Psychological features of a complete person. “Fatty, be ashamed!”: who prevented overweight women

You may rightly be surprised and say: “What is the connection between character traits and completeness ?!” I answer.

The fact is that obesity is a psychosomatic disease. Speaking more plain language, excess weight- this is just the tip of the iceberg, an external manifestation of special personality traits and its internal deep problems. These problems are reflected in the behavior, character, thoughts, attitudes and worldview of a person, his relationships with other people, and, perhaps most importantly, in the relationship of a person with himself.

Obesity is a physical manifestation of a severe psychological and even social disease - addiction, in this case, food addiction. And of course, the structure of a person's personality with overweight will have much in common with the personality structure of the dependent person. But in this article we will not delve into such global problem as an addiction, let's talk only about a specific aspect - personality traits with excess weight.

From my experience of working with overweight people, I can say with confidence that psychology (i.e., in this context, inner world and behavior) of a full person is very different from the psychology of a slender person. From the same work experience and observations, it became clear that the fight against overweight will be successful only when the psychological causes of excess weight gain are identified and resolved; when a person rebuilds his consciousness, thinking and behavior in a new way: into the consciousness, thinking and behavior of a slender person.
Why is the psychology of a full person so different from the psychology of a slender person? In fact, characteristic distinguishing features many, and they are very closely interconnected with each other (which often makes it difficult for the psychological restructuring of the personality).

The first thing that catches your eye is that extra pounds are a kind of armor, protection from the outside world. A full person seeks to protect himself from his influences with the help of such a fat pad. This tells us about excessive sensitivity, susceptibility and fears, while a full person had not yet gained his extra pounds, he was too vulnerable and vulnerable to the outside world, and he does not know how to cope with excessive susceptibility, protect himself from fear and external influences, and ... gaining extra pounds. For example, I noticed that many girls, women begin to gain weight after marriage and especially after moving to the house of their husband's parents (regardless of pregnancy and childbirth!). Maybe there is a relationship with the ban on the expression negative emotions, emotions in general and whims.

And as a consequence, feature then a certain “thick-skinnedness”, callousness, insensitivity becomes a complete person.
This insensitivity manifests itself later everywhere, and first of all in dealing with oneself, in relations with oneself: a person does not feel hunger, does not feel satiety, he does not feel himself, does not realize his body, his extra pounds (after all, if a full person felt them , then he could not wear them for such a long time !!!).
In the language of Gestalt, since a person does not feel his body, then he does not feel the boundaries, his own, the boundaries of the people around him, does not understand where HE ends (i.e., his psychological territory) and other people begin, and then he easily violates foreign borders, invades them, seeks to occupy and control them.

That's why fat people often take on a lot of someone else's, not their own responsibility, they believe that without them, without their participation, work will stop, everything in the family will collapse, and if you do some business, then only yourself, and for the subordinate performers, you must definitely redo it and etc…
In a family, for example, there are often such mothers who overly control their children, do not give them freedom, try to live their lives.
And the body increases its size (physical boundaries), as if in response to the fact that a person increases the psychological boundaries: the sphere of his influence, control over others.

The desire to control, by the way, is a childish, infantile reaction, which also comes from excessive vulnerability, a sense of defenselessness, and the instability of life. The adults, mature people realize and accept that only themselves and their own actions(not even your whole life, but only your actions!). That's why important point in psychotherapeutic work is the awareness of one’s powerlessness in something and one’s “non-omnipotence”, and the acceptance of responsibility only for oneself and one’s actions, because only they can and should be controlled.
Another important feature of overweight people, associated with their attempt to live someone else's life, which was already mentioned earlier, is their dislike for themselves. They don't know what to do with themselves, they don't know what THEY want. But they know very well when and how to do the right thing for others. They do not know where their own place is in this life, what they want for themselves, for themselves personally, but they think a lot and decide for others, they know better than they themselves what will be good for them - that is, in some I mean, they are authoritarian.

