Masterclass: Breaking Free from Chronic Dieting

You know the saying: If dieting worked, it would have worked by now.

But on dieting goes, people jumping from one strategy to the next, largely unexamined and unquestioned.

As "scientific" as dieting may present itself, it seems to be a nutritional strategy that's strongly driven by emotion, shadow, and collective stupor.

Skipping meals, eating an extraorindarily low caloric intake, and all sorts of other extreme eating strategies have become mainstream and not only seem "normal," but admirable too.

But the craziest part about chronic dieting is that it is ANTI-weight loss.

If you've been dieting or trying to manipulate your body weight for many years of your life, this should have your attention.

Chronic dieting gets in the WAY of weight regulation for physiological reasons:

One, it genererates a survival response and stress response.

There's also a serious lack of pleasure, which makes it difficult to maintain, as well as a disregard of natural biological rhythms through the day. Many often become deficient in essential fatty acids or protein, too.

Chronic dieting still seems to be its own kind of religion. It's followers adhere to a mixture of scientific, lifestyle, dietary, philosophic, and moral rules that impact them strongly.

Interestingly, many people that have been spending years, on-and-off, trying to change their body weight, do not describe themselves as chronic dieters. Instead, they simply feel they are trying to find the perfect style of eating to "help them get healthy." But at the end of the day, they are searching for new ways to restrict themselves.

Most women I talk to don't want to have to be so restrictive.

Deep down they want to be able to take care of their bodies the best they can, have room for pleasureable food, and maintain a healthy weight, without all the drama about it.

The culture won't really offer alternatives to trendy programs and bootcamps.