Ever feel like you’re doing everything right—eating “healthy,” hitting the gym, and still, that scale just won’t budge? Or worse, it starts creeping up? You’re not alone. It’s frustrating, it’s confusing, and it’s enough to make anyone want to throw in the towel. You’re maybe even desperate to understand why you keep gaining weight. But here’s the thing: it’s not about you failing. It’s about how our bodies work and why traditional diets are setting you up to fail.
The Diet Trap and Why You Keep Gaining Weight
Let’s start with the obvious culprit: diets. They promise quick fixes and easy weight loss, but the reality is that diets are often the reason behind weight gain in the long run. Here’s why:
Diets Don’t Work
When you start a diet, you might lose weight initially, but that’s because you’re restricting your calories. Over time, your body catches on. It thinks it’s starving, so it slows down your metabolism to conserve energy. This means you burn fewer calories, even at rest. As soon as you go back to normal eating, the weight comes back—and then some. This cycle of losing and regaining weight is known as yo-yo dieting, and it’s more common than you think. It’s actually normal and healthy to keep gaining weight back after a diet, as your body tries to protect you from famine.
Why You Can’t Stick to a Diet
Ever wonder why it’s so hard to stay on a diet? It’s not because you lack willpower. It’s because your body is fighting back. When you restrict your food intake, your body increases hunger hormones and decreases fullness hormones, making you hungrier and more likely to overeat. This is your body’s way of trying to survive.
Wondering why you can’t stick to a diet? Take the Eating Personality Quiz and discover more about your relationship with food.
The Body’s Natural Response
So why does this happen? Because your body is smart—really smart. It’s designed to keep you alive, and that’s where things like your set point and hormones come into play.
Set Point Theory
Your body has a weight range it naturally wants to stay in, called your set point. When you diet and lose weight, your body fights to get back to that set point by slowing down your metabolism and making you hungrier. It’s not that you’re failing; it’s that your body is succeeding—at keeping you alive. Diet culture leads us to believe that we should always be striving for a size 2-8, or small/medium, but just like shoes sizes or eye colour, we all come in different body sizes because of set point. If you’re asking yourself, “Why do I keep gaining weight?” or “Why can’t I maintain my weight?” this might be why!
Hormonal Changes
When you cut calories, your body decreases leptin (the hormone that tells you you’re full) and increases ghrelin (the one that makes you hungry). This is why dieting feels like an uphill battle—because it is.
Want to dive deeper into why your body holds onto weight? Watch my YouTube video – Why Do I Keep Gaining Weight? to learn more about your body’s set point and why diets aren’t the answer.
Health at Every Size (HAES)
It’s time to flip the script. Instead of focusing on weight, let’s focus on health. The Health at Every Size (HAES) movement is here to remind us that health is not about a number on a scale—it’s about how you feel, how you move, and how you take care of yourself.
The HAES Movement
HAES is all about understanding that you can be healthy at any size. It’s about shifting the focus from weight loss to adopting healthy habits that actually make you feel good, like eating intuitively, moving your body in ways you enjoy, and practicing self-care.
Focus on Health, Not Weight
Instead of chasing after a smaller body, how about chasing after a healthier, happier you? It’s not about what you lose—it’s about what you gain when you start treating your body with kindness and respect.
Curious about how to live a healthy life without obsessing over weight? Stay tuned for our upcoming blog posts on embracing the HAES philosophy and find out how you can start making peace with your body.
Why Anti-Diet Culture Matters
Diet culture is everywhere—it’s in the ads we see, the conversations we have, and the way we’ve been taught to think about food and our bodies. But it’s time to push back.
The Harm of Diet Culture
Diet culture tells us that thin equals healthy and worthy, and gaining weight should be avoided at all costs, which just isn’t true. It encourages restrictive eating, body dissatisfaction, and can even lead to disordered eating. It’s time to call out these lies for what they are: harmful.
Embracing Food Freedom
Imagine a life where you don’t have to count every calorie or feel guilty for eating dessert. That’s what food freedom is all about—enjoying food without guilt, trusting your body to know what it needs, and rejecting the toxic messages of diet culture.
Ready to say goodbye to diet culture and hello to food freedom? Take the Eating Personality Quiz and start your journey towards a healthier, happier relationship with food.
Conclusion
If you’ve been stuck in the diet cycle, blaming yourself for every pound gained, it’s time to stop. Diets don’t work—not in the long run—and they’re not the answer to health or happiness. Your body isn’t broken, and you don’t need to be fixed. What you need is to embrace a new way of thinking about health—one that doesn’t involve constant restriction or self-judgment.
Health comes in all shapes and sizes, and by focusing on nourishing your body, embracing food freedom, and rejecting diet culture, you can start living a life that’s not ruled by the scale.
Want to learn more? Check out this YouTube video for a deeper dive into why diets fail and how to start embracing your body just as it is. And don’t forget to take the Eating Personality Quiz to see where you’re at on your journey to food freedom
