Why is dieting shameful?

You should always give your maximum energy and time to achieve your goals. Your goal should always be something that benefits you in the long term and makes you feel balanced and happy. If reading several books, a week makes you feel better about yourself, no one will tell you that you shouldn’t do it because you are “perfect the way you are”. It should be the same way if someone feels insecure about their body and wants to have plastic surgery to make their features meet their desires about themselves or wants to lose or gain weight.

Dieting should be normalized to help someone feel better in their skin, by which I do not mean that being fat, skinny, sporty, chubby, thin, or thick should be something shameful but it should be up to the person whether they want to change the way they look or not and be supported in those decisions.

This is why sentences such as “You are perfect the way you are”, and “You are already beautiful, you don’t have to change” can be harmful. Wanting to change our appearance does not mean that we consider ourselves ugly, it simply means that we would be even happier the way we desire to be. Dieting, which does not only mean eating less to lose weight, should be looked at the same way as a hair dye to color our hair in any way we want. We likely wouldn’t tell someone who bleaches their hair that they are already perfect the way they are and they do not have to do it, so why is it okay to say it about dieting.

Of course, these changes must be considered beforehand and not just rushed into but that also doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be done or that it is a bad decision. Just like with plastic surgery, you should have a conversation with a professional to make sure your diet isn’t going to damage your health and your expectations are realistic.

Borbély Petra Georgina