Navigating Food Shame—and the Antidote to Diet Culture | Goop

“Keep in mind that while diets may seem to be scientific or may be called something else, if the eventual goal is weight loss, it’s a diet.”

The diet industry is a $70 billion industry despite the fact that there is not a single program or plan that shows long-term results over five years. Dieting in the pursuit of weight loss fails for upwards of 95 percent of people. If a doctor prescribes dieting for weight loss, ask to see research that shows sustainable results for the majority of people who try it. While just about all diets work in the short run, we have zero evidence that any weight loss plan can be sustained. (We all know someone who kept the weight off, but they are the exception.) Keep in mind that while diets may seem to be scientific or may be called something else, if the eventual goal is weight loss, it’s a diet.

Yo-yo dieting, a pattern of losing weight and regaining it, leads to an increase in health problems such as cardiovascular disease. The more people diet, the heavier they tend to get over time—and while it’s important to end weight stigma and fat shaming, it’s also important to understand the physiology of weight and set point (your natural weight range). The body’s number one job is to keep you alive, and it can’t tell the difference between a diet for weight loss and famine. The more people diet, the more likely it is that their metabolism slows down and fat storage increases to protect against future periods of extreme hunger.