At least two-thirds of people who diet are doing it to lose weight.
That doesn’t surprise us. So much of diet culture hinges on the “perfect bikini body” (and not so much on your actual health).
While there’s no denying weight loss can be a healthy goal for some, the focus on body image and shape is far from it. In fact, what you see in the mirror is sometimes a very poor reflection of your actual health!
The inside story.
Not seeing immediate results on the outside doesn’t mean you’re insides aren’t benefiting from sustainable, long-term changes to your health.
A sugar addiction, for example, could be putting strains on your body in ways that the mirror can’t reveal. Fructose increases your risk of metabolic syndrome, puts immense strain on the liver, makes you age faster and may even be linked to an increased risk of certain cancers.
The skinny on fat.
Body composition plays a massive role in your health – just because you may look “healthy” on the outside, does not necessarily mean your body is healthy on the inside.
Professor Jimmy Bell coined the phrase TOFI “Thin on the Outside, Fat on the Inside” in reference to this growing health concern amongst Western cultures: visceral fat.
Visceral fat collects around the organs and is mostly hidden inside the body (so slim people can still have it!). It can really only be detected through medical scans.
And there is compelling evidence suggesting that too much sugar – especially fructose – leads to an increase visceral fat.
Numbers over nutrients.
Sticking to a low calorie diet isn’t necessarily keeping your body healthy. In fact, it could be doing the exact opposite.
Low-cal foods are not only usually chock-full of additives, preservatives (and, yup, sugar), but they also provide little to no nutritional value at all.
A frozen-pizza may fill you up for the time being, but it will not provide the same long-term and nutritional fulfillment as a freshly cooked meal full of protein, fats, and veg will.
Which is why in our I Quit Sugar: 8-Week Program, we encourage you to count nutrients, not calories.
Body talk.
According to recent statistics, what you see in the mirror is not always a reflection of how other people see you:
- 45 per cent of women and 23 per cent of men in the healthy weight range think they are overweight.
- At least 20 per cent of women who are underweight think that they are overweight and are dieting to lose weight.
Body dissatisfaction, body image issues and eating disorders have become almost a norm in Western cultures – but it shouldn’t be like this!
We need to learn to love ourselves again. To take care of the bodies we were given, both on the inside and the outside.
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