How To Stop Chronic Dieting

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Last updated on September 1st, 2024 at 08:59 pm

Article written by Janai Johnson, Dietetic Intern and reviewed by Shena Jaramillo, MS, RD

Chronic dieting is the cycle of bouncing from one weight loss plan to the next over months, years, or decades in pursuit of shrinking the body.

You might be surprised to learn that

Bottom line: the majority of people spend most of their lives engaged in some type of dieting behavior. Most people bounce from one diet to the next hoping that each new diet strategy will be their secret to skinny.

This article explores some of the reasons why chronic dieting can be damaging to our health, some physical and mental challenges with chronic dieting, and how to stop dieting for good.

infographic diet cycle contributers

Here are some signs that you’ve been chronically dieting:

Diet culture has taught us that smaller bodies are better bodies. Diets have taken away our body freedom and taught us to spend the majority of our lives in an effort to diet to make ourselves smaller. You know you are in a repetitive diet cycle when:

  • You’ve tried many different diets and keep losing and gaining the same 10-20lbs over and over again.
  • You assign morality to foods (this food is good–and this food is bad!).
  • You attribute things like your “sweet tooth” to a “lack of discipline”.
  • You are always trying to “get back on track!”.
  • You’re constantly changing clothing sizes
  • You’re constantly fasting after a “cheat day”
  • Obsessively tracking every macro you put in your mouth.
  • You’ve memorized how many calories/carbs/whatever is in your favorite foods.
  • You’re constantly craving carbs or binging on sugar
  • You are constantly checking your weight and/or measurements to compare to previous weights/measurements.
  • Going to social events like girl’s night or a work event is stressful because you don’t know what they’re going to be serving.

What Happens To Your Body With Chronic Dieting

When you are constantly putting yourself through a state of obsessing over what your body looks like, you are also putting yourself through a state of chronic stress. 

Chronic stress is exactly what it sounds like–stress that persists for a long time or constantly recurring, such as our diets, at times.

Allowing our bodies to be in a constant state of stress can look like various things:

  • Muscle tension
  • Digestive problems
  • Headaches 
  • Weight loss and then regain
  • Trouble sleeping  
  • Heart disease
  • Cancer
  • High blood pressure
  • Stroke

When our bodies are under constant stress, we make extra of a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol, or the “stress hormone”, starts to break down our cells, which in turn, starts to break down our bodies when there is too much of it. It can also cause weight gain and mood swings/depression.

Rebound Weight And/Or Weight Stagnance

When our bodies are put into constant states of starvation, which is what happens when we deprive ourselves of foods consistently, our weight can actually increase.

The body’s natural inclination for weight rebound goes back to caveman times when it was important for our bodies to preserve fat during times when we didn’t have easy access to food (like winter months!).

When we participate in chronic dieting, our metabolism can:

  • Slow down because you are also losing lean tissue muscle when you diet consistently.
  • Preserve energy (fat)  because our bodies slow down how many calories they burn when we don’t eat.
  • high cortisol levels

Intentional weight loss will often lead to weight regain plus some. This helps to perpetuate the chronic dieting cycle, leading us to believe that if we just “try. harder” at weight loss it’ll work next time.

quote that states practice just observing your body with curiosity not criticism

Diet Culture Wants Us To Be On A Diet ALWAYS

“No thanks, I’ve been really good this week”,

This is the common narrative of too many people when trying to say no to dessert or whipped cream on their coffee order. Why is this?

MEDIA, MEDIA, MEDIA.

You are constantly being fed subliminal (and some not-so-subliminal) messages that you need to be unhappy with your body.

Media tells us:

  • you are not thin enough
  • Your bodies have too much or too little of something
  • You take up too much space.

SURPRISE! These are lies fed to us in order to capitalize on our society-fed insecurities because then we do what?. . buy the latest diet meal plan, stop buying so much food so that we can afford the viral greens powder that “will shrink your waist!” with zero to none actual research behind it.

How many times have you gone to the grocery store and seen rows and rows of magazines swearing that by eating this fruit or by cutting this entire food group out, YOU TOO can lose 10 lbs in a week?

Chronic dieting convinces us that when we try this it simply *doesn’t* work, it’s because you did not do the diet right or there is a better diet waiting for you. This keeps you in a never-ending pursuit of the “bigger better diet.”

infographic of the diet cycle

The Diet Cycle

Here are ten steps of the diet cycle:

  1. You start a new diet
  2. You start restricting food or exercising and see some weight loss
  3. A surge of dopamine hits as a result of the weight loss
  4. The dopamine causes you to get more restrictive hoping to see more weight loss
  5. Strong bonds are formed by talking to other people about your diet
  6. New bonds further reinforce dieting behavior
  7. You start to lose momentum as new habits are unrealistic to keep up
  8. Weight loss stalls or stops
  9. You feel guilt and shame for not having the willpower to keep up with food restriction
  10. You start a new diet

Feelings That Come Up With Chronic Dieting

  • This is supposed to be for my “wellness” but I definitely don’t feel well
  • Maybe I just need to restrict for longer and it will work?
  • My body image will get better if I lose weight
  • Maybe I need to try ANOTHER diet and that one will work?

All of this thinking plagues most of our minds and can have bigger repercussions on our relationship with food than we realize.

This kind of mindset causes us to feel like we constantly have to limit our food intake and/or food groups. Bottom line: Dieting sucks.

Diet Cycling Risks

Diets that seem harmless can lead to many unhealthy behaviors including:

There is also a strong correlation between eating disorders and repeated dieting.

Stop Chronic Dieting

In order to stop chronic dieting you need to acknowledge that it’s the diets that don’t work, not your willpower.

Stop chronic dieting by:

Stop Humoring 
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Shena Jaramillo. Registered Dietitian
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