Jim Katsoulis explains why mainstream diets backfire. When you restrict foods, your brain fixates on them instead. Short-term thinking sabotages long-term habits. Then comes the "what the hell" effect: one slip triggers a binge on everything you banned.
Chapters
Three ways that diets make you fat. Now, before I tell you what they are, it's important that you understand that almost all the major diets you know about have been owned by food conglomerations. Weight Watchers was owned by Heinz, Jenny Craig was owned by Nestle and Atkins Diet was owned by the same company that runs Cinnabon and Auntie Anne's Pretzels. These companies don't want you to lose weight, they want you to eat more food. And diets is one of the sneakiest ways to make that happen. So there's three specific ways that dieting does lead to you being heavier. Number one is that they cause you to think short term. Most diets are all about how you can lose the most amount of weight in the shortest period of time, but you can't really take control of your weight if you're just thinking in short term periods. Number two is that they focus you on the exact food you're trying to eat less of. So your subconscious mind does not understand negative. If I tell you not to think about a banana, what are you thinking about exactly. So when you go on a diet and you stay focused on all the food you're not supposed to eat, it becomes this self torture thing. And number three is a thing called the what the hell effect. And it's specific to dieters. These companies know that the best way to get you to eat more food overall is to have you restrict foods for a little while. So when you restrict foods for a little while and then eat them again, you're going to usually eat a lot more of them ultimately.
