THE HARDCORE DIETING INDEX 

- Hardcore Dieter? – Swinger, Flatliner or Lifer?

This exercise is designed to help increase self-awareness about long-term dieting behaviour and to encourage detailed feedback so that we can better understand dieting. It makes no medical or definitive scientific claims – it is a work-in-progress in association with dieters and will be subject to revision as more feedback is obtained. All input from participants is very welcome: there is a "submit your results" button at the bottom.

Consider which statement better fits with your own feelings about food – A “Fuel most days, depressing sometimes, fun sometimes and a celebration on special days”, or B “Difficult most days, depressing often, rarely fun and rarely much to do with celebration”.

Decide which statement better describes your own feelings about dieting – A “I don't think about dieting most of the time – maybe I cut back a little for a while if my weight's bothering me”, or,  B “Dieting is a big issue for me. I think about it a lot and I am frequently either on some form of diet, or else worrying about food and weight”.

Only if you feel that both of the statement B's are a better general match with yourself go on to consider the following:

Do any of the following Patterns fit broadly with your own dieting experiences? -

1. Have you lost weight and regained it a number of times over a number of years? At some stage after stopping the diet, have you felt control ebbing away and the weight creeping back on? Has elation at having dieted off some weight been replaced by frustration and depression that it hasn't stayed off?

2. Have you never, or rarely, experienced any such dramatic swings of weight loss and weight gain but feel your life is a battle between “being good” and “being bad” with regards to food. Do you “treat yourself” and then “punish yourself” on a regular basis, moving between what you regard as overeating and deprivation? Is your relationship with food and eating stressful, messy, sometimes seemingly out-of-control and often guilt-ridden?

 3. Do you live your life effectively on a diet most of the time? Do you consciously estimate, count or even weigh most of your food with regard to calories and/or nutrition (this includes regularly buying prepackaged foods which target dieters) and restrict your intake to types and/or quantities of food and/or times of the day which might strike non-dieters as out of the ordinary? 

If it is Pattern 1 in which you recognise most of yourself, total up the most accurate figure in stones that you can for the amount of weight you have lost throughout these dieting cycles and add to this figure the amounts then gained. (eg. lost two stones on diet, afterwards gained three and then lost three stones on diet, afterwards gained four more = 12 stones = 5 points). Match this figure with one of the following: 

3-5 stones          = 1 point

5-7 stones          = 2 points

7-9 stones          = 3 points

9-11 stones        = 4 points

Over 11 stones    = 5 points

- Then total up the number of years you have been engaged in mainly continuous dieting cycles (do not include years when weight has remained largely static and dieting has not taken place or has been significantly less intense):

2-5 years          = 1 point

5-8 years          = 2 points

8-11 years        = 3 points

11-15 years      = 4 points

Over 15  years   = 5 points

Add the two figures together – weight-lost + weight-gained points, plus length of time points - to obtain your figure out of ten on The Hardcore Swinger Dieter Index.

Hardcore Swinger Dieting is our term which is nearest to the classic idea of Yo-Yo Dieting, where dieters lose weight only to regain it inevitably afterwards. In our experience the relationship between losing and gaining can be more erratic and variable, subject to a number of factors - and hence we prefer the looser idea of a Swinger Dieter.  Whatever the precise mechanics and what we call it, this kind of physical roller-coaster is also a distressing emotional roller-coaster.

 If it is Pattern 2 in which you recognise most of yourself, decide how intense is your own struggle between “bad foods”, or overeating, and then compensating either by not eating or trying to eat “good foods”. Assess how unsettled and guilt-ridden your feelings and behaviour about food and dieting may be. Consider your own habits against the following statements and pick the one which best matches your usual self:

“A struggle between feeling I've overeaten and the urge to make amends by depriving myself hits me maybe a few times a week or so - but it doesn't dominate my life” = 1 point 

“I often get edgy or even quite panicky about what I have or haven't eaten - but it's not at the forefront of my mind all the time” = 2 points

“I'm never really comfortable, it's on my mind a lot of the time. Most days there's some struggle between 'good foods' and 'bad foods' and I end up feeling guilty” = 3 points

“It dominates most of my life. I spend most of my waking moments between being guilty about eating and desperate about either not eating or eating the 'right' things” = 4 points

“Every hour and every mouthful eaten or not eaten is a battle” = 5 points

- Then total up the number of years you have been engaged in this struggle (do not include years when food, dieting and weight issues have seemed less intense):

2-5 years            = 1 point

5-8 years           = 2 points

8-11 years         = 3 points

11-15 years       = 4 points

Over 15 years    = 5 points

 Add the two figures together – best statement-match points, plus length of time points - to obtain your figure out of ten on The Hardcore Flatliner Dieter Index.

