The 13th (and Most Dangerous) Myth of Modern Day Dieting: Weights Should Be "Ideal"

If I had to pick the single most toxic, backward, and yet desperately believed societal myth about weight there's no doubt it would be this 13th myth of modern day dieting - that weights should be "ideal", that people of similar heights are supposed to weigh similar amounts, and that numbers make useful goals.

They don't. But if you believe that they do, well that's likely to lead you to all sorts of stupid when it comes to trying to lose as it's a belief that has fuelled the past 60 or 70 years of traumatic and extreme diets.

Let me say it quite plainly (and forgive me for my language) - as a means to set personal goals BMI is bullshit. Sure it may be useful when considering a population and risks associated with weight overall, but it's simply not useful to you as an individual as there are all sorts of weight-affecting realities that you simply won't be able (or willing sometimes) to change.

Like every other area of your life, your goal with weight management or healthy living is to do your best, and whatever weight you reach living the healthiest life you honestly and actually enjoy - well that's your "best weight". And I'm here to tell you, whatever that weight is, it's frickin' great.

The 12th Myth of Modern Day Dieting: The Last 10lbs Are the Hardest!

If you want those last 10lbs to stay off, well then they'd better not be any "harder" to lose. "Harder" usually implies extremes of effort - lots of white-knuckles to pass by the yummy stuff, more gym sweat than is enjoyable, or incredibly monotonous eating and denying yourself the ability to enjoy food for comfort or celebration. Well guess what? You're not likely to live with those extremes for good and as a result (and you know this is true) it's not a matter of if, but rather of when those last 10lbs are going to return.

Your real last 10lbs, while I don't know which 10lbs they're going to be, and while they will certainly be the slowest 10lbs, shouldn't be any "harder" than your first 10, and if they are, you're doing something wrong.

The 11th Myth of Modern Day Dieting: There Are Bottles Full of Weight Loss

There are no shortage of products promising remarkable weight loss benefits. You can buy them from actual pharmacies and sometimes they're even promoted on television by actual doctors (or at least by one actual doctor). Yet the only thing remarkable about those bottles is that they're legally allowed to be sold.

If there were such a thing as bottles full of weight loss, the world would be very slim indeed.

The 10th Myth of Modern Day Dieting: You Should Save Your Calories For Dinner

If you know you've got a big dinner planned, while it might intuitively make sense to try to skimp on your daytime eating, if you show up to your indulgent meal hungry, you're likely to eat back your savings and then some.

Given the average restaurant appetizer packs between 400-600 calories, and that bread baskets beckon before appetizers even arrive, and that decadent mains and desserts festoon all menus, if you show up to a restaurant hungry because you skimped all day long and between the bread, an appetizer, a more indulgent hunger-influenced main that you're more likely to finish,  and whatever daytime calorie savings you racked up will likely begone even before your main course arrives. On the other hand, show up not particularly hungry and suddenly the bread's less tempting, there'll be no need for an appetizer, your main is likely to be less indulgent (and perhaps not finished), and dessert'll be easier to share.

Bottom line for most meals out - if you save your calories for dinner, your overall daily total may well wind up higher than if you don't.

The 9th Myth of Modern Day Dieting: Muscle Gains Outweigh Fat Losses

Have you ever told yourself that the reason you're not losing weight is because you're gaining muscle?

Oh how I wish muscle were that easy to gain!

The 8th Myth of Modern Day Dieting: There's One Best Diet

A few weeks ago I shot some short videos in my office covering the 13 myths of modern day dieting that I wrote about in The Diet Fix. Believing in these myths can break anyone's weight management efforts. Over the coming days I'll be publishing them online.

Different strokes for different folks is definitely true diet wise, and it's dead simple to know if you're on the best diet for you. Just ask yourself the question, "Could I happily live like this forever?", and if the answer's "no", you're on the wrong diet. The corollary's true too - if the answer's "yes", and if you're happy with your health, don't let any diet guru or zealot try to tell you different.