They often suffer from inner emptiness and try to seize, fill it. Such a paradox arises: external fullness as a result of internal emptiness!
Yes, about emptiness, I think that it can arise as a result of the monotony and boredom that comes from limitations. They limit themselves (no, not in nutrition, more precisely, not only and not always in nutrition), they limit themselves in obtaining pleasure. The only accessible and understandable pleasure for them is food. (Note that this is also a childish way of consoling: when Small child cries, an adult, as a rule, offers a candy).

Even full people have such qualities as: slowness and rigidity. They are difficult, both physically (overweight) and psychologically (it is difficult to convince them, turn their thinking; often they themselves have difficulty formulating their thoughts, they are even almost unable to hear any new thought for themselves, a thought that does not fit into their usual framework, into their picture of the world).
And one gets the impression that they have lost freedom, freedom in everything: in movement, and in flexibility, and in the ability to adapt, and in their desires, and in satisfying them.

On the other hand, they are often too hasty, impatient: many feelings, sensations slip through, do not notice themselves and others; they do not know how to enjoy, savor food. In general, all the described features and manifestations fit into clinical picture any dependence, but make it difficult to communicate with such clients, establishing contact and trust between the client and the therapist.

So, we found out that an overweight person has a certain set of psychological traits(characteristics). Perhaps you agreed with something, but not so much with something, but something seemed completely incomprehensible or unfair to you ... Well, of course, each person is unique and different from the others. These are observations, sketches, a kind of template that allows you to highlight the most common features found in people with the same problem.
But what to do next, is it possible to use this information with benefit?
Of course yes! This connection has a two-way influence: on the one hand, if a person begins to lose weight, then his character and outlook on the world will change, on the other hand, if a person tries to change himself, his behavior, his thoughts and attitudes, then this will contribute to better weight loss and will not allow you to return the lost kg back.

In this article, I will not crumble into tolerant correctness and polite diplomacy. For by its essence - the desire for truth, and therefore by the format of the blog - to fawn, falsely compliment and comfort is not our primitive task. And since truth tends to be harsh, even if it is unpleasant to hear, it is nevertheless respected. Therefore, I ask you to read one of the painful topics of our society.

Do not understand why men do not pay attention to us? Maybe something is wrong with the hair or with the voice ...

Summer is the hottest period of the year, when not only the sun warms, but the girls are naked, which pleases the eyes of men. And if everything were as sweet as we anticipate... Unfortunately, our society is degradingly sliding down the slope without having time to change its mind. Fast foods, snacking, bad habits (oh yes, your favorite beer!) and a lazy lifestyle are the reason for it all. Or guilt, you decide for yourself, only from the substitution of concepts your essence will not change. For the main fault fat cracked image and likeness It is your consciousness. And complexes come from here, because the result is not just obvious, as on your whole body (I’ll immediately note that my goal is not to humiliate fat people, but on the contrary, to eradicate complexes through shock therapy, so to speak, so that you finally see yourself, agreed with the problem and undertook to change for the better! strong will and striving for excellence). And if the preferences of many leaned towards the gym and normal (quite affordable by the way!) Food, the world would become a picture. And so, there is a feast for the eyes at every step, only with a negative assessment like “wow!” Around, waddling, wander cellulite shapeless masses almost perekatipole who now and then look enviously and silently curse thin, well-groomed girls with the phrases: “skinny!”, “skin and bones”, “ big people – kind people”… (who said that the thin are evil? Where does this exculpatory nonsense come from?), “I have something to take on, but the thin ones don’t”, etc. Oh yeah! Curse, envy, condemnation - just right. What are you just not capable of, if only not to play sports and not to refuse sweets!

We are already accustomed to pregnant men - the standard like a lazy husband, constantly lying on the couch in front of the telly and sucking beer and with a smelly cigarette in his mouth! A paragon of masculinity, a fat mosquito elephant with human legs who still dares to make claims to his thin wife (such diverse couples also happen, although less often, because the lifestyle “fried potato and sweet stuffed” type usually brings both spouses to the "fat-like abyss"). In general, we have seen enough of the beauty of the universe on pregnant beer men ...

