6 Reasons Low-Cal/Restrictive Diets Don’t Work For Binge Eaters
- Jan 6, 2024
- 6 min read
Written by: Olivia Shakespear, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
It’s New Year, which often means the start of lots of diets! Whilst not all binge eaters have weight to lose, many of them do and restrictive, low-cal diets may seem like the solution, particularly after a period of binge eating (Christmas anyone?). In all the years I was a binge eater, and now as a nutritional therapist who supports people in overcoming binge eating, I can say hand on heart that restrictive dieting is not the way to go, no matter how tempting it seems. In fact, they tend to be the trigger that sends people right back into the binge eating cycle. In this article I've focused on six reasons why low-cal and overly restrictive diets are something to be avoided during binge eating recovery. This is not to say that paying attention to what you eat and making a conscious effort to be healthy is a bad thing. But there is a happy medium to be found between extreme dieting and pushing the sod it button and eating anything and everything in sight.
1. Restrictive diets can trigger overeating
Once you tell yourself you can't have a certain food, it seems the only thing you can think about is eating that very food. Put in a nutshell, severely limiting certain foods just heightens your awareness of them. Whilst you might succeed in doing without for a certain length of time, in all likelihood you'll end up eating these foods at some point and in greater quantities than if you had allowed yourself the odd portion or two. There is even science to backup this principle up. A study from Tel Aviv University showed that people who ate desserts had better long-term success at dieting than those who deprived themselves. The study looked at almost 200 adults who were all obese, and randomly assigned to two different diet groups. The first group were the "no dessert" group, whereas the second group of dieters had a dessert every day. Whilst both groups lost weight through the earlier stages of the study, the first group regained a good proportion of the weight whilst the second group continued to lose weight throughout.
2. Low-Cal diets often don't allow enough food
The idea of a 2000 calorie a day diet comes from the FDA in the states, where 2350 calories was the actual recommendation but this was set even lower to encourage better health. 2000 cals is definitely not adequate for many adults. More accurate numbers are just over 3000 calories for an adult male and about 2400 for an adult female (1). These are for moderately active people who are of average size, and are neither overweight nor underweight. Given the number of variables, there will obviously be a wide range with regards to calorific need. I've been on diets in the past that gave me a calorie allowance of around 1600 a day. This was calculated from my weight, height and sex. I'm 6 foot tall, so it's no wonder the diet didn't work long term! When we eat too few calories, energy is directed to the primal and instinctive parts of our brain that focus on survival, and away from our rational brain. We become driven to seek out more and more food, and because our rational brain is taking a backseat we don't seek out the most sensible options. Survival is focused on immediate need, and so we go for high calorie and easily digested sugary foods. These instincts are very powerful and difficult to overcome, which is why restrictive diets so often lead to overeating and end up making eating behaviours more and more extreme. I've written previously on brain based reasons for binge eating. It's worth understanding this, as it can help relieve a lot of the guilt and shame around binge eating.
3. Focus is on calories not health
If the only aim is weight loss, then in line with the points above, the focus will be on calories rather than health. You'll see this in many slimming clubs, although they have improved over the years. Most of them either use calories directly or a point system based on calories. Whether it points or other methods for keeping people to a certain amount of food each day, the fact is these diets drastically lower calorific intake. And this often means that as long as something is low in calories, it's okay. The more you learn about nutrition, the more you realize just how essential it is for our health. Of course, fruit and vegetables are lower calorie, and so are often part of restrictive diets, which is a good thing. However, this is alongside other specific diet foods that ultimately are often not even real food. Foods that have been ultra processed and reconstituted into low calorie alternatives - delicious! More and more research shows that even if these foods are low in calories, the negative effects they have on our health far outweigh any calorific benefit. And in all honesty, it's not even that clear whether they help with weight loss. Chris Van Tulleken's book, Ultra Processed People, is a fascinating deep dive into this subject.
4. Dieting often leads to a preoccupation with weight
Whilst it's understandable to want to lose any excess pounds, making weight your primary measure of success can be a hindrance. During my yo-yo dieting/binge eating years, my weeks became summed up as a success or failure depending on what the scales said. The strange thing was, some weeks I would lose 2 to 3 pounds and then the next week even though I was eating exactly the same things I'd lose nothing, or would even commit the cardinal sin of putting on pounds! Weight tends to come off at variable rates and it can be hard to accept that. And we all know guilt and shame from not losing weight fast enough are prime triggers for comfort eating.
5. They can be deficient in certain nutrients
To be fair, the same could be said for any diet. But my point here is that even without going on low-calorie and restrictive diets, it's common for people to be deficient in certain vitamins and minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc as well as vitamin B-12 (particularly for vegetarians and vegans) and vitamin D. Furthermore, low-cal diets are often low-fat, and whilst we don't need to eat huge quantities of fat, we do need enough essential fatty acids. For someone on a clean eating diet, that could also be severely restrictive and low-cal, this is unlikely to be such an issue. But for people who are not aware of covering all the nutrient bases, and are focused more on calories, then nutrient deficiencies are a definite risk (2).
6. They bring out the inner rebel
Humans fundamentally want freedom. Restrictive diets are the opposite of this, and even if it is a personal choice to go on such a diet, there is always a sense that our freedom is being imposed upon. Especially when seeing other people eating all of those foods we've told ourselves we're not allowed. Severe restriction just ends up triggering an internal battle that most people ultimately lose.
The solution? Try something different this year
As I said in the beginning, giving up restrictive dieting does not mean you have to give up all ideas of healthy eating and weight loss. The way I work with people is through teaching about balance, and what it means to eat in a balanced way. For binge eaters, at least to start with this definitely means being able to include so-called forbidden foods in sensible amounts and within the right context. For example, having a pizza and dessert on a night out with a friend is very different to polishing off the contents of the fridge out of pure boredom, even if the extra calories might add up to the same amount. The funny thing is, until you give yourself more freedom around food, it's impossible to work out what you really do want to eat and how much. You might be surprised to find out you aren't so inclined to overeat that much after all!
To find out more, do download my free recovery guide. And if you are interested in working with me through my 1:1 online binge eating recovery programs, you can book a free 30-minute session or visit my website for more details 😊
Olivia Shakespear, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Olivia Shakespear is a Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist specialising in support for people with binge eating disorder and those who have an unhappy relationship with food. After many years of her own struggles, she created a unique method that is incredibly successful with moving people into a balanced way of eating. Olivia uses nutrition within a truly holistic framework, understanding that problems with eating occur due to multiple physical and psychological factors. She understands the pitfalls of applying a "clean eating" approach, whilst appreciating the incredible power proper nutrition has in healing the mind, body and soul.
