Diet Talk - The Fear Of Becoming Thin

DIET TALK is a series of 56 topics addressing the psychological and social aspects of successful, long-term weight management. DIET TALK is based on my NPR series. This lecture addresses the fear of becoming thin.

Transcript

The fear of becoming thin.

Some dieters find that as soon as they have lost a certain number of pounds or reached a particular weight,

That they have difficulty staying with the eating pattern they have established in order to lose weight.

This tends to result in quitting and regaining most,

If not all,

Weight that was lost.

One reason for this behavior is seeing yourself as being an obese person.

If you have been overweight or have felt as though you are for a long time,

You probably perceive yourself as being an obese person.

And because of our tendency toward consistency,

It is often difficult to change a perception that has been held for a long time.

As a result,

We usually behave in a manner that coincides with our perceptions,

Even though intellectually we have changed.

Often when we have lost a specific number of pounds or reached a certain weight,

We interpret this as heading toward being normal weight.

Since the perception is that of being fat,

This situation causes stress.

You are going against your perception of who you are.

Therefore you will make sure to not allow this to happen,

So you quit your weight loss program.

To deal with this problem,

You need to determine why weight loss is important to you,

Start working on becoming the new you,

And be prepared to re-evaluate your motivators after losing each 15 to 25 pounds.

Since there is usually a noticeable bodily change after each 10-pound loss,

You have gotten something of what you wanted when you started to lose.

So you have to replace those reasons with the new ones since the old motivators are no longer valid.

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