But this year, more and more often you see on the beach not just cellulite jellyfish women, but also 4-6 year old girls (namely girls, not boys), who walk, again, with pregnant bellies. And absolutely nothing and no one is embarrassed. What is there? These are children! And children are very sweet creatures, and they do not yet realize this tragic fatness... I would also like to tell you about children's amazing mercy, which sometimes manifests itself in cruelty towards animals (either due to slow-wittedness, inadequacy and stupidity of children, or due to delusional parental upbringing or its absence), but the article is not about that. Regarding fat children, the blame lies entirely with the parents, because either they don’t give a damn about their children, or they feed heartily and don’t think about future tragedies when these fat people want to be liked, loved and can’t arrange a personal life.

The facts of life are:

1. Everyone loves to look at the thin, not for nothing that the ideal of beauty is a thin athletic body;

2. No one looks, or only accusingly pays attention - to fat people;

3. Man is the only creature among animals that forces offspring to eat, which is why children gain weight. Think about it, reevaluate your attitude, if the child does not want, even if it seems to you that he is hungry, still do not feed. There will be a need - eat. But on the other hand, you will not suffer from excess weight (provided that you comply with proper diet no junk food). The same applies to pets suffering from obesity, liver lipidosis, etc., it is through the fault of a person that animals get sick, because you feed them plenty of food ... And not all animals know when to stop. And don't forget less active image living in apartments (more about animal care in the memo for owners in the next article). So, since you have already tamed animals, and once you have killed children, be responsible, be so kind!

I love how some fat women compare themselves with their own kind and say: “Oh! I'm not that fat, right?”, “Look, dressed like a redneck!” etc. Although in fact, they are all the same, plus or minus kilograms, and instead of condemnation, they could take care of their appearance. But the sweet narcissism of donuts does not end there. Some fat women teach others how to lead a lifestyle, while at the same time they themselves are on a sweet “diet” and flatly refuse to play sports. But they do their own hair, “to be beautiful, and paint over gray hair”! Don't care about your gray hair when 150 kg is walking down the street. perekatipole with legs! The hairstyle will not hide and, moreover, will not brighten up your fat, nasty cellulite and disgusting jellyfish! You don’t want to strain and play sports, eat right (no one forces you to starve, but don’t eat fatty, fried, starchy foods and sweets - it would just be relevant in your case) - then don’t be offended that your husbands are cheating on you, or you are generally alone, because no one wants to look at you. But it's not the appearance that matters, but the soul, you say. Of course! The soul is very important only when it is not Quasimodo in front of you. Understand one truth - all people, not only men, love with their eyes. And remember the saying “they are met by clothes”, and so, I will explain - first we look at the appearance, evaluate, compare with our taste principles, then we look at the character and soul. In any case, we are not talking about congenital deformities, disabilities, etc. - These are acquired tragedies, some can be surgically corrected or cured, but here you have deliberately acquired ugliness for yourself, and you are helping your children acquire it. And you, surprisingly, for some reason are not ashamed of it. But is it embarrassing? Well, change and prove that you are capable of at least something other than eating fast food and junk food in incredible quantities! Or tearfully do not howl how fat you are! And the further - the worse - more fat and more difficult to lose it, not to mention the super stretched skin, which is unlikely to be “tightened” back and it will ... hang down disgustingly (it can only be surgically corrected). Skin stretching, of course, does not concern or does not always concern pregnant women, for example, my stomach after childbirth (at 28 years old, who are curious to compare various factors with age) has completely recovered and not a single stretch mark on everything else.

I am also touched by fat people with a cigarette in their mouths, who deliberately smoke a lot, so to speak, in the hope ... (there is an opinion that people who smoke are thin, and those who drink are fat). But no matter how fat girls smoke, they still won't lose weight! After all, in order to lose weight, you need to lead a right lifestyle, and bad habit you will only be given cancer of the lungs and other parts of the body, gangrene, yellow fingers, teeth and many, many disgustingly dangerous ...

