Let me first start out by saying that I am overweight myself. I am 86kg which is 190 lbs. Part of the reason I write this blog is to show myself as a guinea pig and over the course of time improve myself, I certainly do not profess to being Mr. Universe!!
Everywhere around the world we see rising levels of obesity. People always talk about Americans being fat but it’s happening everywhere else in the world too. In my country, the UK, we are said to have the fastest growing and largest percentage of overweight people after America. And I read an article this morning that said that even France has a growing number of overweight people.
Some thin people just look at fat people and say “hey, eat less!”.
If only it were that simple! You could create a school where all the instructors did was to repeat the mantra “eat less” and people would pay you millions of dollars! Of course it’s not that simple!
Here is my own personal theory on rising amounts of people being overweight and so many looking to lose weight but failing.
Why Are So Many People Becoming Overweight?
Yes, this is obviously a product of a modern western lifestyle. I don’t think that anyone disagrees with that. Even in China, obesity levels are rising fast as their country rapidly grows. Maybe it is more accurate to say that rising levels of obesity are connected to rapidly rising levels of affluence in a country.
Many people think that more people are becoming overweight because we are leading more sedentary lifestyles. Many of us work behind a desk, walk less and do not have as much time for recreation.
The Myth Of The “Sedentary Lifestyle”
Personally, I think that this is confusing the issue. I have many friends who are skinny as a beanpole and do not do regular exercise or would not consider themselves particularly active. I don’t have the figures on me right now but I did once read somewhere that only a minority of people do regular exercise and that is mainly in the younger age groups.
Take for example my friend who is 45 years old. He works long hours and takes over an hour to get back home to see his wife and young child. This guy does not pump iron or run around the countryside in his spare time and many working people of his age are similar. Yet, he is not overweight. Even though he has the excuse of a “sedentary lifestyle”, he is not overweight. Clearly, there is another reason why people are getting overweight.
Excess Food Is An Addiction
I believe that people who are overweight have an addiction to eating too much food. If you’ve ever seen what skinny people eat, it really is not that much. As human beings, we don’t need 3 full plates of food every day to survive.
Overweight people, on the other hand, they eat when they already feel full. They continue to eat even though they know they don’t need it. They are not actually hungry anymore, they are simply gorging themselves. They do it for the pleasure.
Like I said, it’s an addiction to excess food. You can’t be addicted to food generally because we all need to eat it, we’re programmed that way. But look at overweight people, they can’t get enough of eating too much. They even feel irritable if they can’t get that pleasure.
Junk Food Is An Addiction
I also believe that overweight people have an addiction to eating junk food. Junk food has a high glycaemic index and gives a huge spike in blood sugar. This kind of food is almost like a drug to many overweight people. I know, because I’m one of them.
Some days I can eat junk after junk after junk for the entire day. I know it’s bad for me but I keep on doing it anyway. If I don’t, then I’ll get irritable and think of nothing else but the junk.
The food companies have a lot to answer for here. It is quite difficult to actually get fresh food these days. We are bombarded with processed foods that are depleted of vitamins and can contain up to one hundred chemical additives designed to trick our brains and our tastebuds and contributing to the entire problem.
Personally, I feel that the food companies are as responsible for millions of premature deaths every year as the tobacco companies are. Perhaps one day we will see many class action lawsuits but somehow I doubt it.
Parallel With Smoking
This is even more proof that being overweight is the result of an addiction. I used to be a smoker and got through over 25 cigarettes every day. I tried all the usual methods of quitting such as willpower and patches but they didn’t work.
Did you know that the success rate for people quitting smoking for the rest of their lives is only 5%? Many people can quit for a week, less still for a month, but eventually the vast majority start again. This is because they never cure their addiction and they only abstain from it.
I cured it using cognitive behavioural therapy. It was a way of seeing my addiction for what it really was and I am no longer addicted.
I can see a great many parallels with being overweight. The diet industry is so huge because most people who are overweight will go from one diet to the other. They will lose a little weight and then fall of the wagon and go back to being their old selves.
When they force themselves to go on a diet, they will feel irritable, they will feel like they are “missing” their old junk foods, missing being able to gorge themselves on excess food. Doesn’t this sound like a smoker to you? Non-smokers don’t “miss” anything. In the same way, a healthy person of normal weight does not “miss” junk food at all, he has no desire for it!
Therefore, I feel that smoking and being overweight are very, very similar addictions.
How Can The Addiction To Excess/Junk Food Be Overcome?
One method is CBT like I described earlier. When I quit smoking, I used a famous book by Allen Carr. He also wrote a book on losing weight but it did not work for me. Possibly, quitting smoking was his main forte and his second book was not so good, I can only grasp for reasons why it did not happen for me.
Of course, traditional CBT in the therapist-patient session format could work, however I don’t believe for a moment that the medical community understands the true underlying causes of addiction, particularly addiction to excess and junk food.
The third option I think is the best. I intend to find myself a good hypnotherapist and discuss with him my own logic and understanding of food addiction. In this way I believe that the suggestions that the hypnotist uses will have maximum effect.
This would be the ideal situation for me, however if I simply cannot find a good hypnotherapist (remember that many of them may simply insist on a “willpower” method that will fail in the long term) then I may have to resort to self hypnosis. This requires more discipline and perseverence and I would prefer to just pay a hypnotherapist and let him do the work!
Your Comments
I’d love to hear what you think of my theory and what your own personal views on losing weight are. Just leave a comment below. Thanks
