Ep. 22 The Hidden Costs of Dieting and Weight Cycling: Mental and Emotional Impacts

[00:00:00] Do you ever struggle with low self-esteem or low confidence and it's just what keeps you from really going after your goals or just feeling good about yourself? Or are you a person whose days are filled with anxiety, you just can't seem to shake, you wake up in the morning and you just have that uneasy feeling in your stomach and it doesn't seem like you can ever get it to go away?

[00:00:26] Or your brain just seems to be filled with constant noise and you just wish there's a switch to turn it off or that you could get more mental space back or mental energy back?

[00:00:40] What if I told you that all of these things, low self-esteem, low confidence, anxiety, lack of mental space are all symptoms related to dieting and weight cycling?

[00:00:53] Are you surprised? I definitely was when I found that out. And so today we're digging into some of these hidden costs, the mental, emotional and psychological side effects that come from the pursuit of weight loss.

[00:01:11] Welcome to the Nourished to Bloom podcast where your faith meets your health.

[00:01:15] I'm your host, Kara Trocta, a registered dietitian and certified Catholic coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your body, your spirit and the nourishment that sustains them both.

[00:01:27] In a world filled with noise and confusion about food, health and body image, this podcast offers truth and healing from a Christ-centered perspective.

[00:01:36] Together, we'll untangle the deep roots of diet culture and discover what it means to truly care for ourselves through joyful nourishment of mind, body and soul.

[00:01:47] We're here to dive into the transformative power of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian faith.

[00:01:53] With every episode, I'll be cheering you on, offering insights, inspiration and practical tools to help you heal your relationship with food and embrace the beauty of your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

[00:02:06] With confidence and courage that can only be found in Christ.

[00:02:11] Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness, one that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation, the teachings of our faith and the unique purpose you're called to fulfill.

[00:02:23] You were made to bloom, to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit for the Lord with your life.

[00:02:31] So if you're ready to nourish your body, feed your soul and bloom into the best version of yourself, then you're in the right place.

[00:02:38] And I'm so happy you're here.

[00:02:41] Welcome to Nourish to Bloom, where every day is a sacred invitation to thrive.

[00:02:50] Hey there, welcome back to another episode of the Nourish to Bloom podcast.

[00:02:55] So happy to have you here with me.

[00:02:57] And today we're going to be continuing our conversation from last week about the diet, the damage that dieting and weight cycling can be causing in our lives.

[00:03:08] Last week, we really focused on the physical side effects of dieting.

[00:03:12] But today we're really going to focus on the mental, emotional and psychological toll that it can take in our lives.

[00:03:20] And one of the most significant psychological impacts of dieting and weight cycling is the damage to our self-esteem and our body image.

[00:03:30] When we are constantly striving to meet those unrealistic beauty standards, we can end up feeling like we're just never good enough.

[00:03:39] And this can lead to a negative self-image and a constant feeling of dissatisfaction with our bodies.

[00:03:46] A study published by East Dice and colleagues in 2000 that came out in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology found that individuals who engage in dieting are more likely to experience symptoms of depression and anxiety,

[00:04:03] often due to the pressure and the stress that's associated with trying to maintain this ideal body weight.

[00:04:11] Like, I don't know about you, but I can personally attest to experiencing this side effect.

[00:04:17] I remember trying so many diets in my 20s and early 30s, like each one just promising me that I'd finally be happy with my body.

[00:04:28] But yet every time I maybe lost weight, I felt this like overwhelming anxiety and this fear about gaining any of it back.

[00:04:38] And it became an obsession.

[00:04:41] Like, that's what ruled so much of my life.

[00:04:44] And instead of feeling better, I felt trapped in this cycle.

[00:04:48] And it really resulted in a lot of self-criticism and guilt.

[00:04:53] It was just like feeling like no matter what I did, I could never figure this out.

[00:04:59] I just wasn't ever going to be skinny enough and therefore never good enough.

[00:05:04] I've even shared in past podcast episodes how this really affected my wedding day and being pregnant with my children.

[00:05:14] About how this dissatisfaction with my body and this obsession and this just never feeling like my body was ever going to be good enough

[00:05:23] really impacted so many big personal milestones in my life.

[00:05:28] And I know that this story resonates with many women.

[00:05:32] And it's just what so many women continue to struggle with every day.

[00:05:37] And maybe it's you who's struggling or it's your mom or your sister or your best friend or even your daughter.

[00:05:44] That cycle of losing and gaining weight that's leading to this unhealthy relationship with food and your body.

[00:05:51] It becomes a source of constant anxiety.

[00:05:55] And we're often left fearing weight gain and feeling guilty when we don't adhere to these strict dietary rules.

[00:06:03] But yet we just feel like, well, this is just what I'm supposed to do.

[00:06:06] Or this is just the only way that I know how to make sure that I'm healthy.

[00:06:11] And that's just not true.

[00:06:14] But another major consequence is the impact on our emotional well-being.

[00:06:18] Because when diets inevitably fail, I mean, let's just be honest, most diets aren't sustainable.

[00:06:26] We often blame ourselves.

[00:06:28] And we think we just have this lack of willpower or lack of discipline to be able to stick to these dieting and food rules.

[00:06:37] And this self-blame leads to feelings of failure and shame.

[00:06:42] And this has an incredible amount of damage to our emotional health.

[00:06:49] Research by Newmark Stainer.

[00:06:53] I can't say the last name.

[00:06:55] It's S-T-S-Z-T-A-I-N-E-R.

