Why do we gain weight when we go on a diet?

There has been lots of research to support the miserable idea that we get fatter when we are trying to lose weight.

What a horrible discovery after weeks of struggling with a diet, eating food we don't want and don't like!

In part, when we are on a diet, we think only of food. We buy special diet foods, we read slimming magazines full of articles about food. We spend more time than normal thinking about food when we are on a diet.

A study from Bristol University shows that diet foods encourage overeating. When we are faced with a meal that we know is low-calorie, we just eat more to compensate. And if we are buying low-calorie prepared foods from the supermarket, we should check how many servings they contain. Other research shows that once the pack is opened, it is eaten. So a 2-person serving would be eaten by the one person sitting in front of it.


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Portion sizes have doubled without us even noticing

Portion sizes have doubled in the last 20 years.

American researchers at New York University found that when McDonald’s first started in 1955, its hamburger weighed around 1.6 ounces - 28 grammes. We would think that was pretty mean if we were served it today. The basic hamburger now weighs 100grammes (but I think that includes the bun. Even so...)

I had a look at McDonalds website. There is loads of information, but no mention of the calories in each product. Well, it was hidden away if it is there at all. Find the calories here instead!

McDonalds are an easy target in many ways, because they do provide information. Your local takeaway doesn't measure and count, so you have no idea of the calorie content. I am not a great fan of calorie counting in detail, but if you are trying to control your eating, then it really does help to have a broad idea of where the calories are coming from. I suggest that for most of us, it is not coming from our 3 daily meals.

A double cheeseburger is 440 calories. That is a quarter of the rule of thumb daily allowance of 2,000 calories for women. A basic hamburger is 250 calories, without the regular fries, which are 274 cals. No wonder we all gain weight. This sort of eating is called "hedonic" by the medics. It is fun eating, extra to your normal 3 meals a day. At these calories, you could easily find your "hedonic" eats add up to more than your daily meals. Oops.

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Rapid eating causes obesity

Speed of eating turns out to be one of the earliest predictors of obesity. And obesity is a risk factor for diabetes.

In a study by Robert Berkowitz and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania, rapid eating (higher number of mouthfuls per minute) of a single laboratory testmeal was a remarkably strong predictor of subsequent weight gain in kids.

At 4 years of age, 32 children of overweight mothers and 29 children of normal weight mothers were given a test meal in a controlled laboratory setting. Mouthfuls of food per minute at this single meal not only predicted changes in BMI from 4 to 6 years but also changes in sum of skinfolds and total body fat. Of course you can always trick your 4-year old into eating slow by providing foods that take longer to eat and if your 4-year old prefers to play with her food and takes forever to finish, you can at least comfort yourself with the notion that she is probably not in danger of having to worry about excess weight any time soon.

But what about you? People who eat rapidly are at risk of being overweight. Research has shown that obese people eat fast and maintain the same rate of eating, whereas normal weight people slow down their rate of eating during the course of the meal. Slowing down allows the stretch receptors to signal to your brain that your stomach is full. Eating quickly means you pass the Full point and reach Stuffed before your brain has been alerted to the meal.

Another interesting piece of research by Yvonne Linne at Huddinge University Hospital shows that eating with a blindfold decreased the intake of food, without making subjects feel less full. Eating blindfolded, therefore, may force subjects to rely more on internal signals. Most of us have stopped using internal signals to guide our eating, and we are getting overweight as a result. With practice, we can start to identify when we are hungry (most of us never feel hunger) and when we are full.

So, focusing on your internal cues helps you reduce weight. To help you achieve this:

eat slowly (putting your hands in your lap between mouthfuls really slows you down)
do nothing else whilst eating (no telly, no radio, no reading)
use a small plate

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How does hypnosis help with weight loss?

To lose weight, we need to change our eating habits. A crash diet might help in the short term, but we can't eat like that for months on end. Most of us know what our bad habits are. It might be chocolate or takeaways, or just eating till we are stuffed. Hypnosis helps you to identify the problem habits and then helps you introduce good habits to replace them.

