Tag Archive for: rebound eating

Rebound Eating- What is it & how do I stop?

You may have heard the term “rebound eating” and find yourself asking “what is this”?

 

In a nutshell, when you restrict the foods you really enjoy eating until you’ve reaching a your breaking point, the backlash is rebound eating.

 

Think of it as your body’s last ditch effort to get your attention after you’ve decided to ignore what it’s trying to tell you—it’s also saying, “Hey! You’re seriously depriving me over here!”

 

As a chronic dieter, rebound eating is something you may have experienced in the past. Does this cycle sound familiar?

 

Reducing the number of calories you consume to less than what your body needs > deprive, deprive, deprive > hit a wall where you can’t take the deprivation anymore and your restriction takes a nose dive > binge, binge, binge > compensate with intense exercise—“I need to work this off!”> REPEAT!

 

This common cycle is harmful to your physical and mental health, and truly take a toll on your body. It leads to disordered eating patterns, and if not responded to immediately could lead to other health complications (i.e., dehydration, brittle hair/nails, fatigue, brain fog, and more).

 

How to Stop Rebound Eating

 

The only way to put an end to this cycle of rebound eating is to stop the restriction. That means to stop dieting. So what is the alternative you might ask?

 

Intuitive eating!

 

Making peace with food and giving yourself full permission to eat while connecting to your inner wisdom to guide you is the way to stop this destructive cycle. When you embrace intuitive eating and bring all foods back into your eating world, you no longer obsess about those foods.

 

Intuitive eating is a practice you are cultivating, and it’s a lifelong journey (it’s not a quick fix!). If you truly want to end the cycle of restriction-deprivation-rebound eating/binge eating – repeat, then consider committing to stop dieting.

 

Pop your name and email into the boxes below for a free experience to Break the Spell of Diets in 3 Days.

 

Want more? Join an amazing supportive community of women inside my membership called The Intuitive Nutrition Circle (aka The IN Circle) where the are learning to integrate gentle nutrition into their intuitive eating practice. Click here for all the deets.

How to Avoid the One Last Diet Trap

You realize that the diets you’ve been on all these years have not served you well. More than likely the weight that you lost found you again. It’s depressing and you feel distraught. You really want to lose this weight once and for all.

But the diets haven’t worked. Well, maybe they worked short term, meaning you did lose weight when you followed them. But that weight loss was short-lived (research shows dieters regain weight within 1-5 years).

You’ve heard about the anti-diet approach to eating. But somehow, that doesn’t sound logical to you. From what you’ve read on the internet, Intuitive Eating means eat what you want, when you want. (Nah, that’s not what Intuitive Eating is at all. I’ll get into that on another blog)

Either way, you’ve decided to look into Intuitive Eating, after all, what do you have to lose. As you consider “trying” Intuitive Eating, the thought of maybe you’ll go on one more diet to lose those X pesky pounds, and then do “Intuitive Eating”. This is what is called – falling into the “one last diet trap.”

What is the One Last Diet Trap?

This is when you decide to give up dieting to learn to become an Intuitive Eater. But your friend, colleague, coworker, mother etc. just called to say they started a new diet and it’s amazing, you should do it too.

You think about it and consider it. Maybe, just maybe, THIS will be the diet that will help you lose the weight. You decide to try this one last diet, then you’ll start Intuitive Eating.

You have just fallen into the trap!

Don’t Ignore the Facts

 Falling for that one last diet ignores the facts that:

  1. Diets do not work. For the 3-5% of people that may keep the weight off, they exhibit disordered eating and exercise habits to do so.

 

  1. The studies are clear. Approximately 95% – 97% of dieters eventually regain the weight they lost and up to 2/3rds gain back more weight than they initially lost.

 

  1. You will not find one study that shows that intentional weight loss leads to long-term weight loss.

 

  1. Rebound weight gain is defined as the regaining of weight you lost, plus more. This weight regain has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of willpower, discipline, or not following the rules you were told to follow! The fact of the matter is that your body was not programmed to be restricted. The more you restrict, the greater the rebound weight gain!

 

  1. Dieting causes your body to go into survival mode. When your body doesn’t get enough fuel, it thinks “Oh my! I need to go into survival mode. There is a threat, a famine is coming!” Your body will do anything it can to “survive” when it is not receiving the proper nutrients. When your body goes into survival mode, your metabolism decreases and you actually gain more weight!

 

Bottom Line:

The most predictable outcome of yo-yo dieting is weight cycling (losing and regaining the same weight over and over again).

Yo-yo dieting and weight cycling is detrimental to your physical and mental health!

Come join me in the 5 Day Challenge to END THE YO-YOING and learn how you can STOP the diet roller coaster once and for all!

