7 Psychological Techniques For Losing Weight

Weight is a cause for concern for many people. Our society has led us to worship the physical appearance and make it a personal value, which it really should not be, since you can not decide whether someone is better or worse than someone else just because they are more or less attractive.

This constant preoccupation with adapting to beauty standards and gaining acceptance from other people is partly responsible for the many psychological disorders that come with having an ideal figure, such as anorexia and bulimia.

Emotions almost always hide behind obesity. In these cases, people use food as a patch  to temporarily cover their problems, and they do not know how to cope otherwise. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate cognitive, emotional and behavioral techniques to help them control themselves.

Forget miracle diets, because they almost always end up being scams. All they do is waste your money and remove your motivation when you find that you are not getting results. They can even be dangerous to your health.

The only way to lose weight is to follow an individualized diet created by a professional, and supplement it with a healthy amount of physical exercise. It is the simplest, yet most complicated solution. Want to know how to do it? Psychology can help.

Lose weight from a psychological point of view

Psychology is a discipline that can offer many self-control techniques. Obesity is often a consequence of impulsively looting the fridge or not being organized enough to exercise often. And when people see themselves gaining weight, it is common to lose morale and leave themselves more or less to chance and impulse.

To break the cycle, the first step towards losing weight is to be prepared to take action. In other words, make it clear to yourself that you want to make changes  and be ready to put all your energy into it. It will not be easy, but you will feel so good if you achieve your goal.

Use smaller plates

We often eat and eat until our plates are empty, just because there is still food on them, even though we are not hungry anymore. It seems obvious, but if you want to lose weight, get rid of all the huge plates in your kitchen and buy less. That way , you can only serve yourself a suitable amount of food and no more.

You can always go back and get more, but having to go back to the kitchen, serve yourself again, and eat one more plate of food will make you think about it a lot more.

Shop for food when you are not hungry

If you go at the grocery store while you are hungry, you will probably end up buying food with high calorie content, such as processed pastries, chocolate and so on. It is better to act immediately after you have eaten and still  is  satisfied so your brain can guide you, not your stomach. Similarly, if you can avoid having that kind of food at home, it will be much easier to resist the temptation.

No hypocaloric diets

Although it is not advisable to eat foods high in calories, it is also not a good idea to eat a low calorie diet that leaves you with a hungry feeling. If you are not full after a meal, you will probably eat too much of a high calorie food later. Therefore, eat healthy, but do not be hungry.

Tolerance for emotions

People often use food to cover their negative emotions. It acts as a negative and positive reinforcement, so that every time you feel bad, you go back to the refrigerator or the pantry. That way, the negative feeling is reduced and you feel better.

The problem is that you only feel better temporarily, and then you start to feel guilty. Therefore , you must learn to deal with your emotions, to embrace them as part of yourself,  and try not to run from them by transferring them to your stomach.

Eat six meals a day

The idea is to avoid feeling hungry and then overeat to compensate for it. Just as it is not advisable to eat a low calorie diet, it is also not recommended to eat only a few times during the whole day, since you can then start eating small pieces of food in the meantime. It is better to eat six well-established meals so that there are no cavities where you feel hungry and temptations arise.

Do not ban food

Everything that is forbidden will end up being attractive, so do not ban any foods. This does not mean that you have free rein to eat anything whenever you want, but you should allow yourself to enjoy something at least once a week. That way you get it out of your head and it will not be as tempting.

Think rationally about food

Most of the most pleasurable foods for the palate and brain are the least healthy. A good strategy is to maintain a rational internal dialogue about the food you choose to consume.

For example, if you want to eat a sausage sandwich, you can tell yourself that this is an unhealthy food made from poor quality meat products mixed with sugar, and the only thing it can give me is temporary pleasure. Do you still want to eat it?

Along with these weight loss strategies, do  not forget to exercise daily, keep your body hydrated, surround yourself with quality people in your social circle, meet integrity challenges, and find solutions that work. If you can integrate these techniques into your everyday life, before you know it, something that seems very difficult for you now will become a habit in the future.