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Why trying to lose weight is self-defeating and often counter- productive! 

In my last blog I explained why dieting is counter-productive and often results in weight gain in the long-term. I believe that using weight as a measurement can also be counter-productive. As a society we seem to be obsessed about measuring our happiness on the number shown on our bathroom scales in the mornings.

Are you obsessed with jumping on the scales every day and do you base your level of happiness on what those scales tell you? I know some very heavy people who also happen to be extremely fit and healthy because most of their weight is comprised of muscle and very little fat. For example, I can think of a lot of athletes such as Rugby players and shot put and discus throwers who would fit into this category.

Someone recently said to me that she weighs 11.5 stone and her target is 10.75 stone. She also made the comment that her body seems happy at 11.5 because it always seems to end up at that weight yet she is unhappy at being over 11 stone. This appears to be a psychological barrier and probably would not be an issue if she did not weigh herself. I also know someone who has always associated happiness with being thin and unhappiness with being overweight. This belief was instilled in her from early childhood by her father!

The scales can be demoralising at times. Have you ever experienced being on a diet for a week, say, and exercised more rigorously than ever before and then stepped on the scales with the expectation of weight loss; only to discover no change or even a slight increase in weight. You may have changed shape as a result of a reduction in fat and increase in muscle but this success won’t be recognised by the scales. The likelihood is that you may give up on the exercise and healthy eating as a result as you are thinking “what’s the point.”

I don’t possess any scales and only ever get weighed when I visit my local GP practice which, thankfully, is a rare occurrence. You can keep a check on your body by looking in the mirror and noticing changes in the way your clothes fit and if you need some form of measurement maybe your clothes size and/or a tape measure might be more appropriate.

The words we use and our interpretation and meaning we identify with those words can have a profound effect on our lives. I know someone who has an aversion to exercise because he always associates exercise with his school days when he was humiliated and bullied because he wasn’t very good at sports.

I would suggest that very few people would have a positive connection with the word LOSE. For example I am a competitive sportsman (possibly because it was the only thing that I excelled at school). In sport your aim is to try to win you don’t try and lose.

Generally, in life, you take steps to avoid losing anything and you were taught to do this from an early age and if you lose anything you then try and find it. This kind of thinking becomes ‘hard wired’ by the time we are adults. So it must be a source of confusion to the subconscious mind when you keep on trying to lose weight. In this context the opposite of losing is gaining, which is perhaps what makes gaining weight easier to do than losing it.

As the focus on losing weight is part of the problem I suggest that you change the emphasis towards what you are going to gain as a result of becoming slimmer. These benefits might include feeling more confident, having increased levels of self-esteem, having more energy and therefore achieving more, living longer and having more choice of clothes to wear etc.

Finally, throw those scales away!!!