When I was still studying to become a psychologist, I really wanted to discover one weight loss recipe for everyone. But first it was necessary to discover the cause of weight gain. I decided to look for it in the human psyche. After all, if a person has extra pounds, it means he needs them for some reason.

During a long research work It turned out that one reason is not enough. I could not fit all the owners of curvaceous figures into one denominator. But I have identified some general factors for myself.

The main psychological factors contributing to the gain of extra pounds:

1. High sensitivity.

This is one of the most common reasons for overeating.

It so happens that women are naturally more sensitive than men. This is probably due to the fact that it is women who give birth and raise children. At first, when the baby does not yet know how to speak, a woman should be able to feel and understand what her baby needs.

But even among women there is a significant percentage of those for whom this sensitivity is constantly turned on. They understand their partner by facial expressions and pantomimes. They have the ability to read between the lines and a high level of empathy.

When going out into the big world, such women feel that somewhere in the area of ​​​​their heart a door is open. And any careless word or look can deeply hurt such a person.

2. Inability to say “no.”

The topic is relevant for many. Recently, on the pages of Alimero, I saw a wonderful topic about how to learn to say “no”. How important it is to refuse immediately, and not to do something to the detriment of yourself and get angry at the same time.

Excess weight in in this case works as a defense against other people. A kind of barrier. And sometimes the reason for refusing help, citing bad feeling or high blood pressure.

3. Deafness to your own needs.

In the crazy pace of life, we forget to hear ourselves and our needs. And why do we need this skill? We need to go to work, cook food, clean the house, etc.

What does it matter that we actually want to take a bath or just lie down now, if there is a word “necessary”.

4. Fear of the opposite sex.

Having experienced harassment from a man in childhood or adolescence, a girl may decide that she no longer wants to be sexually attractive. And she covers her feminine and seductive forms with excess weight.

5. The desire to take up more space in space. Become more significant and solid.

Isn’t it strange for you to see the head of a large enterprise one and a half meters tall and weighing 60 kilograms? And if at the same time he is still young? Can this young man make responsible decisions and give instructions to dozens of subordinates?

If for you the word “director” is automatically associated with a well-fed, tall, mature man in a suit, then you are one of those who are influenced by this stereotype.

In fact, a person’s age, weight and height are not a significant factor in assessing his achievements and successes.

6. Auto-aggression.

We all want to be good girls and boys. How do you raise good children? Don't fight! Do not hurt! And how much in adult life those with whom you really want to measure fists. But we can't afford it.

But where to put anger and anger? If they don’t find a way out in art or sports, then they go straight to destroying who is here and now. Namely, on himself.

5. Hello from the past.

I once conducted a survey among those with a sweet tooth, what their favorite sweet is associated with. For almost all respondents, their acquaintance with their favorite sweet began in childhood or adolescence. Moreover, this acquaintance was colored with very pleasant emotions.

6. Marketing move.

From the TV screen we are told that there is no better explanation of love for a lady than a box of chocolates. What could be more tender than chocolate made from the milk of cows grazing in alpine meadows?

It is clear that no one will go to check the presence of whole milk in chocolate. As well as the presence of joy hormones in it. Everything happens through suggestion directly to the subcortex of the viewer’s brain.

And then, when the question arises about a gift for a loved one, the image of sweets that has been hammered into us automatically pops up before our eyes.

What to do?

Now I have already realized that getting rid of excess weight should take place not only on the physical level. The psychological aspects of excess weight can cancel out all efforts towards being slim. And return the weight to the starting position over and over again.

In each individual case you need to do something different. If we try to generalize and give recommendations, then first of all, these are:

1. Relieve stress in every possible way, except by eating. Massage, bath, fitness, dancing, sex, skydiving, chatting with friends.

2. Work with your thoughts. When the desire to eat arises, ask yourself, is it really hunger? Or am I just lonely, bored, sad or scared? What would I really like right now?

3. Pamper yourself. But not with food, since such pleasure is short-term, but the consequences remain on the waist for a long time. And, for example, a beautiful manicure in a salon, shopping, communicating with interesting people.

4. Well proper nutrition in combination with moderate physical activity has not been canceled.

Do you know any other psychological factors that contribute to excess weight gain?

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Excerpts from the book: Bräutigam V., Christian P., Rad M. Psychosomatic medicine.

