What Is A Non Diet Approach

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The non diet approach focuses on improving health and wellbeing without focusing on weight or food restriction. 

The non diet approach includes: 

  • Optimizing nutrition based on desires, macronutrients and micronutrients
  • Eliminating food rules
  • Not focusing on weight loss or changing the body shape or size
  • Intuitive eating 
  • Improving biometrics without focusing on weight 
  • Joyful movement to improve health

Non diet nutritional counseling removes weight and BMI from being a parameter in the health equation.  

This article explores how to shift to a non diet approach for optimizing health, why weight is not a marker of health, and why quitting dieting is important for your overall wellbeing. 

infographic on the non diet approach

What is a Non Diet Approach 

Non Diet Do’s

The non diet approach is healthcare that supports your overall wellness based on parameters other than weight. 

I like to think of non diet as the add but never take away approach.  You’re adding in foods and behaviors to optimize our health versus restricting things you enjoy.

Some examples of weight neutral healthcare include: 

  • Encouraging balanced meals and snacks
  • Decreasing cholesterol by adding in nutrient dense foods 
  • Managing blood sugars through dietary modifications 
  • Managing blood pressure by increasing certain nutrients
  • Choosing foods considering allergies and intolerances
  • Choosing foods to decrease inflammation 
  • Increasing physical activity you enjoy 
  • Learning to honor your hunger and fullness cues 
  • Education on the role of macro and micronutrients in the body
  • Increasing meal variety or cooking skills 
  • Improving access to food

The non diet approach focuses on optimizing health, not reducing weight.

Non Diet Dont’s

The anti diet approach will never include: 

  • Intentional weight loss 
  • Fasting for non-medical reasons
  • Eliminating foods for non medical reasons 
  • Exercise solely for cosmetic reasons
  • Weight loss as a prescription for chronic illness

Who Uses The Anti Diet Strategy 

Many doctors, therapists, dietitians, and other allied healthcare professionals have switched to an anti diet approach to healthcare. 

The weight neutral approach is critical for any eating disorder providers. Not having a  non-diet approach to eating disorder recovery can exacerbate the eating disorder, trigger relapses, and halt overall ed recovery progress. 

Can I Lose Weight With Non Diet

Yes. 

However, the goal with a anti diet approach is never to lose weight. As soon as weight loss comes in as a goal, you are no longer engaging in non diet healthcare. 

The body is good at knowing where its set point weight is. This is the weight that genetically, your body is most comfortable sustaining for long periods of time.  The goal of the non diet approach is to help support you in maintaining your set point weight without diet cultures interruptions. 

You might naturally lose weight with a non diet approach because: 

  • If you’ve been restricting your calories, increasing them can speed up the metabolism
  • You might learn new cooking skills which increases access to nutrient dense foods
  • You learn to trust your hunger and fullness cues which can reduce total food intake
  • You are not binging because you trust your body to know what it needs
  • Not engaging in weight loss does not cause weight loss rebound
  • You find exercise you actually enjoy and engage in it regularly
  • Stress hormones have decreased from not dieting which can impact weight
  • You’re eating enough and now have the energy to engage in physical activity
  •  You learn to combine foods to help you stay satisfied at meals and snacks

You will either gain weight, lose weight, or stay the same weight with the non diet approach. The point of this type of healthcare is to trust your body to know what size it needs to be while you improve your nutrition and lifestyle choices.  

infographic on the anti diet approach

Is the Anti Diet Approach Healthy

Yes. 

The anti diet approach has been shown to: 

  • Decrease stigma and shame at healthcare visits increasing frequency and improving health outcomes
  • Improve diagnoses and treatment measures as providers address the core issue rather than prescribing weight loss 
  • Improve blood pressure, blood sugars, cholesterol, renal function and other health metrics 
  • Help patients feel empowered in making healthy behavior changes rather than focusing on genetic precursors such as weight that they have very little control over. 
  • Measure health by important metrics such as lab values and vitals rather than outdated tools such as BMI.

We see drastic improvements in quality of care across all spheres of healthcare when a non diet approach is used rather than a weight centric approach. 

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7 Steps to Transition to Anti-Diet 

  1. If you are looking to transition to a non diet approach to health here are some tips:
  2. Trust in a HAES RD to help guide you 
  3. Stop counting calories
  4. Ditch the scale
  5. Stop body checking
  6. Honor all types of hunger
  7. Practice food neutrality
Shena Jaramillo. Registered Dietitian
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