“But I’m not on a diet.” Or are you?

What are pseudo diets?

Pseudo-dieting describes "any process with eating that is unnecessarily restrictive.” It is a form of dieting without officially signing up for that diet plan. Pseudo-dieting perpetuates diet mentality and the rules revolving around food for the pursuit of weight loss. 

Examples of pseudo-dieting (adapted from ‘Intuitive Eating’ by Evelyn Trible & Elyse Resch):

• Cutting or counting carbohydrates regardless of your bodies needs

• Eating only “safe” foods

• Eating only “clean” foods

• Only eating at certain times of the day despite your hunger

• Dulling hunger pains with coffee

• Eating gluten free solely for weight loss

• Determining what you deserve to eat based on what you had earlier that day 

• Using exercise as a way to determine what and how much you can eat

These are just a few examples of the ways diet culture and dieting can creep into your life without being aware. Diet culture can be so sneaky in how they can disguise themselves with terms such as “health”, “lifestyle” and “wellness.” Many may be dieting under these conditions and not even realizing it!

So why is this an issue?

Dieting and pseudo dieting disconnects us from our bodies, ultimately enabling us to hear and respond to the messages and cues it is giving us. How many times have I said our bodies are amazing?! They always know exactly what we need, but years and years of dieting or pseudo dieting makes those messages duller and duller. 

Restrictive eating or pseudo dieting can leave us feeling like we’re the problem and we cannot be trusted. When you go on a diet or pseudo diet you may lose weight within the first few days, most likely water weight, but this will jazz you up believing there is hope with this diet or lifestyle. As you continue this restrictive eating pattern, your body begins to look for ways to fuel itself due to lack of fuel from food. Your brain realizes “OMG, we are in a famine and I NEED food.” These signals are sent and cravings for the forbidden foods begin, and we know the rest of the story...

You end up giving in to those cravings, with a side of guilt and shame for not being able to maintain the pseudo diet, all in all, contributing to binge eating and weight cycling. 

I have been in your shoes. I truly never was a “dieter.” I never fed into that and put myself on a pedestal for that, however, I loved me some pseudo diets. I fell into the juice cleanse craze. I allowed myself cheat meals on the weekend as long as I "ate well” during the week. I tried intermittent fasting, and honestly that didn’t work out well with how much I was running or working out. 

Each time I “failed” (**cough cough** dieting fails us), I just started another trend. It wasn’t until I took a hard look at how I was living and how I wanted to be as a dietitian that I realized I was feeding into diet culture with my pseudo diets. It is so easy to do, those sneaky bast**ds. Learning to step back and out of diet culture was hard. Almost all of my friends and family continue to partake in diets or pseudo diets. 

I hope that this blog leaves you with the courage to examine your own life and determine if you are living in this “I’m not dieting” world. Healing your relationship with food and your body means you must let go of the diet mentality and relearn how to properly nourish and fuel your body. 

Looking for rigid, hidden rules around food is helpful in identifying pseudo-dieting and allowing yourself to step away in order to connect with your hunger, fullness and satisfaction factor. Next time your favorite blogger goes live about their “Whole 30” experience, hit the unfollow button. Because “it’s a lifestyle” falls right into pseudo dieting. 

Here are a few Pseudo-Diet Buzzwords to take with you (adapted from ‘Just Eat It’ by Laura Thomas):

• IIFYM (if it fits your macros)

• Cheat Meal

• Meal Plan

• Cleanse

• 80/20 Rule

• Juice Cleanses

• Dairy-free (without allergy)

References:
Tribole, E., Resch, E. 2012. Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works. 1st Edition. St. Martins Press.

Thomas, Laura. 2019. Just Eat It. Bluebird.