This cycle of restrict, crave, binge is not sustainable. You can't go through life not eating enough calories or giving up the foods you love (hello, birthday cake!). And when you (inevitably) fall off your diet, you think you are the problem, Soto said. The self-hatred of lacking willpower and not being good enough sets in, and encourages a downward spiral of trying again, over and over. But "it's not your fault. It's your body's biological way of keeping you alive," Soto said.