With the arrival of September, there seems to be a collective paranoia about becoming the “best version of ourselves,” a term that, by the way, I find quite suspicious. It’s the time when it seems like we should start meditating, learning German, planning meals for the entire week, starting strength training, and, of course, losing weight.
The influence of social media has amplified this phenomenon to such an extent that anyone who decides to continue their life as before the holidays, but a little more rested, becomes the black sheep of the flock.
In the world of nutrition, challenges, detox plans, exercise tables to “burn off” summer ice cream and, as always, the latest fad diet emerge. There are people who spend their lives jumping from one diet to another, driven by the fear of not knowing how to eat. correctly if they do not follow a dietary plan designed by someone else. This dynamic leads them to cycles of restriction and excess, accompanied by feelings of guilt and remorse.
These individuals are known as chronic dieters (CD), and they often suffer from what is called permarexia. Chronic dieters are individuals who constantly restrict their food intake due to fear of gaining weight. Although permarexia is mentioned as a clinical concept, it is not officially recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) or classified as an eating disorder (ED) per se.
Chronic dieters tend to accumulate relics from every diet they have followed throughout their lives, resulting in a hodgepodge of myths, dietary rules, nutritional supplements, and diet fads. This only adds to their confusion and ultimately leaves them at a loss for what to eat.
When they adopt a new diet, they do so with the fervor of someone embracing a new religion, convinced that “this time it will work.” They prepare by buying everything they need: books, air fryers, detox blenders, and silicone molds to make zucchini muffins. However, within a period of less than two months, they feel like failures, exhausted, and convinced that they will never achieve their goal.
The continuous cycle of dieting, demands on their body, and aesthetic pressure deeply damages their confidence, as well as altering the physiological signals of hunger and satiety. They increasingly avoid foods that they stop eating, and if they do eat them, they do so in binge format, since they will once again be forbidden. These periods of restriction and overeating not only cause weight gain and metabolic damage, but also further deteriorate their relationship with food, predisposing them to the development of an eating disorder, from anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder.
The causes that give rise to the behaviour of chronic dieters or permarexia are varied. The first is the cult of thinness, which is associated with success and health in our culture, and current beauty standards, together with stereotypes, are the perfect breeding ground for encouraging behaviour of this type. There is also aesthetic pressure. The demand to be young and thin is no longer limited to advertising and certain women’s magazines. Today, social networks bombard you with thousands of messages every day suggesting that your body could be “better” if you so wish.
The projection of a single body type as ideal, along with the denial of body diversity, has exacerbated this problem. Even though there are now more representations of different body types, any body that does not fit ideal standards is subject to criticism, often under the excuse of avoiding “fat-bashing.”
The use of BMI (Body Mass Index) as a primary indicator of health contributes to justifying dietary restrictions, excessive exercise and fasting under the guise of health. Anything done in the name of health seems valid and is much harder to detect. For example, someone might say “I don’t eat that candy because it’s not healthy,” but behind that statement there might be a deeper fear of losing control than of the nutritional properties of the food.
Another cause is structural and systemic fatphobia and internalized fatphobia itself, the kind that makes us feel afraid of not being loved, not being valued positively without our body gaining weight, in a society where physical appearance is a letter of introduction, and currently, it seems to define us morally.
This phenomenon affects women to a greater extent, especially in the age group between 18 and 40 years, although it can extend throughout life. Generally, people start dieting or limiting the consumption of certain foods during adolescence, and from then on, diets can continue for years. Both adolescence and being female are risk factors for developing an eating disorder. Coincidence? I doubt it.
It is common for chronic dieters to have low self-esteem and base their personal assessment on how others perceive them. But honestly, how can you have good self-esteem if you constantly receive messages that your body is wrong? This only increases body dissatisfaction and shame towards one’s own body, which ends up limiting the lives of those who suffer from it.
The good news is that you can get out of this vicious cycle, but you have to stop doing restrictive diets, whether they are self-imposed or prescribed by a third party. It is advisable to go to a nutritionist who does not have a weight-centred approach, who listens to your needs and creates a guideline that is totally adapted to you. And you have to find the courage to lose your fear of food, but without food, there is no life.
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