dealing with obesity and weight loss tips

Written by M.Farouk Radwan, MSc.

The story of my friend

A friend of mine has got a tree at his garden. One day he found that the tree was not looking good and so he decided to remove it. My friend went and cut the branches of the tree then came back home feeling happy. After some time my friend found that the branches grew again.

He was a confused and he decided to cut them again. Few months later my friend was on his way home then he got mad when he found that the branches grew again.

But what did he do wrong? He used the correct tool to cut the branch and he cut them in a correct way, what was wrong then? Simply he didn’t cut the root, he just kept cutting the branches and repeating the whole process again.

weight loss and diet

You might be asking what does a story like that has to do with weight loss. In fact you have been doing the same as my friend, not with trees but with the improper use of diet.

How many times have you attempted a diet and failed?
How many times have you suffered from the pain of not eating what you want and then ended up with no result?

In short if you are serious about losing weight then you should detect the root cause of your eating habits. by knowing why you eat much. By dealing with the root cause instead of cutting the branch you will be able to lose weight.

I am not saying that every diet will fail but as a measure of flexibility you should focus on what’s working instead of trying many times then losing hope.

Diet must be used along with the other methods that focus on the removal of the root cause for overeating else you will either get short term results or either you will get long term results but your life will be painful (because you will be on a diet forever).

the root causes for over eating

Now, what are the reasons that make someone addicted to food?
Of course other than the delicious taste of the food there are many reasons for overeating that you may not know much about, those reasons are:

overeating and external dependency: do you know that lots of people who like to eat use eating as an escapement method? Escaping to eating is simply feeling like wanting to eat as soon as you feel down, bored or even depressed. A friend of mine who have got obesity problems once told me “whenever I have a problem, I eat until I forget it”. This situation Is called external dependency, it’s the case where you become externally dependent on other factors in order to make yourself happy. It’s the same as addiction where addicts use drugs to change their mood or to escape to a better mood. the most important point here is that you don’t eat because you are hungry!! You are just escaping to food.
False beliefs about food: some people have developed false beliefs about food like "i will forget my problems when i eat” , of course the person won't think consciously of these beliefs but instead his subconscious mind will motivate him to eat whenever he feels down without knowing why.(See also the Endomorph body type)
hating to diet: whenever the word diet is mentioned some people recall the word pain. Throughout your life you may have associated dieting with pain and that’s why you are not motivated to diet.
low serotonin levels: carbohydrates increase the level of serotonin in your blood. Serotonin is the hormone that makes us feel happy and that prevents depression. when you eat less carbohydrates you may feel a little down and so escape to food. In order to prevent that from happening you just need to use other natural ways to increase your serotonin levels other than eating. (see serotonin’s guide)

dealing with obesity

Dealing with obesity is not just about changing the type of food you consume. If you are serious about losing weight then know that weight loss is a process that includes changing your eating habits, changing false beliefs about food, improving your mental self image and getting rid of external dependency.

The moment you start to use all of these tools together is the same moment you will start to notice a great change in your weight & looks. Tired of diet programs that yield no results? The book The Ultimate guide to weight loss is all what you need to lose weight without dieting and without preventing yourself from eating your favorite food.