Gain a new body shape. Why weight any longer?

By 2050 nine out of ten people are expected to be overweight or obese. (YouGov study on behalf of the British Society of Gastroenterology 23.11.09).

Diets such as Atkins have proliferated – as have weight reduction services such as Weight Watchers and Lighter Life – and yet the numbers of people concerned with weight issues has risen exponentially.

Perhaps the problem has less to do with the physical action of eating food and more to do with the psychology of wanting to eat, that lies beneath food issues.

Does being overweight contribute to low self-esteem – or is the opposite the case?

Professor Chris Hawkey, President of the British Society of Gastroenterology made a key speech on Monday 23^rd November that the “problem facing our society is not the content of our diet but the quantity we are consuming and the consequential impact on obesity. We need to do away with quirky diets and get people to realise what will keep them healthy in the long run.”

He believes that the obsession with extreme diets has led to mass undermining of well balanced nutrition. This will lead to dramatically shortened life expectancy caused by obesity and an upsurge in obesity-caused liver disease.

Extreme diets and slimming aids can lead to short term weight loss but rarely work in the long term. Each year globally £30 billion is spent on the diet and slimming industry.

The Study by YouGov found that 62% of those questioned think that obesity will continue to grow for the next ten years. It found that 49% of Britons classify themselves as overweight.

But what if the problem is about self-perception rather than actual weight?

We at Powerchange are developing a psychologically-based programme for people who want to lose weight (or to put it more accurately) regain control over their weight but don’t know how to motivate themselves. It will not be a diet or nutrition-based plan.

Possible psychological causes for both obesity and other weight-related conditions such Bulimia and Anorexia can include: 

• Low self-esteem
• Victim syndrome
• Family learned behaviour
• Unhappiness
• Feeling trapped in other areas of life
• Low motivation and lack of life goals

I am about to empirically test whether people can recapture control over their bodies by first re-wiring certain limiting beliefs. The initial one-day pilot programme will ask the participants to work through a series of psychological tools to enable them to restore self-esteem and control over their thinking before exploring new methods of motivating willpower. The aim will not be to simply lose weight but to gain a new body shape through taking back responsibility for the body and what goes into it.

If you are interested in this new pilot study please respond by emailing roy@powerchange.com or by phoning 01903  744399.  What have you got to lose?