A beautiful, fit body today is one of the main indicators of success. Ideal people in tight outfits look at us from TV screens and social media pages. It would seem, what is not a reason to force yourself to go on a diet and finally start losing weight, so that in a few months you can see an improved version of yourself in the mirror and wear the clothes that you like, and not those that fit? And so, inspired by self-confidence, a woman begins to try different diets or even exhaust herself with hunger strikes, but every time she breaks down, gorges herself on buns and hates herself for it more than ever. Why is this happening? How to break the vicious circle and tune in to the desired result? How to find the right motivation to lose weight? Elena Gamayun answered these and other questions in an interview with our publication .
Psychological causes of excess weight
We all know that poor nutrition and lack of physical activity are the main causes of obesity. They are followed by hormonal disorders and diseases of the musculoskeletal system.
But not many people think about the psychological aspects that lead to excess weight. These include:
- Lack of love and warmth. Endorphins are produced when falling in love, contact with people dear and important to us. A person experiences a lack of attention, he lacks security, a sense of significance - he begins to abuse sweets. Cakes, chocolate, and sweets stimulate the production of happiness hormones.
- Overeating can be caused by dissatisfaction with life. You are not satisfied with your career or family relationships. All this leads to the subconscious consumption of large amounts of sweet, fatty or spicy foods. Some people compensate for “failures” this way; others punish them, considering themselves unworthy and worthless.
- An eating disorder can stem from childhood. Many parents force their children to eat by force. Eternal fights for a clean plate teach a person to overeat. And if the requirement to eat all the soup is accompanied by the phrases “You will be strong and beautiful,” children begin to associate strength or beauty with more food.
- Sometimes sweets or fast food serve as a reward for a successfully completed task. People prone to procrastination are looking for an incentive so as not to put everything off until later. This often leads to the abuse of “sweets.” And the reward and its frequency exceed the value of what was done.
- People who are in conflict with themselves and their environment use excess weight as a protest. Society demands that women be attractive and slim, without seeing them as individuals, specialists, or talent. To draw attention to their professional or other abilities, girls choose to be overweight and reject generally accepted beauty standards.
- Sometimes the reason for being overweight is due to trying to please a man. Abusers seek to suppress their partner. Through jealousy, men force a woman to give up cosmetics and stop taking care of her body. To then begin to convince her that she is unworthy of love.
- Low self-esteem and a constant mindset of failure are also projected onto the body. A person overeats, does not try to lose weight, considers himself unworthy, and does not believe in his own strength.
4. Choose a plan that suits your lifestyle.
Find a weight loss plan that you can stick to and avoid plans that would be nearly impossible to follow in the long term.
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Although there are hundreds of different diets, most are based on cutting calories.
Reducing your calorie intake will lead to weight loss, but diet, especially frequent yo-yo dieting, is a predictor of future weight gain.
Therefore, avoid strict diets that exclude certain foods. Research has shown that people with an all-or-nothing mindset are less likely to lose weight.
Instead, consider creating your own customized plan. The following dietary habits have been proven to help you lose weight:
- Reducing your calorie intake
- Reducing portion sizes
- Reducing the frequency of snacking
- Reduce fried foods and desserts
- Including fruits and vegetables
Summary: Choose an eating plan that you can stick to long-term and avoid crash or crash diets.
Psychosomatics of excess weight
Dissatisfaction with your body, the desire to lose weight and at the same time the unpreparedness for active actions, the reluctance to change situations provoke stress. A person begins to look for the advantages of being overweight.
From obese women you can hear, I don’t want to lose weight, otherwise my breasts will shrink. They cover their lack of will and fears with a kind of shield.
Sometimes a person is happy to lose weight, but he is afraid of changes and self-restraints. Due to uncertainty, he looks for reasons not to go to the gym or swimming pool. Hiding behind work, family, lack of free time.
In some cases, a person uses excess weight as a protective cocoon from reality:
- Failures in career or personal life are fully justified.
- Some, constantly complaining about being overweight, manipulate, demanding more attention and emotional support from loved ones.
- It is common for men to use excess weight as confirmation of their status. For them, a fat person is successful, significant, and holds a high position.
In psychology, there are several rules for increasing awareness of the need to lose weight:
- accept the fact of excess weight;
- understand the main reason;
- find a way out of the situation;
- act.
You must learn to be responsible, because no one but you can change the current situation. Before you start on the path to your desired figure, you need to find motivation that will help you stay on your chosen path.
Think about the negative consequences
When you have low motivation, you want to snack or eat something unhealthy, or you are too lazy to exercise.
