Are your friends trying to break your resolutions? Ayesha Muttucumaru reports on the study that suggests you're not alone
One look into the contents of our cupboards will reveal that Mission New Year New You is now well and truly underway. Sadly, we’ve ditched the turkey leftovers, the half-drunk bottles of Baileys and the remnants of our Christmas puds, to make room for an onslaught of veg, fruit and supplements to help us shed the pounds and provide an extra dose of health for combatting those cumbersome January blues.
However, could our diet chit-chat be causing us to lose friends as well as pounds? According to a new study by Nakd Wholefoods, it appears so.
The research has found that not only have the newest healthy-eating trends led to a generation of savvy dieters, but also a new collective of diet saboteurs too, with one in four admitting to purposely sabotaging a friend’s diet.
So why are our newly found healthy habits coming under such not-so-friendly fire? According to the stats, people are most annoyed by those who talk about their diet too much (26%), make them feel bad about themselves for not dieting (20%), are grumpy and miserable (25%), refuse to socialise (11%) and ban treats such as birthday cake (13%).
With a third of those surveyed choosing to deliberately avoid those they know to be dieting, the downright meaner findings came in the form of their sabotage tactic of choice. With strategies ranging from tempting them with unhealthy treats, inviting the dieter out for dinner or a drink and talking them into giving up their diet altogether with phony comments of encouragement, with friends like these, who really needs enemies?
When asked, the reasons given for the diet backlash were varied - with some saying that their calorie-counting friends weren’t as fun anymore, they were jealous about them losing weight, worried about them stealing their thunder or resentful of them for making them feel bad about not losing weight themselves.
Is it partly some dieters’ faults by making calorie-counting the focus of their conversations? Arguably yes, but surely deliberately setting out to sabotage a friend’s hard work is a step too far. Of course it can sometimes be irritating if it’s all that people talk about, but do those saboteurs realise how hard it is to DROP THE BISCUIT AND PICK UP A RYVITA INSTEAD? OF COURSE WE NEED TO VENT!
Provided it’s a healthy facination that doesn’t involve crash diets, persistent calorie-counting or compromise on your conversation skills, there really isn’t a reason the sister- (and brother) hood shouldn’t be more supportive. If this sounds like a familiar tale to you, it looks like the only weight you should be shedding is those unsupportive friends, not a few pounds…
If your friends are lacking in the supportive stakes, check out our section on weight management where you can find recipes, apps, funny features and more on the subject of weight loss.