And I am also amused by the dietary technique of fat women - in the morning coffee with crackers, in the afternoon salad, soup and regular food, of medium fat content. A couple more snacks. And lo and behold - “and after 6 I don’t eat, I’m on a diet!” And now kill yourself on the nose that Diet stands for privileged nutrition, but not hunger! Yes, and it’s magical that you don’t eat after 6, unless you forget how at 12 at night you tear yourself out of bed at a frantic pace and quietly eat cutlets with bread, stuffing like it’s the last meal. Well, and more cookies throughout the day, several pieces, every half an hour ... And another 5-10 different types sweets, while no one sees ... And then you make excuses that it was after giving birth that you gained weight, and it doesn’t drop like an evil ..., or the metabolism has been disturbed, or age is to blame. Of course, there are always reasons, excuses and excuses, but not an admission of one's own guilt! Is it really nice to look like that in front of your beloved husband? Don't you want to look slim and fit, like those you envy?

Despite this formidable and maliciously provocative text, which will cause a lot of condemnation, I understand you, because I myself made an experiment of a kind on myself. During pregnancy, or rather at an hour of the 2nd trimester, I ate sweets, as a consolation that toxicosis was over (when I ate practically nothing). I ate cakes once a week at a party (we don’t buy cakes at home) for about 2-3 pieces. And imagine that in addition to the natural weight gain, I had a progressive pathological set. Although I stopped eating sweets by the 3rd trimester (total sweet food for only 4 months). Total gained 26 kg! And it was a disaster! For I could not walk normally, get up and sit down even on the bed, there were constant swelling (especially in the 3rd trimester) and problems with the kidneys began. Of course, you can’t fit into clothes, your arms, back, legs, everything has become so big that you can’t wash your back yourself, not to mention a plump face and a double chin. I hated being photographed, although I have a lot of great pre-pregnancy photo shoots. And after this wild nightmare, I vowed that after giving birth, I would begin to lose weight and never again and under no circumstances would I eat sweets in such quantities. And imagine, I lost weight in 3 months! I dropped everything, and after 2 months - another minus 2 kg! Now I weigh 63 kg with a height of 168 cm. And I am satisfied with my willpower, because I made an effort, I ate right to get rid of this vile excess weight. This was nightmare and a very important lesson for me. That's why I don't understand you, overweight ladies and men, why don't you finally spit and take yourself seriously?! After all, it will be easier for you at least to move (and by the way, it’s easier to get up from the toilet without exerting maximum effort)), and as a maximum, for health, being overweight has negative consequences.

In any case, in order not to get fat, some tips:

Eat everything except: fried, fatty, smoked, sweet (in large quantities), flour, alcohol (it is high-calorie, by the way, in addition to general harm to the body) and except ... salty (salt retains water in your body, which is why swelling and a lot of problems, salt 3 grams maximum per day), I was on a salt-free diet before giving birth due to swelling in my legs, and it works. For those who have specific kidney problems and severe edema, droppers help. But without proper nutrition- everything will come back.

Drink a lot pure water , spring or filtered - 2.5-3 liters. in a day. But not tea, namely water. It helps to lose weight. Checked!

You can eat: boiled, baked, steamed, natural and fresh food- fruits, vegetables, nuts, meat (not fatty, better poultry - turkey, quail), cereals (except semolina), even sweet, but cooked at home, and not from white flour, but wholemeal, corn, oatmeal, etc. .d. For only white flour gives you the opportunity to be wider. When buying bread - choose a coarse grind, from bran, in general - a dark, not a light color. I want sweets - for health - bananas, peaches, apricots, etc. + dried fruits + jam is even possible, but not much. From the store - no cakes, it is not known what additives are shoved there, which is why the extra weight. And if you want cookies - biscuit, there's definitely no nastiness, I checked it myself. In any case, you can afford tasty, but only in moderation ... Otherwise, severely restricting yourself, you will definitely break loose and go on an even more powerful glut.

Never starve yourself! Eat small meals and often (about 6 meals per day). After all, the way we are all used to eating in Soviet style - 3 times, but at one time heaping a whole plate in a slide - this position is wrong, the stomach stretches and subsequently you will eat even more food and not feel full. Speaking of satiety, it may seem to you that you are not full, but the feeling of fullness comes half an hour after eating. And yet, get up from the table with a feeling of slight hunger, i.e. never and under no circumstances overeat, even on holidays (as many people like to recapture the cost of a gift and get drunk on it). Respect yourself anyway! And for satiety, there is enough food, which will be equal in size to your fist. Not much, but it's enough.

