6 “Healthy” Diets You Shouldn’t Try

Ten years ago the world of social media sent me on the most exhausting, disappointing journey I have ever gone on. Growing up I was a happy, adventurous kid with a big heart. I cared little about what other people thought of me and seldom did I have negative thoughts about myself or my body. With the rising popularity of Instagram and other social media outlets towards the end of my time in high school I became extremely self aware of my own imperfections. It didn’t take long before the need to change my body crept up on me little by little. Young, naive, 17-year old me had no clue I would spend the next ten years trying fad diets and food trends to become the skinniest version of myself I could be. 

Maybe you have found yourself in this place, as well, or maybe you are still there - that is okay! I am going to take you on a journey through the top six lies I believed from diet culture in hopes that you do not fall into the same traps I once did. The main take away I want you to receive while reading this is that diets do not work. As promising as the newest trend or fad diet seems, fueling your body with a variety of foods will always be the best thing for you - trust me!

1. Calorie Restriction 

I think I saw an instagram post from a fitness influencer I followed who ate 1,200 calories a day and I really liked the way she looked - so that means I should do the same thing, right? During this time I started by making minor adjustments that appeared to be seemingly healthy changes. Such as, cutting out all fast food and pop. Slowly, I started taking away all sugary foods and eventually tried eating as little as I possibly could throughout the day - just enough to keep me full. My desire to be skinny overshadowed the intense hunger I felt.

2. Fad Diet #1- Herbalife
Although calorie restriction seemed to be working, it was not giving me the results that I wanted and eventually I could not stand the hunger I felt. I remember seeing some of my friends begin Herbalife and it seemed like they were losing weight really fast. I decided I would try it, what did I have to lose? During my short time at Herbalife I was told a couple of things that still stick out to me to this day: 1. Replacing two meals a day with two shakes would give me all of the nutrients I needed in a day and 2. Stay away from “sugary foods” like fruit; they gave the example of a banana having the same amount of sugar as a Snicker’s bar (...add bananas to the list of fear foods now). 

During this short season I picked up a habit of doing cardio because I was told that walking at an incline would help me lose weight. It started with a couple of thirty minute sessions a week, which eventually led to about 45-60 minutes of cardio, five to six days a week. However, Herbalife did not last long for me because it was too expensive and I found something that I thought would be more effective. 

3. Cutting out Carbs

After my feeble attempt to stick to Herbalife, I was desperately in search of something, anything that would get me the results I desired. Thanks to Herbalife, I had a new found fear of carbs and high sugar foods, like fruit (yes, you heard me right, a fear of fruit). Around this time the Keto diet was gaining popularity; although, I did not want to fully partake in keto because I did not want to eat too much fat. Therefore, I stuck to a simple, but effective, restrictive low carb diet. Chicken and broccoli became my main sources of fuel. 

I also started lifting weights, since being skinny was not enough anymore, I needed to be more toned - at least that is what the internet was telling me. On top of my forty-five minute cardio sessions I added thirty minute weight lifting workouts. Evidently what I was doing was working because people began to point out the changes in my body by saying things like, “you look like you lost weight!”. Even though I had no energy to give, that only fueled me to push harder. 

4. Fad Diet #2 - Vegan Diet

Now, I want to start this off by saying there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a plant-based diet if this is something you are passionate about and feel you need to do. However, that was not the case for me. It all began because a friend of mine who was a personal trainer told me to consume a diet that consisted mostly of fruits and vegetables. Previously, I was told that fruits were something to stay away from, but now I am being told all I need is a diet consisting of vegetables and fruit. It was confusing, but it seemed to work for her. I remember thinking that this could not be enough food, but every plant-based eater I saw on social media appeared to have the skinny body I desired, so why not give it a try? Eventually, that led to me taking on a fully plant-based diet for the next couple of years and reaching the goal weight I always wanted (not at all a healthy weight, keep in mind).

Are you exhausted yet? 

5. Cleansing my System

At the height of 2018 a new trend began to take place: cleansing your body of toxins and boosting your metabolism. I read somewhere that if you drink lemon water in the morning and take a shot of apple cider vinegar it will kick start your metabolism and help you burn fat, so what do you think I did? I went out and bought a ton of lemons and apple cider vinegar and that became my new morning ritual. Did I enjoy it? No. But beauty is pain – or so I thought. 

At the same time, I vividly remember doing my first five day juice cleanse - I was so excited because I truly thought this was going to change my life. Pretty sure my exact thought was, “if I just drink juice for five days I can get rid of all of those toxins in my body that are making me feel bloated - how cool!” Following the second day of only consuming juices made of fruits and vegetables I found myself exhausted and starving. I shared my concerns with others who had done this before and I was told the hunger goes away after the third day. After what seemed like the longest five days of my life I could not take the hunger and intense cravings any longer, I ended up eating an entire pint of vegan ice cream that night. Disappointment began to set in because I felt as if I had undone all of the “cleansing” I did to my body - I failed myself, yet again.

