Body weight is more than just a measure of how much mass our body has. For many, weight is experienced as a fundamental problem in their lives, so much so that they need to reach their “ideal weight” to accept themselves.
Many associate weight as an indicator of attractiveness, beauty and health and, of course, this influences their self-esteem and self-concept, with some feeling terribly bad when their weight is not what they want.
Weight loss is a rather delicate issue that can range from simply losing a few kilos on medical recommendation to a real mental health problem. Therefore, below Let’s see how to avoid becoming obsessed with losing weight and understand that it is not everything..
Why can obsessing about losing weight be a problem?
Millions of people around the world are worried about their weight. Some worry in a way that we could say “innocent”, in the sense that they have had a bad time lately and, now that they have gotten back on their feet, they set themselves the goal of acquiring a healthy weight, whether by gaining a little weight or losing it. Others, unfortunately, They find themselves trapped in a harsh spiral of obsession with weight, worried about every calorie they eat and prohibiting all types of delicious but “evil” food. They are valued based on their weight, which greatly influences their self-esteem.
Food is what provides us with nutrients, the fuel that our body needs. Without food, human beings simply die and that is why we need to eat. However, what is a basic need, something instinctive and the only concern we should have is if we do not find it, many people worry about “overindulging” in food, gaining weight by overeating and, to compensate for it, , they go into restrictive diets or simply stop eating.
At some point in our lives we may need to lose a little fat for health reasons. However, becoming obsessed with losing weight It can lead us to a situation that is not at all synonymous with health, and is the crude world of eating disorders.. This is why it is so important to establish a healthy relationship with food and understand that weight is not a measure of beauty or health, but rather an indicator of mass, nothing more.
The objective of this article is to learn a little how to avoid becoming obsessed with losing weight, seeing some myths, beliefs and attitudes to combat about how weight loss and gain occurs, in addition to understanding that maintaining a healthy diet is something extremely necessary to have. a beautiful body, which is nothing more than any body that enjoys good health.
There are many myths that exist around food and that are directly related to becoming obsessed with losing weight. Many people, in their attempt to achieve weight loss goals, control by the numbers that should appear on the scale becomes control by what they eat, this being the breeding ground for developing an unhealthy relationship with food.
It’s funny how in today’s world, where we can easily get more food than ever, we eat worse than our ancestors did. It is true that we have more availability of nutritious foods and that malnutrition is relatively uncommon, but we also live in a world where there are many high-calorie, greasy and low-nutrient foods that happen to be hyperpalatable, that is, more appetizing. compared to traditional and seasonal food.
Since the foods that are poorest in nutrients are, in turn, those that have the most intense flavor, it is not surprising that the population prefers them over healthy foods.. As a consequence of this, we have diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in the population, since it is difficult to resist this type of food, which also tends to be marketed already prepared and sold at a relatively low price.
Saying that the population is addicted to junk food is not an exaggeration. People know that they are not healthy foods, that it would be best not to eat them at all, and that they carry health risks, but it is very difficult for them to stop consuming them. As a consequence, once a lot of weight has been gained, they try to abandon it suddenly, categorizing them as “forbidden” foods and this is where the unhealthy relationship with food breaks out.
How to avoid becoming obsessed with losing weight?
There are several actions we can do to avoid becoming obsessed with losing weight.
1. Do not use the gym to eat more afterwards
There is no doubt that physical activity burns calories and helps you lose weight. Going to the gym should be seen as a way to ensure you are in good health and having fun, whether you are doing strength training, cardio or guided activities.
However, the truth is that Many people go to the gym with the clear intention of burning a large amount of calories and then replacing them by eating everything.. Obsessed with weight, to make sure they don’t gain a few extra kilos, they work themselves out doing all kinds of exercises at the gym and then eat all kinds of high-calorie foods.
This is quite dangerous. On the one hand we have the fact that the person binge eats and, on the other, they carry out compensatory behaviors, in this case exercising excessively, all to avoid gaining weight. All of this can serve to suspect a possible case of bulimia, an eating disorder that requires psychological intervention.