The 7th Myth of Modern Day Dieting: Some Foods Must Be Forbidden

Source

A few weeks ago I shot some short videos in my office covering the 13 myths of modern day dieting that I wrote about in The Diet Fix. Believing in these myths can break anyone's weight management efforts. Over the coming days I'll be publishing them online.

I'd bet I've written more actual prescriptions for chocolate than any other physician in North America. While of course there's no all-you-can eat chocolate weight loss program, there's also little doubt that if chocolate is one of the loves of your life, the likelihood of you living forever-more without it is slim to none. It's about the smallest amount of chocolate you need to like your life, and for most chocolate lovers, zero isn't a sustainable amount.

The 6th Myth of Modern Day Dieting: Cheat Days Are Wise

A few weeks ago I shot some short videos in my office covering the 13 myths of modern day dieting that I wrote about in The Diet Fix. Believing in these myths can break anyone's weight management efforts. Over the coming days I'll be publishing them online.

That up above?

That's a photo of The Keg's carrot cake à la mode. I once referred to it at the world's most dangerous piece of cake because who in their right mind would ever guess it contained more than a day's worth of calories?

While I'm all for thoughtful indulgences (and even that piece of carrot cake if you've thoughtfully decided it's worth it), in our current non-intuitive, hyper-calorific food environment, cheat days, even cheat meals, can easily sink your weight management efforts. The answer to the question, "is it worth it?", is a personal one, but if you don't even ask the question because the day or the meal's a "cheat", you're liable to bite off far more than you'd have thoughtfully decided was actually worth chewing.

The 5th Myth of Modern Day Dieting: You Can Outrun Your Fork

A few weeks ago I shot some short videos in my office covering the 13 myths of modern day dieting that I wrote about in The Diet Fix. Believing in these myths can break anyone's weight management efforts. Over the coming days I'll be publishing them online.

80% of your modifiable weight is likely determined by your dietary choices leaving only 20% for your fitness choices. While exercise has truly fantastic health benefits and markedly mitigates the risks of weight, you're far more likely to lose weight in your kitchen than you are in your gym, and if you're exercising solely for the purpose of weight management, you run the risk of quitting perhaps the single healthiest behaviour you could adopt if and when the scales don't fly down. Unless you plan on spending a heroic part of each and every day running, you're not going to outrun your fork.

The 4th Myth of Modern Day Dieting: You Shouldn't Eat Unless You're Hungry

A few weeks ago I shot some short videos in my office covering the 13 myths of modern day dieting that I wrote about in The Diet Fix. Believing in these myths can break anyone's weight management efforts. Over the coming days I'll be publishing them online.

For those who struggle with dietary control I can't imagine a more dangerous piece of advice than, "you should wait until you're hungry to eat". Hunger influences choice. Shop at the supermarket hungry and you'll see that influence in action. Sit down to a meal hungry and while you're not shopping from an aisle, instead you'll be shopping from your fridge, cupboard, plate or a menu and no doubt, your choices will be different. On the other hand, organize your eating so that you're not hungry, and then you've got a shot, as "willpower", when it comes to dietary choice, is often simply the absence of hunger.

The 3rd Myth of Modern Day Dieting: Dieting Must Be Difficult

A few weeks ago I shot some short videos in my office covering the 13 myths of modern day dieting that I wrote about in The Diet Fix. Believing in these myths can break anyone's weight management efforts. Over the coming days I'll be publishing them online.

Simply put, weight lost through suffering comes back. While there's no doubt that weight management and healthful living require effort, if the efforts required include regularly facing off with hunger, blindly denying yourself foods you enjoy, or following a dietary regime that doesn't fit your tastes, they're not going to last.

Whatever program or diet you undertake, the most important predictor of your likelihood of long-term success is being able to answer, "yes" to the question, "could you happily live this way for the rest of your life", with the key word there being, "happily".

