“Change is the only constant in life” is a famous quote with a deep meaning by Greek philosopher Heraclitus. It indicates everything has an inherent tendency to change and nothing remains still. But a lot of us are intimidated and apprehensive about changing, whether it’s a change in the environment, change in people’s behavior, or within ourselves. We all know and probably suffer from a fear of gaining weight, but there’s also a large population out there that’s scared of losing weight! Change requires new adjustments and when it comes to weight loss, some people fear they may have to make drastic changes in their lives, come out of their comfort zones, and lose their current personality as well. Also, there’s the anxiety that people would treat them differently and wouldn’t accept the big physical change in them. There are a few more reasons behind this fear of losing weight and it’s really difficult to start your weight loss journey with these fears in the mind. Let’s address them one by one.
1. Fear That Diet Plans Would Ask you To Starve or Make you Survive on Salads:
It’s a myth that diets would ask you to do these things first – 1) Stay away from food. 2) Cut back on your staple diet. 3) Ask you to survive on bland food and salads instead. This can lead to a fear of feeling deprived or restricted. People may worry about not being able to eat their normal food, on not getting enough energy to sail through their hectic work schedule, or feeling unsatisfied with their meals. They feel once on a diet, they would have nothing to look forward to in terms of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But this is a misconception – the right kind of diet plan wouldn’t ask you to give up food, you can lose weight by eating normal “ghar ka khana.” The diet plans on Rati Beauty help you shed weight without asking you to do any of the above-mentioned conditions. We teach you how dieting can be made a part of your lifestyle, without abstaining from food. In fact, you need food as a fuel to run the weight loss process, starving and remaining fatigued will not do you any good.
2. It Seems To Be an Overwhelming and Daunting Task:
Planning out the diet, determining how much to eat, what to eat, what not to eat, whether to hit the gym or do home workouts – the thought of doing so much in order to even kickstart your weight loss journey can be overwhelming and a daunting task at hand, particularly if you have a tight work schedule, family and kids to look after. With so much to look into, the fear whether you can handle so much pressure, and not having a strong support system can lead to fear and uncertainty about the process. It takes time, effort, and energy from an individual’s side, and the self doubt whether you are capable enough to contribute can stop you from taking the first step.
3. Fear of Failure:
What if you put in the effort and do not get any results? If you have seen a lot of others unsuccessfully trying to losing weight, and if you yourself have tried different fad diets that didn’t fetch results, it’s quite natural to be scared that you would meet the same destiny once again.
4. Fear of Re-Gaining More Weight Once the Diet is Over:
You might have seen people who had followed the wrong kind of diets, did yo-yo dieting, and alarmingly, gained more weight than before! Seeing them, you feel it’s better off where you are right now, at your current weight.
5. Afraid of Judgment:
The biggest fear can be losing friends because you are going to change physically and the fear whether they would accept you in your new body. Also, self judging whether you would like the new body and personality after weight loss. They also wonder if they are not good enough right now and they need to lose weight to become a better person. Some people also feel that their friends wouldn’t accept them once they shed the extra weight. Do not fret, because true friends will love and respect you regardless of your size, and do you really want to be around friends who would not accept a physical change that’s good for your overall health as well.
6. Food as a Coping Mechanism:
We tend to turn to comfort food (most it of sugary and high-fat variety) when anxious and stressed-out, and if you have to lose weight, you would have to eat mindfully, and give up on junk food, and all these foods that make you feel better under stressful situations. Then, whom would you turn to calm jittery nerves? Researchers have found out that a high-calorie diet consumed in a stressful situation leads to more weight gain when compared to the same diet consumed in a stress-free condition. It’s because the brain produces a molecule called “NPY” in the amygdala in response to stress, which stimulates eating. This study underlines the importance of detaching the food-emotion connection and to watch what we eat under stress. Emotional eating is not the way to fight stress. We recommend finding other means to de-stress – listen to music, going for a walk or run, listening to music, read books – but do not resort to emotional eating. Also read: “Emotional Eating – 14 Tips to Control Stress Eating to Lose Weight.”
6. Other Fears:
People also have this real fear of not fitting into clothes and outfits that they always wanted to wear, like smaller-sized clothes, summer dresses, even if they lose weight. They also think their skin might sag, they may develop loose skin, and encounter severe hair fall. They feel having belly fat is better than lumps of loose skin. But the greatest fear of all is becoming a whole different person and whether they would like to be that kind of a person.
Overall, losing weight would only help you get better, fitter, improve your health, and make you feel better – you just have to pick the right kind of a diet. For such kind of diet plans, subscribe to the Rati Beauty app and we will help you quash all these fears.
Emotional Eating – 14 Tips to Control Stress Eating to Lose Weight
How to Stop Yo Yo Dieting and Keep the Weight Off Forever
