Report 7 psyche Reasons pdf

7 Psychological Reasons Why Most People Fail at Dieting!

The MUST read report before starting a diet!

The diet industry is full of promises, they promise happiness, success, love, health, longevity, beauty and of course thinness!

You have probably heard the often banded statistic, that 95% of people who go on a weight loss plan regain their weight within a few months or years, this figure comes from a study of just 100 patients treated for obesity at a New York Hospital in the 1950's. In 1959 Dr. Albert Stunkard and Mavis McLaren-Hume, published a paper in which they concluded, ''Most obese people will not stay in treatment, most will not lose weight, and of those who do lose weight, most will regain it.”

Now let’s be honest, this is very bad science! In 1959 it is estimated that in the US, only 10% of adults were considered overweight, 60 years later in 2019 the figure has risen to 40%! The world is now a very different place and we need to take this 95% failure rate with a pinch of salt. But the simple fact remains, we now know more about nutrition, weight loss and health than ever before, yet the obesity epidemic is continually growing, and it is fundamentally out of control.

The weight loss industry is still presenting us with the idea that weight loss is simple “fewer calories in more calories out” (fewer points, fewer sins, fewer guilty pleasures…. All the same thing!). But people have been counting calories, reducing fat and dieting in many wonderful and inventive ways for decades, the numbers of people who claim they are on a diet is continually rising. Yet nearly half of all adults in western culture would be considered overweight.

Weight Watches, Slimming World and any of the other big corporate weight loss companies want to sell you the idea that weight loss is simple. It is very hard to market an array of individual and complex psychological reasons why you personally, haven’t been able to lose weight. It’s quick and simple to say eat less move more and with our support (and array of our fantastic expensive processed foods), you will reach the weight loss goals you’ve always dreamed of…..

It is very hard to sell (and from a business perspective scale) the truth, everybody is different! Everybody has different needs and requirements; everybody comes from different backgrounds and reacts differently to the same food. And most importantly everybody has totally different psychological needs.

Weight loss is hard, you are fighting a million years of evolution, where once food was often scarce and famine was regular, you are genetically programmed to seek out the highest energy foods available. Weight loss is not simple or easy and is never quick, the reason most people fail to lose weight in a long and sustained way is due to psychology!

So what are 7 important Psychological reasons which might have hampered your weight loss success in the past?

You have the ‘All or Nothing’ Approach - Diet mentality is isn’t just counterproductive to weight loss and overall health, it runs counter to emotional health as well. The term cognitive rigidity is used by psychologists to describe thought patterns that are so ingrained that people have trouble thinking flexibly. For example, when individuals following a strict diet regime, they inevitably fail to keep up the high regime standards that have been set, and self-sabotaging thoughts occur, ‘well I screwed up, I might as well give up for today.’ This thought pattern ensures that you’ll keep making one eating mistake after another. Flexible thinking will lead to acknowledging that perfectly following a particular regime isn’t always necessary, this understanding will greatly benefit your future health and weight loss journey. The analogy - If you broke one plate you wouldn’t get all your other plates out and break them as well. - is good to think about the next time the sabotaging thoughts creep in.
You have a low Self Efficacy Score - Another long-held belief in Health Psychology is that you need to have high Self-Efficacy in order to be able to make behaviour changes. You must intrinsically believe that you can succeed in losing weight, if you don’t believe it, you won’t achieve it. Weight loss success really is a case of believing to see it, and not ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’ This means that you will only be successful on a diet if you fully believe in your ability and competence to make the behaviour changes required to achieve your weight loss goals. (Strecher et al 1986). Without a strong belief in yourself, you won’t be successful, no matter how good the diet plan is. Research predicts that your positive or negative beliefs about your skills may predict your future success.
You have a high external Locus of Control - Health psychologists know behaviour change is strongly influenced by having a strong internal Locus of Control (Rotter 1966). This means that you believe wholeheartedly that you are in control of your own health and decision making towards behaviour changes. If you have a high external Locus of Control and believe that other factors are responsible for your health and wellbeing, you’ll never get off the starting blocks in terms of losing weight!
You have a high resistance to change - You think that it’s unfair that you must go on a diet, when others you know can eat what they want and don’t (seemingly) have be on a diet. Often when people undertake a diet programme, they show resistance, they resist the rules of the programme. This is part of the human psyche, Freud highlighted that the ego seeks out the familiar so we can maintain a sense of stability, if we ask ourselves to try something new, our psyche really resists. When trying something new like a new diet, you’ll hear that voice in your head trying to convince you that ‘this programme won’t work anyway,’ you’ll never to stick to the programme’ along with other similar statements. In order to be successful at dieting we need to resist the ego and reassure our psyche that we can make changes and that the unfamiliar can be a good thing.
You have cognitive fatigue - Following a diet plan can create ‘cognitive fatigue’, if a diet plan is complicated and requires lots of space in your mind, then you are likely to experience cognitive fatigue. Cognitive fatigue is especially prevalent if you put the diet regime off for a day or two, or have an all or nothing approach to the diet, this will create cognitive focus which will result in you not having time or space to tackle other things in your life. Perhaps you’ve had too many things going on in your life and when you’ve tried to lose weight in the past the timing wasn’t right. You need to think about embarking on a weight loss plan once you have time and space in your psyche and you can fully commit yourself to the task.
There is no ‘Joy’ in dieting - We seek out pleasure, this was highlighted by Freud when he describes the Id, a dominant part of our psyche, that is always on the lookout for instant gratification, our Id always seeks out pleasure. It is no wonder that when dieting becomes joyless, our psyche tries to shift the dynamic and move our attention onto the next possible source of pleasure, chocolate buttons anyone? Marie Kondo has made a career out of asking her clients, ‘does this bring you joy?’ this is a powerful question, as the realisation that something doesn’t give you joy means that you don’t value it. If dieting makes you sad and doesn’t fit within your values, then no matter how concrete the diet plan is, you won’t be able to follow it and your weight loss aspirations won’t be achieved. Which conveniently brings us nicely to reason no. 7 - Possible the most important psychological reason why most people fail…..
You Don’t Have a Strong Enough Why - You are unsure of why you’ve started this diet programme in the first place! We live in a media driven minefield and are often told how we should be, perhaps you were originally inspired by your peers to try the diet and then found yourself going ‘off-piste’ and realising that you’re now unsure of why you started the diet in the first place? The key to weight loss is to be very sure about WHY you’ve decided to embark on the task in the first place. You are more likely to be successful if you are doing it for yourself, when we try to achieve things on behalf of others, this will only get you so far. You need to be invested in the challenge, so if your reasoning behind dieting is not impacting enough, you won’t be a successful dieter.