The 2nd Myth of Modern Day Dieting: Scales Measure Health

A few weeks ago I shot some short videos in my office covering the 13 myths of modern day dieting that I wrote about in The Diet Fix. Believing in these myths can break anyone's weight management efforts. Over the coming days I'll be publishing them online.

Scales don't measure the presence or absence of health. Nor do they measure happiness, self-worth, or success. Scales measure one thing, and one thing only. Scales measure weight.

The 1st Myth of Modern Day Dieting: It's About Willpower

A few weeks ago I shot some short videos in my office covering the 13 myths of modern day dieting that I wrote about in The Diet Fix. Believing in these myths can break anyone's weight management efforts. Over the coming days I'll be publishing them online.

The first myth of modern day dieting is that willpower is required. Yet people often spend more willpower on weight management than any other area of their lives. Has there really been an epidemic global loss of willpower over the course of the past 60 years? I don't think so. We as a society haven't changed, the world around us has. In this day and age, and in this toxic food environment, weight struggles aren't a willpower issue, they're as Yale's Dr. David Katz would put it, a skillpower issue.

My Amazon Q&A Regarding The Diet Fix

It's hard to believe but in less than 3 weeks The Diet Fix will be on shelves, and just yesterday a Q&A I did with Amazon about it went live and happily Amazon has no issue with me sharing it here.

Q&A with Yoni Freedhoff M.D. on The Diet Fix: Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work

What misconception about dieting do you think causes the most damage?

The most damaging misconception about dieting is that our weights should all be “ideal” and that scales not only measure pounds, but also possess the ability to measure the presence or absence of health. It’s those messages that lead dieters to undertake wholly nonsensical approaches to weight management, and they also serve to help fuel society’s hateful weight biases.

What is Post Traumatic Dieting Disorder?

Post-traumatic dieting disorder or PTDD is the frequent consequence of years of recurrent traumatic dieting efforts. It’s a shared constellation of symptoms that often extends far beyond a dieter’s relationship with food and may include feelings of ineffectiveness, shame, hopelessness, loss of healthy body image, feeling permanently damaged, social withdrawal, and, at times, can even impact upon interpersonal relationships. Another very common symptom of PTDD is the belief that traumatic diets are required for weight management success; oftentimes folks with PTDD spend huge portions of their lives yo-yo’ing from one traumatic diet to the next. This leads to a vicious cycle of suffering, binge dieting, and feelings of inadequacy that sets people up for failure.

What is the most important factor in sustaining your weight?

The most important factor in sustaining your weight is not just tolerating, but actually liking your life and being both consistent, and, believe it or not, imperfect. Truly, your job in regard to both weight and health is to live the healthiest life that you can enjoy - in other words, to do your best. That said, it’s important to note that the best you can do over say, Christmas or a vacation, is very different than the best you can do during a plain, old, boring week, but that also doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still be thinking about things. Given our modern day Willy Wonkian food environment, not paying attention, for many, leads to easy gains, and given it’s so much easier to gain than it is to lose, remaining thoughtful, but not blindly strict, and doing so consistently, is crucial. Putting this another way - the healthiest life you can enjoy still needs to include chocolate, but that amount of chocolate needs to be the smallest amount that you need in order to be happy, and that amount changes day by day.

Why is the label of obesity misleading?

Unfortunately the label “obesity” carries with it a huge amount of societal stigma, stereotype and frankly ugly judgment whereby people who are described as “being” obese are regularly perceived and portrayed as lazy and gluttonous. Yet the presence or absence of weight really doesn’t define anyone. There are healthy people with weight to lose, and unhealthy skinny ones, and I certainly know plenty of beanpole gluttons. While there’s no doubt that medical risk rises with weight, risks are certainly not guarantees, and more importantly, weight does not and cannot be used to judge a person’s lifestyle. So if you’re ever writing about obesity, remember that a person cannot “be” labeled as obese, they can only have obesity, and that given the negative stereotypes and implications surrounding the word obesity, that distinction matters.

