Aaaah, trying to lose weight can be such a frustrating thing to do!!! I keep looking at my weight loss ticker which I so happily installed a year back, and it moves down a notch occasionally, and then it surely moves up again. After Christmas and New Year, I am right back to where I started now. I have to wear my “fat pants” (you know, I am sure everybody who is trying to lose weight has at least one pair of them in their wardrobe – the only pants that are still comfortable after you reach a certain weight, the pants you wear when everything else just feels too tight), and I feel really not good. I don’t want to admit that I might actually have to start buying more pants that size, because I sure will fit back into my size 12 pants, eventually???? 
Yeah dreaming!
The problem is, I think, that the more we think about having to lose weight, the more we think about eating, and the more we seem to crave food and to eat. If we could stop ourselves from thinking about food all the time, and about diets, wouldn’t we all be much happier (and thinner)?
Many, many people who are trying to lose weight are actually stuck in the same rut – the diet yo-yo effect. Losing a few kilos (hooray!!!) and then putting them straight back on. I still tend to step on the scales at least twice a day (yes, I did not end up throwing them out, I should have!), and sometimes I am successful at losing a kilo or two, and then I am so elated that I go straight to the fridge to celebrate! How sick is that!
Emotional eating is the killer of every weight loss plan. No matter how prepared you are, if you are dealing with your emotions with food, then the emotions will take over your sound mind every time. Because they are stronger. A lot of us will have to deal with their emotional issues that make them turn to food, and find something else that will comfort us if things get tough.
Looks like I have not dealt with my emotions yet….
Dieting always makes me focus on food. I can’t stop thinking about it. It becomes an obsession for me. I think about when the next snack is going to be and what I’m going to be able to eat and when. I count down the minutes to my next bite of food. I hate dieting. When I relax and get involved in getting outside and walking places and trying to make healthy choices when I make food decisions, I do much better. Getting a handle on my emotions is a big one, too. Therapy and medication when necessary can be very beneficial.
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New to this site but reading you comments with interest and ofcourse of gone through all the same problems.
I think the best change I’ve made in my life is to exercise more which makes me be more sensible about my diet as its not nice going running feeling bits wobble.
I agree – as soon as I even think the word ‘diet’ and I feel like im not allowed to eat certain food is when thats all i can think about. I end up eating more of those foods than I would have if I wasn’t on a ‘diet’. Its a huge mental trap. I have stopped going on diets and now just try to eat as healthy as I can.
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Alison, that is a good move. Try to drink 8 glasses of water, too, that will help you along the way.
I saw a news story on TV recently about this. One of the most difficult components of weight loss is dealing with the emotions and keeping motivated to make the sacrifices.
.-= JP Wynn@How to Get a Flat Stomach Fast´s last blog ..Eat slowly and drink more water =-.
Having a long term plan is the best way to lose weight. Losing weight in a short period of time using diets is temporary. You will tend to put on weight again without a strategy and discipline. My advice is to think long term – follow a diet which is sustainable and enjoyable – less meat, more greens, more fiber and exercise regularly. It is better to lose a little weight this way as the weight loss will be more permanent and fit into a healthy lifestyle
Hi, I agree the biggest problem is not thinking about food. Its very hard.
I guess I am one of the lucky ones that is happy to nibble on something healthy rather than a craving for the ‘BAD’ foods. Though, Its the lack of exercise thats keeping me in my rut.
I know all too well about being stuck in a rut! I’ve been trying to lose 15 pounds for the last two years (to get back to my ideal weight I used to be at). I know it’s not that much weight, but no matter what I do, the weight won’t come off. It’s crazy. If I eat perfectly for months and workout every day, I lose 0 pounds and 0 inches! Then I get frustrated and eat whatever I want, and I don’t really gain weight. I’ve been reading one diet/health book after another, and took thyroid medication for Hypothyroid (which I was diagnosed with) but nothing works. So I’m forever stuck in a rut, but it could be worse.
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I agree with previous comments that a long term plan is better than short term dieting, however I think a long term plan mixed with smaller short targets can increase the motivation.
If your target is to lose 2 stone, that will probably seem miles away but if you set small targets within that big goal you will have motivation to achieve this and before you know it, your main goal is complete
That’s the theory anyway !
So many diet plans and even doctors don’t even address the very difficult problem of addressing the underlying cause for over eating. Addressing my emotions and the reasons I use food as the “Drug of Choice” is one of the hardest things about getting back to a reasonable weight. Thanks for the great article.
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Jim, you are so right. I am still trying to work out my emotional problems which push me to overeat and seek comfort in all the wrong foods.
Emotional eating – I know all about it! I eat when I’m happy, I eat when I’m sad, or bored or just antsy.
And to make matters even worse, my hubby is going thru a stressful time (his dad is critically ill) and since he’s an emotional eater, I eat to support him! AAGGH!
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What I have found helpful is whole-food supplements. Specifically liquid form because of the higher absorbtion vs. digesting traditional vitamins, food etc…You’re going to want to get one that is “whole-food” so your body still gets what it needs (there is alot of products out there claiming to be the perfect liquid supplement, but all you end up with is a $50 fancy glass of fruit punch). I find that using these supplements not only provides by body with 10 times the nutrients than I was intaking to begin with, but it also curbs by appetite and makes me feel ten times better then when I was eating 10 hamburgers.
