Why diets don't work on the long term?

M

Maria29

New member
Let’s face it:

• We all know that overeating and sedentarism are the two main habits leading to weight gain.
• We all know that an apple is better for our figure than a burger.
• We are experts in counting calories, grams of fat, grams of carbs, points, etc.
• We know inside out all the popular diets.
• We buy the latest sugar-free shakes and bars, magic teas and lotions, slimming pants and pills.
Then, why is it that:
• the number of overweight people has been dramatically increasing during the past 30 years?
• up to two thirds of the weight is regained within one year after dieting, and almost all the lost weight is regained within five years?

Here is one of the closely-kept secrets that the MULTI, MULTI, MULTI BILLION dollars weight loss industry does not want you to know:

DIETS DO NOT ADDRESS THE REAL CAUSE OF YOUR PROBLEM

and, as a consequence,

DIETS CANNOT HELP YOU MAINTAIN A LONG LASTING WEIGHT LOSS!

Diets require us to rectify our habits (eg: overeating habit, unhealthy eating habit, sedentarism).

Habits are behaviours which have been done so regularly than are eventually being performed without thinking/ without requiring active attention.

Repeated behaviours (eg: overeating habit) are the visible cause of results (eg: weight gain).

All behaviours have a cause on their own:
• innate drives (eg: hunger, thirst) or
• emotions (love, pain, fear, anger, stress)

Emotions are often a result of beliefs.

Beliefs are thoughts accepted as being true (eg: eating is my only way of coping with neglect).

Beliefs are determined by external stimuli, by events (eg: being constantly neglected).

Imagine this:

The events which determined your weight gain are like the seed of a fruit tree. The strong roots of the fruit tree, springing from the seed, are your deeply embedded beliefs about what those events meant to you. The trunk of the tree represents your emotions. The branches of the tree represent your weight gain habits and the fruits are your results. Without roots, there’s no trunk. Without branches, there’s no fruit. Correct?


The seed of weight gain resides in past events:

• Boredom
• Being spoiled with sweets
• Dieting
• Betrayal
• Early maturation
• Loss of loved ones
• Lack of work and relaxation balance
• Abuse
• Neglect
• Rejection
• Anger

The roots of your weight gain are your beliefs created by past events (seeds). Events (eg: being neglected) can lead us to build beliefs about ourselves (eg: unworthy of love), even when the events say nothing about ourselves (eg: neglected by a highly stressed and busy parent who is working hard to provide as much as possible for his child).

The trunk of your weight gain is the emotion (eg: feeling unwanted) that your belief about yourself (eg: unworthy of love) makes you feel (eg: feeling lonely).

Your Weight Gain Feeders

Your beliefs have led you to make certain choices and have certain expectations in life. Choices and expectations confirm and maintain your beliefs. We always settle for what you believe we deserve.

For example, if abuse has led you to believe that you are unworthy of love, this will be reflected by the type of romantic relation you choose. You are more susceptible to accept being neglected or abused, because, as you believe that you are unworthy of love, you have no expectations for a loving relation.

Staying in an abusive relation will maintain your belief, as abuse will make you constantly feel unworthy of love. If you have always found comfort from abuse in eating, this habit will be perpetuated because of this abusive relation you are trapped in.Examples of Weight Gain Feeders:

1. Your past and present choices in life: lousy/ abusive romantic relation, boring job, diets obsession, fear of being yourself, feeling like a victim, self-imposed isolation, shyness, shame of being different, self-hatred, etc.

2. Your future expectations: no hope for having a fulfilling romantic relation, no hope for finding an enjoyable job, no hope for being truly, madly, deeply happy, etc.
 
Maria29 said:
• We are experts in counting calories, grams of fat, grams of carbs, points, etc.
Click to expand...

Are you sure about that?





















And the kicker...



• the number of overweight people has been dramatically increasing during the past 30 years?
Click to expand...

Thinking you know the causative factors associated with a problem and actually working towards fixing them can be miles apart, unfortunately.

However, the rest of your post is something I can agree with. All these diet programs simply shove the same old, tired fundamentals down our throats in new, and shiny packages. The industry players are essentially "churning" the basics that we know work.

The problem is, these basics only work when they're applied. And not only when they're applied... but applied over extensive periods of time. As in the remainder of the users' lives.

And this extensive use isn't happening because the industry, with all their flashy marketing and bullshit lies, is perpetuating and solidifying the short-term mentality.

All the while, they're leaving out the most important aspect to all of this - that being the human mind in the sense that it ultimately, via preconceived notions, perceptions and beliefs - drives behavior and emotions.

Sounds like you've done your fair share of reading up on such things as CBT and the like.
 
Steve said:
Are you sure about that?





















And the kicker...





Thinking you know the causative factors associated with a problem and actually working towards fixing them can be miles apart, unfortunately.

However, the rest of your post is something I can agree with. All these diet programs simply shove the same old, tired fundamentals down our throats in new, and shiny packages. The industry players are essentially "churning" the basics that we know work.

The problem is, these basics only work when they're applied. And not only when they're applied... but applied over extensive periods of time. As in the remainder of the users' lives.

And this extensive use isn't happening because the industry, with all their flashy marketing and bullshit lies, is perpetuating and solidifying the short-term mentality.

All the while, they're leaving out the most important aspect to all of this - that being the human mind in the sense that it ultimately, via preconceived notions, perceptions and beliefs - drives behavior and emotions.

Sounds like you've done your fair share of reading up on such things as CBT and the like.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the links. Very interesting, but the journal articles seem to simply confirm what I have posted rather than contradict it, especially the kicker study: (), which concludes by mentioning that: "Dietitians estimated their energy intake more accurately than non-dietitians, suggesting that familiarity with and interest in keeping food records may lead to more reliable estimates of energy intake."
 
We know that on their own 'diets' do not work. The statistics suggest that the majority of people who go on 'diets' end up
"bigger than they were before they started dieting" - National Centre for Eating Disorders.
We also know that if you were to cut down your food intake then you would, ultimately, lose weight. So what then is the issue.
Could it be that people who are going on diets are trying to use conscious control to try and change how they feel - and therefore most will not succeed long term.
We need to get to the root - we need to show people how to change how they feel - thereby empowering them towards new choices.
Yes, nutrition is important and we can say logically that it is expend more calories than we take in. However, logic clearly is not the answer - otherwise people would not be struggling with their weight.
We need a new paradigm. We need to understand how feelings lead to action lead to habits. Therefore, we need to provide awareness, then the power and tools to change how you feel, giving less cause to turn towards food.
 
Hi, don't be so hard on yourself.God forbid if you were told you had cancer or some life treating problem you would soon forget about you weight problem. You would then wonder why you did not live your life with what you have instead of wishing for what you have not.I have being there and i know what i am talking about.
 
iwish said:
Hi, don't be so hard on yourself.God forbid if you were told you had cancer or some life treating problem you would soon forget about you weight problem. You would then wonder why you did not live your life with what you have instead of wishing for what you have not.I have being there and i know what i am talking about.
Click to expand...

I understand what your saying...totally! BUT, are we to not even try to lose weight? should we just give up?
 
Wow...that's a lot to think about. And all of this time I just thought I was eating too much. Apparently, I need to use double reverse super secret psychology on myself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top