"Diets make you gain weight," says Luis Navarro Sanz, psychotherapist and emotional intelligence specialist. In his book 'Los 4 hábitos de la gente delgada" (The 4 habits of slim people' - food doesn't make you gain weight, your anxiety does), Navarro breaks down the reasons why we fall into the trap of 'diet mentality', a way of eating that harms us physically, mentally, and emotionally.
To what extent have Ozempic and similar products brought back the obsession with thinness? "The obsession with thinness is still very present because our culture prioritizes the slim body as the only beauty standard. It is an arbitrary, imposed model that goes completely against the real diversity of sizes and shapes of our bodies. 95% of the population does not fit into that ideal body, which is just that: ideal, not real. Drugs like Ozempic meet a high demand: to lose weight quickly and effortlessly. However, like any medication, it has side effects, and the reality is that most people who stop using it regain their weight. Not eating because you don't feel like it is convenient and easy, but it doesn't imply any change in mentality, habits, or the relationship with the body. The results are temporary, and the lost weight is eventually regained," explains Navarro Sanz.
In this scenario, where is the line between health and social impositions? "That line has to be defined by each individual. Many people are starting to become aware that drugs, slimming preparations, and diets are just a big business that doesn't deliver the promised results. Besides, they may have experienced the effects of these products on their own bodies. That's when they may begin to question what is more important: a slim body that perhaps genetics hasn't given them or health? At that moment, they also open up to healthy ways to lose weight without trying to manipulate the body. But before blaming ourselves for not having that silhouette, we must ask ourselves a key question: Why do some people seem to stay slim effortlessly while others spend their lives battling the scale? The answer is not magic, but biology."
So, if there are habits of slim people, is it because there are people who are naturally slim all their lives? "Yes. There are people who are genetically slim and have no merit; it's a gift from nature. Others have a metabolism that allows them to maintain that slimness even if they eat a lot. But there is a third group: those who have the habit of eating when they are hungry and stopping when they feel full. They are the 'rare ones'. At a meal, they stand out because while others keep eating, they stop because they have noticed that they are no longer hungry. The explanation for this behaviour is that they have not lost the connection with the stomach's hunger and satiety signals and stay slim effortlessly. The bad news is that most of us have lost that connection with the stomach's signals and are overweight. The good news is that this connection can be regained to lose weight naturally and healthily."
Navarro states that diets do not work. "Anyone who has been on one or more diets has the experience of regaining weight after a while, the so-called 'yo-yo effect'. A diet is voluntarily starving, and the brain interprets this as a threat to survival, triggering the 'yo-yo effect'. In 1944, Dr. Ancel Keys conducted the first study on the effects of starvation in humans, the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. This initial scientific study described the negative effects of diets and the subsequent rebound. Numerous subsequent studies have confirmed his findings. Diets do not work for two reasons. The first is that they go against biology: starving triggers an alarm signal in the brain that will do everything possible to regain the lost weight. The second is that diets act on the effect (overweight) and not on the causes, which are two: emotions like anxiety that drive compulsive eating and negative habits that lead to overeating."
Furthermore, this psychotherapist continues, "studies show that the stricter a diet is, the more intense the rebound effect. Also, the brain detects that the body is frequently starving and shields itself from losing weight, preventing weight loss and even gaining weight as a protective measure. When you have been on many diets, it becomes very difficult or practically impossible to lose weight with a new one. And you may have gained weight. The emotional effects are a sense of guilt, failure, helplessness, feeling incapable... All of this stems from what I call the 'diet mentality'. It is an invisible psychological trap that almost all of us fall into, and if we do not learn to detect it, it will keep us trapped in a cycle of food-related suffering forever."
What exactly is this diet mentality, and how can we avoid falling into its trap? "The diet mentality is a set of ideas, beliefs, and habits that we acquire from having been on diets, or simply from being influenced by the media, social networks, or magazines that constantly talk about losing weight, foods that do not make you gain weight, 'lose weight in a month', etc. It starts when we reject our bodies because we are overweight or because they do not weigh what we desire. This creates the belief that 'food equals calories'. We start controlling food, compensating if we overate yesterday. Eating less if we have gained weight, or giving ourselves a break if we have lost weight. Weight becomes the measure of our success or failure, of whether we have behaved well or badly. It is studied that the human psyche does not respond well to control and deprivation, and that is why we enter a cycle: from control to loss of control, from deprivation to binge eating, and back to the beginning. The key is to understand this cycle we are trapped in and break free from it. To accept that losing weight with diets is a failure and that we have not failed, the failure lies in the method. We must realize that we have given certain foods the power to make us gain weight and discover that what makes us gain weight is the whole, not a particular food. And above all, stop thinking about calories when eating and start enjoying." In this mentality, what role do guilt, anxiety, and loss of control play? "These are emotions we feel as a consequence of the diet mentality; they are inherent to it. Guilt arises because we have cleverly been convinced that if the diet does not work, it is because we did not do it right, that we had to try harder. Anxiety arises from the set of prohibitions and rules we have adopted. It is very common to think about food all day and feel irritated. And loss of control is the result of the control imposed by the diet. When I cannot eat what I want, when I want, and how much I want, binge eating inevitably occurs. Diets can lead to eating disorders in rigid, perfectionist individuals, or those with intense body rejection."
