“It’s not that our guilty food doesn’t work” – an expert explains how to lose weight sustainably
Do you find yourself embarking on a new diet with determination and enthusiasm, getting results for a while but eventually reverting to old habits? This is a habit that many people have and it can destroy your self-esteem.
I chatted with Dr Aileen Alexander, women’s health and weight loss expert, medical doctor and TEDx speaker about why traditional weight loss diets they may seem ineffective, and what we can do differently if we want to lose weight and avoid it. .
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Alexander says: “The most common way to lose weight is to diet and dieting is like restrictions. “Diets often focus only on food, types of food or calories, but not enough to why do people eat. When people come to me, they usually tell me five or 10 things they should do differently, and then they feel really guilty. because they don’t do those things my job is to help them understand why they don’t, I’m talking about busy lifestyles, stress, boundaries at work, work life balance , relationships, lack of sleep, maybe there. it’s hormonal imbalances related to menopause or menopause—all of these things can drive us to certain foods.”
Traditional food often involves many rules and breaking the rules comes with guilt. “Take fasting for example, it’s eating at a certain time, or keto is cutting carbohydrates, and counting means measuring everything we eat,” Alexander said. we. “I think these methods are simplistic, idealistic and restrictive. There are all these rules, instead of people learning to live life clearly in their own way.”
“Diets don’t teach people to listen to the body’s hunger signals or respond to what their body needs. In fact, they teach us to ignore these signals. Diets like this are really hard to stick to. [people] they can’t stick to a diet, they blame themselves and destroy their self-esteem. And that process often destroys our relationship with food.”
How can you lose weight sustainably?
“The first thing is that we need to have an individual approach,” says Alexander. “We need to look at the whole person and not just the food they eat, but try to understand why they eat. We need to understand what drives that behavior.” Think about the stressful areas in your life and how you can resolve them.
“The process needs to be simple and easy,” says Alexander, “where we do one thing at a time as opposed to everything. If you’re trying to make a lot of changes at once, for example, deciding to prepare all your meals, exercise every day, cut down on processed foods, etc., is overwhelming and becomes unsustainable.
“It also needs to be fun,” says Alexander. “For example, making a commitment to eating a variety of healthy foods, rather than cutting back, can make life fun and enjoyable.” help to lose weight.
Sleep also plays a big role in weight loss. “When we sleep well, we produce more of a hormone called leptin, which makes us feel full, and we produce less of ghrelin—the hormone that makes us hungry—so we’re less likely to eat,” says Alexander. I ate too much. Lack of sleep affects us in different ways. “If you haven’t slept all night, you’re less likely to exercise, and you’re more likely to make poor food choices.
“We need to make sure that we don’t have certain foods, we’re still able to eat, we’re still getting ice cream, we’re still getting chocolate in our diet if we want it because we enjoy it. instead and to turn to it in times of distress.”
“Ultimately, I think we need to support individuals to feel empowered to make good decisions and help them understand why they’re not making good decisions. and hurt them,” says Alexander.
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