Obesity is the deposition of adipose tissue with an increase in body weight. This pathology is a consequence of impaired absorption of food and energy expenditure. Can we talk about obesity as a disease? It depends on the definition of the disease in general and on social assessment. Even judging a fat person as ugly or beautiful depends on social, cultural values ​​and the spirit of the times. Undoubtedly, obesity is a risk factor for the development of many diseases, primarily diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, bronchial asthma, cholelithiasis, atherosclerosis, joint diseases. It not only reduces life expectancy, but also affects its quality.* Initial stage Obesity is usually defined as an increase in body weight of 15-20% of the normal value, and with an increase of 30% it becomes completely obvious. Classic indicators (Brock's recommended body weight in kilograms is equal to height in centimeters minus 100) are considered too high today; the ideal body weight for men is 10% less than these indicators, for women - 5%. Indicators for high and low growth are given in the Geigy tables. Fat deposition can be determined by the thickness of the skin folds. The influence of age and gender differences should also be kept in mind.

* A child or teenager who sits in front of the TV for 4 to 8 hours a day and extinguishes his urges and stress by consuming large amounts of high-calorie food will soon acquire excess body weight, and, as experience shows, it is usually difficult for him to change his lifestyle and regain previous weight.

* Psychosomatics pays more attention not to those patients who have chronic weight gain, but to those young people who experience a change in phases of gluttony and starvation with a sudden increase in body weight. They eat food impulsively, in situations of tension and conflict. Psychosomatic or neurotic categories among the obese, i.e. those who do not follow a basic diet account for one third of all obese people.

* Most obese patients can say about themselves: “Actually, I eat a little, less than others!” They're not lying when they say that. Their mood is often associated with a basic desire to eat something and often leads to automatic, involuntary absorption of food. Comparing the amount of food with the internal subjective need, and not with the physical need for calories, they always believe that they have not taken enough of it. In this regard, a pathogenetic concept arose, according to which in obesity there is no feeling of satiety when eating. There are two characteristic syndromes: 1) night eating syndrome with morning lack of appetite and excessive eating in the evenings followed by insomnia, which N. Deter found in 10% of obese women; 2) syndrome of gluttony attacks during conflicts and simple difficulties with the desire to absorb huge quantities of food, followed by fears, depression and guilt. In both syndromes, an increase in neurotic symptoms and a tendency to conflict is noted.

* In terms of energy, obesity is not a mystery. The only question that remains unclear is why an obese person does not feel full and eats more than is necessary in accordance with his energy needs, and also moves less than is possible with the amount of energy substances consumed.

* In England and the USA, obesity is observed more often in women from lower social classes, and severe obesity is found in them 2 times more often. In men, there is also a relationship between social status and obesity. The situation is very different in India, where obesity has a different meaning: rich men and women are fatter than their less affluent compatriots and obesity is a symbol of prosperity and less contrary to the modern ideal of beauty accepted in the Western world.

* The relationship between socioeconomic status and the incidence of obesity leads many researchers to believe that social variation is the most important determinant of obesity.

* It should be assumed that the factors that lead to obesity in one person do not necessarily affect another person. Psychologically, different constellations are also found, which is manifested in the difference in causes.

The most frequently cited reasons are: 1. Frustration at the loss of the object of love. For example, obesity can be caused, more often in women, by the death of a spouse, separation from a sexual partner, or even leaving the parental home. It is generally accepted that the loss loved one may be accompanied by depression and at the same time an increase in appetite. Children often react with increased appetite when the youngest child in the family is born.

2. General depression, anger, fear of loneliness and feelings of emptiness can lead to impulsive eating.

3. Situations that combine danger and activities that require wakefulness and increased tension (for example, studying for exams, a war situation) awaken in many people increased oral needs, which lead to increased eating or smoking.

* In all these revealing situations, food has the value of vicarious satisfaction. It serves to strengthen connections, security, eases pain, feelings of loss, disappointment, like a child who remembers from childhood that in case of pain, illness or loss, he was given sweets to console him. Many obese people had similar experiences in childhood, which led them to unconscious forms of psychosomatic reactions.

* For most obese patients, it is important that they have always been fat, and already in infancy and early childhood they were prone to obesity. At the same time, it is curious that in frustrating and tough life situations feeding and overeating can be a stress-regulating factor for both parents and their growing children. Obesity and food as a substitute for satisfaction are therefore not a problem for one person, but for the whole family.

