Why Can't I Lose Weight?

" Why Can't I Lose Weight "? It's a common question these days.

More than ever, people want to lose weight. Obesity rates are skyrocketing - despite the fact that we know more about food and calories than ever before.

This is also despite the fact that there are now more diets on the market than ever before. And despite the fact that we have more access to exercise machines, weights, program and coaches than ever before.

So what's the problem?

Reasons for holding onto extra weight are varied. However I believe one of the main reasons people can't lose weight is because they're focusing on the wrong thing - the food.

If food was the main problem, then diets - which focus on changing our food intake - would work 100% of the time. But they don't. In fact, they work less than 5% of the time.

Maybe we're missing the point.

I believe one of the main reasons why people can't lose weight is because they're not addressing the root of the problem - why they overeat.

Instead of changing the food with a diet, stop and ask yourself why you overeat in the first place.

According to Dr. Roger Gould, creator of the Shrink Yourself emotional eating program, most people break their diets because they feel stressed, upset, anxious or depressed.

Emotional eating is a way of coping with negative emotions like fear, anxiety, hopelessness, excitement, sadness and loneliness.

Most people do use food occasionally to cope with these feelings. The problem comes when emotional eating becomes a habit, when you've done it so often it becomes a coping skill that you use to handle negative emotions.

When this happens, it becomes virtually impossible to lose weight.

Why?

Because life is stressful - we all experience negative emotions. And if you're not learning how to deal with those emotions in another way, no matter what diet you're on - you'll eventually turn to food to soothe yourself.

If you've acquired the habit of emotional overeating, the moment your boss yells at you, or your kids have a temper tantrum or your company announces layoffs or your partner lets you down - you'll be knee deep in a food binge.

Because that's the strongest coping mechanism you have right now.

It's not something to be ashamed of. In fact you're actually taking care of yourself the best way you know how - by eating.

So could you be an emotional eater? Most of us know if we eat emotionally or not. But just to help you out here are some tips to see if you are an emotional overeater:

- you eat larger amounts of food than could be considered normal in a single episode

- you usually eat after you start to feel upset, stressed, anxious, lonely, bored, angry or fearful

- you must have certain foods - usually not the healthy ones. You may crave donuts, chocolate, cookies, pizza, cheeseburgers or other forms of junk food

- you feel guilty and remorseful after eating

- you feel that you must eat NOW - you can't wait

- You usually eat very quickly

Those are some signs of emotional overeating. Not all emotional eaters will have all of these symptoms but each emotional overeater will probably have several.

So what can you do?

The good news is that if you are an emotional eater - you now know why you haven't lost weight in the past. You may have been focusing on the wrong thing - the food.

You can now refocus on fixing the root of your overeating behavior - managing your emotions. There are programs like Shrink Yourself to help you do this.

And unlike your past efforts with dieting, once you relearn how to manage your emotions without eating - the weight will come off and stay off.

Was this information useful? This article on Why Can't I Lose Weight is one of several articles found in our Emotional Eating information section.