Healthy Eating vs. Dieting: What’s the Difference?

While often used interchangeably, eating healthy and dieting are not the same thing and should be used for different goals. Here is a breakdown of healthy eating vs. dieting and the pros and cons of both.

What’s healthy eating?

Healthy eating is the way of eating that promotes adequate nutrition to support physical and mental health. The practice of healthy eating encourages the consumption of healthy foods; whole foods in their natural state such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, whole grains, dairy, poultry, seafood, and meat, and balanced meals with ample macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).

While healthy eating focuses on consuming whole foods and reducing processed foods, it has an “all foods fit” approach to nutrition, as it encourages indulgence based on the body’s natural hunger and fullness cues.

What’s dieting?

Dieting is the practice of eating in a restrictive, regulated, or supervised manner (1). While the term “dieting” is most commonly used to reference short-term attempts to lose weight, alter body composition, or increase muscle mass, it also applies to medically prescribed diets used to treat diseases such as celiac, arthritis, diabetes, or heart disease.

The practice of dieting may involve eating in limited quantities, consuming fewer calories, restricting specific foods or food groups, limiting certain macronutrients, restricting eating hours, lists of “good” and “bad” foods, and/or external rules.

So, is dieting the same as healthy eating?

Dieting and healthy eating are not the same thing. Dieting is a planned manner of eating that involves restrictive dietary patterns used to alter body weight, improve body composition, or treat disease, while healthy eating is a way of eating that encourages the consumption of healthy foods to support overall health.

Healthy eating can be used in conjunction with dieting, but the act of dieting does not ensure healthy eating unless prioritized.

Can you lose weight by eating healthy?

While you can lose weight by eating healthy, it’s not guaranteed. Put simply, if you are eating a healthy diet, but you are not eating in a calorie deficit, weight loss will not occur.

Weight loss requires the body to be in a sustained calorie deficit; when the body utilizes more calories than are consumed, however, healthy eating does not guarantee the creation of a calorie deficit.

Given healthy eating promotes the consumption of whole foods, and they tend to be lower in calories than ultra-processed foods, it is possible to lose weight by only eating healthy, however, it does not ensure weight loss. For fat loss, it is best to eat healthily AND focus on diet and exercise strategies that ensure you are burning more calories than you are confusing.

Fortunately, you don’t need to count calories or macros to support a weight loss goal. There are many ways to lose weight without counting calories and plenty of portion control strategies you can implement to support a weight loss goal without weighing or measuring your food.

Moreover, by focusing on creating healthy eating habits, such as reading food labels, cooking your meals, creating balanced meals, and practicing mindful eating and intuitive eating, you can create healthy habits that will help you avoid weight loss plateaus and maintain fat loss for the long term.

What’s the difference between diet food and healthy food?

Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as “diet food”. While all whole foods are considered healthy foods, as they are nutrient-dense and support overall health, there are no specific foods that ensure weight loss, weight gain, or changes in body composition.

While many foods are marketed as magical “diet foods” that will guarantee specific health outcomes, most of these claims are not factual or evidence-based, and consuming these foods does not ensure your diet will be effective. These foods often contain health claims such as “low-calorie”, “low in saturated fat”, “high in fiber”, “fat-free”, or “sugar-free”.

Weight loss and weight gain are dependent upon total calorie intake, which is based on diet, exercise, and overall lifestyle. Weight loss is only achieved by maintaining a sustained calorie deficit, and healthy weight gain is only achieved by maintaining a sustained calorie surplus with adequate protein intake.

The Bottom Line

Healthy eating focuses on consuming a balanced diet of healthy foods to support an adequate intake of essential nutrients without restriction to maintain optimal health, while dieting is a practice of eating food in a restrictive way to support weight maintenance, loss, or gain, treat illness, or prevent disease.