5 Reasons for Failing Diet

I don't say that I ever had a big weight problem, but very much like everyone else, I had some issues with my weight when I was a teenager. I tried starving myself, I exercised, tried yoga, squeezed myself in tight undergarments and so on. During those years (I think mostly between 15 - 21) of struggles, I was obsessed with becoming thin, and also food at the same time. Sometimes I succeed in not eating for a few days and become very thin. Then I buy so much food and eat them all in short period of time. When I start gaining weight again, I can't fit into these tight clothes that I bought and I don't want to see anyone. I skip classes and stay home and eat more. I drink lots of diet coke, black coffee and woolong tea to keep my mouth moving without consuming any calories. That was when I was obsessed with losing weight and food.

Now I don't diet any more. Sometimes I do get a bit bigger, and I will try losing some weight, but in general, I don't think about my weight any more. I am not super thin but I'm not fat either. When I look back the period when I was obsessed with diet, I can see how and why my diet was failing at the time.

1. Being unhappy --- I think this was the number one reason for over eating. When your mind is filled, it is less likely that you would fill yourself with food. At least for my case, this was a big reason for becoming obsessed with food.
2. Calculating calories --- For me, calculating calories of what you are eating and how to burn that much calories did make me crazy. Each morning, I would try limiting to 500 calories of food that day, but I often break it within few hours after waking up. Once when I break that in the morning, I tell myself that I would start from next day, so I will just eat today. Then I start eating so much, probably 4000 calories or more in a very short time. After that, I would calculate how much exercise I have to do and still that won't be enough to burn this all by tomorrow and make myself depressed.
3. Buying overly tight clothes ---  I think everyone has their own natural shape. Just because your size is larger than the models, it doesn't mean you are big. Some people are naturally fit into certain size and buying something too small for your natural size isn't a good idea. For me, my natural size right now is around 4 or 5. If I buy size 0, it is very tight. If I try hard to lose my weight to fit into that size of the cloths, that would cause me problems, because my natural size is much bigger than 0. Sometimes you have a friend who is the same height as you, but her size is smaller, but it doesn't mean you are big. If you look at your friend's bone structure or the way her fat is distributed throughout her body, it is different from yours. So don't try to be like someone else. Know your size and don't push yourself.
4. Thinking about diet all the time--- When I was dieting all the time, all I thought about was diet. Not much of anything else, or anything else that I thought about goes back to diet. For example, when I listened to my celebrity crush singing, I would think about meeting him but then I feel that I'm too fat and embarrassed to be seen by him. So I'll think about dieting again. It is hard to keep your mind off of diet when you are obsessed, but it would help having something that is nothing to do with meeting someone (this always goes back to diet) and something you do well and enjoy. Make yourself busy.
5. Starving yourself to get thin --- When I was starving myself for a few days, all I thought about was food. I even look at food pictures and kind of challenge myself instead of avoiding. Then a little thought crosses my mind. "Why don't I eat a little?" I challenge myself for eating a little but not much. What happens next is that I keep repeating this "little" bite and at the end give up on diet for the moment and eat like crazy. After eating too much and make myself full, I'm very much ashamed of myself eating that much. Starving yourself will make you think more about food.

I think "obsessing about diet" is a very common problem among young women and it is more of emotional problem than physical problems. I don't know what maybe the most effective diet, but understanding your natural unique shape, buying the right size clothes, stop calculating calories, stop thinking about diet and never starve yourself would certainly help. Look inside yourself and find the source of your unhappiness (other than your weight) . When you become happy, you will not suffer from dieting problems any more. Just a little bit of change in your eating habit and exercise will bring you to the right size without suffering from obsessive dieting.