I want to lose weight: where to start?

I want to lose weight... What woman does not say this phrase, some with hope, some with despair, and some with confidence that everything will work out. In fact, the inexorable statistics say that motivation determines if not all, then certainly more than half of success.

In addition to deciding why you want to lose weight, you also need to figure out the reason why you are gaining and maintaining weight. Once these two tasks are solved and specified, the strategy for losing weight to a physiologically normal level is built with optimal precision.

So, the first two tasks, related to the field of psychology and creating the conditions for the fulfillment of the cherished desire - “I want to lose weight” are formulated as follows:

1. Determine why you personally need to lose weight. This should not concern comparisons with an asthenic friend or an anorexic model. What will losing weight give you personally - increased self-esteem, improved well-being, attracting attention from the opposite sex, career growth, and so on. It is advisable to describe yourself in your ideal weight as detailed and specific as possible.
2. Find the reason why food addiction developed. This task is not only psychological, but also possibly medical. Among the psychological reasons for food addiction may be the following:
   • Dissatisfaction with one's life in general, a feeling of constant vital discomfort, an inner emptiness that is filled with food. This problem, which psychotherapists call "hungry mind", requires the help of a specialist, detailed analysis and working through psychological traumas.
   • Dissatisfaction with personal life, which is called a "hungry heart", that is, the inability to give free rein to emotions and feelings. Their suppression leads to food compensation, which replaces joy with food satisfaction. A task that can be solved with the help of a psychologist. It is necessary to find out which emotions, including negative ones, are "eaten away".
   • Unfulfilled professionalism also often leads to "eating away" career failures. It requires self-analysis, sometimes tough, honest, dramatic, but necessary for further development.
   • Chronic stress situations that are compensated by food "pleasures". A task that requires self-analysis, possibly the help of a specialist, and building a plan to get out of stress.
   • Suppressed childhood fears and anxieties can be projected into adulthood as food “defense.” They require processing and elimination.
   • Metabolic disorders due to somatic diseases, including hormonal dysfunctions. A task that requires careful, comprehensive diagnostics and therapeutic measures.

[ 1 ], [ 2 ]

I want to lose weight: what should I do?

Having decided on these two stages described above, and they are quite difficult and require effort and time, you can build an individual weight loss plan. It is no secret that it is impossible to stabilize weight with diets, fasting or training alone.

Short-term results lead to food breakdowns, disappointments at the very least, health problems at the most. Therefore, it is worth stocking up on patience, calculating your strength and resources, studying information about the reasons for weight gain and only then begin the "war" with extra pounds.

In addition to psychological and pathological reasons for the accumulation of fat deposits, there is a purely biochemical version. It explains excess weight by lethargy and weakness in the functioning of the pancreas.

Why are there people for whom the question "I want to lose weight" is not relevant at all? Physiologists claim that these lucky ones have an actively working pancreas, and in such a way that the portion of insulin produced is adequate to the amount of glucose entering the body. Even if there is too much glucose, the working gland successfully processes and utilizes it. Perhaps this can be explained by a hereditary factor, science has not yet been able to specify this fact.

The opposite picture is observed in people with excess weight. The inert pancreas is not able to respond to the excess volume of glucose by producing the required amount of insulin. Any sugar-containing products cause a feeling of satiety, but this satiety is false for the stomach, after about half an hour, the body is hungry again, since sugar is processed and absorbed very quickly. It turns out to be a vicious circle.

On the one hand, there is a sincere desire - I want to lose weight, on the other hand - the body's natural need for constant saturation, since the level of glucose in the blood is rapidly decreasing.

Indeed, nutritionists around the world are sounding the alarm about the catastrophically huge amount of sugar in almost any industrial product. The abundance of product ranges, bright packaging, coupled with food additives do not add to the health of humanity, on the contrary, they drive it into a food trap, leading to even greater, active consumption of "tasty" products.

In addition, the fast pace of modern life has taught us to consume food literally on the go, often mechanically, unconsciously. Who among those who want to lose weight does not eat while watching TV or reading books? Such swallowing, without turning on the mechanisms of taste, smell, taste satisfaction, not to mention aesthetic, also leads to a gain of extra pounds.

I want to lose weight – this is a desire, a dream, which should be reformatted into a specific plan, and then actions. Hoping for a miracle and believing in weekly diets that get rid of 10-15 kilograms in one sitting is, at the very least, unreasonable.

In order to lose weight, you need to understand that just as digestion is a systemic process, not a one-time action, so weight loss is a process that requires some effort in addition to desire. However, the road will be mastered by the one who walks, especially since the desire “I want to lose weight” can also be fulfilled with the help of physical exercises.