What’s will you learn in the END THE YO-YOING Challenge?

 

CLICK HERE to learn more and register – for free!

 

We start February 1, 2021!

 

Food Deprivation Leads to Rebound Eating

Overindulging in a food item that you restrict is common if you are a chronic dieter. It actually makes a ton of sense that you’d have intense cravings for a food you won’t allow yourself to have.

 

When you restrict a food(s) that you really want to eat, at some point the deprivation becomes so great that the backlash is what we call rebound eating.

 

Rebound Eating in Action

You start your diet on Monday and promise yourself you will not eat any chocolate. After all, you’ve been enjoying chocolate almost nightly and find it difficult to stop at just a few squares.

 

Your friend from out of town comes to visit and brings you a box of chocolates. You thank her and think to yourself “I’m not going to eat this; I’m being really good on my diet”. So, you put the box of chocolates away in the cabinet, high up on a shelf.

 

The next day, your partner spots the chocolate, opens the box and enjoys a piece. He puts the box away, but now you know it’s open. You are feeling a little anxious, you want a piece but at the same time you don’t want because you’ve been “so good”.

 

As it turns out, because you’ve been “so good”, you decide you deserve to have a piece of chocolate, almost like a reward for being good on your diet. You take the box down, open it up and pop one into your mouth.

 

You realize you didn’t really taste it; you ate it too quickly. You decide “I’ll just have one more”.

 

And then, the inner critic voice starts to show up. “Oh darn, I blew it. Why can’t I just keep to my diet. I’m just going to finish what’s there, there are only 4 left, and then I promise I won’t have chocolate again! My diet starts tomorrow!!”

 

Once you finish the chocolate, you plop down on the couch and feel miserable. You feel so guilty for eating the chocolate, so disappointed in yourself and decide as a punishment, you will skip dinner. The only problem is, you then find yourself bingeing into the evening.

 

The above example is one way the backlash can happen when you deprive yourself of a food you love.

 

It’s important to know that eating doesn’t have to be this difficult. Learning to eat to honor your body and your health while enjoying all foods (including chocolate) is part of being an intuitive eater.

 

It’s time to make peace with food.

 

Are you ready?

 

Click here to schedule a time to chat about how you can change your relationship with food.

 

Food Deprivation Leads to Binge Eating

Overindulging in a food item that you restrict is common if you are a chronic dieter. This is called deprivation backlash-rebound eating.

 

Here’s a common scenario: you deprive yourself of a certain food, such as your beloved chocolate because you are on a diet and you are not allowed to have chocolate, right? Well an old-time friend comes to visit and brings you a box of chocolates. You put it away vowing you will not open it. A family member spots the chocolate, opens the box and enjoys a piece. Now what do you do?

 

You think to yourself, “I’m not going to have any, I’m on a diet and I’m doing so well”. You walk away.

 

A few minutes later, you think to yourself, “Hmmm, I’ll just have one, really only one.” You eat one. It was yummy.

 

A few minutes later, “I’ll just have one more”. And then…”Oh shucks, I blew it. I might as well finish the box, there are only 4 more. I promise I will start my diet again tomorrow, and I won’t eat chocolate again!”

 

Sound familiar?

 

You probably truly believe that you won’t eat chocolate again, or do you? You now feel guilty and as a punishment you skip dinner only to find yourself bingeing into the evening.

 

The above example is only one example of the backlash that happens when you deprive yourself of a food you love. You rebound by eating, and overeating.

 

There are many different forms of rebound eating.

 

Have you ever engaged in The Last Supper eating? I have had many clients tell me that the night before their first appointment with me they ate all the foods that they thought I would tell them they can no longer eat…. the foods that they thought would be off limits. Boy, were they surprised when I didn’t tell them that at all.

 

Listen, eating shouldn’t be this difficult. It’s time for you to make peace with food so you can once and for all stop the dieting cycle.

 

Need help? Click here to schedule a time to chat.

 

 

Your turn to take action: Tell me about a time that you engaged in rebound eating or The Last Supper. Share your stories in the comments section below.

 

How to Prevent Rebound Eating

Woman contemplating fruit or cakeHow many times have you done this: You want to look good for an event on the weekend so you spend the next week or 2 restricting your food and calories thinking you’ll shed 10 pounds by the weekend? And when that event is over you make up for lost time by indulging in all the foods that you were deprived of on that “diet” you were on? This is called rebound or binge eating. It is a vicious cycle that can lead to disordered eating patterns.

 

Depriving your body of the foods it wants over time can really take a toll on your body and mind. It can lead to cravings so bad that when you do finally allow yourself to eat what you want you could spiral out of control and end up bingeing on it. Then to compensate you might go back to restricting or trying to “work it off” at the gym which will only continue the cycle.

