Stop yo-yo dieting
Do you skip breakfast and have a salad for lunch, only to blow it all on a huge meal in the evening?

Imagine you've decided to lose a few pounds. You read up on the latest diet and stock your pantry and refrigerator with all the necessary foods. You're excited about losing the extra flab, and are already planning to splurge on some new clothes to show off your new look.

Fast forward to two and a half weeks later. You come home after a horrible day at work, and your diet dinner of chicken and greens just doesn't cut it. You decide to order a pizza with extra topping instead - you did have an awful day, remember - and wolf down six pieces. Then you realize that since you've "blown it", you might as well go the whole hog, and spend the rest of the week eating sweets at work, high-fat fast food for lunch and snacks at night. Obviously you'll never lose weight. You're weak and have no willpower. You're not only no thinner than when you started your diet - now you're depressed as well.

Sound familiar? This scenario, or something similar, is played out by millions of us every day. Constantly trying to lose weight can affect your mood, your self-esteem, and your energy level - and ironically enough, result in weight gain.

Why is dieting so dangerous? And how can you eat healthfully and still lose weight? The answers may surprise you.

False hope
Think about how excited you feel when you make a commitment, whether it's to lose weight or manage your time better. You believe you'll succeed and you're looking forward to the end result.

Researcher Janet Polivy, Ph.D., a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada, calls this the "false hope syndrome".

"The false hope syndrome is sort of the whole cycle that people go through when they begin a self-change effort. Dieting is just one type of self-change effort," says Polivy. "They have very high expectations." But these expectations don't last long.

"What happens is after some initial success, people start to run into difficulties. It gets harder to maintain, and change isn't as rapid. And, worse yet, the magical outcomes that people expected don't appear so their false hopes that were raised initially are dashed and they slip off the programme because it's not giving them what they thought they were going to get. Then they feel like failures and blame themselves."

Dieting can be destructive
This self-blame can be particularly destructive because when a woman feels that she should diet, her self-esteem may be low to begin with. Frequent dieters suffer other negative psychological consequences as a result of their weight-loss attempts as well. Studies show that women who "yo-yo" diet, are less satisfied with their lives and more obsessed with their bodies than women who do not. Dieters are also more obsessed with food, more anxious, and more depressed than non-dieters.

Researchers like Polivy who have studied frequent dieters often classify them as "restrained" eaters. Restrained eaters tend to limit the amount of food they eat, but under stressful situations, often binge or overeat while "normal" eaters do not change their food intake in response to stress. "Instead of just saying, 'I'll go back to normal eating', restrained eaters seem to lose all control."

Dieting frequently can affect your mood as well. Your brain requires serotonin, which is produced from carbohydrates, to function. Short yourself on carbs and you'll feel cranky, irritable, and spacey, says nutrition therapist Elyse Resch, co-author of Intuitive Eating: A Recovery Book for the Chronic Dieter. Taking in too few calories can also cause low blood sugar, which may make you feel jittery or lightheaded. And when you're continually hungry, you may be plagued with persistent, nearly obsessional thoughts of food and planning what and when you'll eat next - as well as constantly worrying that you'll "blow it".

Escaping dieting depression
The problem with diets is that they are only short-term solutions. Even if you need to lose weight to improve your health, a temporary diet won't solve the underlying reason for your weight gain.

Once you return to your usual eating habits, you're likely to regain it all.

"Ninety-eight percent of people who go on diets gain the weight back and often more," says Resch. "The system sets you up for failure because the system itself is flawed, yet the person really doesn't think about the fact that the dieting is the problem. He or she puts it back upon himself or herself and thinks that he or she is the failure."

If you want to lose weight, first forget the idea that there is some magic plan, potion or pill that will work overnight. Commit to fuelling your body and feeding it what it needs rather than trying to starve yourself or limit the amounts or types of foods you consume. "You have to start with the body physiologically. You have to feed the body when it's hungry because if it's fed when you're hungry, you're not going to build up these brain chemicals that cause you to overeat," says Resch. "And you're going to be in a better state to judge whether you want food because you're hungry or because you're emotionally hungry."

Many dieters think of foods as being either "good" (like chicken breast, fruits and vegetables, whole grains) or "bad" (such as chocolate, pizza, butter and candy). While it's true that some foods have more nutritional value than others, all foods can be part of a healthy diet. When you let go of food restrictions (like saying "I'm never going to eat chocolate again!") and eat exactly what you want in accordance with your hunger, you'll find that you feel more satisfied and stop obsessing over what you are - and aren't - eating.

Thinking of all foods as equal helps you ditch the diet mindset, and for good reason -if you always think of yourself as being "on" or "off" a diet, you'll probably struggle with food the rest of your life. "The perpetual dieter is always thinking about the future diet and is always prepared for the future deprivation, so once he's off the diet, he's storing up all the food that he's not going to get like a chipmunk," explains Resch. "By eliminating that restriction, this will help eliminate food cravings. Since you can always have it the next time you get hungry, people tend to naturally stop eating when they're comfortably full because they want to be able to enjoy the food the next time they want. So there's no urgency to stuff it in now because you're not going to get it later."

When you let go of the dieting mentality, you may find that you enjoy your workouts more as well. Don't look at exercise as simply a way to burn calories or because of how it affects your physical appearance - consider how it makes you stronger, more flexible, and able to cope better with the demands of your life. "Exercise is an important way to honour your body," says Resch. "The body is meant to flex its muscles and work out but that's only one part of it - it needs to be balanced." Rather than rushing through your workouts, be mindful of your body and how it moves. Or try a yoga class to help enhance the mind-body connection.

Finally, if you want to ignore the latest diet's siren song, focus on other things that make you happy and give you pleasure. Sure, it's great to be able to slip into a size eight dress. But achieving a slim, fit body won't make you happy if you ignore the other aspects of your life. Having other things that you value - meaningful relationships, a satisfying career, a sense of peace - will prevent you from obsessing over your physical appearance.

When you're truly comfortable in your own skin and like the person you are, you'll find that constant dieting loses its allure.
Courtesy Asia Features

Oops! You slipped. Now what?
You've committed yourself to "eating clean" to look and feel better, and it's working. You've cut out refined foods and have been focusing on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein, and were so proud of your progress.

But then that office party caught you off-guard. A slice of birthday cake led to an enormous brownie and now you're filled with guilt and recrimination. Oh, well, I might as well forget it, you think.

Stop! And get back on track:

Lighten up. A splurge won't ruin your progress. In fact, a healthy diet can include all foods in moderation.

Work it off - sort of. Do a few extra minutes of cardio tonight, or add a few reps to your usual weight routine. (That doesn't mean forcing yourself to spend an extra hour on the treadmill - you'll risk an injury.)

Think long-term. You might be tempted to skip dinner to make up for your indulgence, but that's likely to backfire. Just follow your usual eating routine.

Use the experience. Why'd you slip? Were you depressed? Over-hungry? Anxious about work? Figure out what made those sweets so tempting, and you'll be less likely to fall victim to junk the next time. It may simply be that you're not eating enough - make sure you're giving your body the fuel it needs.

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