Weight Loss: Do Some People Fear Losing Weight?

The Weight loss industry is one of the biggest in the world and takes in billions every year. This affects both men and women and while sometimes it can be for health reasons, at other times it is for aesthetic reasons.

People can lose weight through: eating differently, exercising, taking supplements, medical procedures and by having hypnotherapy for example. And new ways and variations are constantly made available; as way to stimulate interest and to entice people to buy what is being offered.

The Short Term

In the short term this could relate to a woman who has just had a baby and therefore wants to lose the weight that she has recently gained. Or it could be during a time when a man or women recently suffered a loss and used food as a way to comfort themselves and gained unwanted weight in the process.

And in the above cases, there will be people who can lose it fairly quickly and other people who cannot. It could also be that one will lose it quickly and then gain it just as fast.

The Long Term

There will also be people who have wanted to lose weight since they were young or for many years and no matter what these people do, they can’t seem to lose it.

Then there will be people who can lose it fairly easily with the right assistance, no matter how long they have carried the weight for. And just like in the example above; they will be people who lose it and then regain it, in a very short space of time.

A Preset

Regardless of where one may have started from or what their reasons are, it’s as if someone people have an internal preset that won’t be changed. This is demonstrated when weight is lost and then simply returns to its previous level.

And this can create not only physical challenges, but also mental and emotional challenges. To lose weight and then regain it or to find it difficult to lose weight in the first place is going to test ones resolve.

Conflict

This could seem as though one is working against their body and what their body wants is completely different to what they want. Losing weight can be done and yet it is a real struggle to do it and just as much of a struggle to maintain the weight loss.

And this brings the focus to the conscious and unconscious mind. The conscious mind can want one thing and the unconscious mind can want something else. When these are working together, just about anything can happen and when they don’t; it will inevitably lead to struggle, strain and frustration.

Is It Safe?

What the unconscious rejects will be what is interpreted as being unsafe and what it accepts will be what is interpreted as being safe. The ego mind associates what is safe with what is familiar.

So as long as something is familiar, it will be interpreted as being safe. And it won’t matter if this is causing one to suffer or to struggle. These associations are often formed when one is very young or during certain stressful moments as an adult.

The Connection

At this moment in time the weight may be unwanted and yet it could be due to the associations of the past that is keeping it there. Weight is similar to muscle, in that it can protect the body from real or perceived external stressors.

If one feels vulnerable in some way, to gain weight will enable one to feel safe. So weight is then used as an alternative to ego boundaries.

Through having boundaries, one knows where they begin and end and where other people begin and end. It is then possible to feel safe to be who one is and to know that one has their own personal space.

Possible Causes

So perhaps when one was a child it wasn’t safe for them to just be. There early environments could have been dangerous, hostile, abusive and unsafe. And as one didn’t have the chance to develop healthy boundaries, the only possible option was to armour themselves through gaining weight.

So even though one may want to lose weight, the body keeps regaining it due to these early associations that were formed. If they were to lose it, it would retrigger these past memories of being completely vulnerable, having no control and being wide open in life.

Awareness

There is the view that once one feels comfortable in who they are, their weight will return to a health level. This inner conflict can lead to one becoming trapped in an endless cycle of diets, frustration and pain. What one eats is clearly important and as is how one feels about food and their body.

On the surface one may imagine how good their life would be or how good it would feel to lose weight. But at a deeper level, it could trigger a lot of fear and this fear is then causing one to sabotage that they consciously seek.

This is something that can be dealt with through the assistance of a therapist, coach or healer. They can help one to go where they might not have gone by themselves.