 

By incorporating intuitive eating into your life, you can break this cycle. Eat the foods you want when you want. But be mindful. If you want chocolate cake, have some cake. Don’t have the whole cake but have enough until you are satisfied. Eating a slice of cake won’t set you back on your weight or health goals, but depriving yourself until that cake is all you can think of just might.

 

Before deciding what to eat ask yourself these questions:

 

What do I really want?

 

  • You tell yourself you should get the salad when you’re out to dinner because it’s a healthy option, but you really want your favorite pasta dish. What should you do? You could get the salad and not be satisfied while watching your family enjoy their pasta. Or you can honor your preference and order the pasta. Consider asking for an appetizer portion or have the waiter bring half the portion and pack the other half to go. This way you can enjoy the pasta without the worry of overeating from the extra large portions restaurants usually give you.

 

Am I choosing the food because it’s what I should eat?

 

  •  Who’s to say what you should or should not eat? Only you are the owner of your body and your food choices! Don’t fall prey to the “good food” “bad food” list diets give you. Own your choices!

 

Am I emotionally eating or am I really hungry?

 

  • If you’re craving a certain comfort food but you’re not actually hungry, this could be because you are feeding your emotions. Try to make yourself feel better by getting to the root of your emotions and find ways to fix them without food. Read more about this here.

 

Eating shouldn’t be an all or nothing sort of thing. If you give into your cravings once in a while you are not a failure. Extremes are easy, but finding balance within yourself and your eating is the hard part.

 

I know this isn’t easy.  If you need help feel free to reach out to me here.

 

 

The Rush for the French Fries

IMG_4142.JPGWere you ever eating with another person, or group of people, and found that you were eating so quickly for fear there wouldn’t be more food available if you wanted another portion?

 

Yesterday, my daughter Lauren spent the day with her friends. She has another few days before camp begins and they decided to walk to the local pizza store. The girls each ordered their respective slice of pizza, and one order of fries to share.

 

They placed the fries in the center of the table. And, here’s what my daughter reported.

 

Everyone was eating so fast, hurrying to eat the fries for fear that they would run out really quickly or one of them would eat more than the other. I explained to my daughter that this is a form of “rebound eating” and happens when one feels like they are in competition for the food and fears food deprivation.

 

I found it interesting that Lauren mentioned this to me, as she clearly noticed that something was wrong with this picture.

 

There are many reasons and different scenarios that you might find yourself in where you resort to overeating, even binge eating. More than likely if you are a yo-yo dieter or emotional eater with a list of forbidden foods, this happens quite often when you finally give in and eat something on your forbidden food list.

 

The key is to realize that no one food has the power to help you lose weight or gain weight. I know, there are a lot of so called “experts” on the internet telling you, no let me correct that…shouting at you, to “avoid these 5 foods at all costs” or something similar. They make you think that if you avoid those foods, your skinny jeans will fit you perfectly and your prayers will be answered.

 

Not so.

 

Take the power back from the food! You are in charge of your food choices. When you do this, you will see your forbidden food list begin to shrink, and you might even surprise yourself and realize that you don’t happen to even like those foods that plagued you for so long.

 

Your turn to take action: Share with me below a time when you felt you were in competition for your food and you feared deprivation.

 

 

 

 

Food Deprivation Leading to Rebound Eating

Overindulging in a food item that you restrict is common if you are a chronic dieter. This is called deprivation backlash-rebound eating.

 

Here’s a common scenario: you deprive yourself of a certain food, such as your beloved chocolate because you are on a diet and you are not allowed to have chocolate, right? Well an old time friend comes to visit and brings you a box of chocolates. You put it away vowing you will not open it. A family member spots the chocolate, opens the box and now what do you do? Hmmm, I’ll just have one, really only one. But before you turn around, you have more than one, and at this point you might as well finish the box because you promise yourself you won’t have chocolate again. You truly believe that you won’t. Yet, you now feel guilty and as a punishment you skip dinner only to find yourself bingeing into the evening.

The above scenario is one example of the backlash that happens when you deprive yourself of a food you love. You rebound by eating, and overeating.

 

There are many different forms of rebound eating.

 

Have you ever engaged in The Last Supper eating? I have had many clients tell me that they knew they were coming to see me on Monday (or whatever day their appointment was on) and so the day before they overindulged on all the foods they thought they would no longer be allowed to eat….the foods that they thought would be off limits.

 

Listen, eating shouldn’t be this difficult. It’s time for you to make peace with food so you can once and for all stop the dieting cycle.

 

Need help? Click here to schedule a time to chat.

 

 

Your turn to take action: Tell me about a time that you engaged in rebound eating or The Last Supper. Share your stories in the comments section below.