* These situational conditions must be associated with the patient’s personality characteristics and its processing.

* Food is a substitute for absent maternal care, a protection against depression. For a child, food is more than just nutrition, it is self-affirmation, stress relief, and maternal support. Many obese patients have a strong dependence on their mother and fear of separation from her. Since 80% of parents are also overweight, one can think of a predisposition factor, as well as particularly intense family ties and adherence to traditions, a style of relationship where direct expressions of love are rejected and oral habits and connections take their place.

* Parents with normal body weight have obese children only in 7% of cases; If one of the parents is obese, then obesity in children is observed in 40% of cases, and if both parents are affected - in 80%. Adopted children are less likely to be obese if their parents are obese than half-bred children.

* Hilde Bruch (N. Bruch) described certain forms of early childhood development and family environment in children with a tendency to obesity. Mothers of such children show hyperprotection and over-attachment. They overindulge, pamper, pamper, and control their children instead of introducing them to a world in which they could find themselves. Parents who allow everything and do not prohibit anything, cannot say “no”, compensate with this their remorse and the feeling that they are not giving enough to their children. Such fathers are weak and helpless. With a free sample of observations, such conflicting family relationships can be detected in at least 25% of cases.

* Oral spoiling by parents has often been described by other authors. It is motivated primarily by getting rid of the feeling of guilt for emotional alienation from them, for indifference and internal rejection on the part of the parents. Feeding children is the only possible means of expressing affection for them, which parents are not able to show by talking, touching, or playing with them. Oral refusal is a result different forms behavior of both an overprotective and indifferent mother.

* It is impossible to describe a single personality structure in obesity, including its psychosomatic variants. Among fat people Often there are people with decreased drives. Some authors have found among them a large number of survivors of brain injury. But in some cases these are very lively and active people with superficial contacts and infantile claims. They are prone to closeness and symbiotic behavior with other people, easily get used to them and allow them to quickly become close to them. Loss and separation are unbearable for them, as is often the case with people with excessive, poorly differentiated orality.

*The MMPI often detects symptoms of depression, body image concerns, fears, impulsivity, social introversion, and defensive tendencies. Obese patients prefer professions related to nutrition, in contrast to the control group, who prefer more intellectual professions. Children who are prone to obesity are usually described as immature, receptive, and dependent on their mother. Like patients with anorexia, they do not experience a sense of disfigurement of their body.

* Obese patients usually do not take their problems seriously, although attempts are often made to explain them to them. They believe that a simple intention and a strong-willed decision will allow them to regulate food and drink; they just have to gather their strength. The clinic does not consider them seriously ill. Their assurances that they eat almost nothing all day are considered not as a contradiction between their needs and the achieved feeling of satiety, but as a deliberate lie. Countertransference only leads to decreased self-esteem and social value treatment situation. They complicate the working relationship and the treatment situation, which, due to the need to limit food, is difficult for the patient and leads him to depression. Patients often react with resignation and internal self-reproach, which leads to new, sudden attacks of overeating.

* In general, for obesity, for rapid reduction of body weight, active psychotherapeutic methods focused on symptoms are indicated: directive and behavioral therapy, self-help groups focused on the individual, revealing psychodynamic methods. As with alcoholism, it is not necessary to analyze all conflicts if this analysis cannot change the patient's behavior. It is usually not difficult through intensive clinical treatment With a strict diet, you can quickly achieve weight loss. But this physical change is also the starting point for changes in self-esteem and further changes in behavior. If for a short time relapse does not occur, which happens in at least half of the cases, and according to some observations, in almost all patients, it is necessary to develop an established relationship between the doctor and the patient in the future outpatient treatment. Only an intensive transfer to the therapist (through an appropriate setting, a self-help group) can give the patient the motivated strength to limit himself in food in the future, when he finds himself in familiar work and family conditions. Psychosomatic and neurotic patients with obesity generally respond less well to treatment than individuals without such disorders. How often obesity is associated with family structure is shown by the experience of treating obesity in children and young people. Resistance comes not so much from the child himself, but from his parents, who develop a feeling of guilt and have irrational fears that the child will die of hunger if he follows the restrictions.

