I’ve been on my current eating plan for over a year straight. In the past, I don’t think I’ve lasted more than a few months before giving up in disgust. Why do we sometimes lose our motivation? How can we avoid diet burnout?
First of all, what exactly is diet burnout? According to a MyFitnessPal interview with registered dietician and certified nutritionist Maya Feller, burnout occurs when we become bored with so-called healthy foods. We feel deprived so we have a cheat day, which can turn into cheat weeks, and before you realize it, we are back to where we started (1).
“‘When we polarize food and place it into good or bad categories, every food interaction becomes charged, it turns into an act that will be praised or punished,’ she notes. ‘What’s needed is to reframe the relationship with food’” (1).
It’s hard to stay motivated if you’re punishing yourself for dietary infractions! Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is a lifelong journey. It’s impossible to be perfect over an entire lifetime! What we can do is improve our relationship with food and exercise so that we are moving in the right direction.
I’ve already written about some of the practices that can help with diet burnout, like practicing self care, trying new recipes (15 cookbooks/diet books reviewed for this blog so far!), and experimenting with different forms of exercise, but I’m always ready to find new ways to combat the burnout problem. Let’s do this together!
Knowing that I’m writing this blog really does help to motivate me. It also keeps me accountable. How could I continue writing on all of these topics if I didn’t follow my own advice?
Here are some ideas that may help. Please comment below with any others that have worked for you.
- Allow small indulgences on a regular basis. “If you eat what you want in small amounts as you reach your goals, you don’t feel overly restricted or tortured, and reaching your goals will feel more manageable and sustainable” (1).
- Don’t get discouraged by a weight loss plateau. According to psychologist Nancy Irwin, “The body has thousands of switches and levers and buttons that are all readjusting to the weight loss,” says Irwin. “During these plateaus when it seems as if nothing is happening, the whole body is ‘catching up’ to the new settings and waiting patiently for every other part of the body to readjust before going farther” (2).
- Adjust your weight loss goals so that they are realistic and achievable (3). For example, try not to have the expectation that you can have the body of an 18 year old model if you’re 50. Also remember that the bodies you see in media and entertainment outlets are not real – they are generally edited and tuned toward society’s current idea of perfection. Many times influencers have had cosmetic procedures as well.
- Change your plan if your current diet is unsustainable. Fad diets really are not meant to be followed long term. They are a passing phase or fancy. It’s advisable to avoid them altogether, but switching to another plan is always an option. Numerous studies have shown that burnout is more common among dieters on unhealthy diets. A recent study in Finland found that “Frequent consumption of healthy food items is associated with [a] low level of burnout symptoms. Our results emphasize the importance of [a] diverse and balanced healthy diet to promote…well-being” (4).
- Certain foods and drinks can exacerbate burnout symptoms (all types of burnout – not just diet burnout). These are: refined carbs, sugar, alcohol, and caffeine. “Ironically, we crave sugar and refined carbs when stressed. This is because our bodies know these are fast acting forms of energy and our bodies think we are about to ‘fight or flee’. Sadly though the fast action of these energy sources lead to a crash in energy very soon afterwards leaving us hungry for more – i.e. craving the next fix” (5). Alcohol and caffeine increase our cortisol levels which in turn increase appetite (5).
If we keep these ideas in mind, avoiding burnout should be a little bit easier. It’s still a big challenge, but together we can learn more and maintain our healthy weight .
(1). https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/5-ways-to-avoid-healthy-food-burnout/
(2). https://www.webmd.com/obesity/features/dont-get-burned-by-diet-burnout
(3). https://community.thriveglobal.com/how-did-i-recover-from-diet-burnout-6-effective-tips/
(4). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8308766/
(5). https://www.nutritionist-resource.org.uk/memberarticles/combating-burnout-with-nutrition
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