2. Don’t be too demanding when it comes to calories
There are countless applications that serve to track the calories of what we eat and also those we burn with exercise. These can be useful as they help us to have guidance on caloric intake and the proportion of macronutrients that we have ingested, helping us to know if we are maintaining a varied diet and consuming the necessary amount of calories.
However, Obsessing with tracking down absolutely every calorie to make sure you lose weight is a mistake.. These applications should be downloaded and used with caution and understand that they are only a record of what we eat, focusing more on the nutrients consumed rather than our caloric intake. The reason why these applications should be taken with caution is that many people want to make perfectionist use of them.
There are those who try to keep an exhaustive record of everything they have eaten throughout the week, motivating themselves to continue eating between 1200 and 1500 calories, which are recommended in very general terms. It usually happens that for the simple fact of having forgotten to register a day, your users become overwhelmedthey feel like they have failed, they break their streak and eat more, feeling like they are gaining weight with every bite.
It is necessary to understand that by not writing down absolutely everything we eat on a calorie counter we are not going to gain weight. As long as we eat a healthy diet, rich in nutrients, we can make what we eat a little more flexible and even forget to write it down.
3. Neither restrictive diets nor prohibiting foods
There are many people who believe that they will only lose weight if they prohibit certain foods and completely control the calories they eat.. It is true that knowing your caloric intake can assume that you will lose weight, as long as you ingest fewer calories than you expend and there is a caloric deficit.
Now, following a restrictive diet does not work, much less if it has been obtained from dubious sources. It is not difficult to find all kinds of miracle diets on the Internet in which prohibited foods are highlighted. These, far from being good instructions for controlling or losing weight, become dangerous sources of guilt.
They prohibit so many foods that they practically do not allow you to enjoy the food, only being able to eat low-calorie foods like lettuce, some low-fat meats like chicken, and strictly prohibiting everything sweet. Others force us to eat the same food for several weeks (e.g., the pineapple diet).
Both types of diets are extremely unworkable, since they are tremendously boring and they insist on the idea of forbidden foods, which means that if the person skips a day with a food of this type, they feel a lot of remorse and go to hell. another extreme, that is, binge eating.
It must be clear that Prohibiting foods goes against human nature, and they can only be “banned” in those cases where for health reasons they cannot be ingested under any circumstances., such as salt in hypertensive patients or carbohydrates in people with morbid obesity. Restrictive diets enhance eating disorders.
Any diet that is going to be followed should be consulted with professionals, including doctors, dieticians and nutritionists. If you suspect a possible eating disorder, you should consult a psychologist.
4. Do not expose yourself to the scale every day
One of the most feared moments for people who are desperate to lose weight is weighing themselves on the scale. Everyone has an ideal weight in their head, although it is not healthy nor truly ideal, but it translates into a specific number, a value that if we have not reached it still makes us very sad. For many people this can become obsessive and they use the scale every day, even several times.
The weight that the scale shows us can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it may happen that, if we are successful, we feel motivated to continue with our weight loss routine, eating healthy and exercising, but on the other hand, if this is not the case, what will happen is that we will feel frustrated. and we even become obsessed with eating less or exercising more than necessary.
Both weight loss and muscle mass gain are a process with its ups and downs and therefore The daily measurement of where we are is not useful because it can perfectly demotivate us.. What has to be taken into account is the entire process as a whole.
We are not going to lose weight overnight. Weighing yourself every day does not provide reliable data and any variation that occurs can be produced by such a number of factors beyond our control that it would be very difficult to use them as a measure of whether there is progress or not, much less indicative of an improvement in the condition. health.
In most cases it is appropriate to weigh yourself once every two weeks, preferably only once a month, and using smart scales, if possible. These are devices that go beyond simply measuring weight, but also measure other aspects that are related to the person’s health, such as the percentage of fat, the amount of muscle mass, fluid retention, and basal metabolism. and premature aging.
The scale should remain hidden or at least in a less exposed place on the days it will not be used.. To do this, it is best to put it in a high place from which it is difficult to get it down, or directly hide it in a drawer that we do not usually consult. This will prevent us from being tempted to weigh ourselves out of date and, thus, we will be able to better assess progress.