* There are a large number of sophisticated diets based on, while simultaneously reducing the feeling of hunger, limiting food intake to low-calorie foods (sufficient in volume and rich in proteins) or changing the calorie balance with increased physical activity. But the first step should be to involve the patient in working together with the doctor. One-sided use of a prescribed diet, gymnastics, etc. help little and often lead to depression, and the pleasure, ideals, and fantasies associated with the process of eating remain unprocessed. The decisive thing is that obese patients who want to enjoy the pleasure that food is for them must be given something different: psychosomatic obese patients need contact, intimacy, satisfaction in the social sphere, help in overcoming frustrations, reinforcement of their “I” .

What does the body need for a comfortable existence? Among the components that make up a healthy life, food ranks third after air and water. Often main reason Excess weight, in addition to hormonal imbalances, is considered to be excessive consumption of food. But not everything is as simple and unambiguous as it seems at first glance.

It is true that by overeating we try to compensate for psychological discomfort and emotional instability. Excess weight, the psychosomatics of which has a well-founded basic basis, often becomes a protection for the body in an unfavorable social environment or in a state of frustration.

Psychological background of obesity

Psychosomatics is an intermediate direction between medicine and psychology. Both doctors and psychologists agree that any disease has two components: somatic (physical) and mental (emotional). Soul and body are two halves of a single whole. How many times in your life have you heard the phrase that all diseases are caused by nerves? Diseases that we acquire by tightly clenching our fist with the reins of uncontrolled negative emotions are usually classified as psychosomatic. Stress, conflicts, scandals cause not only excess weight, but also asthma, hypertension, arthritis, skin diseases and a bunch of all kinds of diseases, including oncology. Each emotion can cause a malfunction in the body as a whole or in any of its systems.

There are cases when excess weight manifests itself in a specific place:

1. Psychosomatics explains excess weight on the stomach as a loss of life priorities and ambitions, non-acceptance of one’s own sexuality, a weak level of spiritual development of a person;
2. Lack of parental affection and care or excessive care of children, infringement of the rights to independence and individuality causes excess fat on the hips;
3. Psychosomatics interprets obesity in the hands as a consequence of unrequited love and rejected feelings.

Addicted to bad habits
people will never admit their bondage to culinary temptation. Food, and even thoughts about food, cause a person to improve their mood, feel satisfied, and also reduce the threshold for perceiving the consequences of stress, resentment, depression or dejection. And no matter how much you try to shift the blame for excess weight onto genes, hormones or the constitution, the volume of fat deposits will be directly proportional to the kilograms of pies, cakes, cutlets or ice cream eaten.

What causes the body to store fat reserves on the abdomen in women? Psychosomatic causes of excess weight include many points and require close attention to each of them:

• Long-term depression and debilitating nervous system stress encourages a person to eat up troubles with another portion of high-calorie food, with the help of which fat reserves accumulate in well-known places. In addition, prolonged stay in a state of psychological tension leads to hormonal imbalances, which only helps the accumulation of fat cells.
• An equally significant factor is low self-esteem, lack of self-acceptance, aversion to own body. This life position leads to the fact that three-dimensional forms become an intensifying factor for one’s own hatred.
• The absence of a strong male shoulder, the attitude of relying only on oneself, the dragging of male functions and responsibilities onto fragile female shoulders, the desire to be strong and “big” is taken literally by the body.
• The lack of female happiness, love, sex is perceived as a huge spiritual emptiness that requires filling. Accordingly, the vacuum is filled with food, which increases the level of serotonin and dopamine.
• Strong emotions such as fear, anger and resentment provoke a person to feel helpless and insecure. In this situation, obesity acts as a subconscious talisman.
• The fear of being sexually attractive and becoming a victim of violence forces women to gain excess weight so as not to attract the attention of the opposite sex. Childhood psychological trauma and rape can also become the subconscious basis of obesity.

Psychosomatic causes of excess weight only indicate that a person different ways avoids the opportunity to love himself. For him, excess weight is more comfortable than a slender, beautiful torso, and he does not intend to lose kilograms of fat reserves without a fight.

The ancient Hawaiians used a method called Ho'oponopono to heal illnesses and neutralize problems. This technique is still popular and successful in many parts of the world. The method also works successfully in the fight against excess weight: you just need to sincerely ask the universe, God, and the cosmos to forgive you for allowing obesity to settle in your body and thank you for your help.

