Food is the biggest contributor to obesity. Food serves as the #1 self medication. Some folks will NEVER go back to a healthy body composition because they eat food to deal with their inner fears, anxieties, frustrations, depression, hostility and stress. The added body fat acts as a way to cover inner doubts and inadequacies. The fat protects the inner self by hiding it. When a person tries to lose fat and starts looking good, their insecurities increase, they feel vulnerable and exposed. People might praise their efforts and this scares the person because now they have to be accountable to this new lifestyle. They no longer have the comfort of food to protect them, they have no place to hide from their insecurities and inadequacies. Being fat allows them to be different and to be separate from the “norm.” Food becomes their unconditional friend. Food doesn’t talk back, ridicule, abuse, put demands on us, force us to do things we don’t want to, pressure us, or cares what we look like. Losing fat means losing the friend in food. We live in a chaotic world and for most people there has to be a way to escape from the pressures that a monetary reward system produces, and the easiest and most satisfying way is through stimulating the brain and producing a fat covering to protect their ego with food. To be successful at losing body fat and keeping it off depends on how well balanced the ego is in adjusting to a new lifestyle of health and fitness.
Daryl Conant, M.Ed.