6. Food Rules, More Restriction, and Fad Diet #3

Skip ahead a year or so. I am no longer vegan at this point because I was told I need more protein in my diet. I started working at a local gym and at this stage I was deeply wrapped up in the fitness industry. My life quite literally consisted of school, work, gym, and sleep. More than anything I wanted to become a personal trainer, but I was told by my boss at the time that I needed to follow a strict diet (which he made) to prove I can do what I would be asking my clients to do. The diet I was given consisted of eating the same foods seven days a week and one cheat meal on Saturday. Unlike many others I had tried before, this diet was all about the protein. Protein is important because it will keep me lean while also helping me build muscle, but not too much muscle because I don’t want to be too big - sound familiar? 

While partaking in his diet my boss encouraged me to take measurements of my body fat percentage, along with progress pictures (as if I hadn’t already been doing that for the last six years), so that I could see the changes in my body as the weeks went by. I followed what I was told to do religiously. Once again, people around me began to notice the changes my body was going through. Some of the questions I heard most were, “Wow you look great, what are you doing differently?” or “Are you losing weight?”.  Despite the fact that so many people around me had nothing but positive things to say about my body, my inner thoughts were still dominated by the same cruel, relentless voice I had always heard. 

If you have noticed the pattern, I am sure you know what is coming next.

After a year of strictly following the diet I was given, I could not take it any longer. I quit my job at the gym and ditched anything that resembled a diet. After years of getting sucked into diet culture, I was vigorously chewed up and spit out only to be left with a long list of fear foods, restrictive habits, and food rules I didn’t even realize I had. At this point I was two things: hungry and tired. I started eating any food I could think of that I had restricted for so long and found myself deep in a cycle of self-loathing and disappointment. 

Here’s the thing, when you get down to the root of fad diets and trends they all have a couple of things in common. First, they all promise they are the best and quick way to lose fat or get “healthy”. If there is a dieting method that promises quick results, listen to me now - RUN! Next, most diets involve subtracting entire food groups from your diet; many times, they are foods that are necessary for our nutrition. Yet, no one should have to cut out ALL sweets or ALL carbs or ALL fats in order to be healthy (this is not sustainable). 

So if diets don’t work, what does?

We need something that is gentle, kind, nourishing, and sustainable for our bodies. Our bodies are made for so much more than their appearance and they deserve to be honored for what they do through the fuel we give them. We can do this by ditching the diet and practicing something called intuitive eating, a philosophy that is the complete opposite of dieting. Psychologist Susan Albers, PsyD from the Cleveland Clinic says the definition of intuitive eating is, “instead of following rules and restricting what you eat, you trust your internal hunger, fullness and satiety cues to help you decide what and how much to eat. No food is off the table.” Later, Alber says, “...it is about making peace with food”. 

Diet culture has buried us under a pile of fear foods and diet rules, but under all of that we find our internal hunger cues that have been with us all along. Practicing intuitive eating takes time and can be difficult; however, it allows your body to do what it needs to do and helps you build a better relationship with food (ultimately leading to less stress and more happiness around food). Here are two simple steps to help you start practicing intuitive eating:

1. Challenge diet culture: Pay attention to your dieting habits and call out the ones that have developed from diet culture. For example, ask yourself, do you not like peanut butter because it is something you have never preferred? Or do you not like peanut butter because at some point you were told it was high in fat and that you should stay away from it? If that’s the case - eat the damn peanut butter! As you begin doing this, you will notice signs of diet culture all around you, but this time you will have the tools to point it out. 

2. Listen to your hunger: Our bodies have biological responses such as, blinking, peeing, and breathing - we don’t ignore those, so why would we ignore our hunger? The biggest lesson I learned from this is to take a quiet moment when I find myself hungry and ask myself what my body wants. For example, I was told a long time ago that red meat was bad for you, so I stayed away from it for years and years. Now, every once in a while I will crave a cheeseburger, or a steak, and if that is what my body wants that is what it is going to get. Next time you are hungry ask yourself these questions: “What is my hunger telling me I need/want?” and another question that helps me sometimes, “Am I craving sweet or salty?”. Listening to your hunger also involves paying attention to when your body tells you it is full. That sounds so simple, but this step is very freeing. 

Start with these simple steps and allow yourself to be free of diet culture and the lies that we have been told for so long. Honor the body you have been given and let it be. To wrap this up, I want to end with a poem by Rupi Kaur that has quite literally changed my life since I read it and I hope it changes yours, too:

“i want to apologize to all the women

i have called pretty.

before i’ve called them intelligent or brave.

i am sorry i made it sound as though

something as simple as what you’re born with

is the most you have to be proud of

when your spirit has crushed mountains

from now on i will say things like, you are resilient

or, you are extraordinary.

not because i don’t think you’re pretty.

but because you are so much more than that”

---

Written by Samantha McLeod

Hey, I'm Samantha! Currently I am a full-time dietetic intern based in Ohio. My mission is to break stereotypes and false information as it is related to health and wellness. My personal philosophy is to leave the world better than I found it and I plan to do that by becoming the best RDN I can possibly be!

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