This method has recently been widely covered on the Internet. The method is based on the same psychosomatics, which allows thoughts to influence the physical body. Excess weight will go away as soon as you are internally ready for the fact that it is not your fault. Be sure that just as destructive thoughts allow the body to become infected with all sorts of diseases, internal cleansing gives a stable mindset for positive changes. In this way, you allow the liberated inner love to independently correct the excess weight problems that have accumulated as a result of the unwise use of your own negative thoughts.

Talk to yourself

World religions extol comprehensive and unconditional love as a panacea for many troubles and misfortunes. And no matter how you feel about this postulate, if you manage to convince your own subconscious that self-love can heal many diseases, consider that you have won a bonus coupon for free health improvement.

In psychosomatics, the technique of talking to oneself is especially actively used. With that half of myself that is predisposed to excess weight, clumsy, always tired of a heavy fatty burden and whining about illusory, unrealistic fantasies. And the second component of the personality should talk to her, namely the one who understands the complexity of the situation, striving for lightness and mobility due to the loss of hated kilograms. Love yourself as you are, thank your body for the work it does every day, supporting many life-supporting processes in difficult conditions for it.

An example text of a conversation with yourself might look like this:

1. “Thank you, my body, for having each other. Forgive me for grievances, discontent and complaints. I am sorry that I, voluntarily or unwittingly, cause physical inconvenience and nervous shock. Thank you for the opportunity to breathe, move, think and love.”
2. This or a similar installation will allow you to understand how, with the help of psychosomatics, it is possible to eliminate old established programs that have been preventing excess weight loss and increasing success or wealth for a long time.

Find the fat benefit

Fat people are very impressionable. They try not to notice their body in the mirror, but they can spend hours communicating with their inner self, discussing fatness, blaming it for all troubles and misfortunes. But if you look at the root, excess weight can be less of an evil than, say, an ulcer, heart attack or death. Using an example, it might look like this: a person is in long-term depression and is already trying to find a way out of life.

The only joy is luxurious, fatty food, generously seasoned with cream, cream or mayonnaise. So it becomes a real lifeline, preventing the sufferer from making ends meet with a joyless existence. The only pity is that this circle is inexorably deposited on the waist in the form of an unpleasantly shaking jellied meat.

You will never be able to lose excess weight if you do not get rid of the understanding of the secondary psychosomatic benefits of your fat. The kilograms lost through back-breaking work will come back, taking friends with them. Consider carefully the reasons why being fat benefits you:

If any of the above benefits is a priority for your personality, do not torture yourself with diets and exhausting physical activity, and remain a fat slobber who lives off sympathy and pity.

Replace the joy of saturation with the happiness of communication

Clearly and confidently ask yourself what you really want: to lose weight and rid your bones, joints, blood vessels of the hated burden, and yourself of many concomitant diseases? Or continue to shake the air with constant reproaches and complaints? Or maybe you want to eat everything and stay at your ideal weight? It’s a paradox, but many people succeed. This is because the psychosomatics of excess weight lies, first of all, in a lifestyle and way of thinking that is different from yours. In no case should one exclude proper nutrition and physical exercise, but you need to radically change your way of thinking and attitude towards your loved one. Overeating is a drug, a kind of addiction. If you want to become independent, change yourself or ask for help from specialists. The effect is achieved when there is focused motivation and a conscious commitment to change.

Do you want to be slim and beautiful? Be her! Distract yourself from thoughts about food. Replace snacks with a hike with friends, visiting theaters, museums, and salons. Get a new hairstyle or treat yourself to some shopping. By the way, buy clothes that you really like, but are a little too small. You will see what an incentive such a trick will be.

Finally fall in love! It is not true that men prefer skinny women. And don’t believe that there must be many good people. It's a delusion. A good person should be in moderation. Like everything else in our lives.

Greetings, dear readers! Has it ever happened that you thoughtlessly gobbled up a bucket of ice cream when your boyfriend dumped you? Or sitting in front of the computer, popping something into your mouth as you struggled to get work done on time? Perhaps you're a busy mom who eats cookies in the car while driving the kids to school? The answer to the question of why we behave this way is answered by the psychosomatics of excess weight in women.

Doctors these days look at the problem of obesity as a physical disease that must be combated through diet and exercise. But these methods, as a rule, have an unstable and short-term effect. Our consciousness is just the tip of the iceberg. There is also the subconscious, which controls thoughts, emotions and behavior.