So, what do we do if we really want/need to lose weight? "The first step is to stop dieting and let go of the habits we have acquired from them. Stop controlling food, counting calories, weighing yourself, and compensating. We need to learn how to eat, enjoy what we eat. It is important to see food as something rewarding and not as a threat. It is essential to eat a variety of foods, throw away the mental list of forbidden foods, and seek methods to lose weight in a healthy and natural way. It sounds liberating, but you are probably wondering now: 'If I let go of control and rules, what stops me from eating endlessly?' The answer is not in your willpower but in your biology. There is a precise, previously unknown way, consisting of just four steps that slim people use unknowingly, and I will reveal them at the end of this interview." Navarro Sanz argues that exercising does not significantly aid weight loss... "There is a myth that exercising and dieting will make us lose weight. This is not true; studies show that the number of calories we can burn through exercise is not significant for weight loss. Moreover, even if we dedicated several hours a day to intense exercise, it would not compensate for the result. The brain has a conservative mechanism when it comes to releasing energy and always maintains an emergency reserve that is not affected by constant exercise. The brain does not care if you want to lose weight; it cares that you stay alive, and it does that perfectly. Exercise because you enjoy it, it is healthy, and makes you feel good. But forget about doing it to lose weight because you will only end up frustrated."
Emotions are fundamental both for gaining weight and for losing weight. "Many people eat out of anxiety, boredom, or sadness to feel relief. However, this relief is a trap because it starts a cycle: I feel bad and eat, I feel relief, but then I feel worse for having eaten and gained weight, which makes me eat again. There is a popular concept now called emotional hunger. I say that emotional hunger does not exist. There is emotional discomfort that drives you to eat. There is only real hunger: physical hunger. If we continue like this, we will expand the catalogue to emotional thirst or emotional cold. To successfully lose weight, you have to have the ability - which can be easily learned - to accept your emotions and feel them. This way, you will feel calm and know how to resolve them without seeking relief in food."
And finally, Navarro Sanz reveals what those four habits of slim people are: "The four habits are not a theory, they respond to the body's functioning, have a scientific basis, and are proven effective. They are based on biology and allow you to connect with the stomach's hunger and satiety indicator. We all have them at birth; we are mammals and eat from the stomach, we are not biologically designed to eat from the head counting calories." The four habits are:
1. "I eat when I'm hungry: Most people eat two to four times a day at 'meal times.' This schedule has nothing to do with biology; it is a response from the Industrial Revolution, which established schedules for factory workers. Most people eat at set times even without physical hunger because 'it's time to eat.' This way, we don't listen to our bodies, overeat, and gain weight. It is important to distinguish: physical hunger is not the anxiety we may feel in the stomach, nor does it have anything to do with gastric juices, feeling an empty stomach, or intestinal sounds. The signal of real hunger is felt in the pit of the stomach."
2. "I enjoy eating: We are busy, we eat quickly, barely chew and swallow. It is important that eating is a quality time to nourish ourselves. Doing so has an important reward: it facilitates connecting with satiety. But beware, enjoying eating has nothing to do with eating slowly - that is very boring - or chewing 10 to 20 times (you know how to count). It is simply intending to enjoy, focusing on taste and texture. Enjoying is adapting chewing to the density and consistency of the food, whether it's a piece of watermelon, meat, broccoli, fish, cheese, or bread."
3. "I feel satiety. By enjoying eating, we activate the body's mechanism that tells us we have ingested enough energy and triggers the signal of satiety. Contrary to what some studies say and the media repeat - that satiety takes a minimum of 20 minutes to feel - all my clients, without exception, feel it while they are eating. The signal is clear, unmistakable, and felt in the stomach area."
4. "I stop eating when I feel satiety. As a result of feeling satiety, we can stop eating. We have ingested the energy our body needed and do not have to eat more. With these indicators, the struggle ends. You don't have to make titanic efforts, go hungry, or eliminate foods from your life. Simply let your body do its job and lose weight progressively because you eat exactly what it needs."
These four habits, he concludes, "are a total paradigm shift. They create a framework of absolute freedom. When you were dieting, you were a soldier obeying orders without learning anything. Here you change obedience for discovery. You free yourself from the toxic diet mentality. You explore, learn to listen to yourself, and turn your body into your best ally. And the best part is not just that you lose weight, but that you do it enjoying it, from a place of calm, self-confidence, and forever."