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Why Dieting Is Bad for Your Health (Part 1)

Writer's picture: Natalie WoodNatalie Wood

Updated: Oct 23, 2024

Most diets today are calorie-restricted, designed to promote rapid weight loss. While this may seem appealing, there are significant problems with this approach. In reality, dieting can often do more harm than good to your health.


Many meal plans, diets, and detoxes promise quick results, implying that weight loss is the key to health and happiness. However, focusing solely on shedding pounds can lead to a cycle of yo-yo dieting and unhealthy habits that are difficult to maintain.


In this post, I’ll explain why a calorie-restricted diet may not be the answer to better health and why it can even be detrimental to your overall well-being.





The Problem with Weight Loss Goals


When the goal is solely weight loss, it’s easy to get trapped in a mindset where your self-worth becomes tied to numbers—the number on the scale, how your clothes fit, or your clothing size. This can lead to an unhealthy relationship with your body and a fixation on achieving an unrealistic ideal.


How Weight Loss Obsession Impacts Mental and Physical Health


Constantly judging yourself based on your weight can distort your body image, causing a preoccupation with food and exercise. This fixation can push people toward extreme measures like crash diets, restrictive eating patterns, or over-exercising, all in the name of losing weight quickly.


Unfortunately, these methods often fail to provide sustainable results and can have long-term negative effects on your health. When you focus on weight alone, you ignore other crucial aspects of well-being, such as nutrition, mental health, and lifestyle habits that promote lasting vitality.


Dieting, in this context, becomes not just ineffective—it becomes bad for your health.


A lady using a weighing scale

Dieting Made Me Sick: A Personal Experience


In my own experience, following calorie-restricted diets in the pursuit of weight loss led to significant health problems. I had little understanding of adequate nutrition and focused only on eating less and tracking calories.


What are the effects of long-term dieting?


While I did lose weight, I noticed a decline in my health. My hair became thinner, my nails brittle, and I experienced digestive issues so severe that I was in and out of the hospital. My energy levels plummeted, and despite being "fitter" than ever, I was frequently ill.


I later realized that my strict calorie-restricted diet wasn’t providing the vitamins and minerals my body needed to function properly. I had compromised my immune system, reducing my intake of essential nutrients like antioxidants, which are critical for fighting off illness.


My exercise routine was also suffering. Instead of improving my fitness, I was burning out physically and mentally.





What’s a better alternative to dieting?


From this experience, I learned that calorie restriction doesn’t teach us how to eat better; it teaches us how to eat less. And there’s a crucial difference between the two.


Studies show that our bodies thrive when they receive the nutrients they need, in the right amounts. While being mindful of calorie consumption is helpful, it’s the quality of the food we consume that makes the real difference to our health.


The Importance of Nutrient-Dense Foods


Our bodies require a variety of nutrients to function optimally. One of the biggest problems with most diets is that they don’t emphasize the importance of nutrient intake—they focus instead on limiting food consumption. This leads to imbalances in critical nutrients, especially when diets eliminate entire food groups or restrict healthy, nutrient-rich foods.


What role do antioxidants play in a healthy diet?


Antioxidants are crucial for your body’s ability to fight disease. Without enough antioxidants, your immune system weakens, making you more susceptible to illness. This is why a diet filled with whole foods—especially colorful fruits and vegetables—is important. These foods are packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that support overall health.


If your goal is to improve your health, focus on the quality of the foods you eat rather than just the number of calories you consume.



A wide variety of wholesome food.


Why Dieting Is Bad for Your Health – A Summary


Diet foods and low-calorie snacks often lack essential nutrients and provide little to no antioxidant value. In fact, many processed diet foods are filled with chemicals and additives that can negatively affect your health.


The biggest flaw in many diets is that they don’t address the nutritional needs of your body. While reducing calories can help shed pounds, if your diet lacks high-nutrient foods, you won’t improve your health. Instead, you’ll likely experience nutrient deficiencies that can weaken your immune system and leave you feeling worse.


Ultimately, a calorie-restricted diet needs to be rich in antioxidants and nutrients to support better health, not just weight loss.


How can I improve my diet for better health? - What I Know Today


Today, I understand that calorie restriction for weight loss only teaches people to eat less— not how to eat in a way that supports long-term health. A better approach is to eat the right amount for your body, focusing on high-quality, nutrient-dense foods that meet your body’s needs.


This means including a wide variety of whole foods in your diet, particularly colorful fruits and vegetables, to ensure you’re getting the nutrients your body needs to thrive.


My advice: If you truly want to improve your health and lose weight - enlist the help of a professional. As a Fitness and Wellness Coach, I can help you fit exercise and healthy eating around your busy lifestyle, without compromising your longer-term health.


Next Steps


In part 2 of this series, I’ll dive deeper into the effects of a poor-quality diet on weight and health. I’ll share practical tips on how to make lasting changes to improve your overall well-being, so stay tuned!




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