Hey everybody, it's Marie Gidoy, I cover health and science for NPR and I'm the host of

NPR's Life Kit Guide to rethinking weight loss. As part of reporting that guide, we asked

you for your weight loss stories. And a lot of you told us you had some pretty negative experiences.

I'm 35 and I've been on a diet since I was a teenager. I went on my first diet when I was 19 years

old because I had put on the freshman 20 in my case. One year when I was pretty unhappy,

I lost the ton of weight just because I didn't have an appetite and suddenly everyone was giving

me so much love and attention and asking me what my weight loss secret was. This led to several

years of me trying to keep the weight off. That was Linda Gerhard, Kristen Lent and Talia Cooper.

They told us that even if their diet started off okay and they lost some weight,

after a while their relationships with food got a little messed up.

Weight watchers made me something of a binge eater where I'd steadfastly count my points a week

long way in and then binge for the day that I weighed in. It just meant that I got more and more

obsessed with food. Thus began a cycle of finding a new diet, losing weight and eventually gaining

all my weight back, usually with a few extra pounds just for fun. And all of this is unfortunately

pretty common. Research suggests that around 90% of people who lose weight end up gaining a

back and I can just put you in a really maddening mindset. I found myself crying over a point two

pound weight gain in the bathroom that's point two pounds that's less than a pound.

And restrictive diets can also lead to serious health problems like eating disorders.

So I finally decided I just couldn't do it anymore, dieting just wasn't worth it.

And right around that time I discovered intuitive eating, intuitive eating.

It's basically a strategy for reframing your relationship with food. We heard from a lot of

listeners who said intuitive eating helped turn things around for them.

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