Count calories, i.e. write down everything you eat. Indeed, often you can get fat because of snacking on small sweets that you simply don’t notice.

Little tricks. Choose a plate smaller than the one with which you eat, and also preferably blue color, it muffles your appetite, and you eat less from it than, for example, from green ... A person eats much more when there is a choice of food, so try to limit this choice. Also, ideal for you to use your laziness, and redirect it from sports to the ability to cook. Those. you do sports, but you don’t have the strength to cook junk food))) That’s why you will eat poorer, but healthier)) You can sit on fruits alone for a day, nothing bad will happen. And also think about vegetarianism, veganism and raw food diet, such people are very thin, I understood this from personal observations of my friends.

Be sure to exercise! If you can't go to the gym, work out at home. Pour into about 5 liter bottles of water (or fill in sand) and swing your arms, and also do squats. For starters - as much as you can, but not 2 times, this ridiculous amount is not enough even for the appearance that you are doing sports)) However, if you are interested - google - there are a lot of fitness programs.

And finally, kids learn not to lie to yourself, be honest with yourself, if you want to lose weight, set a goal and strive for it daily. But do not look for excuses, because it is the excuses that personally piss me off. After all, if you are fat, then it’s not the photo-model of the bitch-whore-whore that’s to blame, it’s not the seller of the move-dog freak, it’s not the neighbor who jinxed or cursed (still that nonsense, but many believe!), No one except yourself is to blame . Therefore, I wish you good luck in losing weight, beautiful figure, a healthy mind and body as a whole. And there will be health - the mood will be wonderful, and there is absolute happiness! Just like mine)

There are no similar articles on this topic.

There is nothing wrong with rewarding your child with ice cream or going to a fast food restaurant. However, psychologists warn: such “feeding” forms certain stereotypes of behavior in the baby and negatively affects physical and mental health. If with sweets and chocolate we “pave” for our children a direct path to the office of a pediatric dentist, then overeating and being overweight become the cause of psychological complexes. And even the operation does not help to solve the last problem.

Psychoanalysis blames the early childhood of overweight patients, since it is as children that they become "extremely depraved" with regard to "oral disorders".

With regard to intra-family relationships, we can identify one striking pattern, namely: obesity is significantly more likely to develop if a child was raised by a single mother. That is, overweight people in the family often do not have a father.

A study conducted in 1987 showed that parents often make such a child a "scapegoat". Relations in such families can rarely be called open, warm and cordial. True, there are also opposite cases when a child is pampered, and thereby “spoiled”. That is, we have two extremes, when a child receives "too little love" and "too much".

In the case of an "abundance of love", children are often rewarded by giving them sweets. Thus, adults develop certain stereotypes of behavior in their child, for example: "Everything that is put on the table must be eaten." Or they put hidden pressure on him: "If you eat, mommy will be happy." Or they try to induce imitative behavior in them: “Look, your brother has already eaten everything.”

It is suggested that such an imposed eating behavior may ultimately suppress the adequate physiological satiety response in humans. External factors are also important - life events such as marriage, pregnancy or leaving work can affect nutritional self-control.

Aspects social psychology fat people

The lack of a sense of security and the resulting social isolation among obese people is dominant. Sometimes among overweight people there is a false self-confidence, supported by internal fantasies that he is “the greatest” (the best, smartest), has “the strongest control over his emotions”, and so on. These fantasies are inevitably, again and again, broken by life, and appear again, creating a vicious circle.

Almost half a century ago, psychologists discovered that there is a direct link between being overweight and being overweight. The image of the "happy fat man" that took place in public opinion The 70s of the last century, say, in Germany, have now been replaced by a negative image of a fat person as “weak”, “stupid” and “nasty”. Women are more affected by these prejudices. It is also believed that overweight people show less interest in sex, this applies to both men and women.

The study social contacts obese people showed that such contacts are much more limited compared to people with normal weight. Such people are convinced that few people love them, that few people give them practical support, for example, they can lend money. Overweight women report having much less contact with men than with women.

Psychological outcomes after surgical weight loss

Among scientists who have studied the results of weight loss, there is no complete similarity of opinion. There are serious positive changes in personality towards stabilization and greater openness. There are also positive changes in the emotional background, a decrease in feelings of helplessness, and so on.