Instead of thinking about the positive aspects of an action: instant gratification, eating something sweet, staying home, etc., think about the negative consequences.
You're going to put in a day's effort, you're going to need more time to achieve your goals, you're going to have to put in effort longer, etc.
This little psychological hack is very effective. Because once you use it, you won't want that bag of cookies you were going to eat anymore, trust me.
So, to force yourself to lose weight and stay motivated, constantly think about the negative consequences of your relapse.
Weight loss techniques
Losing weight , based on psychological techniques, allows you to radically change your attitude towards life and yourself. There are several methods from different authors that you can rely on when getting rid of excess weight.
Allen Carr Method
In the book “The Easy Way to Lose Weight” the author proposes to radically change your attitude towards nutrition. Carr believes that eating natural, unprocessed food is the key to weight loss and health. He advises eating fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries.
Zermati technique
It is based on conscious food consumption. Listen to your body. If you want something sweet, spicy or salty, this indicates a lack of nutrients.
The nutritionist suggests not denying yourself the satisfaction of your needs. If you want to eat a burger, eat it, but it should be conscious consumption.
Zermati suggests eating your favorite treat for breakfast for four days - berry pie or a piece of biscuit, chocolate.
For the next four days, replace lunch with a treat. As a result, you will not gain extra pounds, and your body will need to replenish its supply of nutrients from vegetables or fruits.
It is important to concentrate on the process, chew each piece thoroughly. Avoid watching TV, movies, and surfing the Internet while eating.
NLP for weight loss
This is a self-hypnosis technique combined with the transference of the experience of people who have already achieved success in achieving your desired goal. Special literature, training videos, trainings and seminars will come to your aid.
NLP specialists suggest visualizing what you want. But you don’t need to imagine yourself slim when standing in front of the mirror. This way you give the brain a command that it has already happened. And you won’t be able to set yourself up to lose weight. It is also not recommended to imagine yourself from the outside, as if watching a film with yourself in the lead role.
Proper visualization techniques focus on sensations. Remember how you felt when you wore smaller jeans. Look at your favorite dress that no longer fits you. Return yourself to those feelings of lightness and harmony.
According to the principles of NLP, you must be completely sure that you want to lose weight, you want to diet.
Other techniques
Often in the psychology of weight loss, auto-training is used to ensure results. They are necessary to increase self-confidence.
Some specialists offer hypnosis. Thanks to him, it is possible to instill in a person the principles of proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.
Yoga is also effective for weight loss. The exercises are selected specifically for overweight people, which will help you lose weight without harming the body.
Try to find the most suitable diet plan
Losing weight at home invariably requires proper and rational nutrition, which is why you definitely need to create the most suitable nutrition plan for yourself. Unfortunately, many of today's popular diets are based on fairly strict calorie restrictions, and this, by the way, is very bad!
Of course, this kind of diet helps you lose weight much faster, but after leaving them, in the vast majority of cases, the extra pounds come back after a while, moreover, sometimes they also “bring” their friends with them, that is, the amount of excess weight that when - was so successfully reset, as a result it increases even more! And many ladies turn out to be completely unable to withstand such strict restrictions and break down much earlier than the end of the diet!
Ideally, it would not hurt to give up too strict diets that involve the complete exclusion of any foods from the diet. Of course, in this case, too harmful components like trans fats are not taken into account - it’s really worth giving them up! But constantly thinking that you need to force yourself to eat as little as possible in order to lose weight quickly is also wrong! You can and should eat! Moreover, from time to time you definitely need to treat yourself to something tasty - this approach will allow you to quite safely maintain motivation for a healthy and leisurely, but at the same time sustainable weight loss! Therefore, in this case, if you want to turn your attention to any diets, it is important to try to choose an option that will not exhaust you either physically or mentally - the most successful examples are the Atkins diet, the authentic Mediterranean diet, or the method of giving up the sweet doctor Virgin. It really makes sense to take them as a basis!
Psychological tricks for successful weight loss
Often, after losing weight, a woman returns to her usual eating behavior and gains extra pounds again. This is due to the fact that her psychological problem, which leads to overeating, has not been resolved.
Determine the root of evil
Follow the principles of weight loss psychology - determine what exactly pushes you to gluttony. If necessary, consult a psychologist.
Look for incentive
Motivation is equally important for successful weight loss. Determine your ultimate goal - why you need to lose excess weight. Examples:
- It perfectly stimulates the desire to be healthy and look younger. After all, obesity is the cause of a large number of diseases.
- The desire to attract the attention of the opposite sex. Bring back the old passion into your current relationship.