Weight can serve as a defense against psychological trauma or deep-seated negative emotions. Stress that lasts for a long time increases appetite and prevents you from starting to eat. healthy image life by willpower.

Before diagnosing your problem, I suggest you learn how to determine if you are overweight. For this there is a large number of calculators, but the most accurate method is the Quetelet index. To calculate it, you need to divide your body weight by your height squared.

Compare the result with the table data.

Why do people gain weight?

Let's look at the 5 main causes of excess weight, the nature of which is hidden in the subconscious.

Hormones

When your brain detects a threat, be it an angry dog, an angry boss, or a mortgage debt, it triggers the release of massive amounts of adrenaline, prolactin, and cortisol. They try to make sure you are alert, ready to run away or fight.

At first, adrenaline will help you not feel hungry. However, when its effect wears off, cortisol, known as the “stress hormone,” begins to signal that you need to snack.

Today, a person who sits on the couch and worries about how to pay the bills does not expend as much energy as our ancestors. Unfortunately, our endocrine system has not changed since those times, and the brain continues to whisper: “Take another cookie.”

Anxiety

During a surge of adrenaline, we become restless and nervous. This condition causes a desire for “emotional eating.”

Stress can make you eat food thoughtlessly, not feel its taste and aroma, and cannot control its quantity. Most likely, in an anxious state you will eat more and get less pleasure.

Accumulation "in reserve"

Excessive cortisol production slows down metabolism. Our body tries to accumulate sufficient glucose levels to overcome stressful situations.

Craving for fast food

Why do we want ice cream and potato chips? Stress also affects food preferences. These are products with high degree processed, high in fat, sugar and salt. When we're stressed, cortisol can make us crave these foods.

This may also be due to childhood memories, when we associated the smell of fresh baked goods with comfort and evoked positive emotions.

Therefore, when we are worried, we would rather go to a fast food restaurant for a meal than think about how to prepare dinner at home.

Lack of sleep

Have you noticed how difficult it is to fall asleep if you are worried about something? Our mind doesn't turn off and we lose sleep. Stress leads to low blood sugar and fatigue. If you drink coffee and energy drinks, your sleep cycles will be further disrupted.

Sleep is a powerful factor in weight gain or loss. Its deficiency affects the functioning of the hormones ghrelin and leptin, which control appetite.

Gender differences

Numerous studies show that women turn to food more often during times of stress, while men turn to alcohol and cigarettes. And women’s metabolism is significantly different from men’s:

1. IN calm state Women burn carbohydrates the fastest and fats the slowest. Nature made sure that these fat reserves were used during pregnancy and breastfeeding. They contain omega-3 fatty acid, which are important for the proper development of the child’s brain. The body monitors the concentration of nutrients, and if there is a shortage, it will try to gain excess weight.
2. allow you to burn fat faster during training, so physical exercise for us they play an important role in achieving a slim figure. In this case, fat is burned faster in the upper body than in the lower body. In men, visceral fat predominates, in women - subcutaneous fat. Conclusion: Love doing squats, lunges and step aerobics, as well as the treadmill and bike.
3. Stress negatively affects a woman's metabolism. The more experiences in life, the higher the level of cortisol in the body and the less estrogen. Low level female hormone interferes with the burning of subcutaneous fat even during training.
4. women react differently to a lack of calories. Men lose excess fat during fasting. It is harmful for women: it leads to excess weight, insomnia and missed menstruation.
5. Girls can build up muscle mass no worse than men; after 40 years, this ability decreases significantly.

Steps to get rid of extra pounds

When stress is affecting your appetite and waist size, you can prevent further weight gain by clearing out your refrigerator and cupboards. harmful products. Here are other suggestions on how to lose excess weight:

1. Meditation – Countless studies show that meditation can help people be more mindful of their food choices. Conscious eating will help you tune in to your personal feeling of fullness and not give in to the impulse to eat too much;
2. – Anaerobic exercise will help reduce cortisol levels and improve your mood. And also increase metabolism and lose excess weight without dieting;
3. Find pleasure in more than just food. Take a walk, read a book, or pet your cat;
4. Support from the people around you – time spent with friends and family has great importance for good health. You will feel more alert and think clearly;
5. Keep a diary - write down your experiences in a notebook. This will help you understand the causes of stress and ways to overcome it. Describing the goals you want to achieve regarding nutrition and exercise will make your desire to live a healthy lifestyle clearer.

