Maintaining a healthy weight can reduce your risk of developing health problems. Michigan Medicine offers several programs to help you control your weight.
Eat small, nutritious meals often. Make sure your kitchen is free of high-calorie foods, and keep only low-calorie snacks at hand. Limit the amount of time you spend watching TV and playing video games.
Self-control
Whether you’re tackling a difficult physical task or trying to resist the temptations of a baked goods aisle, self-control is essential to success. Often, people who have high levels of self-control are more conscious about their food choices and gain less weight over time. Developing strategies to strengthen self-control can help you reach your goals.
Some people believe that self-control is an innate personality trait, but it can be learned. Researchers have found that childhood self-control predicts later life outcomes, even when controlling for intelligence and family background.
Moreover, self-control isn’t a finite resource. Studies show that avoiding triggers, planning ahead, and keeping a regular routine can help improve self-control. This is because these approaches reduce the cognitive load on daily decisions and conserve self-control resources. It is also important to remember that impulsive behaviours can be triggered by external factors such as social pressure, fatigue, or high stress levels. Self-control can be improved through behavioural techniques like CBT and establishing a healthy lifestyle that provides consistency, structure, and coping mechanisms for emotional and stressor-related triggers.
Psychological issues
Psychologists work with people who want to change their health behaviors, whether they are trying to control weight or to manage a chronic illness like diabetes and heart disease. They can also help with mental health issues, including depression and anxiety. They may work independently in private practice or as part of a team with other health care professionals.
They can teach you to recognize unhealthy beliefs about food, eating, and weight loss that don’t support your healthy goals. They can also help you find ways to reinforce your new healthy habits and feelings, so that they become a long-term lifestyle.
They can also help you deal with negative attitudes about obesity and mental health disorders, which can hold you back. For example, adults with eating disorders often feel that their conditions are stigmatized and that society thinks they are weak-willed and unmotivated. This can affect their relationships and work. They can also develop anxiety, depression and low self-esteem about their bodies, which can make it difficult to control their weight.