officially a waste of time, and health professionals want you to stop
We spoke to a health coach who explains why
We’re finally back to springtime, so sooner or later we will be seeing girls on social media flaunting their new diets or weight loss for everyone to see.
But what most people don’t know about the deliberately posted photos at 8 p.m. to receive the most likes (you ain’t slick) is how these girls are accomplishing those bikini bods.
I was one of those girls who used to do the craziest diets to look beautiful in the eyes of her bathroom mirror, craving the satisfaction of the flat tummy looking back at her. I didn’t feel pretty nor happy with my size and it haunted me till I reached my freshman year of college and to finally realize that I loved my curves.
Looking back, the restrictions I put on my body and how I truly felt about myself were the reasons why I refuse to ever do any other diet ever.
According to DoSomething.org, more than 1/3 of the people who admit to “normal dieting,” will merge into pathological dieting (unhealthy food or calorie restriction) and approximately 91 percent of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape even though only 5 percent of women naturally possess the body type portrayed by in social media.
Girls like myself have grown up believing that the ideal body shape is either a slim waist with a toned body or just skinny like a model on Seventeen magazine.
With the rise of social media, young women are feeling pressured to look a certain way and we resort to doing these extreme diets that we google search such as “How to lose 10 pounds in a week”or “What’s the best diet of 2017” and my personal favorite diet of all, “How to lose weight by eating only bananas.”
Young women are choosing to lose weight for the wrong reasons, so babe spoke to Philadelphia-based health coach Jessica Baumgardner about how to do it the right way.
Why do you believe young women shouldn’t diet?
I don’t feel like anyone should do diet. In my experiences I’ve seen all diets just fail because they’re usually based on an ideal we are either incapable of reaching or it’s not healthy for our bodies. We are looking at things on Instagram and everyone has a different body. I especially think it’s unhealthy for young women to diet because it’s usually based on something other than health — it’s usually based on an image they aspire to be and I feel like it’s just a wrong way to go about a diet in the first place.
If you were a 50-year-old woman who was diagnosed with something and have to go on a specific diet for your health, then that’s one thing. However, if you’re just counting calories because you want to look a certain way, I think that just sets you up for failure because you should be happy with your body and treat your body well. If you treat your body well, then you will automatically eat better food and take better care of yourself.
Do you think there’s a reason why women tend to choose diets over a long-term change? Are diets even effective?
Everyone wants instant results and we think that finding a diet that has great reviews and works for some people, will automatically work for us too. When that doesn’t work, then we look at ourselves as failures and beat ourselves up. This is the exact opposite of what I do with my clients and what I believe in because the only way you will see that long term change is to put in new habits and learn how to treat your body in a way that’s healthy, sustainable, and manageable.
Diets will usually have a restriction aspect and deprivation which lead you to craving whatever thing you can’t have whether it’s calories, carbs, or sugar. If you start to change your habits by cutting out the stuff that isn’t good for you like sugar and alcohol, you will automatically start to make changes for the long term. If you have a donut during brunch, then it’s not going to be the end of the world because it’s not part of your diet, it’s just something you reward yourself for on occasion and it’s not a big deal. If you’re going out with your girlfriends and you decide to eat something delicious, you shouldn’t torture yourself over that one thing that you ate. You should listen to your body and decide when you’re full or not and allow yourself to have whatever you want at any time, but knowing that most of the time, you’re making good food decisions.
Do you think social media impacts the way young women view themselves?
I think so. One of the things I love to do with my clients is talk about body image. When a client comes to me and tells me they want to lose 10 pounds, I ask them why do they really want to lose weight and what will that do for you on a deeper level, beyond it just being a vanity thing. It’s very important to get to the root cause of why you want to lose weight and if there’s a valid reason there, then that’s something completely different.
As a health coach, I don’t focus on just weight. It comes part of it or its about changing your lifestyle and treating yourself with better food choices and loving your body.
You can’t look at yourself at the mirror and say how much your body every day and expect positive changes. You’ll constantly be stuck in this cycle of beating yourself up, splurging on bad food, and then being good for a day or two and then beating yourself up again. You really have to accept your body for what you have and then work towards to keeping yourself as healthy as you can.