Woman Who Tried 'Everything' Loses 5 Dress Sizes—By Ditching Diet Culture

From Atkins to juicing, taking laxatives and even slimming pills, Lucy Bound said she had tried every diet and weight loss trend under the sun to shed a few pounds and feel her healthiest and happiest self. She'd spent her whole childhood overweight and had hit 238 pounds in 2022, at just 30 years old. At every age, she said she loathed her size and desperately wanted to feel fitter and more confident.

But it took the now 32-year-old year until just over 12 months ago to learn that following strict diets, many of which had first been introduced to her in childhood, weren't doing her any favors. After bouncing between crash diets for years, Bound finally nailed an approach to weight loss that actually works: ditching diet culture—and it led to her losing five dress sizes and over 60 pounds in less than a year.

"I was at my heaviest in 2022 when I was 30, I weighed over 238 pounds, but I still weighed around 232 pounds when I was only 12 years old," Bound told Newsweek.

"I weigh 180lbs pounds now. I'd like to lose some more weight but I feel absolutely incredible! I'm now a U.S. size 8 and I'm feeling the fittest and healthiest I've ever felt in my life," she added.

Being Exposed To Diet Culture In Childhood

The mother-of-one has at last achieved her wellness goals by committing to balanced meals that include every food group, bidding farewell to restrictions on carbs or fats, and regular exercise in the form of cardio at the gym. Despite her efforts, she still continues to tackle the toxic messages around food and body image that she'd been first introduced to as a child.

"I was always an overweight child, and I became an overweight teenager when I got older," she said. Bound, from the U.K., grew up in the heyday of slimming culture in the 90s and early 2000s, with "slim" parents who were themselves always trying the latest diet or exercise trend.

"I remember going to see a doctor aged 13 for tonsillitis, but the doctor instead prescribed me diet pills. That was it. That was the beginning of my unhealthy relationship with food and my weight.

"The doctor told me that if I took these pills, I would feel really full and I wouldn't need to eat again. Can you imagine what that does to a 13-year-old? Now that I'm a mother to a little girl, I feel even more unsettled by what happened," she added.

Indeed, Bound said she now feels horrified when looking back at the restrictive fads she swore by in her younger years, and the physical and emotional pain that they caused.

"Going on a strict diet will help you lose weight 'faster', but rapid weight loss can cause health problems ranging from kidney stones and hypoglycemia to hormonal imbalances to name a few," nutrition therapist, Karen Louise Scheuner, told Newsweek.

"Slow and steady wins the race as far as weight loss diets are concerned. However, long-term stats on dieting show that diets have a 98 percent failure rate. All in all, it's better to not diet. Eat balanced meals and follow intuitive eating guidelines instead," she added.

Soon after that appointment, Bounds began to refuse to eat but the painful toll of fasting led her to seek solace through binges instead. In her own words, the weight "went straight back on", and her efforts had gotten her precisely "nowhere".

Does Diet Culture Lead To Disordered Eating?

"What's so dangerous about diet culture is that it propagates, feeds, and worsens disordered eating, which creates a vicious cycle of weight loss, weight gain, and subsequent mental health challenges," medical doctor, Danielle Kelvas, told Newsweek.

From that moment on Bound got caught in a never-ending web of fad diets where for years she bounced from one of the latest eating plans to another.

"I tried to stick to slimming camps, the no-carb diets, juice-only diets or random boot camps. I tried just about everything, even the Atkins diet!"

She recalls taking the prescribed diet pills as being a low point. "The diet pills were just the worst because they would make me feel so ill. I wouldn't eat properly, I'd just drink water and have very small meals."

"One staple meal was half a chicken breast and a small bag of vegetables. I became so faint after eating so little that I'd feel light-headed and see stars when standing up," she explained.

A byproduct of her "tainted" perception of healthy eating, Bound learned to cut certain food groups out of her diet. Carbohydrates, one of the body's main nutrients that provides energy, quickly became public enemy number one.

"I'd take whole packets of ham into school, because I thought that was healthier than having a normal ham sandwich with bread," she said.

"I would take laxatives, I'd down water before I ate, it was all really sad."

"I had such a strange narrative in my mind that certain foods were 'wrong' or that they couldn't be permitted on certain days. At one of the slimming groups we had specific days when carbs were allowed, but we couldn't eat another food group or more indulgent meals on the same day. That stuck with me," she added.

Tennessee-based Kelvas weighed in: "Laxatives have become a really popular fad diet method, but long-term use can have serious consequences on your gut microbiome, hydration levels, and kidneys. Just about every organ system takes a hit."

"Fad diets label some foods as 'good' or 'bad', instead of teaching moderation, mindful eating, and learning to listen to satiety signals. A hardcore diet might get someone slimmer, but as soon as the weight comes back, feelings of guilt follow, as do unhealthy compensatory behaviors!"

"A few years down the line, that person could develop binge eating disorder or anorexia which has such a high mortality rate," she added.

