How the Diet Industry Positions Users to Blame Themselves
I was thinking about something the other day. It was about the diet industry.
According to data by Marketdata Enterprises, a market research firm, Americans spend more than $60 billion annually to try to lose weight, on everything from paying for gym memberships and joining weight-loss programs to buying diet foods and beverages.
That’s a lot of money to spend blaming yourself when the “product” you are buying doesn’t work.
Think about it.
If you purchased a new iPad, and it didn’t work, you’d complain to Apple (“this is a defective iPad”).
If you bought a wall clock at Target and it stopped working, you’d return it to Target (“this is a cheap clock”).
If you were working on a home improvement project and the drill stopped working, you’d blame the manufacturer (“this is a faulty drill”).
But when it comes to the diets you’ve tried, and you’ve regained the weight you lost PLUS a few extra pounds, you don’t blame the diet company, you blame yourself.
“I didn’t follow the rules correctly.”
“I must have done something wrong.”
“There’s something wrong with me, I need to try harder.”
“I’ll never get this right.”
And eventually, because you are so desperate to lose weight, you go running right back to the diet that you’ve tried multiple times.
I’m not going to name diets, it doesn’t matter which ones. The diet industry is brilliant, really they are. They have set themselves up to be the winner over and over again.
Here’s how:
Action Feeling
You want to lose weight, you go on XYZ diet. Excited
You lose weight and meet your goal. Yay, celebration!
6 months later, you’ve regained the weight, plus more. Disappointment
You spend a few weeks or months feeling sad, ashamed and berating yourself.
You go back on XYZ diet. Excited
You lose weight and meet your goal. Yay, celebration!
3 months later, you’ve regained he weight, plus more Disappointment
You spend a few weeks or months feeling sad, ashamed and berating yourself.
You go back on XYZ diet. Excited
How many times have you repeated the above sequence of events, with the length of time between diets getting shorter and shorter? Let’s figure it out together.
Doing the Math
- Take a piece of paper and make 5 columns.
- Label your columns: Diets I’ve been on/Pounds lost/Length of time weight stayed off/Pounds regained/# times I’ve tried this diet
Reflect on your chart. What did you discover?
If you are being true to yourself, then most likely you have tried a particular diet more than once. Why is that?
Because the diet industry has set it up that they are the winner when you lose the weight (“Our diet works). And, they are there to pick you up when you fall and gain the weight back (“It’s okay, you had a stressful few months, come back and try again, it works when you follow it”).
People, listen up!! This is not normal! Stop blaming yourself, you are NOT TO BLAME.
The diet industry is the ONLY industry where the product user blames themselves. Shame on you diet industry for making so many people feel so badly about themselves.
If you are reading this, please know that you are not alone in trying to break free of the diets and the manipulations. You have it within yourself to trust your body to make the decisions around what to eat and when to eat! Speak back to the diets you’ve been on. No, actually, YELL at them. Show them that you are on to them and their deceit. You don’t need them anymore.
Once you’ve made the decision to fight back against the diet industry, you will feel a weight lifted from your shoulders and you will empowered to take the next step towards reclaiming being an intuitive eater.
Comment below with your commitment to fight back against the diet industry!!
