Weight loss, fad diets and the joys of eating Sarah Fisher Dobbin: how music therapy

WEIGHT LOSS, FAD DIETS

and the JOYS OF EATING

WORDS DR MICHELLE REISS

LIFESTYLE MEDICINE PHYSICIAN – LIFE MEDICAL CENTRE

When you think of weight loss programs, most people think ‘diet’: what to eat, what not to eat, and the nagging notion of missing out on the simple food pleasures in life.

We’ve seen fad diets come and go – and even more so since social media began to rule our lives: keto, paleo, 5:2, the fruit diet, the no-fruit diet, low or no-carbs, diets according to our blood type, our hormones, and even diets according to our star sign! The list is probably longer than the length of time most people stick to a diet.

Fad diets are driven by external motivation, meaning that you are bombarded with micro-goals: to reach a certain weight, to eat only a certain calorie number, to lower the numbers on your bathroom scales, or to drop dress or shirt sizes.

We are typically motivated for a few weeks, then we stray a little and feel we’ve failed. We comfort ourselves with another biscuit, another slice of bread. We self-sabotage. And there begins the yo-yo cycle that is ‘dieting’.

It’s no wonder we ask ourselves what really works?

We’ll let you into a secret. And it’s not one that’s designed to make someone else money!

Successful weight loss and the improved lifestyle that comes with it is not so much about willpower but about understanding how our brains work chemically via the feel-good neurotransmitters of dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin.

We can all shift some simple habits to ignite those feel-good neurotransmitters and begin to view our food choices as habits that add value to our lives.

Wouldn’t it be wonderfully empowering if a weight loss program was based on benefitting our gut microbiome, made us feel energetic, have more energy, feel more confident, live better, reduce chronic disease, come off medications – the list goes on. If we made food choices based on these benefits, then instead of the dieting yo-yo we’d be reinforcing what makes us feel good to live our best lives.

When we recognise what motivates us internally, we increase our feelings of contentment, reducing our need to seek instantly gratifying comfort food and treats. A fad diet is no more than a program to limit these gratifiers for as long as we can stick to that diet. No wonder they so often fail, and no wonder they make us feel deprived of the joys of eating.

So, go on, recognise your internal motivations and feed those feel-good neurotransmitters. Make food choices that benefit your gut-microbiome, that make you feel energetic and result in a sense of pride and control over your body.

Food, and the eating of food, is at the core of living a good life, and so it should be.

lifemedicalcentre.com.au

In the next issue of COAST: Food to feed your microbiome and those feel-good neurotransmitters.