7/7 weekend edition April 27 and 28

6. You May Gain Control

Dieting can fill you with guilt. On the flip side, quitting dieting often eases all the guilt and shame that comes with cheating on a restrictive plan. This can actually translate into a feeling of greater control when it comes to food. A 2019 study published in the journal Eating Behaviors found that feelings of guilt and shame around weight and food increased binge eating in college students.

“When people stop dieting, it can be a rollercoaster,” says Escobar. “In the beginning, many people don’t know what to do. And sometimes they’ll eat too many cookies just because their ‘allowed.’ But over time, this usually regulates and they feel much more in control around all kinds of food. Intuitive eaters often find themselves satisfied with less.”

Contrary to their fears, many people find they actually lose weight over time as they leave restrictive diets in the past, according to Salhoobi. “When people come to me for intuitive eating, they slowly connect the dots on their own and weight loss starts happening. When we take the stress out of eating, it makes choosing healthier foods easier,” says Salhoobi.

Some people, especially those who have a long history of restrictive eating, may find they gain a bit, according to Escobar. And others find that their weight remains pretty much the same, but other things change for the better. “Sometimes people don’t lose weight with an intuitive eating approach, but they do have more energy, better mental health, or their blood glucose is better controlled,” says Escobar. She believes that’s because when you give up restrictive diets you end up eating a wider variety of foods and nourish yourself better.

There’s a widespread conflation of weight and health in popular culture and even in some doctor’s offices. Salhoobi would like to see the myth that weight loss automatically equals health busted once and for all. “You can get healthier at every size. You can have perfect blood work in a large body and health problems in a smaller body,” she says.

There’s not as much evidence as you might think that weight loss will itself will automatically make you healthy. One study published in the journal Social and Personality Psychology Compass looked at whether diets improved cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose and found only “minimal improvements” in these health outcomes.

You can, however, improve your health without losing weight. Focusing on other health metrics instead can be less stressful and more productive than worrying about a scale over which you have little control. Whether your goals are reversing prediabetes, lowering blood pressure, cutting cholesterol, or something else, there are positive steps you can take that have nothing to do with your weight.

One major upside of being an ex-dieter is that you’re likely to start feeling better about yourself. A 2019 meta-analysis of 97 previous studies published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders found that intuitive eating was associated with better body image, higher self-esteem, and greater feelings of overall well-being.

 erased 3rd copy of the first post.

Jan, thanks for a good week, I will try to take over Monday. My DH is'nt doing very well, however, he is home for the time being, if anything happens, I will try to let you guys know.

I will always be concious of what I eat, though I am not as strict with it as I was when I was doing WW and attending meetings. Now, I am just trying to be as healthy as I possibly can be. I almost always clean my plate, so I am very conscious of what I put on my plate.

I am so computer challenged that I have finally figured out how to cut & paste. I'm still not to good with it. Sometimes, I actually surprise myself when I do something & it comes out the way I want it, then, I can never remember how I did it when I want to do it again. LOL