Food Addiction - The Battle

Close to a third of Americans are not just overweight, but obese and thirty pounds or more overweight. Obesity can lead to or make worse several serious diseases, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes. So weight loss is something many Americans are thinking about but not necessarily succeeding with.
The magic formula for weight loss is to have an input of fewer calories than those that go out through exercise. If this were perfectly true, more people would succeed with weight loss. However, other factors appear to play a role in a person's weight loss or failure to lose weight. For example, a person with a slow metabolism will have a more difficult time losing weight. Also, people who have yo-yo dieted over the years will find it harder and harder to lose weight. Men apparently lose more easily than women. And, to top it off, an exercise that burned a lot of calories six months ago doesn't burn as many because our bodies acclimate to our activities.
Another factor that makes weight loss a challenge is the role that food plays in our culture. We don't just sit down to a bowl of People Chow the way our dogs and cats do. We go out to dinner on a date, we have a big potluck at the family reunion, we have to have popcorn when we watch a movie, and a pizza would taste good right about now. Even if I'm not particularly hungry.
And watch out for your family and friends if you do succeed in losing some weight, without even thinking about it, they'll be pushing your favorite foods on you. It's just how people are.
So, what to do? First of all, we have to come to psychological terms with food and the role it does and should play in our lives. We have to come up with ways of accommodating our social uses of food while maintaining a reasonable calorie intake. Alcoholics can give up going to bars and never take a drink again, but all of us have to eat and learning to do so moderately is a real challenge. Sometimes it helps to make little rules such as "I will only eat raw veggies at the potluck" or "I will not go within 20 feet of the dessert table." It also helps to plan in advance if dinner is going to be at a restaurant, then other meals can be smaller. Finally, writing down what you eat helps with willpower. You realize that you really don't want to write those potato chips down, so you choose not to eat them.
Weight loss is complex. But the process of working on it: eating a healthy diet and exercising - leads to better health even if you don't necessarily lose pounds.
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About the Author
Jack Dobson loves VideoJug! It is the world's leading purveyor of online, "How To", video content. Filled with instructional films on thousands of subjects - it really is the place to go with any questions. Visit VideoJug today!