On the other hand, there are reports of negative personality changes after surgery if the patient went for surgery for psychosocial reasons, and not for medical reasons. There are cases of negative remote psychological effects weight loss surgery. According to statistics, the psychological problems that patients had before the operation persist in almost half of the patients and appear two to three years after the operation.
This phenomenon is confirmed by research, on the basis of which a psychological "list of indications" was compiled. In other words, if a person did not have any special psychological problems before the operation, such a patient is more suitable for weight loss surgery.

Such contradictions are not surprising. For half of a person's life, a person has lived with a disturbed sense of self-confidence, if any. He constantly dreamed of a body that would be the subject of admiration, would be highly valued, or, in extreme cases, would be just ordinary. And suddenly a person realizes that there is a real way to fulfill his dream.

And then suddenly the question arises, and WHO, in fact, and FOR WHAT will be adored and highly appreciated? At best, external changes will help a person change his behavior, or understand that although appearance important, no less important are "intrinsic values". In the worst case, the development of a healthy sense of self-confidence fails at all, and then a new vicious circle is formed.

Author: Elisabeth Ardel, professor at the Psychological Institute of the University of Salzburg (Austria)

Psychology of weight loss: thin and full

But, and this is known to many, as soon as you release the reins a little, the weight immediately begins to increase, and sometimes even so quickly that we catch ourselves when we weigh even more than at the beginning of our weight loss.

The statistics are relentless: only 5% of those who lose weight manage to maintain the achieved result over the next 12 months.

Reasons for losing weight

The causes and mechanisms of these disruptions are discussed. The versions are called absolutely fantastic. Like, somewhere inside we have a kind of clock/scale hidden, which has gone astray in its settings and now perceives this obviously excess fat mass as normal. And they are trying their best to keep it and restore it. I wish I could identify these clocks / scales, understand how they work and “reconfigure”!

But maybe everything is much simpler? Maybe fat people DO NOT KNOW how to live an easy, fun life of a slender person? They know how to lose weight, but they don’t know how to live as they should. So they are gaining everything dropped back!

And I like this idea much more than fantastic assumptions about built-in regulators. After all, if I’m right, all you need to do is notice the differences in the diet and behavior of slender people, learn to behave the same way, and at least there will be no problems with maintaining weight, and perhaps with weight loss too.

Of course, if these differences were obvious, we would have identified and corrected them long ago. For example, happen to everyone thick to be gluttons or lazy without exception, then there would be no problem: get up, go run, do not eat anything, and you will thin!

But first, if there is among full gluttonous people, then there are no more of them than among thin. Serious statistical studies confirm this.

Secondly, thin for the most part, they eat by no means little and do not particularly exhaust themselves with training. And they don’t sit on diets, and don’t weigh themselves for years. However, this does not prevent them from year after year to remain skinny.

Thirdly, and from fat many try to starve and run, but if they lose weight at the same time, then most often not for long. So if they are different thick from slender, the differences are by no means obvious.

From which side would you like to go? Yes, even with this one! Given weight of a person, it is most often the result of his given way of life in a very broad sense of the word. And the way of life is made up of a whole mass of elements that are sometimes in a rather intricate interaction with each other.

Lifestyle components can be conditionally divided into those related to nutrition (more or less fatty meals, frequent or rare, plentiful or not, rich in spices and delicacies or not, with or without alcohol, and so on), related to the image of mobility (physical or mental work, the presence and nature of loads, their nature, intensity, duration ...) factors of a psychological nature - temperament (excitable, fast or vice versa slow, phlegmatic), character (irritable, conflicting or vice versa complaisant), attitude to health, to their appearance, etc.).

What is the interaction of these factors? Look! A person has slept well, his mood is rather good and he needs much less food. And you can tell the fat man as much as you like about the diet, what he can and cannot do there, but if he does not get enough sleep, following any diet will be painful for him. After all, with food, he will “treat himself” for depression associated with lack of sleep.

