What the Weight-Loss Industry is Really Selling

peterdt

FRIDAY, MARCH 01, 2013 | POSTED BY DR. GOULD



There's a game emotional eaters like to play. It's a tough game. A game that can never be won. But a game that has a never ending line ready to play it. It goes something like this...

You look in the mirror one day and don't like the extra pounds you see. Or, you hear about someone else's weight-loss success and decide then and there that enough's enough, you can do this, too.

You scour facebook, health blogs, TV, magazines or just about anywhere else that the next perfect diet, or the next perfect exercise, or the next perfect weight-loss procedure or even the next perfect smoothie may live.

What you are chasing here is, in fact, hope. A hope that you will finally change your life. That you'll unlock a new level of happiness by keeping your weight off for good.

And this is where the weight-loss industry comes in. An industry that specializes in selling the very thing that you didn't even know you were chasing in the first place: Hope.

And so you buy the magic bullet that you believe is going to make your weight-loss dreams come true. And for a while the new diet, or the new exercise, or the wonderful weight loss procedure or even the amazing smoothie actually appears to work. Some of the pounds come off—maybe even a lot. Some new clothes find their way into your closet; and perhaps you even feel happier than you did before.

This can be referred to as the honeymoon period. But, like all honeymoons, the heightened feelings eventually fade as the demands of everyday life come back knocking at your door. Demands that—just as they did before—overwhelm you emotionally, and leave you turning to food to cope.

This is why many emotional eaters who undergo lap band or gastric bypass surgery often find themselves in despair less than a year after their procedure as they regain their weight by continuing to use food as a way out of frustration, loneliness, boredom and other powerful emotions.

In other words: this entire weight-loss game has been played (and lost) based on the premise of changing the EXTERNAL you.

Of course, the INTERNAL you has not changed (loneliness, boredom, trauma etc), nor has it even been taken into consideration.

And for an industry that banks on selling hope to you as many times as it possibly can, this is a wonderful result. You can bet the long list of weight-loss gimmicks will keep coming as emotional eaters continue lining up to play this no-win game.

The only game in town worth playing is the INTERNAL. The one based on the simple truth that permanent weight-loss only comes when you no longer need food to cope emotionally.

Perhaps this is not as as exciting as a new exercise bike or a gym membership, but it's a far greater and longer-lasting gift.

The challenge, then, is simple: Which game will you play?

Rest assured, both will still be here tomorrow.

peterdt

Loved this article.

Though I think for some people there is not an emotional component. For some it is just a matter of changing bad habits and getting some new habit. But I would say those people are the exception, not the rule.