What I thought I would gain by losing weight?

Has dieting ever brought anything significantly good for you in the long haul? If diets worked, then why are people every year on a diet? I think that for most people dieting was supposed to bring:

1/ More control around food- not really sure, soon enough in every diet we start feeling less and less in control. First of all we are told by someone who is not in our body what we should eat, when and what portions. While this may work at first, very often this is the road to stop listening to our own needs. We become invested in dieting and following the rules that sooner or later if we want to stop dieting there is a fear that we don’t know what to eat. In these situations, we tend to lose all control. You won’t have control over food by hiding It, avoiding it or not buying if you can’t stop thinking about it. Your diet plan needs to include your favorite foods as well so that you won’t feel out of control ever around them. The more you restrict, the more you deprive yourself, the less control you will actually have.

2/Less cravings for bad foods-nope. You won’t have less cravings, you will have the exact same cravings and more obsessions with eating perfectly and avoiding the bad foods.

3/The “ideal” body-once you are restricting and dieting, there’s a very big chance you will develop a poor body image only because you know that to maintain that look the price is high. You need to basically not eat or skip meals or exclude your favorite foods in order to keep looking the way you do on a diet. That usually leads to negative self-image the moment you start slipping (and you will because diets don’t work)and your body starts changing all over again. That is usually when we feel like a failure because we can’t keep up with a diet or we feel disgusted with our bodies that aren’t perfect anymore.

4/Acceptance and approval from others- people don’t really care how you look but if you think you will get approval from others because you look a certain way, then chances are high that not eating perfectly or not looking the part will isolate you from your family and friends. Dieting and being obsessed with your body can alienate you from others, make you less present in your relationships, avoiding events because of food fear etc…