Can dieting really make people more overweight? Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt, author of the new book "Diets Make Us Fat," certainly believes so.
She even shares with Healthista eight reasons why diets are making people fatter instead of thinner. The first reason is that diets trick the brain into thinking that people on rigid diets are starving. Because the mind makes people think they are victims of starvation, they are more overcome with the desire to eat, therefore making the diet moot. Even people who have successfully completed their diets and lost weight revert back to old eating habits and quickly regain everything they've lost, Aamodt says.
The second reason is that dieting is a stressful experience. When people count calories and maintain food diaries, it produces stress hormones in people, which therefore leads to weight gain. Some people believe they gain weight because they have no self-control, but this is not the case, she says.
The next reason is that the brain often leads people towards temptation, so every time people see an ad for McDonald's, they inevitably crave for a Big Mac or large fries. Aamodt writes in her book that the brain is the devil's advocate when it comes to dieting.
But more than that, Aamodt states in her fifth reason that diets simply don't work in the long run because whenever dieters regain their lost weight, they gain fat faster than they gain muscle. At the same time, the sixth reason Aamodt gave out is that metabolism slows down whenever people lose weight.
Metabolism always works great when people are younger, but as they grow older, metabolism works differently. It changes when people move outside of their defended weight range. What's worse, low metabolism can last up to six to seven years after people experience weight loss. Because of this, people find themselves gaining weight fast after they're through dieting.
Aamodt also doesn't trust people's willpower, so she cites it as the sixth reason why diets make people fat. Next, calorie counting isn't always accurate, and the information on grocery store labels doesn't always reveal the truth. A study even revealed that a tofu sandwich advertised as a healthy meal actually has double the amount of calories it indicated when tested.
Lastly, people who diet inevitably become weight cyclers and not weight loss maintainers. Maintaining a stable weight is a struggle for most people, so they shift weight often. Aamodt grants that weight loss can be easy; however, keeping them off in the long run is the hard part.