This is a small sample of ‘bite sized’ psychological reasons as to why people may fail to lose weight, there are many more psychological reasons people struggle, these are often personal and deeply ingrained in ones psyche. I strongly believe that nobody sets out to be overweight, and most people probably don’t want to be overweight. It is not your fault if you are overweight so stop berating yourself or feeling like you may have somehow failed! Compassion and education is required to solve a very complex problem not starvation or restriction!

The diet industry doesn’t want you to know!

So why did I state that the diet industry wouldn’t want you to know this stuff? Well as I have explained losing weight is complicated, if the calories in/out philosophy was so simple we wouldn’t have a problem, but we do, so flogging this dead horse will just end in tears. This doesn’t make good sales copy for the big diet companies.

I strongly don’t believe in talking about calories in/out, talking about fats or carbs or eating more protein, and don’t get me started on the hundreds of fad diets. Yes, I have been there and I’ve flogged that dead horse. Back in the late 90’s I ran a diet programme which insisted participants kept to a strict calorie routine and counted every gram of fat, protein and carbs they consumed, yes we got results for the 6 weeks the participants were on the programme, and we would send these happy customers on their jollies feeling like we’d done a good job! But guess what...... a few months later the same participants would return and do the course again, and again….

Long term weight loss and sustainability is not as simple as counting calories it takes a complete change in mind-set, lifestyle and routine.

How can you use this information for your future weight loss goals?

I'm not a fan of the likes of Weight Watches or Slimming World for several reasons which I won't go into now, but what these companies do well is create a community and a support network which is vitally important for anybody undertaking a weight loss programme.

These very successful corporate weight loss companies instil a sense of accountability, participants are encouraged to work hard towards their next meeting or weigh-in. Knowing one must 'show up' each week is a great motivator to put the cake down!

I believe, part of the reason the WHY DIET has been so successful in our live group sessions, is that participants will share their struggles and barriers in a supportive, safe and friendly environment. People need people! Doing something as hard and complicated as losing weight, should never be attempted alone. I believe it is vitally important that participants on our online WHY DIET programme join our private Facebook group and get email support. This is a vital strategy in supporting people along their personal journey.

To conclude this report, I want to leave you with 2 very important strategies to help you in your future health and weight loss endeavours.

Choose a really strong WHY! Without having a strong reason why you want to make the effort and changes required to lose weight you will not succeed. Your WHY cannot be superficial (I want to look good in a bikini) this is not going to work long term or even short term (if you live in the UK 😊). You need to be completely committed to your WHY so when the times are tough you can return to your WHY to help you get through. Write your ‘WHY’ down and keep it with you. Email it to me or a friend so somebody else who can hold you accountable.
Get support in your weight loss endeavours, if you are deciding to start a diet (any diet), talk to somebody about it, a friend, a family member, or come and talk to me. You need a support network and if possible, a community, this has been shown in psychology to have massive benefits and it will be very hard to succeed without external support.

So how is the WHY DIET different to other diets or weight loss programmes?

On the WHY DIET we understand everybody is completely different with different needs, fortunately there are some standard psychological behaviours which are common among slim people that can be replicated and really help everybody trying to lose weight.

On the WHY DIET we encourage you to examine the psychology behind your relationship with food. The WHY DIET is a generic step by step system, but we ask you to take an individual approach. There is no one size fits all, for example some diets suggest that you only eat x number of calories or only eat a certain type of food. This is not the approach we take on the Why Diet everybody has different needs. We tell you ‘how’ to eat not ‘what’ to eat.

The Why Diet guides you and encourages you to make certain choices, but it doesn’t tell you.

The Why Diet educates you; we explain the mind-set, behaviours and actions you need to take to be successful. The reasons why people are overweight are never greed or lack of willpower, we will show you another way which won’t require masses of determination.

The Why Diet is there for you, you will join a community of likeminded people wanting to help. You are never expected to be alone on the Why Diet.

The why diet is like no other weight loss programme, you’ve ever experienced, we will continue to support you throughout your journey via Facebook, email and chat.

I hope you have gained some value from this report, I would really love to hear from you, feel free to email me or contact me via messenger on Facebook.

I look forward to hearing from you soon, good luck.

Charlotte Mottram

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