Is it normal to think that diets should be punishment to work?

It's common, but it isn't healthy.

Look at it this way: How many times have you unsuccessfully tried to hate yourself thin, punish yourself into the type of body you'd like to have? It hasn't worked, has it? It never will. Hating yourself thin is always doomed because sooner or later, you'll hate yourself enough to go off the program, giving you more reason to punish and self-hate, making you restrict more, which leads to an inevitable break with the diet, which leads to...yeah, I think you see where I'm going with that pattern.

Try loving yourself instead. Look for ways to be kind to your one and only body. Give it healthy foods and tell it that it looks pretty in those jeans. Take it for a walk or a run in the park. Compliment it on its improved muscle tone. Your body deserves kindness, not punishment -- and the same goes for your brain.

Being fat isn't shameful. It's an almost inevitable consequence of yo-yo dieting and the endless spiral of self-anger and punishment that leads to it. Almost everyone loves to eat tasty stuff; some of us just aren't built to burn it off as quickly as others, and that kind of sucks, but it isn't our fault or something we deserve to be punished for.

If it helps to know, I've lost a good bit of weight and kept it off for a few years now by treating myself kindly. It's the only thing that's ever worked for me, and it might help you to try it, too. It certainly couldn't hurt.

It's normal but totally unhealthy to think that way. I've had a lot of issues in my life, and I used to try to make myself a better person through punishment... it got to the point where I was self harming to try to "help" myself discourage me from doing anything wrong... I have wicked anxiety and I used to have a bit of a temper problem, which I have since sublimated. Punishing myself simply fed to the cycle and it got worse and worse and worse....

For some fucked up, warped psychological reason it's easier to blame yourself than it is to forgive yourself... but it's the only way out of the spiral.

I'm not sure how to answer this from a healthy perspective, because I've only recently started recovery for my eating disorder (bulimia with anorexic behaviours, such as restriction and fasting). I will, however, say this: you're not alone. There are lots of us hurting like this, and there's help and support out there.

I don't know you, and I know you probably won't believe me. I wouldn't believe you, if you said this to me, but I'll say it anyway: you don't deserve to be punished. Whatever you think is wrong with you, whatever you think you've done wrong, you don't deserve this torture over food.

It sounds like you are developing Anorexia. I've had noughts with it on and off. I had similar views that were very inaccurate about myself. I felt like I was obese and by reaching my target weight, I would reach "perfection". I would be perfected. This "goal" unfortunately made me to lose weight the wrong way. In the last boggy I had with it I had very bad reaction to a medication I was on. That plus the anorexia almost killed me! ... I now eat a much healthier diet and stopped trying to reach such an unattainable goal.

If you want to lose weight, lose it the right way. Eat a GMO-free diet and go into vegetarianism. Or, you could see a nutritionist.

There is no such thing as a diet. You are either eating the correct foods and supplying your body with the nutrients it needs or you are not. People get too caught up on calorie intake without realising that energy from the different macro-nutrients are not interchangeble. Trust me, I am a nutritional advisor. :)

I would suggest reading the book "French Women Don't Get Fat." IT might change your outlook.

I used to think that way when I struggled with Anorexia Nervosa. The problem with my mentality was that I viewed myself as a terrible horrible person (which I wasn't) who was unable to do anything right without keeping strict watch over every aspect of my life (it manifested itself in food.) If I were you, I would go to an eating disorder clinic. The way you think about food is unhealthy. You are a human being, you are wonderful, and you don't deserve to be punished.

I don't know if its normal, but it sounds like self-hate. It's good that you're trying to take the initiative to lose weight though.

It's normal to think that way if you have been indoctrinated with to be worried about the AMOUNT of calories in your diet, rather than the NUTRIENT DENSITY of the calories in your diet. Up the NUTRIENT DENSITY of calories in your diet, and you satisfy your appetite and nourish your cells at the minimum caloric intake and weight loss becomes effortless. Try a Paleo/Primal way of eating. Food never tasted so good in my life! I was normal weight already but I cured my acne on a Primal Blueprint style diet. Once you cut out the sweets and get over the sugar cravings, it's glorious when you emerge into the light at the end of the tunnel. EVERYTHING tastes better now. EVERYTHING! Seriously I get way more pleasure from food than ever before. My 55 yr-old pudgy mother accustomed to cooking desserts and guzzling sweet tea(we're from the South) decided to experiment with a Primal approach, tried it for 3 months, and just like that, she now weighs the same as she did in her early 20s. She now added back in some nutrient-dense carbs like potatoes, yams, white rice,etc.in addition to the occasional fruit she was already eating and still kept the weight off. The key is upping your intake of nutrient-dense animal fats. Oh, and my Type 2 diabetic stepdad now has the most normal blood sugar levels he's had in a couple decades. I have no agenda, I'm just telling you straight up what happened to me and my family, because this is the internet and you can do that kind of thing :) Take it or leave it. Always scrutinize things first and look into things for yourself of course. I personally follow more of a Perfect Health Diet approach, which is a slight tweak on Paleo/Primal in that it strongly encourages that you consume about 150g of nutrient-dense starches per day, while Paleo/Primal tend to encourage more sweet fruits for carbs. I'm only 22, and I feel more satiated and energetic than ever! Oh, and I didn't I mention I cured my LIFELONG case of acne within 3 months of cutting out the sweets and cereal grains...Yeah, definitely never going back. The Paleo/Primal way of thinking about diet becomes an effortless lifestyle after a while, and the positive results just keep reinforcing your commitment to it. pretty cool stuff