Psychological Perspectives on the Problem of Losing Weight

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The Schools of Psychology and Weight Loss

How would the different psychological schools explain why it is so hard to lose weight?

Source: The Psych Files podcast

Sociocultural

The Problem: Your Friends, Media & the "Culture of Consumption"

Avoid the influence of media

Make New Friends - make group pressure work in your favor

Enlist help of current friends

Junk food is readily available all around you

Food Advertisements are everywhere

Television, Movies and magazines showing attractive and thin people

Expected Holiday eating

Group Pressures at Get-Togethers like at bars and parties

Biological

The Problem: Your Body and Brain

Diet

increase fruits and vegetables

reduce simple sugars

water

Consistent Exercise

Supernormal Stimuli

Foods you find at the supermarket are "supernormal" - that is, often larger than normal, more colorful and specifically designed with the mix of salt, sugar and fat to be addictive.

Evolution: Our bodies have evolved to crave sugar, fat and salt (they used to be in very short supply) and to store fat in case of famine, so your body fights fat loss

sugar

increases insulin

over time, cells can develop insulin resistance

fat

Set Point Theory

Thyroid

Your Age

Metabolism slows as we get older

We lose muscle and thus gain weight as we get older

Metabolic Rate

Heredity

Humanistic (Carl Rogers)

The Problem: lack of self acceptance

New Job, new direction in your life

Set up something to look forward to

Reconnect with your talents, skills & hobbies. Nurture a sense of self-efficacy by becoming good at something you enjoy

Learn to love yourself despite your faults

Recognize that we're all imperfect

Your job has no meaning for you

Lost connection with what is important to you

You don't like yourself, or you feel that part of you is "bad"

Psychoanalytic (Freud)

The Problem: Unresolved Feelings

Resolve unconscious conflicts

Gain Insight through psychotherapy

Past/Family/Childhod

Comfort Food

Behavioral (B.F. Skinner, John Watson)

The Problem: Bad Habits

Make small changes in your environment so that healthy eating is easy to do

Reinforce yourself for different behaviors

Remove current reinforcer

Large portion sizes

Eating while watching TV

Something is reinforcing whatever you're doing now

Cognitive (Albert Ellis, Martin Seligman, Aaron Beck)

The Problem: Irrational Thoughts

Solution

Cognitive Restructuring

Thought stopping

Track your irrational thoughts and find substitutes for them

Irrational

"I should be as thin as...."

Negative

"I can't..."

"I'll always..."

"I'll never...