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hi, i got one funny diet ideas. who want to see, just come and see. nice. http://www.hobbiesteller.com/four-methods-of-successful-diet/
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Great article!
Emotional eating is such a big problem for many people and is often the primary reason why they aren’t able to achieve their weight-loss goal.
However, if people can find ways to replace the emotional eating with another habit that can produce the same ‘feel-good hormones’, then they may be able to overcome the problem. Exercise may be an option with the endophorphins that it produces.
However, I know this is easier said than done!
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If you wan to lose weight do something where you will busy the whole day without thinking about eating but don’t skip meals. Just budget your time.
I’m not so much an emotional eater as a binge eater, which also fails to keep weight off. I’ll do well on managing my food intake and then boom…gotta have BBQ from my favorite rib shack, a hamburger from the favorite burger joint or cheesecake from the cheesecake spot.
Yeesh! If I could just say no…
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Losing weight is often thought of as simply about eating less and exercising more but the emotional responses are absolutely key to ensure you become successful. I never met anyone who transformed their body permanently without first transforming their mind. Excellent article. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve hit my share of plateaus during my weight loss journey, myself. One thing that has been helpful is allowing myself one, “bad day,” where I can have some calorie-dense foods like pizza and what not, that way I’m not prone to random binge eating. Also sometimes constantly depriving yourself can also stress you out, which can result in fat gain! The big thing is, don’t beat yourself up over it.
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I agree with previous comments that a long term plan is better than short term dieting, however I think a long term plan mixed with smaller short targets can increase the motivation.
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Ya that’s true the more I think that I’m dieting the more I feel like having food. Rather I go for having smaller meals so that I do not feel much food carvings. Also if I fell like having cake or something high in calorie then I cut shot other calorie items from my diet.
Can definitely relate to this post. It is easy to get burned out on the whole dieting thing. To bust out of it, I find change works well. Mix up your food from day to day and it will be more enjoyable and easier to stick with.
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Personal challenges are a very powerful way of motivating yourself to do something new may it be some health diet program or some exam result. If there is no target it is easy to make a half-hearted effort and give up. However, when we have something very clear to aim for, it is much more likely we will actually make something happen.
If you feel stuck in a rut, don’t waste time feeling sorry for yourself. If you spend some time with enthusiastic / positive people, some of this energy will rub off on yourself. Even if you don’t particularly feel like doing it, meeting other people will take you out of yourself and help to re-energize yourself. I do this and it works positively.
Like everything else in life, slow and steady wins the race. Losing weight should ideally be a goal set to be achieved in a span ranging for a three to six months. Most people just get too impatient too soon and their frustration ends up messing up their previous efforts.
If you feel you are stuck in a rut, you don’t have to be stocked there forever as if it is you can’t move forward. Make some changes for you not to feel being stuck.
I think long term diet plan would be more beneficial rather than the shorter one. You have to put more efforts in short term diet plan and most of the people doesn’t complete their plan and left their diet plan in the middle. I am also focusing on my long term diet plan and i am quite successful. I suggest everyone to go for long term diet plan because it saves your energy and its easy to adopt.
A lot of times people don’t realize that the reason they can’t lose weight is because they have a thyroid issue. I personally didn’t know it and cut my calories back so much so, my thyroid went into hoard mode and I actually gained weight! For myself, having a thyroid issue was all the motivation I needed to follow a strict diet plan.
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I never dieted, I always found it easier to eat freely and just torture myself in the gym LOL
True, there are no quick fixes. Proper exercise and moderate food intake can work wonders. The less processed the food you eat, the better. All this easy, processed food is taking it’s nasty toll on us.
Have you ever noticed that when you are on a diet it seems that food is everywhere you look? Every TV ad I see is for a restaurant or candy, every magazine by the check out stand has pictures of calorie-laden meals and deserts on its cover, and every invitation I receive is for a barbecue or other food-focused event. It really gets on a dieter’s nerves. That’s when I know I’m getting burned out on my diet regime and start searching out new recipes so I get a change in my menu. It’s easy to get in the rut of eating the same food all the time just because it’s simple to prepare. Trying something new yet healthy can help break you out of the diet rut.
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Dee, I think food is staring you in the face everywhere when you are on a diet because you are thinking about eating all the time so you will notice food a lot more. That’s one reason why “diets” don’t work. The best is to approach a totally natural relationship with food, eat when you want to eat but try to choose different options. Like, the snack at night – does it have to be chocolate or cookies? Why not have some carrots and a (low fat) dip, or some grape tomatoes or nuts to nibble on. The important thing is to have those alternative foods ready, like prepare them in advance, so it doesn’t put you off when the time comes….
To deal with your emotional issues around eating, I recommend using EFT – emotional freedom technique – a wonderfully easy and simple way to get balance into areas of your life where the balance has dissapered.
Holger, EFT sounds really interesting. I did a Google search and it came up with lots of websites and information about it. Have you tried it yourself?