- Love for yourself and your body, the desire to be in harmony with yourself.
- Career advancement.
Preparation
Having decided on the motive, begin the proper preparation for losing weight. You must clearly understand that this is your desire, and not something imposed from the outside. Do not consider diet and exercise as torture. Enjoy food and exercise.
Make an action plan - decide on a new diet. Choose a set of simple physical exercises.
Take action
Don’t put off changes until the beginning of the week, month, or year. This is a dead end path. If you are ready, immediately begin active actions.
Maintain your motivation - read books, communicate on thematic forums or groups on social networks. If you're inspired, check out the before and after photos. They give understanding that achieving results is possible.
Learn to distinguish the feeling of hunger from thirst or the desire to binge experience. If you want to eat, drink water or green tea.
Keep yourself busy with pleasant things, fill your life with positive emotions. Then you will be less and less likely to feel the desire to eat away boredom or anxiety.
Don't beat yourself up over breakdowns. Everyone can make a mistake. Try to find a reason why you did this. Refuse for a while to communicate with those who do not believe in your success or insist that you do not need changes.
To help you get started, set small goals for yourself. For example, three days without sweets or fast food, and do morning exercises for a week.
Is it possible to just force yourself to lose weight?
It turns out that no.
Otherwise, you would just take it and lose weight, and not torment the Internet with such questions. If it so happened that you achieved the shape of a ball, I believe that you did not succeed in one day.
If you are fat, it means that you have made titanic efforts to bring your body to a jelly-like appearance by eating all kinds of harmful nonsense, lying on the couch and having an inactive lifestyle.
Consequently, your body is accustomed to all this and it is unlikely to allow itself to be deprived of it. You will need to try very hard to force yourself to lose weight, because your body will inevitably put a spoke in the wheels of your motivation.
Your attempt to lose weight will be a signal to your body that difficult times have come, and you urgently need to save the remaining precious fat so as not to die.
So, forcing yourself to lose weight means forcing yourself to:
- Healthy food;
- move more.
If your family makes it a rule not to return to bed at night without an armful of sausages and a loaf of bread, you're in trouble. Don't you think that when you decide to change your life and lose weight, your whole family will look at you with enthusiastic glances and follow your example?
Most likely, they will want to call the orderlies to take you to a psychologist, because for them this is not the norm and they need to save the child. Because they read too much on their Internet, and then they eat borscht without bread and put sour cream instead of mayonnaise.
This is where we’ll check how strong your will is and whether you can go against the system.
Most likely, you will periodically have thoughts about whether you need it at all. After some time, motivation will begin to tend to zero, especially when you want to eat something harmful or become too lazy to go to training.
If you have already started, then look back and think if you feel sorry for the efforts you made to give up everything halfway through.
Useful tips
Basic expert advice for successful weight loss:
- Eliminate temptations, refuse to go to cafes, guests for the next two, three weeks. Do not buy cookies, candies or other sweets or ask loved ones to remove them from a visible place.
- Before you eat candy or cake, ask yourself if you need it. Learn to listen to the desires of the body, separating them from emotions.
- Eat from a small plate and always leave some food on it.
- Choose blue, emerald dishes and tablecloths to match. These colors reduce appetite.
- Remember the well-known phrase - “We are what we eat.” If you want to eat junk food, imagine how it fills you up, deprives you of lightness and mobility, and moves you away from your desired goal.
- Divide the harmful “yummy” into portions. Leave some for tomorrow, the day after tomorrow.
- Do you want to go to grocery stores on a full stomach?
Psychologists advise keeping a diary. Write down your achievements in it - how many kilograms you lost, how much you lasted without sweet or fatty foods. Look in the full-length mirror more often and notice the changes.
The photo trick works great. Take one photo of your reflection once a week. Re-read your diary, look through pictures to increase motivation.
What is motivation and what is goal?
Motivation is a conscious and accepted strong desire, supported by emotions and images. In other words, a motive is “to want strongly” , it is an impulse that dominates and subjugates your weaknesses, mobilizes your will at the level of the subcortex of the brain. For example, you were invited by your friends to a cafe to eat cakes. You really want to chat with your friends and eat a wonderful dessert, but you say a firm “no” without really thinking about it - you are losing weight.
A goal is a result that you decide to achieve. Goals can be intermediate (tactical) or final. Let's say your motivation is a slim figure and increasing your chances of getting married, and your ultimate goal is to lose 14 kilograms for this, but first try to get rid of 5 kilograms.
If you don't have enough will
You may want to quit losing weight. Often, this is attributed to a lack of will.
