'I'm an Eating Disorder Specialist—Here's Why Your January Diet Won't Work'

I have been a psychotherapist for nearly twenty years. I specialize in eating disorders and borderline personality disorders—both of which, in my experience, are more prevalent in girls. I work with families all over the world from lots of different cultures, which I find can be very informative within the eating disorder space.

Historically, many have assumed eating disorders are only prevalent in Western countries, among affluent girls, who want to look like pictures they see in magazines, which is completely untrue. In places like Asia, rates of young girls with eating disorders has increased hugely over the past ten years.

I am currently the international program director at a residential eating disorder program based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It combines a very high level of medical care with education, a volunteer program and skill building for young people aged 13 to 26.

Why do we diet after Christmas?

From festive cake to the traditional Christmas dinner, there are so many fun traditions during the holidays which center around food. When filling stockings for kids, parents are often enticed to buy things like chocolate selection boxes. Even places like drug stores, which typically sell medicine or beauty products, have so much candy available at Christmas.

So, we receive all this information about celebrating somehow being tied to food. Much of our planning for the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve is based around eating, which I think can be really difficult for many people, not just those who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder.

I believe if it was not so difficult, we wouldn't see such a surge in diets hitting the television screens from December 26. I feel we're constantly fed this unspoken message that we can overeat and binge at Christmas, which somehow means we're enjoying ourselves. But then, there's something afterwards that says: "That's not okay, you've done something wrong, so you need to reverse it by dieting."

Many of us put ourselves through a punishment after Christmas. Then, we talk about "holiday bodies" for the summer. So it's almost like we're running our calendars by body shape and food consumption.

Why diets don't work, even in the New Year

In my view, there is no benefit to food restriction or dieting. There is lots of research into diets, because it's a multi-billion dollar industry, the majority of which shows they do not work in the long-term.

Often, you will see some difference in the short term, but so much evidence suggests that change won't be there in six months time. That is not because people fail. It's because if we have to do anything in order to change the way our body is shaped, it's going to be difficult to maintain.

When I explain this to my patients, I say: "If I have a shoe size 38, but I really want to be a 36, I can bind my feet up, and while I'll be able to get my shoes on and walk, I'll have to do something every day to fit into those shoes—it will be continually uncomfortable." So, am I likely to do that in the long-term without damaging myself? I believe the answer is no.

Another example is when babies are born. Every baby has their birth weight, length and head circumference measured. That size, for most babies, is what mother nature intended for them and means they will fall at a certain place on a percentile.

For instance, maybe you fall into the 75th percentile, which means that only 25 percent of babies born at the same gestation as you are bigger than you. However when we get older, we all want to fit in a standard size six or eight. Everyone wants to squish back into the middle of that percentile.

When it comes to calorie counting, again, all people do not fit the average number of calories we are told we "should" consume. So when you see on the back of a packet: "Women should have 2000 calories a day", it doesn't take into account the uniqueness of any of us. Just like that diet, it doesn't consider whether we go to the gym, how old we are or whether we're menstruating or not.

Why diets can be dangerous

For young women, dieting is often learned behavior. For example, growing up, one of my patients saw her mom constantly going on the running machine and going out for dog walks, but also talking a lot about her clean eating plan. She made sure to only eat particular foods; restricting around gluten, meat and sugars. So the message to this girl, from a very young age, was: "It's not okay to eat this stuff."

When she went to school, this patient was not very popular and one day found a message in her pencil case saying: "You are really fat and ugly." So, having had this experience at home—knowing what clean eating was and which things she could legitimately drop from her diet without anyone really questioning her, she began doing that.

Then, the diet took hold. That young person began to lose weight very quickly and, as a result, got lots of comments at school saying: "You look really good" or "You look really well." She also got her first boyfriend.

She continued losing weight rapidly, but also continued receiving validation about getting smaller. So that became the ultimate goal, she thought: "The less I weigh the more I will be loved."

The dieting continued and continued, with exercise now also in the mix, until her periods stopped and hair started to go lank. She struggled to concentrate and was snappy at school, but that was chalked up to her being a teenager.

At the same time, her mum was really happy, because she had someone in the house to "eat clean" with. However diets work very differently for adolescents, who really need proper nutrition in order to get their systems working correctly. So her mom might be able to get away with this diet to a certain degree, but this young person could not.

She ended up having a cardiac event, which caused her heart to slow to such a rate she couldn't even squat to the floor and stand up again. Her body was essentially starting to shut down.

She was admitted to hospital, but her parents found it very difficult to accept what was going on, so they discharged her and took her home. She quickly ended up in the emergency room again, with doctors telling her if she continued dieting and exercising, her life would be in danger.

However, by this point her brain was wired to want validation from losing weight, so it was very difficult to stop. If eating disorders have been going on for three years or over, they have a much poorer prognosis than if they're caught quickly.

Breaking the "January diet" cycle

One thing we can start thinking about, instead of dieting, is wellbeing. If you have enjoyed Christmas —you have enjoyed spending time with family, having dinner with loved ones, taking something from your selection box, then that is fine, there is no punishment that has to come off the back of it.

When we punish ourselves for overeating, that is often when we start to label both ourselves and food as good or bad. We start to give human qualities to food, which I feel is pretty ridiculous. There is nothing about a burger which makes it good or bad. It doesn't have any characteristics, because it's just a burger.

I believe once we can start changing our language about eating, thinking about food just being food—and all food essentially being okay, then we start to change the way we feel we need to punish ourselves.

Another example is concepts like the "little black dress" on New Year's Eve or that swimsuit for summer. Clothes were created to cover bodies, bodies were not designed to fit into clothes, so again it's just switching that perspective.

Losing weight safely after Christmas

If you're thinking about losing weight, I believe the first thing to consider is why. What do you think will change if you become smaller? How will things be better? Will I be happier? Will I have more friends? Those are really important questions to ask ourselves, and often we can talk ourselves out of making the very impulsive decision to diet.

If you feel you have increased in body size or weight over the Christmas holidays, it's probably because you have taken part in more food-based activities than you would do ordinarily. In my experience, the body will sort that out by itself.

I would recommend returning to your normal diet and staying active. Don't over-exercise, but being able to move your body, in a way you enjoy, two or three times a week, is going to be much more beneficial to your system than any diet. It will make you feel much happier than restricting your food intake.

Fiona Yassin is a U.K. and international registered psychotherapist and accredited clinical supervisor. She is the founder and clinical director at The Wave Clinic. You can visit their website here.

All views expressed in this article are the author's own.

As told to Newsweek editor, Monica Greep.