Summer is round the corner - cue being totally bombarded with ways to change your body and drop a dress size before that beach holiday. And I get it - you want to look good and feel comfortable in your bikini. But putting yourself on a strict diet really isn't the way to do it... Here's why:
1. It doesn't work
Something doesn’t quite add up with our obsessive dieting culture because research concludes, time and time again, that dieting does not help you lose weight in the long term.
2. It can actually negatively affect weight loss
Yo-yo dieting and erratic eating patterns can have a negative effect on your metabolism, therefore slowing down weight loss in the long term.
3. It's downright miserable
Dieting is not fun. Food restriction and calorie counting is soul-destroying (and I should know – I’ve done it practically my whole life). Life's too short.
4. It stops you from listening to your body
By eating at specific times, or following a set diet, you’re no longer taking notice of your body’s hunger and appetite signals. This also applies to your body’s cues of fullness – deprivation will often override them after a period of dieting.
5. Hunger is horrible
Because you’re not eating enough, levels of the hormone ghrelin (the one that makes your stomach rumble) rise and fire up your appetite. This is a painful, painful thing to ignore and does no good for your state of mind… #moodswings
6. It negatively impacts your self-confidence
Because you’ve put so much time and effort into a diet, breaking it can send our self-confidence plummeting – you failed, right? You clearly have no willpower? No and no. You just set yourself unrealistic expectations and simply cannot sustain such a restricted food intake.
7. It's time-consuming
We spend way much time of our precious time weighing, portioning and obsessing over getting the figure on the scales down. Put that time and effort to good use.
8. Chances are you don't need to
I don’t need to tell you that we live in a society obsessed with being thin. The pressure is enormous to have a ‘bikini body’ or killers abs, but you do not need to lose weight to look good.
So many healthy and beautiful women buy into the belief that skinny equals beautiful but it just isn’t true. Attempt to change this mindset – you’re good enough.