But to a greater extent, behind this is the fear of change and uncertainty. Remember - you deserve a new healthy and beautiful body. If millions of people have succeeded in losing weight, so can you.
Experts advise that if there is a lack of will, monitor attacks of apathy and laziness, try to understand the cause, and eradicate it. It will also help:
- Meals in small portions, 5-6 times a day.
- Get healthy sleep and minimize stress if possible.
- Walks in the fresh air, new hobbies - embroidery, knitting
Remember, you are losing weight for yourself, to be healthy, happy. Find a role model, a successful person or a friend who was able to lose weight and has authority and a beautiful figure. View photos of the property to get inspired for success.
Ask yourself "why?"
We'll start with this tip since you should use it first. The trick is to really think about it.
Ask yourself a question that may seem simple, but which is actually much more complex.
Why do you want to do such and such? What do you want to gain for yourself by doing this?
This question is important for two reasons:
- This will save you from “unnecessary” projects.
- The question “why?” will help you cope with decreased motivation.
Decreased motivation is something we will all have to face one day.
But the difference between those who get to their destination and those who give up is that the former know how to deal with these dips in motivation.
And especially because they know what they want, they know why they do it. And you will also find out if you asked yourself this question before you started.
The key is to determine why we want to do this project (in this case, losing weight). And remember these reasons. They should be clear and simple.
So, as soon as you have a weakness: you will remember this and see that the motivation will return immediately.
Find a role model
Having a role model can help you stay motivated to lose weight. However, you need to choose the right role model to keep you motivated.
Hanging a picture of a supermodel on your refrigerator won't motivate you over time. Instead, find a role model that you can easily relate to.
Having a positive and positive role model can help you stay motivated.
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Maybe you know a friend who has lost a lot of weight and can be your inspiration. You can also find inspiring blogs or stories about people who have successfully lost weight.
Summary: Finding a role model will help you stay motivated. It's important to find a role model you can relate to.
Find social support.
People need regular encouragement and positive feedback to stay motivated.
Tell your family and friends about your weight loss goals so they can support you in your journey.
Many people also find it helpful to find a weight loss buddy. You can train together, hold each other accountable, and support each other throughout the process.
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It can also be helpful to involve your partner, but make sure you get support from other people too, such as friends.
Also, consider joining a support group. Both in-person and online support groups have been helpful.
Summary: Having strong social support will help keep you accountable and keep you motivated to lose weight. Consider joining a support group to boost your motivation along the way.
Celebrate your successes.
Losing weight is hard, so celebrate all your successes to stay motivated.
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Give yourself credit when you reach your goal. Social media or weight loss sites with community pages are great places to share your progress and get support. When you feel proud of yourself, you will increase your motivation.
Moreover, remember to celebrate changes in behavior, not just reaching a certain number on a scale.
For example, if you reach your goal of exercising four days a week, take a bubble bath or plan a fun night out with friends.
Additionally, you can further boost your motivation by rewarding yourself.
However, it is important to choose the right rewards. Don't reward yourself with food. Also, avoid rewards that are so expensive that you'll never buy them, or so insignificant that you'll allow yourself to get them anyway.
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Below are some good examples of rewards:
- Getting a manicure
- I'm going to the cinema
- Buying a new treadmill
- Take cooking lessons
Summary: Celebrate all your successes on your weight loss journey. Consider rewarding yourself to further boost your motivation.
16. Seek professional help if necessary.
Don't hesitate to seek professional help to assist you in your weight loss efforts when needed. People who are more confident in their knowledge and abilities will lose more weight.
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This may mean finding a registered dietitian to teach you about certain foods or an exercise physiologist to teach you how to exercise properly.
Many people also like the accountability that a professional's perspective gives them.
If you're still having trouble getting motivated, consider finding a psychologist or nutritionist trained in motivational interviewing, which has been proven to help people achieve their goals.
Summary: Specialists such as nutritionists, physiologists and psychologists can help increase your motivation and knowledge to help you achieve your weight loss goals.
Get a dog
Dogs can be ideal companions for weight loss. Research shows that owning a dog can help you lose weight.
First, dogs can increase your physical activity.
A Canadian study of dog owners found that people who owned dogs walked an average of 300 minutes per week, while people who didn't own dogs walked an average of only 168 minutes per week.
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Secondly, dogs are great social support. Unlike your workout buddy, dogs are almost always excited about physical activity.
As a bonus, pet ownership has been proven to improve overall health and well-being. It was associated with lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and decreased feelings of loneliness and depression.
Summary: Owning a dog can help you lose weight by increasing physical activity and providing more social support along the way.
