How Cheating On Your Diet Helps You Lose Weight

Clair prides herself on being really good when she diets ... until she isn't. Then she is really, really bad and can't seem to help herself. The moment she gets derailed and succumbs to food she knows she shouldn't have, she is taken over by an insatiable desire for all the foods she's been denied the past few weeks. The pattern is always the same, as it is for millions of people who diet every month. 12 Ways To Feel Irresistible Without Losing Weight

Then there are people like Betsy, who are really good during the day, only to leave work and find themselves unable to stop their desire for fast food, ice cream, chips and cookies. Betsy would head to the closest convenience store after work, where she'd load up on cookies, an ice cream bar and candy, and then hurriedly eat it all on her commute home. Mike did the same, always stopping for some candy. Tiffany too, but her fix was whipped cream from the can and string cheese. 

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And then there was Nancy who never stopped. She would go straight home, but then raid her cabinets for any junk food she could find, as if possessed by a demon. She would ask me, "Why am I so bad at night after being so good during the day?" I would tell her, "For the same reason dieters go on a binge when their diet ends."

I call it restricted rebellion or the deprivation-binge rollercoaster. When you have been restricted or deprived of foods you want, you want them all the more. And then when you get your hands on that food, you feel compelled to eat as much as you can while you can, knowing you are bad and it has to be the last time. That self-imposed belief that you should and will be restricted again creates an emotional need and child-like rebellion against that very restriction.

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In addition, eating food you believe you shouldn't have creates guilt, anxiety and a self-loathing that is soothed by eating comfort food, temporarily relieving the feelings with a dose of happy denial. Another name for this is emotional eating. 6 Signs You're At Risk Of Developing An Eating Disorder

More cheating advice from YourTango:

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• Why I Cheated