“I haven’t found long-term dieting success…but shouldn’t I keep trying?”

People often tell me that they don’t want to pursue size acceptance, do body image work, or let go of dieting (despite clear evidence that dieting almost always fail long-term, and is the single leading predictor of binge-eating),because they say it feels like “giving up,” or they feel like they should “keep trying.” 

Ultimately, letting go of dieting IS giving up…on a fight that you’re likely doomed to lose anyway, and that’s beating you black and blue along the way

(…so, no, you probably shouldn’t keep trying,’ unless your goal is to push yourself further and further down the diet-binge rabbit hole as time goes on). 

Sometimes the wise, rational, and even “healthful” thing to do IS give up,
specifically when the thing you’re trying to do doesn’t seem to be working,
and is having the *exact opposite* effect on your life that you’d like.

Considering the incredibly low success rates of dieting long-term, and the enormous amount there is to lose along the way (e.g. your time, sanity, and long-term weight gain),

“giving up” on dieting is the responsible thing to do…just like “giving up” buying lottery tickets is also the responsible thing to do.

In business this is referred to as cutting your losses—when you let go of a costly strategy that you were hoping would pay off (but hasn’t), because you’re simply not willing to risk further losses or damages.

You’ve already lost [fill in the blank] number of years to diet-binge cycling…how many more years are you willing to gamble before you’re not willing to lose anymore?

On that note, if you’re ready to let go of dieting (for real) and want to learn what *does* work for creating permanent, long-term health outcomes (including mental health outcomes, like freedom from binge-eating, etc.) Check out my free video training series here. It’s worth the watch.