Rather than be thinking about food all day in order to try to reduce the amount you eat, hypnosis embeds decisions about eating in your subconscious, so that new behaviours become automatic, with no effort. If you are trying to cut out chocolate, your subconscious alerts you to this helpful decision, and keeps you out of the shop and encourages you to say no. Little by little this becomes normal behaviour and eating chocolate is something you just don't think about any more.

It means you are not needing to use your willpower all day long - which would only result in a big binge anyway.

If you are in or near Glasgow and want to lose weight, try to make a few small changes every week. To help you, try hypnotherapy with me.
http://www.carolinebrowntherapy.com/

Why do we eat when we are not hungry?

We can all find a little space for something particularly delicious and tempting. Our stomachs (normally the size of our fist) are very stretchy.

Maybe you remember Mr Creosote from the Monty Python sketch? He tried to squeeze in one last mint wafer.

But what is making us eat when we are not hungry. Well, there are a number of reasons. If any seem to apply to you, think about how you can avoid them.

If we regularly eat a little snack at 3.00pm, then our bodies get used to it. Even if we have had plenty to eat, our bodies cry out for the 3.00pm intake. After a couple of days however, these cravings go. When are you snacking?

Refined carbohydrates make your blood sugar peak and trough dramatically so you feel hungry soon after. This includes sugary foods, white flour, sweets, cakes and biscuits. If you don't buy them, you won't eat them. Remember, in the hand is in the mouth.

Of course, if something looks and smells delicious, our body responds positively, with lots of encouraging saliva flow, which itself makes you hungry. As for me, I can never resist a mango, but I have trained myself to resist chocolate, and now it doesn't interest me.

Alchohol lowers your general ability to resist. If you eat before you go out drinking, you will be less likely to succumb to a takeaway on the way home.


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Body image

Even the stars don't match up to the ideals of beauty expounded in magazines and other advertising.

"Kate Winslet's famous curves have been trimmed for a front cover and Keira Knightley's bust enlarged for a film poster. Madonna's biceps have been reduced for a magazine portrait, while veteran model Twiggy's wrinkles vanished in an advertisement for anti-ageing cream.The technique of flattening tummies, shaping thighs, removing laughter lines and adding extra gloss to hair is now commonplace among photographers attempting to produce perfect images of the body beautiful". This text was from the Independent newspaper.

The French are trying to ban airbrushing. And now we have a report that explains the damage to children from being exposed to these unreal images of women.

A few years ago, Joan Collins said that maintaining her slim shape, lovely face and huge hair was her job, and she devoted most of the day to preparing herself for going out.

What is the moral. These images we see are not real people. Even the stars, who spend all day working on looking wonderful, need to be airbrushed to look this good. It is unachievable for the rest of us. We shouldn't waste our lives trying.

If you are in or near Glasgow and want to lose weight, try to make a few small changes every week. To help you, try hypnotherapy with me.

Wew all collude with ourselves from time to time

Have you ever helped someone else by doing their shopping for them? If you are living with your parents, perhaps you sometimes go out to the shops and buy stuff for them. And strangely somehow, included in that shopping trolley are the things that you like yourself, but know you should not eat. You are buying them for someone else. It might be crisps or chocolates, or biscuits. We often collude with ourselves in this way. Buying the things that we want, but for someone else. So there they are, all those things you are trying to stop eating, sitting in the cupboard calling you to eat them. Do you do this? Most of us do.

Or maybe your partner likes to eat these things you are trying to give up, and brings them into the house. You don't discuss with your partner how difficult this makes it for you to give up - because secretly, this allows you to give in to the urge, and blame your partner (just a bit).

Or in your office, everyone has lots of sweets and biscuits and you all join in eating them. All colluding together.

Does this sound like you? So what action are you going to take?

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