Weight Loss the "Non-Diet" Way

Make Peace with Food.
Ellen R. Glovsky, PhD,RD,LDN
The Nutrition and Diet Coach

Looking for the “Perfect Diet”
Many people believe they are overweight and “go on a diet” to correct that problem. Obviously, these people expect to lose weight! These expectations are generally unrealistic. The truth is that about 90-95% of people who diet either don’t lose weight, or lose some weight and gain it all back, often and then some. Would you take a medication or other treatment for your health if it had that kind of success rate?

Typically, people are able to follow a new diet for a short time, perhaps achieving some success at weight loss. They may even feel a real thrill when they are successful at controlling themselves! Most people gradually slide back into old food habits for very good reasons. After all, “we eat what we like and we like what we eat”.

Yet we continue to think that we should be able to restrain ourselves and not eat our favorite foods, our comfort foods. Why do we think we should be able to avoid or limit foods we love?

The “False Hope” Syndrome
So, hope springs eternal, and in this case, false hope. We think we should just try harder and be more disciplined. Or, we think the next new diet or supplement or medication will be “the one that works”. This idea gives the power to the diet itself to “work”. If we could just find the right combination of foods or nutrients or the times of the day we eat, we will finally be able to be in control.

The basis of this argument is false! When we restrict the number of calories we consume, the body revolts and fights back, leaving us hungry, irritable, and constantly thinking about food. Our bodies are designed to maintain the status quo, both in terms of body weight and the amount of food we eat. Ever notice that when you’re “on a diet” food becomes the central focus of your day? It’s not the diet that has to be the right one, it’s a change in philosophy about the idea of dieting that’s in order.

There is an alternative to dieting!

What if you tuned into your body’s signals and
 ate only when you were physically hungry,
 ate the foods you REALLY wanted to eat, and
 stopped when you were full?

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well, it’s possible! This is the way to MAKE PEACE WITH FOOD. But, remember, these ideas are simple, but not easy to implement. It takes skill and training to live this way with food, and it is very empowering. There is no need to allow food to control you.

The Process of Weight Gain and Weight Loss
Weight gain is the very simple process of eating more calories than we burn. There’s nothing more complicated about it than that.

A calorie is a measure of potential energy. Calories in food represent potential energy that our bodies can obtain from that food. When we consume food that provides more calories than we need to fulfill our energy needs for that time period, we store that extra energy as body fat. Fat on our bodies is a storage of energy, or calories.

Food is fuel for our bodies.
When you consume fewer calories than you need, you lose weight. All weight loss “diets” work using this very simple principle. They may include more or less of one nutrient or category of foods, but in the end they work by causing you to consume fewer calories.

Using Your Hunger and Fullness Signals to Manage Your Weight
Whether you want to lose weight or maintain the weight you’re at, you have the internal mechanism to tell you when to eat and when to stop. The truth is that this internal “regulator” is the most powerful tool to help you manage your weight.
All humans are born with a hunger and fullness mechanism, but some people are more sensitive to their body’s signals than others. I find that many people simply override their internal signals of both hunger and fullness.
“Dieting” is designed to undermine your hunger and fullness signals by regulating you from the outside. You are told what and when to eat, and to ignore your internal signals. Dieting assumes that your internal signals do not work; this is not true!

How Does Hunger and Fullness Rating Work?
I recommend using the Hunger and Fullness scale I’ve drawn below.
Notice that there are 10 gradations of hunger and fullness; it’s a continuum from “empty” to “sick”. For example, at “5” you are not hungry and not full, just in between. “Hunger” is anything less than 5, and “fullness” is anything more than 5.
You can experiment with this scale during your day by stopping and just noticing where you are on the scale and how that feels to you.

THE HUNGER AND FULLNESS SCALE

“I’m hungry!” Full
Ravenous Pangs Satisfied Stuffed

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Empty Neutral Sick

How would you rate your level of hunger/fullness right now?
Learning to eat when you are hungry and stop eating when you are full gives you the tools you need to manage your weight without dieting.

Using the Hunger/Fullness Rating Scale:
The Three Important Questions
Imagine you are thinking about food and eating. There are three important questions you must answer before you eat:
• #1: Am I hungry? (below “5” on the scale)
• #2: If the answer is “yes”, What do I really want to eat?
• #3: How much of this food do I really need?

Let’s Start with Question #1
Do you know when you are hungry? That may sound obvious, but many people tell me they really don’t know what hunger feels like or that they feel hungry only occasionally. I often hear, “If I waited to eat till I was hungry it never would happen” or “I’m just too busy to be hungry” or “I’m never hungry till 3 in the afternoon”. I think that learning to be more aware of your body’s signals would allow you to feel the hunger. For some people, it takes practice and patience to acknowledge feelings of true, physical hunger.

Food Tastes Better When You Are Hungry!
Have you noticed that food tastes better when you are hungry?
It’s not just your imagination! Recent research has proven that the sense of taste for salty and sweet is more acute when the individual is hungry. This is either because the taste buds on the tongue are more sensitive or because the brain perceives the same tastes more intensely.

So, feeling hungry is very good news. If you love food as I do, the best time to eat and really enjoy your food is when you’re hungry. Unfortunately for many people who have been dieting for much of their adult lives, feeling hungry can be an unpleasant, even frightening experience. It reminds them of feeling that there won’t be enough food or that they might feel out of control once they start eating.
Because dieting often leaves people chronically hungry, it’s not surprising that they worry about having enough, and it’s not surprising that they feel out of control once they start eating.

Now, when I say wait until you are hungry, I don’t mean waiting until you are overly hungry or less than “3” on the scale. If you are overly hungry, it’s hard to eat slowly enough so you can really tell when you are full. It’s also hard to make good choices about what to eat. Remember that when you are very hungry, your physical needs can easily overcome your judgment about what would be the best food for you. This is a normal response by the body to being over hungry, and not your fault.
Let me be very clear here; the “best” food is not that lowest in calories, carbohydrate or even fat. It is the food you really want to be eating and that will leave you feeling healthy and strong.

Honor Your Hunger
Remember, your hunger is your body’s signal to you that you need fuel. The key here is to learn to be comfortable with and honor your hunger, reminding yourself that you will have enough because you will feed yourself adequate and appropriate food. You can also remind yourself that you will eat the next time you are hungry, so there is no need to overeat now.

Treat your body in a loving and friendly way, and feed yourself when you are hungry!