Julija Morozovaite, the head of clinical psychology at guthealth.care, backs Kelvas. Vilnius-based Morozovaite told Newsweek: "Extreme dieters can exhibit disordered eating behaviors, such as avoiding certain foods or food groups, feeling guilty or anxious after consuming 'forbidden' foods, or skipping meals following a cheat meal."

Bound's anguish about her weight reached a height in her late 20s, when she considered getting a gastric band fitted.

"My friends talked me out of it," Bound said.

"One friend mentioned that there would be no point in me going under surgery to lose weight if I couldn't fix my mental attitude towards food," she added.

For years, Bound's priority had always been to lose weight fast, evidenced in the slimming bars that she'd force herself to eat between classes at school. Younger Bound never spared much thought as to how sudden weight loss could be achieved, the impact rapid weight loss would have on her health, or how such hasty weight loss could ever be sustained.

It's the questions she never asked in the past, that began to plague her in 2022 and led to her breaking up with diet culture once and for all.

Bound, who lives in Hertfordshire and works as an account manager, believes that aside from just eating nutritious meals in moderation and exercising, an understanding of how calories actually work is crucial intel for anyone seeking weight loss.

"You need to be able to understand why you're losing the weight, then it becomes easier for you to sustain that weight loss," Bound explained.

"I'd tried everything, but I found nothing sustainable and I never understood why it was difficult for me to lose weight. Then I clocked that I had always been pushing myself towards extremes. I'd close myself off from certain foods or set deadlines for lightning-speed weight loss. I decided to slow down and approach everything in moderation instead," she added.

Bound started hitting the gym in late 2022 after her motivation to lose weight in a gentler way skyrocketed. Much to her surprise, she began to love working out and tracking her progress online.

"I decided to start going to the gym. I decided to eat everything that I bought, because I saw other people with incredible bodies eating carbs for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I decided to give this a try," she said.

"I told myself that I'll give myself six months and if I'm still unhappy then I will reconsider the gastric band," she added.

The achievable targets that Bound set for herself, which ranged from an hour at the gym on Fridays to lifting a few weights on Tuesday evenings, paid off. She began to lose touch with her once set-in-stone dream of getting a gastric band, instead choosing to pursue the gym and follow short workouts she'd earmarked online.

Bound enlisted the direct support of a personal trainer in 2023, and in the last couple of months has focused on growing her health and exercise-centered TikTok account @creatinglucy, by sharing tips and tricks with her digital audience in the hope of inspiring others struggling with weight loss. In just over a year, she had managed to transform not only her health but her attitude towards food.

"There's still so much to be done if you consider how we as a society think and speak about weight loss. That's why I'm keen to spread the word on what's worked for me," Bound said.

There are many good influences out there, but on the flipside, there are many businesses too that need people to stay reliant on them. I've seen certain creators overcomplicate weight loss and this leaves you in the same vicious cycle that I'd been stuck in.

"You might lose weight with them quickly, but they don't give you the tools to keep it off long-term. At the end of the day, if you're restricting your food intake or exercising at all hours of the day you'll lose weight fast, but this isn't sustainable and you'll end up piling the weight back on even quicker," she added.

Bound is confident that if people understood why they're losing weight, how calories work, and how energy in food works, then we "wouldn't have an obesity crisis".

"People don't understand that and before last year I didn't either. I had no idea why certain food groups were being victimized," she said.

She continued: "I'm now living a really healthy and balanced life, and I no longer get sucked into diet culture."

And as a parent, Bound knows exactly what she wants to teach her daughter and what definitely won't be welcome in their house. She told Newsweek that her partner has been firmly supportive of her weight loss journey and her drive to combat toxic messaging around body image for their little girl.

"I couldn't ever imagine saying to my daughter that she can't eat certain things or that she shouldn't eat for however long," Bound said.

"It can all be very damaging, especially when you're so young. I want her to grow up knowing that everything can be eaten in moderation, and that she should be enjoying exercise too because it's a real privilege to be able to move your body and look after your health."

How Diet Culture Impacts Mental Health

"Diet culture deeply affects mental health," Morozovaite told Newsweek.

"Historical norms have objectified women and defined 'ideal' body types. Global standards prompt people to set unrealistic body standards, and traits like belly fat and cellulite are still unfairly stigmatized as abnormal."

"Despite movements promoting body positivity, the enduring impact of years of conditioning persists. The pursuit of thinness has driven many to extreme dieting and punishing exercise regimens focused solely on calorie depletion, rather than holistic health or athletic achievement," she added.

Morozovaite agrees that diet culture can contribute to the prevalence of eating disorders.

"Dieting can strongly increase the chance of developing these serious mental conditions because it often traps people. Diets usually don't work long-term! They can lead to dangerous and harmful weight fluctuations that are worse for your health," she continued.

While she'd still like to shed a few pounds and will be concentrating on her health, Bound now knows exactly what will and won't work for her. And it's safe to say that the mom-of-one won't be relying on any more fads in the future.

"Crash diets just aren't sustainable," she added.

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