My Problem With “Anti-Diet” and Why I’m “Diet-Neutral”

In my last post, This is not about your diet, this is about a revolution, I wrote about why the pursuit of healthy relationships with your food, body, and self are more than a matter of “personal” development.

In order to achieve meaningful change, we need to acknowledge and shift existing cultural beliefs and standards for health, body size, and nutrition.

Now, I’m not ignorant or conceited enough to think I’m the first person to come up with the idea that rather than changing our own beliefs about food and our bodies, we can have a greater impact by turning these beliefs into a larger cultural movement. 

For example, there’s the body positivity movement, fat acceptance movement, anti-diet movement, weight-neutral approach, Health at Every Size approach, and Intuitive Eating approach, to name some of the more popular ones.

So why not just fly my flag for any one of these movements or approaches?

Because of one key issue: intentional weight loss.

I am not anti-diet. I am what I call “diet-neutral.”

Here’s why:

I think bringing awareness to and fighting discrimination is a wonderfully positive thing. Accepting your body, in its current state, regardless of its size, is incredibly important.

And the practice of intuitive eating is associated with lower levels of disordered eating and body image concerns, lower psychological distress, higher self-esteem, greater social support, and better quality of life.

However…

A strong message behind each of the anti-diet approaches is, regardless of your size, you should accept your body and you shouldn’t want or try to change it.

The problem I have with that is that they limit your freedom of choice by telling you what you should do with your body—just like diet culture, ironically.

I say: 

You and your body are worthy of love and acceptance regardless of your size AND there’s nothing wrong with not losing weight AND there’s nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight when doing so supports your overall health and well-being.

The point that’s missed by anti-diet practitioners is that both body image and weight manipulation can be adaptive or maladaptive. In short, your motivation for dieting dictates whether or not it will be helpful or detrimental.

Adaptive body investment does not rely on your appearance to determine your self-worth. Adaptive behaviors are values-based, flexible, add to important aspects of one’s life, and are focused on health, self-care, and personal expression.

Additionally, the science is clear that your body composition, which includes your body fat percentage, factors into your health (plus a broad range of additional personal, social, economic, and environmental factors); certain levels of body fat are strongly correlated with negative health effects.

However, I don’t think the immediate answer for every person carrying around extra weight is to start dieting.

Dieting is not an appropriate choice for everyone at all times. There are times when it can be ineffective or harmful to one’s mental state. 

For example, in some individuals, dieting can instigate disordered eating habits or exacerbate existing ones. (Read Pursuing Weight Loss is NOT Always Good for Your Health)

Additionally, I don’t believe that individuals who have an unhealthy relationship with food will be able to successfully lose weight and keep it off unless they address the root causes of their eating habits. Without tackling the underlying causes, it’s all too easy to slide into the roller coaster of weight cycling (gain-loss-gain-loss) which can wreak havoc on one’s sense of self-trust and self-efficacy.

Third, I believe that if an individual chooses to do so, changing your body should be a radical act of self-love, but unfortunately I see many, many people trying to lose weight because of low self-worth. After working with hundreds of nutrition clients, I have NEVER seen someone hate themself thin. Moreover, without changing your body image, weight loss doesn’t change your body dissatisfaction.

To summarize, if someone simply doesn’t want to lose weight, I don’t believe they should. I don’t believe they’re obligated to. 

Similarly, if someone does want to lose weight, I believe in many cases it would be helpful to address other issues first, like body image, self-image, past trauma, and stress coping mechanisms, or at the very least in conjunction with a weight loss plan. 

In any event, nobody can tell you what you should want or do with your body. 

This is exactly the same way I feel about changing your mindset.

I don’t believe that anyone is broken and needs to change. I also don’t feel that everyone is ready at all times to embark on a journey to change.

I do believe that if you recognize there is something that is keeping you from feeling your best and you would like to address it, game on, you should do so.

But transformation should be your choice, and happen when you’re ready. Not because someone made you feel bad or because you believe it’s what you’re supposed to do.

My philosophy on change, mental or physical, embodies freedom of choice, acceptance, and autonomy.

I can’t, and won’t, tell you what or how much food to eat.

I can’t, and won’t, tell you what to do with your body.

I can’t, and won’t, tell you what your best self looks like.

But I am happy to help guide you in making those choices for yourself.