The Secret to Weight Loss and Preventing Regain - Transformation Weight Control

By Rich Weil, M.Ed., CDE
Transformation Weight Control
transformationweightcontrol.com

Resilience. The ability to bounce back from adversity. An old Japanese proverb puts it this way, “The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.” And the psychologist Albert Ellis used to say, we’re all human, and we’re all fallible. He was right, and there’s nothing to apologize for. Apologizing suggests you did something wrong. Bunk! And for sure there’s nothing to apologize for when it comes to losing weight and preventing regain. That’s because you’re up against a myriad of biological and psychological factors that make it hard to do. Genetics, epigenetics, hormonal imbalances, dysregulation of appetite control, problems with neurobiology (biological dysfunction in the brain including problems with dopamine and dysfunction of the food reward pathway), loss of muscle and lower metabolism due to weight loss, thrifty genes (genes programmed to store calories, left over from hunter-gatherer days when food was frequently scarce), the toxic food environment, societal bias against individuals with obesity, a decrease in emotional regulation causing emotional eating, and so many other factors. Given all the biological and psychological factors involved in weight control, it is a simple fact… difficulty losing weight and keeping it off is not your fault. It’s not a character flaw, it’s not a lack of self-discipline, it’s not a lack of willpower (the idea of willpower is problematic all on its own, but that’s a story for another day). You’re up against mighty powerful biology and psychology, not to mention that the body does its best to, as we say, “defend” the old weight.

So, when it comes to following food plans, or exercise plans, or challenging your thinking, or any of the many other strategies that help with weight control, you know you’re going to have times when it’s simply much harder than other times. You’ve all been there. Consider this… you’ve been “on plan” all week, and then the weekend comes and off your plan you go. Well, it’s entirely possible that that weekend turns into days, weeks, months, or even years of relapse and weight regain. If you’re not resilient and can’t bounce back, then how can you lose weight and prevent regaining it if the inevitable “off the plan” is going to happen? Because like Dr. Ellis said, you’re human and you’re fallible. In our program, participants learn to get back on plan on Monday.

Now, there are two other important factors tied for second place when it comes to losing weight and preventing regain. They are 1) lack of self-compassion, and 2) negative perfectionistic, all-or-nothing, black and white thinking (as opposed to adaptive perfectionistic thinking). Say you do have that weekend off the rails, and then you beat yourself up for it on Monday morning when you step on the scale and you say something to the effect of, “I’m never going to lose weight”, “I’m no good”, or “I should be better than this.” Dr. Ellis called that, “shoulding” all over the place. Those thoughts are irrational beliefs, stemming from lack of self-compassion and perfectionistic thinking, all rolled into one big ball of psychic pain and maladaptive behaviors when it comes to weight control. It’s just never enough. I like to say, “You never feel as good about losing a pound as you feel bad about gaining a pound.”

I’ve spent countless thousands of hours researching predictors of losing weight and preventing regain, administering questionnaire after questionnaire, and here’s three things that I’ve learned about the relationship between resilience, self-compassion, and perfectionistic thinking, based on the results of questionnaires that measure those factors (domains).

The more negative perfectionistic thinking you have, the less resilient you are.
The more self-compassion you have, the more resilient you are.
The more self-compassion you have, the less negative perfectionistic thinking you do.

To summarize: The number one factor in losing weight and preventing regain is resilience, and tied for second are lack of self-compassion and perfectionistic thinking. I’ll leave it at that for you to mull over. Feel free to use the comments section!