This is such an important post.Really took me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It is always good when you can not only be informed, but also entertained! I must say that giving up something that has been part of our routine really demands sacrifice and denial.
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I always noticed that when I’m into some fitness program I often come to the point of having great urged to have some foods. Foods that are restricted for me to have.
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i found it rough to master my emotions at first to but i personally found relief in lifting….. maybe im weird but after about 2 weeks into lifting and dieting my cravings were just gone..
Nancy, what is “lifting”?
Lifting to me is using all the different machines next to the ellipticals in my gym. My husband is a trainer here and taught me how to lift its a lot of fun!
Ahhh, the all too familiar yo-yo effect. Unfortunately, it’s not just a dieting thing, any area of our life that requires breaking old habits and creating new ones gets to be really hard. I think the psychology part is even more important then what we eat or how often we exercise, that’s why programs like WeightWatchers have such great appeal (and short lived success). I think it’s important that folks educate themselves on healthy weight loss and prepare for the long haul instead of focusing only on the pounds.
Dieting is so hard because it naturally causes the yo-yo effect, unless you can speed up your metabolism in the process. Exercise becomes very important as it does speed up your metabolism, but you do have to gradually increase the intensity of your workout or you will end up in a rut. I have found that having a weekly splurge day as well as short, intense full-body workouts have helped me to stay out of the rut most of the time.
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I’ve been trying to lose baby weight but I’ve recently had an injury which has contributed to the yo-yo effect for me. It’s hard when you see all of your hard work go down the tubes like that!
For me it wasn’t fat pants, but fat t-shirts. Problem was I started buying a smaller size T when I began to lose a little weight, then put it all back on and more, so I had about 10 great shirts I couldn’t wear and was strutting (wobbling) around in the old ones for another 24 months before I got back down the scales and kept going. Man it felt good to finally wear those new clothes!
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You have a great post here, extremely informative. Very well written I shall be bookmarking this website and subscribing to your feed so i can regularly read content of this quality.
It’s so hard to stay out of the rut. I find that sticking to a set schedule of light exercise everyday and eating healthy helps me! http://www.junkfoodprotein.com totally has great suggestions too!
Many people do not even try to follow a weight loss plan because they think that they would have to give up eating their favorite foods by doing so. However, what they do not know is that there are many food lovers fat loss diet plans out there, that can help them shed the fat and here is just one example.
When stuck go out and do some reading into the health benefits of exercise and diet. Really understand how exercise helps decrease the risks of heart attack, stroke, diabetes etc and use this as motivation to continue your weight loss joun=rney.
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I think the most successful healthy eating plans work with your mind as well as your body. You have to retrain your habitats and learn how to monitor your weight and eating long term.
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I also feel as though I’m stuck in a rut. It’s so hard because it’s as if my mind plays tricks on me. One day I feel as though I know where I’m headed and what I want & the next day everything feels impossible to achieve.
I just keep myself so busy I don’t have time to think about food. Work, school, starting an online business, and karate club all take up my time and thoughts. I highly suggest joining some kind of fun fitness club because that keeps your mind off of food and keeps you active. Martial arts is a blast.
Losing weight is never easy. It is a battle between mental and physical thoughts. I lost 50 pounds some years back and all I did was strength training and eat less then what I was eating. I also stand by the fact that a good hunger supressent is going to help people too. I like coffee or tea. It helps, but doesn’t always help. Keeping busy is a good thing to as the last comment says. Strength training, eat less and eating the right foods is key.
Losing weight is never easy? Yes Absolutely.. But why we have to suffer from losing weight if at the first place you don’t want to be engaged on it..??
The main concern about Healthy lifestyle is DISCIPLINE… the key to defeat Weight Loss issue..
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I like and read this blog. I’m planning to start a diet soon
All post above is great and I am thankful i dropped by and take some time reading each others posts and replies..
One thing I believe that can truly control weight loss issue is DISCIPLINE..
when your doing things encourage yourself that its not about the restricted food or anything but its your interest to loss weight or achieve your goal and gain good posture and great healthy body..
Hard works pays good at the end you know..
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I”m in my SKINNY JEANS After 2 years of talking about losing weight I finally did it. I lost 30 lbs in 2 months, just by eating fruit and watching the amount of fat and calories I ate. Oh and I quit drinking and smoking, that helped tremendously, and now that I’m down I’ve been able to control my wait. When I was losing weight I would only excercise at work, and I would still eat a philly cheesesteak monday night and go out for fish tacos on tuesday night. Really all I would eat was sandwiches soup, tuna fish, and chili, but I did it and am so happy now. Really the key is don’t procastinate, and realise you need to eat healthy now because if you put it off you wont in the future.
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Mydriasis
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The key to eating right for fast weight loss and avoiding emotional eating is preparation. First you have to remove all of those fattening comfort foods from your house so that when the emotional binge hits they are not there. Second, you have to plan your meals, especially if you go to work. One of those keys to eating at work is bring your lunch. That way you can control cost, content, and location. Third you need accountability with your nutrition plan. You can do that by writing down what you eat, having a good family/friend support system and most importantly having a accountability partner who can reel you in when you start to go off track.
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Thanks a lot.:)