The Non-diet Approach

Introduction:

The non-diet approach is the way of responding to the body's hunger and fulfillment calls.

Adopting a mindful approach and adequately responding to signals such as hunger, satisfaction, and overeating enables managing weight, and these benefits remain lifelong. Our bodies are intelligent and know their requirements. We have to listen to - what it is signaling to us. By practicing mindful eating, one can become a good listener to his body which benefits in better energy levels, increased confidence and comfort, and achieving natural weight.

What Is a Diet?

A diet is a type and quantity of food and drinks planned to meet specific requirements of the body. Dieting refers to eating in a regulated manner to maintain, increase or decrease body weight.

Weight Loss and Its Impact on Health:

Nowadays, weight is a marker of health status. Everybody has an installed thought about how fat is unhealthy and thin is healthy. Society considers overweight and obesity as health issues, and there is a belief that being thin is a healthy and happy approach.

But the objective of weight loss has some other health effects like:

• Weight Cycling - A repeated chain of weight loss and gain.

• Food and body mania.

• Impact on mental health.

• Decreased confidence and self-esteem.

• Disordered eating behavior.

So if dieting is not the call, what to do to improve health and well-being? The answer is - to adopt the non-diet approach.

What Is the Non-diet Approach?

It is the way of choosing what and when to eat with no guilt, body shaming, or restrictions. It antagonizes the concept of weight loss via dieting.

Why Did Non-diet Approach Come Into Existence?

This practice promotes a holistic approach that encircles physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It is a weight-neutral approach. One cannot diet all their life, and we should accept that dieting at some stage fails. It is not because the dieter did something wrong but because of external factors such as limiting calorie intake, excluding certain foods, intermittent eating, self-control, etc. One should understand that we are born with innate abilities for eating, movement, and other activities. Even a child cries when he or she feels hungry and stays calm when they are full. So internal cues are very active. But unfortunately, these days, we trust external influences such as - accessing what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, and other factors like stress and boredom. And by doing so, we think that we know our body well and can play with our body shape and appearance. The information from various sources like books, magazines, media, influencers, and dieticians has easily convinced us that diet is necessary for managing weight and a healthy lifestyle. Various standards have directed us towards daily calorie demands and body energy requirements.

But do you think we require the same energy every day?

Do we have the same sleeping, eating, stress, and activity pattern every day?

The answer is no.

Each day is different. We cannot predict how much energy we will need today.

So What Can Be Done?

We can listen to our body's hunger and fulfillment, and act accordingly. By doing so, we can at least meet our energy requirement. A non-diet approach does not mean we can eat anything. No, we have to pay attention to the body's needs, see if that food aids good health, and avoid unhealthy and junk food. As we approach more towards our internal hues, we understand our body more, and thus we nourish ourselves rightly. One such example is - consuming food high in carbohydrates and low in proteins and fats makes your energy level dull, and you are tired often. Thus practicing mindful eating is necessary. Observe what you eat, make necessary changes, and adopt good eating habits. Make a proper count of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and vitamin intake, balance your meals, and become healthy and energized.

What Are the Main Features of the Non-diet Approach?

The non-diet approach focuses on instilling health-related behaviors and adopting habits such as:

• Developing self-care.

• Responding to eating cues - Hunger or fullness and mindful eating.

• Non-judgemental approach to food (good and bad food), normalizing eating, debunking diets.

• Acknowledging different body sizes.

What is HAES?

HAES stands for the health of every size.

This approach addresses weight biases and stigma in individuals living with obesity and overall health outcome. HAES is weight neutral, public health approach promoting well-being through equality and self-care, aiming to prevent chronic diseases. It mainly focuses on health gain and not on weight control. The non-diet approach and HAES sit along and are a part of an anti-dieting movement.

What Are the Principles of HAES?

There are five principles of HAES. They are:

1. Health Enhancement - Support health policies that improve access and equality to healthcare treatment, information, and services.

2. Respectful Care Towards Everyone - By ending weight discrimination and inequality.

3. Eating for Well-Being - Eating habits should be based on hunger, fullness, nutrition needs, and less on weight loss plans.

4. Weight Inclusivity - Ending weight discrimination and accepting diverse body shapes and sizes.

5. Life Enhancement Movement - Physical activities that engage people of diverse shapes, sizes, and abilities

Weight Loss and Non-diet Approach:

The non-diet approach should not opt with the intention of weight loss. But weight loss may result from adopting a non-diet approach only if an individual keeps a check on unhealthy eating habits. Patients following the non-diet approach recognize varied food varieties and how it alters the feeling of well-being (taking a heavy-fat meal may result in heartburn and acidity).

Thus, the ultimate aim is to improve the quality of food we eat.

Would This Approach Be Workable?

Many of us make resolutions to go to the gym, do workouts, and weight loss or gain at the time of the new year. But how many of you keep up with it? Exercise programs such as gymming and diets are very appealing at first, but approaches like non-diet are gentle, healthy, and long-lasting. We have to do mindful or intuitive eating, which shifts the focus from weight loss to health gain.

How to Take a Non-diet Approach to Well-Being?

The non-diet approach is based on the HAES principle, which focuses on improving health and well-being. The non-diet approach supports the idea that everybody is different irrespective of size, shape, and appearance, which ultimately helps you accept and nourish your body.

Thus, it is an effective way of leading to improvement in overall health.

Let us see how the non-diet approach helps:

1. Diet Improvement: People adopting a non-diet approach learn that food does not hold a moral value and that there is no such thing as - good or bad food. They start picking food based on their nutritional needs and body requirements. It ultimately leads to improvement in diet quality.

2. Increases Self-esteem: It develops an approach to - how diverse humans can be, based on size, shape, and appearance. It increases their self-esteem and shifts their focus from weight to overall health.

3. Overall Psychological Well-being: The weight loss journey brings a lot of mental pressure. Weight cycling goes on and on, which takes a lot of mental energy. Thus, redirecting the energy into activities that bring satisfaction takes away stress and anxiety, and improves mood.

4. Combat Disordered Eating: The non-diet approach breaks the chain of dieting by addressing food-related rules and restrictive diets and, at the same time motivating weight control. It ultimately leads to a reduction in disordered eating patterns.

5. Weight Stability: This approach helps one to maintain a healthy weight. It might result in weight gain, weight loss, or a stable weight depending upon the body type.

Tired of Dieting and Battling, Try a Non-diet Approach:

If you are tired of dieting, try the non-diet approach. It will help you build trust in yourself, your body, and the food you eat. You will opt for a habit of self-care leading to improved health, self-esteem, body acceptance, and mental, social, and psychological well-being.

Conclusion:

The non-diet approach encourages observation and action on internal body cues.

Adopting a non-diet approach provides a broader aspect of overall health, developing self-acceptance, self-compassion, and self-care. It is all about mindful and intuitive eating, listening to body calls (hunger cues) and responding to them, reducing judgment, and increasing self-awareness. And most importantly, it is easy to adopt and is not forced.