Have Diets Helped Us- Or Helped Create the Pro
For more than a century, people have been encouraged to lose weight by following diets. The first widely popular commercial-style weight-loss diet is often traced to William Banting's Letter on Corpulence in 1863. Since then, calorie counting, low-fat plans, low-carbohydrate plans, meal replacements and slimming clubs have become part of everyday life.
Many of us know the routine. We decide that Monday will be the day we start again. We look at food and ask: Is this good or bad? Am I allowed it? Will it make me put on weight? If we eat something outside the rules, guilt quickly follows. Food begins to take up far more space in our thoughts than it deserves.
Yet, despite the enormous growth of the diet industry, obesity has increased rather than decreased.
In England, about 15% of adults were living with obesity in 1993. The latest parliamentary figures report that this has risen to 30%, with another 36% of adults classed as overweight. In other words, adult obesity has roughly doubled during a period in which slimming diets, clubs, books and products have been widely available.[1]
The same pattern can be seen worldwide. The World Health Organization reports that adult obesity more than doubled between 1990 and 2022. Obesity among children and adolescents rose from 2% to 8% during the same period - a fourfold increase.[2]
This tells us something important: dieting has not solved obesity at the population level. However, it does not prove that diets alone caused the rise. Obesity is complex. Genetics, poverty, stress, sleep, medication, trauma, highly processed food, advertising, food prices, working patterns and reduced opportunities for activity can all play a part. The WHO describes obesity as a chronic, relapsing condition shaped by biological, psychological, social and environmental forces - not simply a failure of willpower.[2]
Why diets so often fail in the long term
Many diets can produce weight loss in the short term. The difficulty is maintaining it. When food is restricted, hunger and preoccupation with food may increase. The body can also respond to weight loss with changes that encourage weight regain. Research has found that changes in appetite-related hormones and increased hunger can persist for at least a year after substantial diet-induced weight loss.[3]
This can create a familiar cycle: restriction, hunger, overeating, guilt, renewed restriction and another promise to start again on Monday. It can also create what I call food noise: the constant mental juggling of what to eat, what not to eat, what is “good,” what is “bad,” and what we should feel guilty about. When weight returns, people often blame themselves, even though powerful biological and psychological responses are involved.
There is another contradiction. Dieting is often presented as a route to healthier eating, yet many diet plans rely heavily on manufactured low-fat products, meal replacements, snack bars and other highly processed foods. A label such as “low fat” or “diet” does not automatically mean that a product is nourishing. It can draw our attention towards calories and away from the simple question: Will this food nourish and satisfy me?
That does not mean every attempt to change eating habits is harmful or unsuccessful. Some people lose weight and maintain health improvements, particularly with individualised, continuing support. But a rigid, temporary plan based on deprivation is very different from developing a sustainable and peaceful way of eating.
What about eating disorders
Eating disorders and demands for treatment have increased, although the figures need careful interpretation. Globally, research using the Global Burden of Disease data found rising prevalence and health burden from anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa between 1990 and 2017.[4] In England, the number of children starting NHS treatment for an eating disorder reportedly rose from 5,240 in 2016-17 to 10,606 in 2023-24.[5]
Some of that increase may reflect better awareness, broader diagnostic definitions and more people asking for help. The Covid-19 pandemic also produced a particularly sharp rise in illness among young people. We therefore cannot assume that every increase represents a completely new case caused by dieting.
Nevertheless, dieting is a recognised risk factor for disordered eating, especially when it becomes strict, repetitive or tied to shame and self-worth. A five-year study of adolescents found that dieting and unhealthy weight-control behaviours predicted later eating disorders and weight gain. Its authors recommended moving away from dieting and drastic weight-control practices towards long-term healthy eating and physical activity.[6]
Dieting does not automatically cause an eating disorder. Eating disorders arise from a mixture of genetic, psychological and social vulnerabilities. But for someone already vulnerable, severe restriction, constant weighing, labelling foods as good or bad, and believing their value depends upon their body size can help start or maintain the problem.
What if we made life bigger than food?
Perhaps we have been asking, "How can I control my body?" when a more helpful question is, "How can I care for my body?"
The evidence does not show that all weight loss is bad or that nutrition is unimportant. It does show that repeated restriction, shame and short-term diet rules have failed many people. After decades of diets alongside rising obesity and eating disorders, it is reasonable to question a system that repeatedly sells the same promise and then blames the individual when it does not last.
A kinder approach would place less emphasis on punishment and the number on the scales, and more on regular nourishing food, movement that feels manageable, sleep, emotional wellbeing and self-acceptance. But it is not only about doing more exercise. It may also mean rediscovering a hobby, learning something new, meeting people, being creative or finding an interest that brings pleasure and purpose. When life becomes fuller, food may no longer have to occupy centre stage.
Acceptance does not mean giving up, and it does not mean that nothing will ever change. It means caring for ourselves as we are today, instead of postponing our lives until we reach a particular weight. From that kinder starting point, we may be better able to hear what our bodies need and make choices that genuinely support us.
Quieting the Food Noise
These ideas led me to develop Quieting the Food Noise, my six-week programme using hypnotherapy and hypnosis to help people reduce unhelpful food-related thoughts, build self-respect and begin trusting themselves around food again. There are no diets, no weigh-ins and no judgement—just a gentler way to create more calm, awareness and choice.
If this article has spoken to you and you would like to learn more, please visit www.sabinacapone.com.
Sources
House of Commons Library, Obesity statistics, 1 July 2026.
World Health Organization, Obesity and overweight, updated 8 December 2025.
Sumithran P et al., Long-Term Persistence of Hormonal Adaptations to Weight Loss, New England Journal of Medicine, 2011.
Wu J et al., Trends in the prevalence and disability-adjusted life years of eating disorders from 1990 to 2017, Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 2020.
House of Commons Library analysis of NHS data, reported in Eating disorders in children double in eight years, The Times, 19 August 2024.
Neumark-Sztainer D et al., Obesity, disordered eating, and eating disorders in a longitudinal study of adolescents, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2006.