Nature has given us enormous health potential. What prevents overweight people from being slim? The answer is paradoxical: diseases, in particular obesity, often mask underlying psychological disorders. Sometimes this can be a form of protest. Or hide hidden benefits.

The reasons are unique in each case. But if we understand it, we will be able to transfer a part of our psyche from the unconscious to the conscious. This will provide an opportunity to gain control over this problem and find a solution to change the situation in the right direction.

Don't forget to leave your comments, friends.

Goodbye!

Always yours, Anna Tikhomirova

In the first part of the article “Excess weight psychosomatics” I will describe cases when the body decides that being overweight is the best solution, based on a person’s internal experiences. In the second part of the article, I will show what negative internal beliefs can prevent a person from becoming slim.

Before we get better, we decide to get better. Even if not consciously, we accept it. This decision can be made at any age. If children are born prone to being overweight, this means that their unconscious is already dominated by a program that being overweight is beneficial.

What does profitable mean? This means that the body believes that completeness is a solution to a certain problem.

1) The most common problem in my practice is the need to build a defense against a dangerous world. Excess weight can be seen as some kind of obstacle on the way to a person’s vulnerable soul, as protection from unwanted communication (after all, fat people are shunned), as an opportunity to “crush” enemies with your weight. The main idea is the same - I don’t want to have contact with the world, because it is either unpleasant or simply dangerous.

In this case, to lose weight, simply going on a diet will not be enough. The body will resist this, as it will lose the required protection. This means that it is necessary to reconfigure internal beliefs about danger, to see the world differently. Then the need for excess weight disappears.

2) It happens that slender girls begin to gain weight after marriage or after the birth of a child. When I began to understand why this was happening, I saw that the girls were acquiring a subpersonality, which I called Matrona (according to Ozhegov - a plump, respectable woman).

At some point, a new housewife or young mother begins to fade her inner image of a young, carefree girl into the shadows and unconsciously “brings closer” the image of a respectable head of the family. In this case, in psychotherapy, we analyze how we can combine these two images or come up with a new one - a slender young mother and an easy, successful housewife.

3) If a woman begins to gain weight, you need to see if she has taken on the male function of making money, for example? Being big is sometimes like “being a man.” Fragility is a woman's trait, but if a woman cannot be fragile in the family, she has to become strong. And the strong ones are usually “big”. This decision is made by the body to help a woman cope with problems.

4) “They don’t notice me” - this is how a child who begins to gain weight thinks and feels.

A woman who begins to gain weight may also think that her husband does not notice her and that being overweight is the solution to the problem. And if the husband also once mentioned that he loves soft women, when there is something to hold on to, the woman will unconsciously become big and soft if she suffers due to her husband’s inattention and tries to attract him.

5) For our body, fat is a luxury tissue: it weighs little and has energy capacity. Interestingly, if we consider ourselves ugly somewhere, the body will add fat in this place as a consolation to the owner. For example, this is how lipomas arise. And this is how the phenomena that we call cellulite arise.

That is, when we look at ourselves in the mirror and make a verdict: “It’s not what it should be,” the body tries to console us with fat.

If there is a constant feeling of dissatisfaction with yourself inside, this can lead to an increase in fat on the hips, abdomen, arms, etc.

It is not without reason that one of the necessary stages of losing weight is creating an internal image of yourself as slim (I will write about this in the second part of the article).

6) And finally, one more observation. If during pregnancy the mother really wanted to eat, but denied herself everything in order to remain slim, the child may weigh decently in childhood, as if solving the problem of his mother.

In the same way, if a woman feels that she is deprived of something, she may unknowingly “gain” the lack of something with excess weight. What is lacking can be anything: from a favorite job that doesn’t exist, to a lover who doesn’t exist either.

The reasons for excess weight are varied, and when we look for these reasons, we always find them in the personal life history and picture of the world, which is unique to everyone.

Having found the causes of excess weight, we remove the prerequisites for this weight. And a person no longer needs to solve his problems in this way. However, the weight has already been gained, and you need to lose weight. But with this, other problems arise and obstacles arise from other beliefs and fears. More on this in the next part of the article.