I had this question twice this week from clients as we discussed the ineffectiveness of diets and restrictive eating.

My answer: brilliant marketing coupled with our insecurities.  

The facts:

• A person can lose weight on almost any diet – Weight Watchers, Slim 4 Life, the cabbage soup diet, the cookie diet, your own made up diet…it doesn’t really matter which one.  Most will produce some weight loss (maybe even lots of weight loss).
• HOWEVER…approximately 95% of people who lose weight via dieting will REGAIN it, and for about 3/4 it is plus some, so they end up heavier than they were before they started the diet.  This is how people diet themselves up to their highest weight.
•  Despite the ineffectiveness of diets at long-term weight loss, the dieting industry still makes BILLIONS of dollars per year.

Crazy, right?  Not really, if you ask me.

The diet/fitness/weight loss industries prey on our emotions.  They convince us that we are imperfect (we are, it’s true) and inadequate (this part isn’t true – but they make us believe it is anyway).  They have us hook, line and sinker.

Based on this logic, they convince us that if we can make our bodies look more perfect (i.e. thinner, more toned) then we will no longer be inadequate.

There are 2 problems with this:

1. They can’t actually deliver on their promise to get us thin and maintain it.
2. Thinness won’t make us feel less inadequate.  — You can argue this one with me all you want, but I can tell you from tons of experience working with individuals who have lost weight that it didn’t make them happy or feel better about themselves.  They were still just as miserable at a lower weight.

So why do people keep buying into diet programs that don’t work?  You tell me.