One moves a lot, goes in for sports, and he likes it. Another moves even more, spends even more time on training and these trainings are much more intense. But he doesn't like it at all. He has to force himself to overcome. And it seems that we already understand why every day he fights, fights, but cannot lose weight in any way - a constant background bad mood, anxiety, despair, breakdowns...

Now, not for a moment forgetting about complex nature interaction of factors related to nutrition, motor activity and the psycho-emotional background of a person, we will try to conduct a comparative analysis thin and full of people. Can we find something?

The role of food and nutrition in weight loss

The eating behavior of humans has been studied quite extensively. So far, science tells us that thin and fat eat about the same thing in about the same amounts. And there is not a single convincing fact that fat people eat more. Gluttonous and small-minded come across equally often, both among those and among these.

However, the very posing of the question whether they eat full more than thin seems to me to be methodologically incorrect. Full even if they eat no more than thin people, but obviously more than they need with their tendency to be overweight! Otherwise, we will not explain in any way how they got this excess weight, and we will not understand how they can get rid of it. The main thing here is not to rush to conclusions, not to rush to accusations of gluttony. The so-called positive energy balance in people who are prone to fullness may not occur every day, but only in short periods of life, and not only (and not so much) due to overeating, but also due to lack of energy expenditure.

It can be conditionally said that full people are either too voracious for their given energy expenditure (perhaps even relatively large), or they spend too little energy for a given (sometimes very moderate) food intake.

How to fix the situation? So far there are two exits. The first, for the gluttonous, is to get used to eating little, to become small-minded. The second, more suitable for fat kids, is to get used to moving more.

But how do you determine what type of food you belong to?

I suggest the following - for one to two weeks we carefully keep a food diary. Then we calculate the calorie content and fat content of the daily diet, along the way we note the frequency of meals and the difference in calorie content between individual meals.

If it turns out that the calorie content of your diet is on average more than 2800-30002, fat content exceeds 50 grams per day, you eat less than 3 times a day, your diet includes meals (say dinner) that account for more than half of the daily calorie content, for you are characterized by so-called food excesses, when for several days under stress or under the influence of reasons you do not understand, you consume an unnaturally large amount of food, then you need to spend more effort on correcting nutrition.

How to reduce its calorie content? It is better to approach this issue without fanaticism. Remember slender, which we aspire to become, most often they don’t sit on any diets and don’t exhaust themselves with prohibitions. And so we shouldn't. It will be enough to make meals more frequent, reduce portion sizes, redistribute foods so that there is more lean than fat, treat treats wisely, at least try to eat them after meals, and not instead ...

If, however, the calorie content of your diet does not exceed 2000 - 2200 kcal, you do not particularly abuse fatty foods, eat at least 4 times a day, and food excesses are not particularly characteristic of you, then you should not worry too much about your diet. Most likely, it is not a relative overeating, but a certain lack of physical activity.

Of course, some principles of rationalization of nutrition will not interfere with you, but you should not especially nightmare yourself with diets - this is not your case. The most common reaction of the body to a semi-starvation diet will not be weight loss, but an even deeper depression of energy consumption.

If the prevailing trend cannot be identified, then the correction should be carried out in both directions - both to activate mobility and to learn to eat a little.

Physical activity and weight loss

Now let's talk about how to increase your physical activity. I would advise everyone to get active. Especially when you consider that nutrition and mobility are interconnected in a rather bizarre way.

For example, in conditions of physical inactivity, food intake increases. This can be confirmed by a phenomenon known to many - on weekends, the calorie content of our food is on average 20-25% more than on weekdays.

But excessive activity, the so-called high-intensity training, leaving behind a long tail of fatigue, also contributes to overeating.

It turns out that for weight loss and weight maintenance, moderate-intensity exercises are optimal - walking, wellness walking. After such exercises, muscle tone increases, and, therefore, they increase consumption nutrients, including fat.

What healthy walking helps to lose weight much better than intense running, now confirm more and more scientific research. And this is good: we will walk, all the more, it is much more pleasant than running.

But I would like to draw your attention to the following circumstance: I often happened to notice that thin people, unlike fat, appear to be such fidgets. Egozat, make a lot of small movements. They get up, sit down, get up again, rearrange something on the table, correct it... And even when they are sitting, they are also in motion: they gesticulate animatedly, sway, their posture is active, they do not spread in the chair, the face is filled with facial expressions...

