When news broke out that we would all be placed in quarantine, because of the pandemic, the phrase “quarantine 15” was spread like wildfire. Everyone began to equate the fact that we would all be stuck at home to an increase in weight gain. With nothing to do but watch Netflix and binge on snacks, “quarantine 15” quickly became the new “freshman 15”. Instead of being afraid of a virus that could potentially be fatal, people were more concerned with the weight that they would gain while being locked in their homes.
As many gen-z-iers do, they took to creating memes for the “quarantine 15” while influencers took to their social media platforms to promote free at-home workouts that involved the use of equipment frequently found already at home, to help people curb the “quarantine 15” that they were bound to gain. Some influencers even suggested that people wear regular clothes and pants with buttons to keep a check on whether or not they have gained weight. Overall, the “quarantine 15” led to a load of posts and memes that were ultimately aimed at body shaming people for letting themselves go during their time in quarantine.
Instead of deciding to dedicate all of this newfound time that everyone has to maintaining a healthy lifestyle (either by starting a new fitness routine and/or incorporating wholesome foods into their diet), many people decided to take the “easy” way out by deciding to start a new diet. There are plenty of fad diets that are currently very popular such as keto, whole30, paleo, Atkins, and many more that require you to cut out certain food groups, mainly carbohydrates, in order to kickstart your metabolism.
These diets often advertise quick weight loss with promising results. The timeline in which these diets guarantee results is often the most attractive aspect to those reading and researching about these diets. However, when reading and researching, people often don’t get to see the struggles that people go through or the health risks associated with these diets. Most of these diets aren’t feasible for those that have pre-existing conditions, and these things aren’t always mentioned in the positively raving reviews that people write about these diets.
These diets are not made to be sustainable for a long period of time. They are advertised as month-long diets to help kickstart your metabolism. Then, after you end the diet, your metabolism will be able to work to breakdown all the foods you were consuming prior to your diet. However, it rarely works like that. Instead, you will have wasted a month on buying foods for this diet that helped you to lose 10-15 pounds, but as soon as you begin to eat the foods that were cut out, you’ll gain back the weight you lost. And sometimes a little bit more than that, in half the time it took you to lose the weight.
Because you would’ve failed to gain the results you were hoping for with one diet, you will move onto the next diet that promises you the same results in a shorter period of time. You’ll do this to see if the change in diet is what you need to help you achieve your goals. And yet again, if it doesn’t work out, you will become discouraged and either give up, or try another diet. This cycle often occurs multiple times before people begin to understand that these diets truly don’t work. This is what diet culture is.
Diet culture has been around for quite some time advertising a quick solution to a problem that is specific to each individual. It breeds a sense of toxicity that results in obsessive behaviors that are not sustainable and can often lead to a breakdown causing a binge eating session of the foods that you were deprived of during your diet.
This is why Health Fitness Revolution is starting a new series to help highlight all of the diets that are circling the internet, as well as the world, and let you know the pros, cons, health risks, and everything else involved with trying these diets. Our goal is to properly educate you about what all of these diets truly entail. Will these diets actually help you to lose and maintain your weight? Or if you have any pre-existing conditions, is this diet something that you can try to help you reverse those conditions? Or is too dangerous for you? We want to create a one-stop series that can help you to make the right decisions about how to properly live a healthy lifestyle. Although we do not support the toxicity that surrounds diet culture, our only aim is to educate you using facts and recounted reports of these diets.
Series by: Prathyusha Bandi
