To understand this further let’s looks at how your body spends its calories:

The energy you need to stay alive uses approximately 60% of your daily calories and depends on the amount of muscle and fat you have, your age, gender and genetics. Your thirty-seven trillion cells are hard at work, allowing your heart to beat, your body to breath, producing hormones and growing and repairing cells, for example. This takes a huge amount of work and energy!

You burn around 10% of your daily calories to process your food (yes, that much to digest and absorb nutrients!) and this depends on the amount you eat, the type of food and your genes.

Your daily activity uses in the region of 15-30% of your daily calories. This will depend on the type, duration and intensity of activity and your body weight. There are many advantages to exercising but going to the gym to compensate for eating a ‘forbidden’ food is not a helpful strategy. It is always better to eat a balanced diet without depriving yourself of essential nutrients and exercise moderately.

And although your liver and brain make up only a small part of your body weight; they each account for one fifth of the calories you need to stay alive.

Notably, calories from different foods have different effects on your body – impacting your satiety levels, insulin response, fat storage and overall energy expenditure. Hence fixating on counting calories proves futile, as it overlooks these many significant factors.

The solution lies in cultivating a healthy relationship with food, adding variety in to your diet and allowing eating to become a positive and nourishing experience.

I support women who are exhausted by the relentless cycle of calorie counting, food anxiety, and weight fluctuations, and who are eager to foster a positive relationship with food and their body. If you're ready to bid farewell to yo-yo dieting, binge eating, disordered or emotional eating once and for all, and embark on a journey of lasting transformation, I warmly invite you to book in a complimentary consultation with me HERE. Together, we can explore if a personalised one-on-one programme is the right fit for you and how I can help.

If the idea of tackling your eating patterns feels overwhelming and you're unsure of where to begin, take a look at my FREE guide Breaking the Cycle - Your First Steps to Healing Your Relationship with Food to kickstart your journey today

This invaluable resource will help you:

✔️Know when you’re really hungry and when you’re not

✔️Learn when to eat that’s best for you

✔️Know the best snacks to help you stop craving and feeling out of control

One formidable hurdle often stands in the way of making peace with food and your body – the fear of gaining weight. This fear is deeply ingrained, fuelled by societal norms, diet culture, and a pervasive belief that thinness equates to worthiness. But what if you challenged this fear? What if you dared to redefine health and happiness beyond the constraints of the scale?

The problem is that even if life feels all consuming, distressing, and these behaviours encroach on various aspects of your being, you still might feel conflicted about letting go because of the uncertainty that change will bring. The fear often stems from a nagging question about what might happen to your body if you abandon these familiar patterns. Diet culture, with its relentless pursuit of thinness, has normalised this fear, making it seem like the only acceptable goal is to be thinner.

Whether you struggle with chronic dieting, binge eating, bulimia, or emotional eating, it’s likely that your strict food rules and dieting behaviours have given you a sense of control. However, the longer they persist, its important to ask yourself if they are truly serving you now.

In order to move forward and overcome your fear its important to consider the following:

1. Understand Where your Fear has Come From

To overcome the fear of weight gain, it’s critical acknowledge its roots. Whether it stemmed from your childhood; perhaps you were made to feel unworthy because you weren’t the ideal body size? Perhaps comments were made at school, or your body felt different to others because you went through puberty early? Maybe the influence of social media, or the pervasive messages of diet culture have allowed these fears to take hold, dictating your choices and diminishing your self-worth.

2. Fixation on Weight Loss at What Cost?

Are you missing out on vital aspects of your life? It could be the lack of social connections with friends and family, or perhaps you're unable to share meals with your children, impacting your relationship. Maybe you find yourself with no headspace to focus on meaningful aspects of life that bring you purpose, joy, and fulfilment.

3. Reframe your Perspective

Challenge the notion that all weight gain is bad and all weight loss is good. Instead, focus on behaviours that promote overall health and fulfilment. This means reconnecting with our core values and remembering the things you loved about yourself and your life before weight loss became the priority. Many people’s unintentional weight loss is due to health issues- they may have an eating disorder or a chronic illness. For others gaining weight is a positive thing to help with hormone function, menstrual cycle regularity and, energy, vitality and health.

4. Embrace the Uncertainty

Life is inherently uncertain, and change can be uncomfortable. But by embracing the unknown and surrendering the need for all the answers, you can open yourself up to new possibilities. Yes, the journey may be challenging, but pushing through discomfort is where your growth begins.

5. Challenge Your Internal Dialogue

Challenge your inner voice that constantly equates your worth to your appearance. Your value, ability to be loved and worthiness are not dependent on the number on the scale. Instead, they are rooted in your experiences, relationships, and the joy you find in life. Talk to your self with compassion and kindness as you would with someone you care about.

Overcoming the fear of weight gain may be challenging, but it's also a journey toward reclaiming your health, happiness, and autonomy. By confronting outdated societal norms, reconnecting with your values, and embracing the uncertainty of change, you can free yourself from the shackles of diet culture and discover a more fulfilling way of living.

Do you long for a happy relationship with food, but are feeling lost on where to begin? Grab my FREE guide Breaking the Cycle - Your First Steps to Healing Your Relationship with Food, to kickstart your journey today