Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight

by Linda Bacon

It’s not because you didn’t want it badly enough. You regained that weight because the contributors to your body weight, such as what, when, and how much you eat, as well as how you expend energy (including your inclination to move), are not completely under conscious control.

The first step toward recovery: Do no more damage. In other words, quit the diet habit cold turkey. Since most dieters are likely to be above their setpoints, simply kicking the diet habit and restoring control to your body may result in a bit of weight loss. But regardless of whether your weight changes, I do promise that there’s even better stuff in store for you.

Because once you trust your experience, HAES just makes sense. Back to that example of dieting: If you trust your own experience, you know it’s not effective long term. The science just confirms your experience. If it did work, why would you have to try again?