Mental Health and Weight Loss: The Right Balance

I would like to explore the strategies that you are using to move forward in having healthy relationships with your body, with food and with the idea of "loosing" weight. One question that has really challenged me over the years is whether mental health factors link directly to how we create, establish, maintain and worry about how heavy we are. Do we use our bodies as a barometer of how we truly feel about ourselves? Do you we use weight as a protective measure in certain cases? Do we give up on our bodies and use food as a type of comfort or friend? I would really love to know what you think if you are comfortable sharing. Clearly, dieting in the conventional sense does not work for a lot of us. Why not? The "Gurus" tell us that, notwithstanding any metabolic problems that we face due to disease, genetics etc...it is just a matter of "Calories In and Calories out". If it is this simple, than why is it so hard for some of our brains to turn on to this simple mathematical reality? What goes on in our deeper minds to avoid, discourage and perhaps even sabotage our hard work? Look forward to hearing from you friends.
«134567

Replies

  • VoltaicAnima
    VoltaicAnima Posts: 5 Member
    edited May 2021
    Exactly. I am actually having an interesting problem now. I separated my emotions from food, kept it mathematical and was able to drop 80 lb and now that I am moving out of losing weight and into building muscle I am having trouble psychologically making sure that I'm eating enough calories. I have the opposite problem now. So it seems that even though the mind is deeply impacted by emotions and tied deeply with food this can be reversed even to the point to where you have the opposite problem. At least in my case it seems as such. So I guess the point being we are stronger than we think, make sure to know thyself and keep yourself accountable with your logs and your routines and your checks on mental health.
  • shel80kg
    shel80kg Posts: 147 Member
    I have read the responses and wonder if some of us find it difficult to operationalize the intelligent ideas and suggestions apparent in the above postings. I remember thinking as I read through the opinions that there may be a reluctance to link "mental health" to body image, patterns established which lead to unhealthy choices regarding food and a general sense of being overwhelmed by separating emotions from thoughts and seeing food as fuel rather than a source of comfort/love or just pleasure. To go one step further, I think there is a risk that those of us who are, remain or return to being overweight, feel judged and even devalued by the lack of sensitivity to how mood disorders, trauma-related conditions (i.e.PTSD, Complex PTSD) and others may contribute to obesity. To simplify my observation, saying to some of us who are truly struggling with weight related issues just count calories, use MFP and keep it basic and "simple" is not unlike suggesting that drinking more than recommended quantities of alcohol may lead to a range of physical and emotional difficulties (to say the least).I know some of us can just interfere with behavioral patterns and make better choices. I am interested in the subset of our overweight cohort that may be struggling with deeper issues which impact on self-care; emotional regulation and valuing the self. Certainly, there needs to be a degree of empathy and insight which extends to some of us who have struggled despite the health "experts" who promulgate science and robotic responses.
  • shel80kg
    shel80kg Posts: 147 Member
    I though I would add a few more thoughts and then ask a question. Firstly, the weight management industry of which MFP exists within has some wonderful resources and recommendations which can offer a meaningful pathway towards eating in a healthy manner and experiencing great results in achieving the desired outcomes. This is a great contribution for those of us that can follow the formulas and scientifically-based prescriptions for food selection, calorie counting, exercise and honest recordings. However, those of us that have been impacted by mental health factors which interfere with clear thinking, basic problem solving and sensible choices may be extremely challenged to adhere to the repetitive "mantras" espoused by the people who have already achieved success and feel confident enough in their own success to preach the gospel to the masses. Why is it that obesity is increasing with all of this great information and the plethora of these knowledgeable folks who run the forums and the services such as this one? Where is the system breaking down and how is it possible that we are struggling more than ever with getting fatter as a general population and at younger ages? Please let me know what your thoughts are. Thank you in advance for not just rushing your answers in a defensive manner. Just give this some thought and please share what you really think.
  • southkonahi
    southkonahi Posts: 137 Member
    edited May 2021
    shel80kg wrote: »
    One question that has really challenged me over the years is whether mental health factors link directly to how we create, establish, maintain and worry about how heavy we are.
    For thought, why is it that people are more willing to look inward to life's problems/situations when figuring out why they smoke cigarettes, than they are when they are trying to figure out why they allow themselves to eat too many calories?
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,158 Member
    shel80kg wrote: »
    One question that has really challenged me over the years is whether mental health factors link directly to how we create, establish, maintain and worry about how heavy we are.
    For thought, why is it that people are more willing to look inward to life's problems/situations when figuring out why they smoke cigarettes, than they are when they are trying to figure out why they allow themselves to eat too many calories?

    I think this is a good way to look at it.

    For me, it was really freeing, actually, to look at my overeating as just another kind of vice. Not to punish myself for it (which is a huge temptation), but to treat it more distantly. If I want to stop feeling beholden to a particular kind of vice, what virtue can I practice instead that will help me overcome it? Gluttony can be overcome by practicing temperance, and sloth by industriousness (we used to use the word "industry" but that has a much more narrow meaning now). I've done this in other areas of my life, now I just apply to it to what I eat too. It's actually not that different, but I was making it bigger in my head.

    One of the things that I think can be sticky about weight loss is that being overweight or obese is obvious to other people. Many if not most other bad habits, flaws, or vices can be hidden in whole or in part from at least some of the people we come into contact with on a regular basis. I think that's one reason our society can be so weirdly sensitive about it.
  • shel80kg
    shel80kg Posts: 147 Member
    I really appreciate everyone's comments. I have been looking through other threads and comments from the Gurus here at MFP. I have a sense that the standard "party line" is that one should side-step the temptation to delve into mental health issues and just swim on the surface of the simplistic (yet difficult to implement for some) the rules of the weight management game. Count your calories, be honest with your food log and work withn the framework of the mathematics of CICO. No real attention to the type of calories (are they all really the same)? and no real thought to what barriers might exist in the minds of people who eat regardless of the impacts and at the same time reach out of help and strategies that might make their life easier. Although I value the time spend by the "experts", do they really help when the issues may not be about the repetitive references to the science of weight management and obvious steps everyone thinks we should follow. I may sound a bit down about the help but sometimes it just seems so futile. (or maybe that is just mean).