Why Your Body Is Smarter Than Diet Culture Gives It Credit For

Your Body Isn’t the Problem — Diet Culture Is

Diet culture has done a clever job convincing us that our bodies can’t be trusted, that hunger is a weakness, fullness is failure, and control equals worth. But what if your body has been wise all along?

In recovery, one of the hardest (and most healing) steps is learning to see your body not as an enemy to manage, but as a system that’s always been trying to protect you.

The Body as Protector, Not Problem

From a trauma and Schema Therapy lens, control around food and body often develops as a coping strategy, a way to create predictability in an unpredictable world. Dieting, food rules, and body checking can feel like “safety behaviours” that regulate anxiety or shame.

But beneath those behaviours lies a deeper truth:

Your body is not betraying you…. it’s adapting to keep you alive.

When you restrict, your body slows metabolism, increases food preoccupation, and releases hormones like ghrelin to trigger hunger. When you binge, it’s your body’s way of restoring energy balance after deprivation.

These are not failures of willpower; they’re signs of an intelligent system trying to survive.

What Diet Culture Gets Wrong About Biology

Diet culture tells you that weight is purely a matter of effort, that discipline equals health. But research tells another story:

• Your set point range is largely determined by genetics and hormones.

• Restriction and weight cycling confuse your metabolism, not strengthen it.

• The more you fight your body, the louder its survival mechanisms become.

A 2015 review by Dulloo & Montani found that chronic dieting can permanently alter metabolic efficiency, pushing the body to cling to energy stores. In short, the harder you try to control it, the harder your body works to defend itself.

From Control to Collaboration

In Schema Therapy, the “Punitive Parent” mode often mirrors diet culture, harsh, perfectionistic, and critical. Recovery means strengthening your Healthy Adult mode —the compassionate, grounded part that listens to the body rather than policing it.

I suggest asking yourself:

• What if my body already knows what it needs?

• What if my job is to listen, not override?

• What if nourishment could feel like trust, not control?

Through body trust work and trauma-informed recovery, you can learn that safety doesn’t come from discipline, it comes from connection.

Relearning Safety in the Body

If your body has been a battleground, trusting it again takes time. Psychodynamic and schema-focused therapy can help uncover early experiences of feeling unsafe, unseen, or out of control that made food and body rules feel protective.

You can begin by:

• Practising or building interoceptive awareness; noticing hunger, fullness, and emotion cues without judgment.

• Reframing your body’s responses (“my body’s trying to protect me”) instead of labelling them as failure.

• Letting go of numbers (calories, steps, scales) and replacing them with values-based nourishment and rest.

Your Body Is Wise — Let It Teach You

Recovery is not about mastering your body; it’s about partnering with it. Every craving, fatigue cue, or hunger pang is your body’s language of safety and repair.

The more you fight your body, the louder it speaks. The more you listen, the calmer it becomes.

Your body doesn’t need more control, it needs compassion, nourishment, and rest.

If You’re Ready to Rebuild Body Trust

At recoverED Clinic, we help clients reconnect with their bodies through evidence-based, neuroaffirming care. Our psychologists use a variety of evidence-based approaches, such as Schema Therapy and Psychodynamic Therapy, and trauma-informed approaches to support lasting recovery, not just symptom control.

If you’re feeling stuck between control and trust, you’re not alone, and your body already holds the wisdom to guide you home.

Contact us to have a chat about what the next steps of recovery may look like for you.

Note: The information provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and is NOT intended as medical /psychological advice. Please consult a healthcare professional for personalised guidance.