Are You a Diet Addict?

The holiday season is a good time to critically evaluate where you are on the dieting spectrum. Find out how to get off the starvation/binge roller coaster...

by Janet Lepke, RD, CSP, CDE, LDN
for DietWatch

On the seductive path of dieting, supermodel wannabes, tortured souls, bruised self-esteems, and a living ambivalence toward food and body image (among others) all point the fickle finger of fate toward food restraint. Innocently intended, most of these efforts turn into tributaries flowing toward the river of disordered eating or eating disorders. And why not? Swift currents of white-knuckled food denial, neglect of hunger, and reframed unhappiness ("It's because I am fat...") quickly add up to the starvation/binge roller coaster and a wild ride of ups and downs, assuaged only by another dieting or purging effort. The result? Diet addiction.

The Cost of a Diet: More Than a VISA Swipe

"I'll just do this diet for a couple of weeks to get a jump start..." "My girlfriend is doing it and she looks great..." "THIS time I will stick with the diet - I just need more willpower..."

Sound familiar? Attractive diets, unfortunately, undermine the surface effort to lose weight and "feel better,” because they reinforce original injuries, including unmet needs, guilt, anxiety, and depression, to name just a few. In addition, the financial and emotional costs compound as efforts rise to meet standards presented in the media (most are unrealistic), exercise compulsion fuels perfectionism, and slowly but surely, an eating disorder rears its ugly head.

Regardless of the diet, shtick, or piece of equipment, the urgency to deny yourself a specific food or work a specific part of your body to be "OK" is a set-up for a crash. The problem is not your willpower, your results compared to a friend's, or the timeline for a particular program; it is the attachment of your self-esteem to the outcome of the latest and greatest diet fad.

Myths of the Madness

1. Myth: "I can make my body look exactly the way I want it to look." Fact: You were born with a specific body type, just as you have a specific eye color. A diet is as unlikely to change your body type as it is to change your eye color. Temporary fluid or muscle/fat losses will bounce back to the set point at which your body is programmed (the weight and size genetically pre-determined).
2. Myth: "My lack of willpower has caused me to fail diets." Fact: Your body's basic needs for calories and moderate exercise have caused the failure. Deprivation of basic nutritional needs leads to cravings and bingeing because the body is biochemically imbalanced in a semi-starved or totally starved state, and it wants to be fed.
3. Myth: "If the diet worked for my girlfriend, it should work for me." Fact: You don't know your girlfriend's metabolism, nutritional needs, and most importantly, psychological underpinnings and motives for dieting in the first place, do you? If the diet works for her, there may be more cause for concern than competition.
4. Myth: "If I just cut out carbs/protein/fat (pick one), I will lose weight." Fact: You need all food groups in balance to maintain body functioning and normal exercise requirements.
5. Myth: “I can prevent my body from gaining more weight after age 30 (40, 50), etc..." Fact: Your body will normally gain weight throughout the lifecycle. During menopause, it is normal for women to gain anywhere from 10-20 pounds with hormonal changes and subsequent metabolic adjustments.
6. Myth: "Eating disorders only happen to crazy people." Fact: If you are dieting, you are on your way to an eating disorder or disordered eating behaviors.
7. Myth: "If I don't diet but just exercise a lot, I am not doing anything unusual." Fact: The diagnosis "Anorexia Athletica" is designed for this syndrome — excessive exercise in the pursuit of thinness. The absence of a diet does not necessarily change motives; you have basically changed seats on the Titanic.

Truth be told, diets may look glamorous on the outside, but may cost a lot on the inside. For some, the dieting addiction works without consequences (at least, not for now) and provides results for the annoying weight problem. For others, fad diets are another rung on the ladder of despair. If you are not sure which is true for you, get off the ladder, seek the help of a Registered Dietitian, and decide for yourself: Is the diet worth it?

Janet Lepke, RD, CSP, CDE, LDN, is a journalist, author, and president and owner of Nutrition Network, a nutrition company in Charlotte. Lepke specializes in counseling and communications in the areas of eating disorders, weight management, and the non-diet approach to nutrition therapy.