Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Summary
On episode 668 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Dr. Supatra Tovar, a clinical psychologist and registered dietitian, and one of the only people who holds both credentials along with accredited fitness expertise. She holds a doctorate in psychology and two master's degrees, has run a Pilates practice for over 20 years, has been a registered dietitian since 2015, and founded Anew to help clients rebuild their relationship with food, mind, and body. She is the author of Deprogrammed: Diet Culture, Rethink Your Relationship with Food, Heal Your Mind, and Live a Diet-Free Life.
Dr. Tovar explains that diet culture runs on two biases, lookism (the pursuit of the thin ideal) and weightism (fat phobia), and that dieting itself is largely futile because severe calorie restriction triggers a starvation response that preserves fat and burns muscle, then rebounds into overeating once the diet ends.
The conversation moves into hunger and fullness signaling, why labeling foods “good” or “bad” backfires, how childhood experiences and attachment styles shape adult eating patterns, and how small, specific, anchored habits work better than grandiose New Year's resolutions. Note: a power outage cut the interview short right as Dr. Tovar was answering Allan's closing wellness question, so only part of her answer made it into the recording.
Links
- https://anew-insight.com
- https://drsupatratovar.com
Key Takeaways
- Diet culture runs on two negative biases. Lookism, the pursuit of a thin (or hyper-muscular) ideal, and weightism, fear of how you'll be treated if you're overweight. Together they drive a multi-million dollar industry built on insecurity rather than health.
- Dieting is largely futile long term. Research shows restrictive dieting more often leads to net weight gain than lasting loss, because the body responds to severe restriction with compensatory hyperphagia, eating more once the diet ends to make up for what it lost.
- Severe calorie cuts trigger a starvation response. The body has a built-in energy partitioning system that protects fat stores and sheds water and muscle first when calories drop too low, so the scale moves even though fat loss is minimal.
- Weight regained after a crash diet comes back disproportionately as fat. Because muscle is harder to rebuild than fat, especially over 40, repeated dieting cycles leave you with a worse body composition at the same body weight each time.
- Ignoring hunger and fullness signals breaks intuitive eating. Ghrelin (hunger) and leptin (fullness) are the body's real-time nutrition signals. Suppressing hunger during a diet, and then overriding fullness during a binge, teaches the body it can't trust those cues, or you.
- Labeling food “good” or “bad” backfires. Moralizing food creates psychological cravings for whatever is forbidden and increases the risk of bingeing. Treating all foods as neutral and available reduces obsession and makes it easier to stop at a reasonable point.
- Diet culture beliefs are usually rooted in childhood. Food marketing aimed at kids, and messages from parents like “finish your plate to earn dessert,” shape lifelong eating patterns, often reinforced by attachment style (anxious, avoidant, or disorganized).
- Reprogramming starts with awareness and repetition. Identifying automatic thoughts like “carbs are the devil” or “I'm not good enough,” and replacing them with a short, repeated mantra, builds new neural pathways and gradually replaces the old pattern.
- Small, specific, anchored habits beat grandiose resolutions. Grand New Year's goals like “cut all carbs and hit the gym an hour a day” rarely stick. A small, doable daily behavior attached to an existing routine (an anchoring behavior) is what actually creates lasting change.
“Your body is your best friend and is telling you all the time what it needs.”
Dr. Supatra Tovar
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 681 – More resilience through nutrition with Sarah Bayliss
Episode Notes
Podcast: 40+ Fitness
Episode: 668
Published: 2024-11-12
Host: Allan Misner (aka Coach Allan), author of The Wellness Roadmap
Guest(s): Dr. Supatra Tovar, our co host, Coach Rachel, Deprogram Diet Culture: Rethink Your Relationship with Food, Heal Your Mind, and Live a Diet-Free Life
Listen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube (audio only)