The no-diet diet

Thinking of going on a diet after stuffing yourself silly over Christmas? If you want to lose weight permanently, it's almost certainly the worst thing you could do. With the possible exception of the deep-fried Mars bar, diets are probably the most ineffective means yet devised by man for losing weight. Around 95 per cent of people who go on a diet end up just as fat, or even fatter, a year later.

If any diet actually performed as promised, then the obesity epidemic would have been cured long ago. Instead, more than two-thirds of the UK's adult population is overweight or obese. And the problem is getting worse. Obesity has grown by more than 400 per cent in the last 25 years. At any one time, one in five women in the UK is on a diet; the figure is almost as high among teenage girls.

To capitalise on this season of over-indulgence and the hangover of self-loathing, hundreds of "miracle" diets will be published over the coming weeks. Each will promise to help you lose astonishing amounts of weight in record time. But if you truly want to lose weight, ignore thehype. Diets are 21st-century snake-oil. If there was any justice in this world I'd be enormously fat. I eat like a ravenous bear, but I've always been slim. I deserve to waddle down Oxford Street like a foie gras goose. Thankfully I don't. I've always put it down to good luck, genes or a fast metabolism.

Last year I learnt the truth when I met Professor Ben Fletcher and Dr Karen Pine, two scientists researching the psychology of obesity. Professor Fletcher had discovered something remarkable. The naturally slim and the overweight did not differ so much in what they ate, but whether or not they were driven by a collection of hidden habits. Over-eating was a side-issue, a symptom of something deeper.

They theorised that if you could break these hidden habits then people would naturally slim down to their ideal weight. When they tested their theory on obese volunteers, they discovered that you could lose weight simply by breaking these habits. A diet wasn't needed at all. It was instantly dubbed "The No-Diet Diet".

In clinical trials their programme helped people lose around two pounds a week. Remarkably, this weight loss continued long after the patients had completed the initial 28-day programme. In most cases they continued losing weight until their body's ideal healthy figure emerged. Some people in the clinical trials lost over 40 pounds and virtually everyone kept the weight off.

It turns out that the key to the no-diet diet lies in breaking the core habits that force people to overeat. And, bizarre as it seems, this is done by doing such simple things as taking a different route to work or switching off the TV for a day.

Diets are superficially seductive. It stands to reason that if you consume fewer calories you'll dig deep into your body's fat reserves and lose weight. This simplistic observation has underpinned the diet industry for decades.In reality, it's almost impossible to stick to a diet for more than a few weeks or months. It's not a question of willpower, but one of biology. We have all been honed by millions of years of evolution to seek out and consume food - that's why nature gave us hunger. But hunger can be driven by so much more than simply the natural desire to eat. Habits, emotions, expectations, social conditioning and a wide collection of psychological baggage can all act together to create a form of "false hunger". In practice, this means that doing something as simple as choosing and eating your lunch comes with decades of psychological baggage.

Habits make up much of this baggage. These slowly accrue as the years pass. Layer upon layer of habits form and lock your behaviour in place. They all nestle and support each other. One habit leads inexorably to the next, which triggers the next, and the next. Psychologists call these interlinked behaviours "habit chains", and these become entangled into a web of habits, known as a "habit web". Like it or not, psychologists estimate that the average person spends around 85 per cent of their time acting out some kind of habit. It's a personalised Groundhog Day, one where you're repeatedly driven to overeat.

Cast an eye over your own life: do you always sleep on the same side of the bed? Get up at the same time? Do you always have sex on the same nights of the week (and in the same positions)? Do you always go to the toilet at the same times? Do you always take the same number of footsteps to the bus stop? Do you always take the same route to work? And, when you're there, do you always drink out of the same mug? Do you always sit in the same chair at meetings? Need I ask any more?

Now extrapolate these habits to food and eating. How many times have you started eating a biscuit only to realise a few minutes later that you've scoffed half the packet? It's a habit. You may also have got into the habit of eating say, nacho chips and salsa in front of the TV, or perhaps having a can of beer or a glass of wine before dinner. These are all habits. You are consuming empty calories, often unconsciously, getting no pleasure from them at all, and all the while piling on the weight. To make matters worse, almost everything in the modern world is geared towards habit-building. Walk down any high street and you'll see the same shops selling the same things. The TV and much of the media purveys the same mantras encouraging over-consumption. All of these messages together trigger a cascade of mental and physical habits. We are literally being programmed to eat and drink too much.

This all sounds very depressing, but it is possible to dismantle the habit web, free yourself, and lose weight. If you break your habits on a daily basis then very quickly they lose their power. Of itself, each habit is easy to break. It's the psychological connections between them that makes them tough. Vast numbers of these connections give the habit web its strength - not the individual habits. So the habit web has a critical weakness. If you break the simple habits that glue the bad ones in place, then the whole edifice comes crashing down. And if you break the habits that compel you to overeat, then you will naturally lose weight.

That means making small progressive changes in your life. Each day you need to do something a little differently - such things as stopping and noticing things on your way to work rather than rushing to the office. It means spending a few moments looking at the flowers in the park, the leaves on the trees, the grip of a baby's hand on your finger, how your loved one looks when they concentrate, the way a musical tune rises and falls, the colour of your friend's eyes, the full moon in a black sky.

Yes, stopping and enjoying life really can help you lose weight. And wouldn't that be a nice change?

Why dieting is bad for your health

MENTAL

Dieting creates an unrealistic relationship with food. This means you will "crack" and regain the weight you lost.

Restricting calories lowers your energy levels. This can reduce your "cognitive capacity" or brain power.

Numerous studies link chronic dieting with feelings of depression, low self-esteem and increased stress. Since nobody can stay on a diet permanently, you are setting yourself up to fail.

Believing that being thin will give you more "worth" as a person reflects the attitude that your self-esteem is dependent on your weight. Dieting doesn't solve self-esteem problems; it could make them worse.

Dieting disconnects you from your appetite. You don't eat when you are hungry. You then lose the ability to recognise when you are full and should stop eating.

PHYSICAL

Yo-yo dieting can cause long-term damage to the body's major organs such as the kidneys, heart and liver, as well as to muscle tissue.

Constant dieting reduces the levels of the body's natural killer cells. These are vital for fighting off diseases such as cancer.

Dieting can also lead to skin problems, headaches, hair loss, light-headedness, menstrual irregularities, sleepiness, gallstones and constipation.

Going on a diet can starve your body of essential nutrients. It is impossible to stay on a diet permanently without causing some damage to your body.

A single episode of sudden weight loss, followed by rapid weight gain, can increase the likelihood of you developing heart disease.

'The No Diet Diet' by Professor Ben C Fletcher, Dr Karen Pine and Dr Danny Penman. Orion, priced £9.99

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