Health: Dieting addiction tackled with self-trust, doctor-backed approach, says psychologist who lost 8 stone

A psychologist who has spent years treating addiction says dieting addiction is real and solvable using a doctor-backed approach that centers on self-trust around food rather than external fixes. Shahroo Izadi, who began to treat patients with substance misuse and later moved to private practice, credits a technique learned from a heroin-addicted patient with helping her finally break free from cycles of restriction and bingeing. She says she lost eight stone in 18 months and has maintained a stable weight since 2013, illustrating how the overlap between addiction and dieting can be addressed with cognitive and behavioral tools rather than gimmicks.

Izadi’s personal history reads like a roadmap of the dieting world’s pull. From adolescence she battled weight stigma and the pressure to eat less. As a teenager, she experimented with appetite suppressants bought online and pursued increasingly restrictive diets—boiled eggs with cabbage soup, celery, or meat—only to binge later and feel the shame anew. The cycle intensified as she aged, and by her early 20s she underwent a privately funded gastric-band operation. At first the band reduced her eating, but she soon learned to game the system—tightening it when she wanted to starve and loosening it when she craved relief. She reached a nadir at around 90 kilograms (about 14 stone 2 pounds) after the band slipped and had to be removed. It was that rock bottom moment that propelled her toward therapy and a gradual rethinking of how to interact with her own body.

After years in NHS settings, Izadi shifted to private practice and began studying the bridges between addiction and dieting. A turning point came when she used a technique with a heroin-addicted patient: to counter the sense of powerlessness that fuels addictive behavior, she repeated a simple mental cue—“These hands are my hands.” The practice reinforced that she was not powerless to change her eating habits, and she began to apply the same compassionate framework to her own struggles. Over time, this internal shift translated into real behavioral changes. Izadi reports she stopped treating food as a daily battleground and instead approached eating with steady, regulated habits. The result was an eight-stone weight loss, achieved without the use of fat jabs or other quick-fix methods, and a long-term maintenance of a healthier weight.

[Image: https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/12/15/10/104734587-0-image-m-19_1765795963428.jpg]

The science behind dieting addiction, Izadi argues, helps explain why many people struggle despite their best intentions. Restrictive eating triggers a cascade of hormonal and neurological responses designed to preserve energy during perceived famine. Leptin increases hunger signals when the body senses energy deficit, while hormones such as GLP-1 and peptide YY are altered during dieting and can linger long after weight loss, contributing to renewed hunger and weight regain. Hormonal shifts are accompanied by changes in brain function: MRI studies have shown that after weight loss, reward centers in the brain respond more strongly to food cues, and restriction can dampen activity in the prefrontal cortex, which governs executive function and rational decision making. These biological and cognitive dynamics help explain why willpower alone often fails in long-term weight management.

Izadi notes that this body of research aligns with her clinical observations. She cites a 2011 University of Melbourne study showing hormonal adaptations persisting after weight loss, a 2008 Columbia University study linking heightened reward responses to food images, and Yale University work in 2011 demonstrating reduced prefrontal activity during food restriction. Taken together, the evidence suggests dieting can induce a biologically-driven cycle of hunger, craving and relapse that looks very much like an addiction. The practical implication, she says, is clear: recovery from dieting requires a shift away from short-term dieting goals toward a sustainable framework of eating that supports self-regulation and minimizes the trigger points for restriction and bingeing.

Izadi emphasizes that the current diet industry profits from failure. She argues that many popular weight-loss tactics rely on external controls—fat jabs, meal-delivery services, calorie-counting regimes and other shortcuts—that undermine people’s sense of self-efficacy around food. In her view, the only durable route forward is to rebuild habitual patterns that restore balance and trust in one’s own appetite and appetite signals, rather than relying on external products or programs. She writes that treating dieting as an addiction—similar in structure to pharmacological or behavioral addictions—allows for a recovery model built on gradual, manageable changes rather than dramatic, unsustainable shifts.

The approach Izadi developed borrows from addiction-recovery principles: identify triggers, reduce exposure to highly reinforcing foods, and replace rigid cycles with consistent rituals that promote regulation rather than punishment. She describes a process of reframing, where people learn to respond to cravings with coping strategies that do not require perfection. The aim is not a perfect diet but a reliable system of eating that reduces the emotional and physiological volatility that fuels bingeing and relapse. This, she says, requires time and patience; the transformation she describes took more than a year and a half of deliberate habit change rather than a single breakthrough moment.

Izadi’s work also intersects with broader clinical conversations about how to classify and treat dieting as an addiction. While binge-eating disorder and other eating disorders share features with dieting problems, she distinguishes dieting addiction by its persistent pattern of restrictive behavior interlaced with compulsive bingeing, a cycle reinforced by the anticipatory reward of weight loss and the relief of eating forbidden foods. Her framework calls for a compassionate, nonjudgmental stance that treats the individual as capable of change when given the right tools and support.

The book from which much of Izadi’s framework is drawn—How Diets Make Us Fat—has been adapted for a broader audience, underscoring the message that lasting weight control is not about chasing a perfect body but about reshaping relationships with food. Izadi positions this work as a practical alternative to the diet-industrial complex, arguing that the most effective interventions are those that empower people to sustain healthy eating patterns through self-trust, gradual habit formation, and cognitive strategies that dampen the power of cycles of restriction and bingeing. The publication has been described as a bridge between clinical insight and everyday practice, offering readers a research-informed pathway out of dieting’s grip.

Ultimately, Izadi’s experience and her clinical observations converge on a hopeful conclusion: recovery from dieting is possible for people who feel trapped by cycles of restriction and relapse. By reframing dieting as an addiction, focusing on self-regulation, and rejecting dependence on external “quick fixes,” individuals can develop a resilient relationship with food that supports long-term health and well-being. She notes that the journey is personal and non-linear, but the destination—a stable, balanced approach to eating and body image—can be reached with perseverance and the right support. The work she describes aims to empower people to trust themselves around food again, rather than surrender to a system that profits from their struggles.