Kat Tancock - Why Diets Dont Work

Last year, for a story, I cut out sugar for two weeks. And Im not talking just the white powdered stuff. Honey, maple syrup, fruit (except green apples) and most grains were banished from the menupretty much anything that might contribute to less than perfectly stable blood sugar.

At first I felt good. You know how theres the hunger that would make you shove aside multiple small children for an almond croissant, and then theres the hunger thats a pleasant reminder that your body would like some nourishment, please, whenever you get a chance? What I was feeling was the latter, and for the first few days, it felt good and virtuous to say no to the forbidden foods. Really, I thought the two weeks would be a piece of cake (not literally, of course) and my story pretty boring.

But then. Then I started feeling like I was missing out. And the lethargy struck, as though my brain and body were crying out for glucose. I tried to go for a long runI was training for a half marathon at the timeand had to keep taking walk breaks. My body just had nothing to give me, no energy reserves to pull from. I went home after that run and spent the rest of the day on the couch.

So about a week in, I started adding the odd slice of toast or piece of fruitthough always with some protein and fat to keep the meals impact on my blood sugar low. And when the two weeks were up, I rewarded myself for the 14 long days of deprivation with all my favourite indulgent foods. And the four pounds I lost during those two weeks (which I had gained the month before on a two-week-long, cake-filled visit to Peru) came back again, along with a few more.

Other than a couple of elimination diets for allergy-revealing purposes, it was my first real experience with the binge-purge cycle of a restrictive diet, allowing me to enter a not-so-restrictive club of, well, most North Americans these days. Many of us are trying to lose weight, and though we all know logically that well eventually give up on any diet that makes us sufferand, yes, gain the weight back again and morewere still searching for a solution, that magical trick that will allow us to enjoy our favourite foods and our favourite outfits. And Im sure Im not the only one wondering: Is there anything that really will work in a healthy and happy way? Or should I just throw in the towel, stop caring and head to the mall to update my wardrobe?

I should stop for a moment to point out that Im not, nor have I ever been, overweight. But as Ive moved from my relatively skinny teens and early 20s into my mid-30s, the number on the scale has crept up and up despite my efforts to resist what our culture considers a normal part of getting old. And the official, on-the-chart line that divides healthy from needs-to-lose-a-few-pounds is getting very scarily close.

Im a health and fitness writer, not to mention a yoga teacher. I feel as though I should know better from my years of writing stories on nutrition and healthy eating, of giving everyone advice on how to live a healthy life. I could probably write a weight-loss article in my sleep. I know all the so-called secrets: get more sleep, eat more fibre, drink more water, fill up on vegetables, avoid sugary drinks, eat breakfast, and on and on. And the thing is, I even like healthy food. I adore kale, drink fresh fruit smoothies with abandon, prefer dark chocolate to milk, and enjoy the taste of whole grains. Ive been vegetarian since my teens. I grew up with a garden in the backyard and real-food meals on my plate, with restaurants an occasional treat, not a regular occurrence. I dont even drink that much, though I do have a pretty insatiable sweet tooth and a bad habit of baking things, then eating them. In short, the odds seem stacked in my favour.

And yet. Even with all these advantages and some decent genetics (though its virtually impossible to tease apart nature and nurture), I cant seem to escape the common fate of most people in the Western world. Were inundated with brand-name diets and healthy-eating advice, with skinny celeb role models and endless scientific studies on whats making us gain. And with few exceptions, none of us wants to be overweight. But despite all of this, despite most of us having tried to lose weight at least at some point, we keep getting fatter.

Because of my experiences with and curiosity about the topic, a former colleague and current health editor at Canadas Glow magazine asked me to write a story on dieting, which appeared in the summer 2012 issue. I spoke to doctors, real women with dieting experience, even a food writer who had found his own successful weight-loss formula, to get the story on why were gaining so much weight and why diets dont seem to work.

The trouble was, I had so much to say on the topic but not nearly enough space in the magazine. So I went back to my notes and to my thoughts, to some of my favourite books on dieting and healthy eating, and I expanded them. What Ive written here is a more in-depth look at the topic of dieting than I was able to publish the first time around. Ive looked at history, at cultural analysis, at the opinions of some of my friends, at my own experiences and at the countless stories Ive readand writtenon dieting, on weight gain and loss, and on how our personal self-worth is affected by body image and how we look and feel.

And what have I learned? Theres no magic trick that will get us instantly skinny and happy. Giving up on that idea is half the battle in reforming your relationship with your body. The rest is choosing how to live your life and making the decision to evolve your relationship with food, rather than letting culture, environment and food marketers decide it for you.

Modern life is a complicated thing. On top of all the other responsibilities in our lives, the pressures on to be both thin and fit, attractive and accomplished, squeezing in workouts and healthy meal prep in between work, family, social and community obligations. Its a tough order.

Even more than the pressure to stay slim, the funny thing nowadays is that its not entirely acceptable to say youre trying to lose weight or cut calories, either, at least not among some groups of friends and colleagues. We have to be thin and fit effortlessly, able to scarf down a cheeseburger for lunch (real women eat real food) without putting on an ounce. After all, celebs manage to keep their weight down by going for walks and doing the odd yoga class while eating normally, right? (If you believe that works for any but the most genetically gifted, I have quite a few things Id like to sell you.)

Usually when working on a story, I interview subjects one by one, often on the phone and sometimes in person. But this time, instead of just conducting interviews, I wanted to have a conversation