Of course, such "clockwork" people come across among full, but, it seems to me, still less often than, among thin. But we do not say that the full are all completely couch potatoes. In our case, this is not about laziness, but about an imbalance between consumed and expended energy. A person can be small but at the same time spend energy very economically. If only he could become such a fidget! But how, how?!

I assure you, this is not difficult - in the arsenal of each of us there is a complete set of all behavioral programs inherent in people - from the quiet “quieter than water, lower than grass” to the fire-breathing dragon “just touch it!”. It's just that in our daily lives we use a very limited set of programs.

So, feel free to turn on your "fidget". Sit with a straight back, maintain tension, rock back and forth or side to side, shake your head, move your arms. Do this whenever you remember that you must do it. Of course, at first it will be unusual, awkward, but gradually get used to it.

As an exercise, I recommend the following. Surely you have a girlfriend, a kind of fidget. Wonderful! Chat with her, visit her, take her to the movies or to the mall. And while she goes about her business, try to copy her posture, gestures, repeat movements. Probably this or something like this, the artist gets used to a new role for himself. Speaking of actors, try playing a part for a few days, say Julia Roberts or Julia Rutberg. But these are very lively, mobile and slender people!

He helped some of my patients rebuild their motor image technique, which can be conditionally called "Live dancing!". They imagined that nearby music sounds suitable for a fast dance, let's say rock and roll, and they, as it were, to this music dance. Indeed, at the same time, their gait changed, it became more springy, their posture changed, and their tone increased.

Finally, the psycho-emotional sphere of a person and weight loss

No one argues with the fact that the anxiety we feel can prompt us to consume more tasty food in order to calm down. Indeed, treats are comforting. And since these are mostly over-fat and over-fat foods, it becomes clear that the more anxiety, the more likely to be overweight.

However, according to science, overeating in conditions of anxiety is not typical for all people. There are also those who, under the same conditions, on the contrary, eat less, but move more, fuss, run from corner to corner. As we say, they do not find a place for themselves.

And we can hear the story of how the girl changed her job and ended up in such a quarrelsome team that she ate and ate from constant stress, and gained 10 kilograms in a year. And then another girl will tell us that, having got into the same conditions, she completely lost her appetite and lost weight from experiences by the same 10 kilograms. This I mean that the point is not in the nature of the conflict that generates anxiety, but in the nature of the response. Under the same conditions, some people eat more, others less.

But if you're having weight problems and overeating when you're anxious (even if not every time), or, just as importantly, feel an increase in anxiety when you're trying to diet, you need to take action. Which? Or worry less or use "sedatives" that are not related to food. Or somehow combine the first and second. Regarding the first, the most effective advice looks like this.

If conflicts haunt you, if anxiety and depression prevent you from living, it's time to work with a psychologist. Mental pain, in principle, is not much different from toothache. Both that, and another spoil mood and do not allow to sleep. But for some reason, if something happens to the teeth, we don’t run to a friend and don’t tell her for hours how much it hurts and how bad we feel. Because we know that with a toothache you have to go to the dentist. But at heartache, instead of turning to a specialist, we start calling friends and complaining about others: how callous and heartless they are, they don’t love us, they don’t appreciate us, but only offend and upset us.

And of course, it should be remembered that not only food protects against stress, but also a good bath, a walk and good sleep. Try to do a tonic exercise or dance when you are nervous! You will see the anxiety has subsided. Why? Because the brain was fed with nerve impulses from working muscles, from moving joints. These impulses increased tone, improved mood, gave rise to more pleasant thoughts.

Such are the tips. We agree that they are not yet in the mainstream. More often, for weight loss, people find out what they can and cannot eat, and how much time (and with what intensity) they should exercise. However, for most, all these diets and workouts do not help. So let's try to get closer to those we are trying to be like in nutrition and lifestyle.

Some of us will become more moderate in eating, others will become more mobile, fussy, others will learn “non-food” methods of relieving stress, and others will gradually take both nutrition and mobility. In any case, it seems to me that they will benefit from this much more than from newfangled diets and exhausting workouts.