Hardcore Flatliner Dieting is one of the two additional categories of major long-term dieting behaviour we identify besides the longer-recognised Swinger/Yo-Yo pattern. Flatliners often live their lives as if just about every day is a mini-Swinger cycle between “good” foods and “bad” foods and between a feeling of overeating and a sense of deprivation. Never really comfortable around food and eating issues, we call these dieters Flatliners for two reasons. Firstly, they may not show the jagged peaks and troughs of dramatically varying weights, quite often remaining fairly constant in physical size. Secondly, however, they are often “flatlining” through their lives, having the emotional heart knocked out of them by stormy and distressing relationships with food, eating and dieting. Flatliners tend to suffer in silence, often embarrassed by the lack of control in the centre of their lives.

If it is Pattern 3 in which you recognise most of yourself, consider how rigid and maybe obsessive is your own ongoing dieting lifestyle. Think through if and when you are ever relaxed around food and dieting issues and ever really free from dieting and the worry and guilt it brings. Consider your feelings against the following statements and pick the one which best matches your own habits:

“I consciously or unconsciously calorie-count at some times most days” = 1 point

“If I sat down and thought about it and was really honest with myself, I am more or less on some form of diet a lot of the time” = 2 points

“The thought of relaxing and stopping my dieting lifestyle would worry me” = 3 points

“On Christmas Day (or celebrations special to my own culture), sometimes on holidays, or on big family events I can let go a tiny bit for a short while, knowing that I can make a big effort to pull it all back in tomorrow” = 4 points

“If I broke my fixed regime for just a single day I dread to think what might happen” = 5 points

- Then total up the number of years you have been engaged in this struggle (do not include years when food, dieting and weight issues have seemed less intense):

2-5 years            = 1 point

5-8 years            = 2 points

8-11 years          = 3 points

11-15 years        = 4 points

Over 15  years    = 5 points

Add the two figures together – best statement-match points, plus length of time points - to obtain your figure out of ten on The Hardcore Lifer Dieter Index.

Hardcore Lifer Dieting describes those dieters who never (or rarely) come off a diet, even though the precise diet may change. Lifers fear that letting go of strict dieting control might spell disaster. Lifers often try to recruit new prisoners to a full-time dieting lifestyle because sharing the misery somehow helps to make sense of it.

Please send us your results by clicking on the button below, entering your answers in the two boxes provided and clicking "submit". The first box asks for your overall self-assessment, which should comprise a category and a number (eg. Flatliner 7) and the second box asks for your general dieting experiences. This is all totally anonymous unless you choose otherwise (if you seek a reply then you MUST include your email details with your written comments as we do not otherwise record emails).

Please also note that there is a much more detailed questionnaire on the main Research page, accessed under More Information from the Home page. We are keen to amass as many insights as possible and invite you to consider participating in this study (note that this is an invitation to participate in academic research, not an offer of therapy).

 –       We draw no judgements or conclusions from these categorisations but we hope that the exercise may help open your own eyes to the culture of Hardcore Dieting. Through ongoing feedback and refinement, we seek to develop a  framework philosophically comparable to the standard designation of physique as Endomorph, Mesomorph and Ectomorph - there always seem to be as many hybrid types as there are more precise matches but it lays down a credible viewpoint.

-    OK, you've gone through The Hardcore Dieting Index - do you want some assistance thinking it all through? If so, you should read your way around this site, perhaps starting with the WHAT CAN I DO NEXT? clickthru from this page - which takes you to our 3 Small Steps self-help system - and certainly taking in the Diet-Free page as well.

IMPORTANT PERSONAL SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT: - If you feel significantly out of control, distressed or depressed regarding any of these or related issues, we suggest that you consult your GP or seek other specialist help.