What is the biggest misconception you wish people could shake off about dieting?

The biggest misconception that I wish people could shake off about dieting is that suffering and sacrifice are dieting’s true determinants of success. Unfortunately, as a species, we just aren’t built to suffer in perpetuity. Consequently, weight that’s lost through suffering, through some combination of under-eating and/or over-exercising, is bound to come back.

What’s the best diet?

There really is no one “best” diet - if there were, there wouldn’t be tens of thousands of different diet books available, and weight struggles would be rare to non-existent. Ultimately a person’s “best” diet is the healthiest diet that they can enjoy, as diets that are merely tolerable, given food’s star billing as one of life’s most seminal pleasures, simply don’t last. Real life does, and frankly must, still include chocolate.

(and if you're interested, it's of course available for preorder - just click here!)

Hey Look, Here's My Book (Cover Reveal and Some Advance Praise)

Just over five months from now The Diet Fix will finally hit the shelves.

It's the book I've wanted to write since 2006, but for some reason, back then, I just couldn't seem to muster up the sitzfleisch (a Yiddish word that loosely translates as ass power) to do it. It was actually frustrating to me as clearly writing is something I'm fond of - why couldn't I seem to get it out? I remember asking an author friend of mine how I might kick myself into gear and he said something to the effect of, "you'll write it when it's ready to come out".

5 years later I asked my wife if it'd be alright with her if I rented a cabin in the woods for a weekend to write - the book was ready to come out.

That weekend I wrote 30,000 words, and since then an additional 65,000, all of which have been polished and tweaked to the point where I couldn't be happier with it.

A very early edition went out to some folks for their thoughts, and here are some of their sneak peeks:

“Few people know as much about weight loss as Dr. Yoni Freedhoff. It is no surprise that he has produced a book that is the perfect combination of evidence-based facts and good, solid, usable advice. There is so much misinformation in the media about dieting. And so many trendy and near useless diets. Yoni’s book is exactly what we need: a science-informed – and fun to read – road map to long-term weight loss success.”

- Tim Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, University of Alberta, and author of The Cure for Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness.

"The Diet Fix is a no-nonsense approach to realistic weight management by a recognized expert in the field. Based on simple but time-proven principles including self-monitoring, goal setting, persistence and perseverance, this step-by-step guide to long-term weight management provides the evidence, debunks common myths and is chock full of practical tips - the ultimate diet book for anyone wanting to stop dieting and start living."

- Arya M. Sharma, MD/PhD, FRCPC Professor of Medicine, Scientific Director, Canadian Obesity Network

"Here finally is a book capturing the nuts and bolts of the dieting culture that has gripped North America. With Dr. Freedhoff's clear presentation of fact supported by years of first hand experience, a crystal clear picture of what works, what doesn't and what is myth emerges. The Diet Fix is a service to all."

- Tosca Reno, New York Times best-selling author of Your Best Body Now and the Eat-Clean Diet series

"Millions of people are suffering through restriction, denial, sacrifice, hunger and a frustrating yo-yo cycle of weight loss and regain, yet they still struggle to manage their weight. This serial dieting breeds guilt, shame, depression, despair and binge eating. If you’re one of these “traumatic dieters,” Dr. Yoni Freedhoff’s book, the Diet Fix, will not only provide a much needed sigh of relief, it will be a Godsend. It might even save your life."

- Tom Venuto, International best selling author Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, and fitness industry icon.

Thanks to everyone who has helped The Diet Fix get to this point including but not limited to my patients, my family, my co-workers, Yfat Reiss Gendell and Foundry Literary and Media, and Leah Miller and Random Houses' Crown Publishing Group. Can't wait for the launch.

[Were anyone so inclined, you can guarantee Amazon's best price by pre-ordering here.]