'I shed 9st 2lb without dieting - the weight fell off after I started eating intuitively'
Jess credits pole dancing for her weight loss
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The rules and restrictions baked into diet culture can backfire on slimmers because they're unsustainable.
Alternative approaches like intuitive eating are gaining momentum, as dieters are far less likely to give up on their goals.
This approach proved transformational to Jess Wilson, a YouTuber who speaks openly about her weight struggles online.
The slimmer admitted in a recent clip that she shed 130 lbs after taking up pole dancing, claiming it encouraged her to eat more intuitively.
Jess credits pole dancing for her weight loss
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The alternative eating framework supports weight loss by rejecting the restrictions commonly used in diets.
“I’ve been overweight almost all of my life,” Jess explained. “I started gaining weight probably when I was nine-ten, it just slowly started coming on.”
Jess became increasingly sceptical of diet culture after failing to see any results despite always adhering to the rules.
“I wanted something more than dieting so badly,” she confessed. “I am never going to diet again, I am done restricting foods.
“Eventually I found out about the term called intuitive eating, where you can eat whatever you want and have no shame and no guilt.
“I started practising the intuitive eating principles, [...] trying to focus on what I was craving or what I didn’t want to eat.”
The slimmer discovered pole dancing around the same time and immediately embraced the sport.
Pole dancing is highly effective for weight loss because it works all the muscles in the body simultaneously.
A 2020 study published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, found that pole dancers have significantly greater muscle strength than those who do not pole dance.
“I was pole dancing in the basement and I was healing my relationship with food," Jess claimed.
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Pole dancing offers a full-body workout
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“That is when I think a lot of my body changes happened,” explained Jess.
“That is when people started commenting on my body and asking me if I'd lost weight.”
Because relying on exercise alone isn’t a practical way to shed fat, you’ll want to consider what you’re eating and drinking as well.
“I do credit a lot of my weight loss to pole dancing, but also a lot of credit goes to healing my relationship with food by intuitive eating,” added Jess.