Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.

Is losing weight mostly psychological?

Options
12346»

Replies

  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
    Options
    Well I think all that come here know to eat less and move more or CICO is factual but the how to is the mental part I found in my case.

    I had to want quality of life over quantity of sweet stuff in my case.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    Options
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    Well I think all that come here know to eat less and move more or CICO is factual but the how to is the mental part I found in my case.

    I had to want quality of life over quantity of sweet stuff in my case.

    I see posts here daily from people who are absolutely clueless about how to lose weight (and that's not a dig, we live in a culture that can make it hard to figure out how to do it). I don't think everyone understands how simple it is to lose weight or we wouldn't see posts with questions like "Am I eating too many carbohydrates to lose weight?" or "What is a calorie deficit?" or "Do I have to burn off every calorie I eat through exercise?" or "I can't cook, how can I lose weight?" or "Help, I need to lose weight but how can I quit drinking coffee?" These, and questions just like these, we see at least once a day from people who have no idea how to lose weight.

    I think once people understand, that is when the mental work can begin. But so many people are spinning their wheels and wasting their energy on things that aren't going to actually help them lose weight. I spent years thinking that I had to completely eliminate certain foods or that I had to exercise hard daily. I had tricked myself thinking that weight loss couldn't be sustained unless the stars were perfectly aligned. I had beaten myself before I even had a chance to start.

    As with most things in life, the "how I do this?" is so much easier than the actual doing. Unfortunately, because effort is hard or something, we have an entire industry dedicated to preying upon, and usually exacerbating ignorance; hell, in the case of hucksters like Oz, they're actually propogating it where it wouldn't have existed otherwise.
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    Options
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    Well I think all that come here know to eat less and move more or CICO is factual but the how to is the mental part I found in my case.

    I had to want quality of life over quantity of sweet stuff in my case.

    I see posts here daily from people who are absolutely clueless about how to lose weight (and that's not a dig, we live in a culture that can make it hard to figure out how to do it). I don't think everyone understands how simple it is to lose weight or we wouldn't see posts with questions like "Am I eating too many carbohydrates to lose weight?" or "What is a calorie deficit?" or "Do I have to burn off every calorie I eat through exercise?" or "I can't cook, how can I lose weight?" or "Help, I need to lose weight but how can I quit drinking coffee?" These, and questions just like these, we see at least once a day from people who have no idea how to lose weight.

    I think once people understand, that is when the mental work can begin. But so many people are spinning their wheels and wasting their energy on things that aren't going to actually help them lose weight. I spent years thinking that I had to completely eliminate certain foods or that I had to exercise hard daily. I had tricked myself thinking that weight loss couldn't be sustained unless the stars were perfectly aligned. I had beaten myself before I even had a chance to start.

    And it's this kind of experience, I think, that evokes snarky responses from regulars hereabouts, when beginners come to the forums looking for guidance and are inundated with advice to cut this or that specific food, or macro, or to get on some draconian program like keto, etc. It doesn't help that eating can be totally bound up with someone's emotions or coping mechanisms, such that deviations from a fixed diet plan can actually evoke feelings of guilt. (That kind of thing is foreign to me, so I only grasp it in theory, but I've heard it enough that I have to think it's real.) No one struggling with weight loss needs more reasons to feel miserable about it.
  • ekim2016
    ekim2016 Posts: 1,199 Member
    Options
    for me definitely mind set. I had to finally acknowledge and tell myself STOP and CHANGE... I totally had to rewire my brain and outlook.
  • LucasLean
    LucasLean Posts: 100 Member
    Options
    Yes, I agree.

    I noticed I have to remain aware of how much I'm eating once I'm lean during the summer, otherwise, like most people, I'll gain too much fat in the fall/winter. But this year I'll try to be somewhat lean in the winter so I don't have to go through with losing a lot of weight to get to what I 'normally' look like.

    It's the same with losing weight. The person has to want to lose weight, then, once they get past that, then they'll start watching what they eat/exercise.

  • Flaming25
    Flaming25 Posts: 123 Member
    Options
    I think I will be going along with the general thought and say yes. I've always had a love hate with food and find that certain trigger to want to lose weight and after time lose that focus and thus the whole cycle repeats itself again. Having the same thought as the OP I decided to go and see a hypnotherapist for a course of sessions. After which I have set realistic goals and tweaked my diet bits at a time and decided to lose between 0.5 and 1lb a week so is a sustainable life change not just an 8 week wonder.

    The issue is that we as humans need food to live and its then down to us humans to chose correctly what we consume and with the large amounts of advertising and so called experts pushing their 'healthy' food, which may be low calories but is full of artificial stuff which is equally if not worse for you.

    So yes I think it is psychological

Categories