Weight Loss: Simple Science Until Our Emotions Intrude |

Fad diets are with us now, and will always be with us, says health and wellness expert Jillian Michaels. This despite the fact that weight loss is a simple science: eat less, exercise more. Michaels' latest book is "Yeah Baby!: The Modern Mama's Guide to Mastering Pregnancy, Having a Healthy Baby, and Bouncing Back Better Than Ever" ().
Read more at BigThink.com:
Follow Big Think here:
YouTube:
Facebook:
Twitter:
Transcript - People always want to sell something when it comes to weight loss and health, right. So they reinvent the wheel for that reason. And I’m sure you’ve seen a variety of fad diets whether it’s oh, you know, right now we’re going vegan. Wait, no, we’re going paleo. Wait, no, it’s 30-30-40 equal portions of everything. Wait a second, we can do everything but eat beans. It just, it always goes on and on and on. And the reality is that weight loss, weight maintenance is simple science. It’s eat less, move more. Food that you consume has calories in it. Calories are units of energy. Energy that does not get burned, gets stored as fat. Fat is stored energy. And then obviously use common sense with your food choices. We all know not to eat things in our food that is not food. Fake fat, fake flavor, fake sugar and so on. So in reality if it is this simple being healthy why do so many struggle with it? And that’s because people utilize food for a variety of emotional reasons. Whether it’s a coping mechanism or whether it’s affording them a deeper connection with another individual in their lives. And that’s what we have to get to the bottom of. And I remember somebody once said to me people are fat because they want to be fat. And I remember going what an a-hole you are. And the more I thought about it the more I realized it was true. The more I began to work with people who were overweight the more I began to see what it meant to them.
And it could have been a connection with a parent. It could have been a connection to grieving the loss of somebody and feeling like if you stop eating like this you’ve moved on with your life and you’re no longer connected to them. It could be a sense of control. It could be a defense mechanism against being vulnerable and getting hurt in relationships. But that is one of the reasons that losing weight or getting healthy is so difficult because it requires us to give up something that has been providing comfort and a defense against hurt for a very long time. It’s not because people are weak or stupid or lazy or genetically fat. Read Full Transcript Here: .