[00:06:59] Newmark Stainer.

[00:07:02] We're going to go with that.

[00:07:03] And colleagues published their research in the American Journal of Public Health.

[00:07:09] And what this study really showed is that weight cycling is associated with increased feelings of shame and guilt.

[00:07:16] And this can actually lead to disordered eating behaviors, things like binge eating.

[00:07:23] And this really leads us into the topic of eating disorders.

[00:07:26] Did you know that 9% of Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime?

[00:07:31] And that eating disorders have the second highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness behind opiate addiction.

[00:07:40] Weight cycling and chronic dieting can significantly increase the risk of developing disordered eating patterns, such as binge eating disorder, bulimia, and even anorexia.

[00:07:52] And a review published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders highlighted the link between dieting and the onset of eating disorders, noting that the psychological stress that's associated with restrictive eating coming from dieting can trigger these conditions in vulnerable individuals.

[00:08:13] I spent a little bit of time networking with an eating disorder facility here in my area and just really getting to know the people who were working with, you know, people who were suffering from eating disorders and really beginning to understand kind of the different types of eating disorders that are out there and how to categorize them and how to classify them.

[00:08:39] And just seeing how they're actually taking a more intuitive eating and a more holistic approach to helping their clients overcome their eating disorders.

[00:08:50] But it was just a really eye-opening experience to understand how many people are actually suffering from eating disorders and may not even realize it or kind of fly under their radar because they don't fit kind of that typical depiction of people who are suffering from an eating disorder.

[00:09:10] But just knowing that there's not enough eating disorder treatment facilities, especially inpatient eating disorder facilities available.

[00:09:27] There's not enough beds available for the number of people who are in such critical illness when it comes to eating disorders for them to be able to get the help that they need, the ones that are requiring hospitalization.

[00:09:40] And the thing about that is when it gets to the point of hospitalization, these people have likely been battling eating disorders for a long period of time, but have either not been diagnosed properly or have kind of, like I said, flown under their radar because maybe they didn't look like a typical, what we would think an eating disorder patient would look like.

[00:10:04] But what we can start to realize is that there needs to be more of a proactive approach with how people really view their relationship with food and their bodies.

[00:10:16] And I think it's just really great how we have the movements associated with intuitive eating as well as health at every size to really hopefully be able to kind of course correct some of this and really be able to change the way that we are viewing food and viewing nutrition and viewing our bodies.

[00:10:36] And hopefully makes a huge impact when it comes to decreasing the number of eating disorders that are out there.

[00:10:46] And what we also know is that research has also shown that dieting can lead to a preoccupation with food, body weight and shape, which we can, which can consume just gosh, an enormous amount of that mental energy that we were talking about.

[00:11:04] This preoccupation with food and body weight and shape can detract from other important areas of life, like relationships, like work and personal growth.

[00:11:16] And a study in the journal of abnormal psychology found that individuals who dieted frequently reported higher levels of psychological distress and reported really having a low lower overall life satisfaction, which I think is, it's kind of a, it's a really kind of sad and disappointing thing to think about is that many of us are stuck in that struggle of.

[00:11:42] We have, we have, we have, we have, we have a lower outlook on life satisfaction because we just can't seem to solve this problem of our, of our body of our, or of our weight because we've just been misinformed and misled in our beliefs for, for so long.

[00:11:57] And, you know, I'm not here to condemn you or to make you feel bad for any diet you've ever been on, for any desire that you've had to lose weight, because I I've been there.

[00:12:08] I've been there in my life before, but my goal in producing podcast episodes like this one is to just really help you uncover some of these heading costs that are associated with dieting and weight cycling.

[00:12:22] Things that maybe you have experienced, you know, some of these mental and emotional side effects, and you either just really didn't know that they were side effects of dieting and weight cycling, or maybe you were made to believe that losing weight would actually help you overcome some of these mental and emotional struggles that you may be experiencing.

[00:12:45] And so I just want to help you start to connect some of the dots to see things from a different perspective, to maybe question some of the things that you have been taught or that you believe about food and nutrition and your body and how this all fits into how we are living our lives and how we are taking care of ourselves.

[00:13:05] And hopefully really be able to help guide you in making informed decisions about your health habits and what you are doing to take care of yourself and really start to embrace a more individualized approach and embrace a more faith-led wellness approach to really, again, align all aspects of our life to be Christ-centered.

[00:13:31] And, yeah, this is exactly why I learned.

[00:14:06] I learned.

[00:14:30] I learned.

[00:14:32] I learned.

[00:14:36] I learned.

[00:14:39] I learned.

[00:14:41] any of the side effects of the damage that dieting and weight cycling can cause.

[00:14:48] And remember that you are more than a number on a scale.

[00:14:51] You are more than the size of your genes.

[00:14:54] Your worth is not determined by your weight.

[00:14:57] And so let's really focus on nourishing your mind, your body, and your soul in a way that

[00:15:03] will promote true well-being.

[00:15:06] And as always, thanks for joining me on this journey.

[00:15:10] If you found today's episode helpful, or if you are just loving the podcast, please,

[00:15:16] please, please share it with someone who might benefit from hearing this message.

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[00:15:25] Your support really, really means a lot to me.

[00:15:28] And I appreciate any of you who have already subscribed and who have left a review.

[00:15:32] I'd love to hear more feedback from you.

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[00:15:41] And until next time, I hope you have a beautiful and blessed week.

[00:15:46] Take care and go bloom.