Long Term Dieting Cycles

For some people, dieting has been part of life for so long that it can be difficult to remember what eating felt like before rules, plans and weight loss goals became involved.

You may have tried many different diets over the years. Some may have worked for a while. You may have lost weight, felt encouraged and believed that this time things would be different.

Then, gradually, the plan became harder to maintain.

Weight may have returned, eating may have felt less controlled, and another diet may have followed.

Over time, this can become a cycle that is physically and emotionally exhausting.

The familiar pattern

You may recognise something like this:

• Deciding that things need to change

• Starting a new diet or eating plan

• Feeling focused and motivated

• Losing weight or feeling more in control

• Becoming increasingly hungry or preoccupied with eating

• Finding the rules harder to maintain

• Eating more than you intended

• Feeling disappointed, guilty or frustrated

• Deciding that you have failed

• Starting again with another plan

When this pattern repeats over many years, it can begin to feel as though the problem is you.

Very often, however, the difficulty lies in the cycle itself.

Why diets can become harder to sustain

The body is designed to respond when it is not getting enough energy.

As intake reduces, hunger often increases and thoughts about eating can become more persistent. Foods that have been restricted can begin to feel especially powerful.

You may find yourself thinking about eating much more than you did before the diet started.

This is not a sign that you lack discipline.

It is a normal response to restriction.

The stricter the rules become, the more difficult it can be to maintain them indefinitely.

The all or nothing effect

Long term dieting often creates an all or nothing way of thinking.

You may feel that you are either completely on track or completely off it.

One meal, one evening out or one food you had not planned can suddenly feel as though the whole day has been ruined.

This can lead to thoughts such as “I might as well carry on now” or “I’ll start again on Monday”.

The problem is that one ordinary eating decision becomes loaded with much more meaning than it deserves.

Therapy can help to soften this kind of thinking and make room for a more flexible relationship with eating.

Losing trust in your own appetite

After years of dieting, it can become difficult to know what hunger and fullness actually feel like.

You may have spent so long following external rules that your own body signals have become harder to hear.

You may eat because the plan says you can, stop because the portion is finished, or ignore hunger because it is not yet the right time.

Equally, after periods of restriction, eating may sometimes feel difficult to regulate because hunger has become so strong.

Part of the work can be rebuilding confidence in your own body and learning that eating does not always have to be controlled from the outside.

The emotional impact of repeated dieting

Repeated dieting can affect much more than weight.

It can change the way you feel about yourself.

Each attempt may begin with hope and optimism, but if the diet becomes unsustainable, this can be followed by disappointment and self criticism.

You may start to believe that you are weak, undisciplined or incapable of managing eating properly.

That can be painful, particularly when you have put a great deal of effort into trying to make things work.

In therapy, we can look at the story you have come to tell yourself about these experiences and consider whether you have been blaming yourself for something that is much more complicated.

When life gets postponed

Long term dieting can also create a sense that life will begin properly once your body has changed.

You may put off buying clothes, going swimming, being photographed, dating, attending events or doing things you would otherwise enjoy.

There can be a feeling that you need to become a different size before you are allowed to feel confident or comfortable.

Over time, this can make weight loss feel connected not only with appearance, but with permission to live more fully.

Therapy can help you begin to question whether your life needs to remain on hold.

How I work with long term dieting cycles

My approach is integrative, which means we can look at both the practical patterns around eating and the emotional meaning that dieting has come to hold for you.

Depending on what feels relevant, our work might include:

• Understanding your dieting history

• Identifying the patterns that tend to repeat

• Exploring all or nothing thinking

• Looking at guilt and self criticism around eating

• Understanding the effects of restriction

• Reconnecting with hunger and fullness

• Exploring fears around weight gain

• Looking at the link between weight and self worth

• Understanding what dieting may have represented emotionally

• Developing greater flexibility around eating

• Building trust in your own body

• Reducing the sense that every eating decision has to be judged

I draw on person centred therapy, CBT and CBT E informed approaches, transactional analysis, psychodynamic thinking and psychoeducation, while adapting the work to the person in front of me.

I also hold a Master Practitioner qualification in Eating Disorders and Obesity and have specialist training and experience in working with eating difficulties, weight and body image.

You do not have to start again on Monday

If you have spent years moving from one diet to another, it can be difficult to imagine a different way of relating to eating.

The idea of letting go of dieting can even feel frightening, especially if dieting has provided structure, hope or a sense of control.

The aim is not to remove all awareness of nutrition or health.

It is to begin moving away from a cycle that leaves you repeatedly feeling that you have failed.

Eating can become more flexible, more settled and less emotionally charged.

Online counselling for long term dieting

I offer online counselling for adults across the UK.

Therapy can provide a space to understand how dieting has shaped your relationship with eating and your body, and to begin exploring a way forward that feels less exhausting and less dominated by starting again.

If you would like to talk about whether counselling might be helpful, you are welcome to get in touch.