Quit the diet! Diets do not work. Diets are temporary fixes to lifetime habits. Create a lifestyle, a healthy lifestyle. As humans, we should focus more on eating to live, not living to eat.
I had a request to start a series on the psychology of dieting. It is interesting that the foundation of this article is based off thoughts. We all know what to do, what healthy food is and that reduced calories equals decreased weight. From a cognitive therapy perspective, knowing what to do and how to do it are entirely different skills.
Weight loss is a $40 billion annual industry. The only thing as common as dieting is a person who has fallen off a diet. Advertisers market images of slim, healthy individuals with perfect skin, smiles, hair and families happily skipping along the beach, heading home to sprinkle a supplement onto their grapefruit and drink some crazy cocktail. The reality of weight loss is more complex. It involves more than restricting calories and adding supplements — it is learning a new set of life skills.
Research suggests that dieting alone doesn’t work for long-term weight loss. One reason for this regain appears to be the body’s natural tendency to maintain body weight when food is restricted to prevent starvation. Therefore, overly restrictive diets can actually slow metabolism. Dieting may also cause side effects similar to depression, anxiety, irritability, obsessive thoughts about food, binge eating and not feeling full.
It is important to remember that the most effective weight loss programs are those that combine diet, exercise, and psychological intervention. I suspect that as research continues more behavioral interventions will be the foundation in weight loss treatment.
Cognitive therapy for weight loss was developed by Judith Beck. It is based on the traditional cognitive behavioral principles to which I strongly support. Theory encourages individuals to plan what they will eat; schedule their day to include food shopping and mealtimes; arranging the environment to support weight loss and planning for “ high-risk” situations such as birthday parties or a wedding reception.
This particular program also recommends daily reading of written weight-loss goal cards and dealing with counterproductive thoughts about food. In a Swedish study, the group of random individuals to receive cognitive therapy lost more weight and kept it off over an observed 18-month period, while others in the study gained weight over the same period.
Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Therapy (MB-EAT) is a theory developed by Jean Kristeller, Ph.D. This theory is based on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) approach developed by Jon Kabat Zinn, which focuses on developing “innate wisdom” about food and appetite. Mindfulness exercises teach individuals to tune into their own bodily cues of hunger and increase awareness of specific tastes or textures that they are hungry for.
There is an added behavioral component to this theory in which individuals are encouraged to expose themselves to tempting situations, including going to a buffet. The focus of this theory is on satisfying and pleasurable eating, rather than restriction. A study completed of obese people and binge eaters given MB-EAT demonstrated that the interventions were more successful than a controlled condition at reducing emotional eating. Presently, a new study is in progress exploring if adding nutritional advice to MB-EAT to enhance the weight loss component is effective.
Dieting is not about restricting. It is not a magic bullet or quick pill that can slim a person down in 10 days or 28 days to get the body you want. There is no weight loss cure that works for everybody. We as humans are all individuals, so despite advertisers claims I encourage you to explore who you are, what are your own strengths and weaknesses.
A majority of individuals diet because they have developed an irrational belief that they cannot be beautiful, worthy or loveable unless they are thin. They also have been misled to believe that they are weak if unable to maintain that slim physique, they have a lack of self-control, and are failures in their personal lives. For some individuals, dieting is a response to care expressed by loved ones, fear that if they don’t diet they cannot be healthy.
If you share those thoughts on dieting, I hope you take the time to truly read this series. An individual will obtain the most success if they create their own goal, if they make the choice, and if they believe in themselves.
Next week, I will go into more detail regarding the cognitive behavioral therapy of dieting.
In the meantime, if you are interested I strongly recommend “The Beck Diet Solution” by Judith Beck.
Rachel Velishek Is a licensed professional clinical counselor with Fisher-Titus Medical Care-Behavioral Health, Fisher-Titus Medical Park 3, 278 Benedict Ave., Norwalk. Her office can be reached at 419-668-0311.