How come we gain weight - instead of losing it - when we diet & overeat?
Most of us go on weight loss diets with the goal to slim down. We also increase our exercise workouts to burn more fat and calories. It all seems easy and logical: you eat less calories and burn more calories.
In the beginning diets seem to work! We are motivated, committed to lose some pounds, and disciplined enough to pick veggies over hamburger with fries. We also manage to go to the gym for our daily exercise. Maybe our efforts pay off and we see the number on the scale dropping.
Our weight loss journey seems to go well until we find ourselves eating 'a little more'. This can happen during the weekend, after a full week of dieting, or at a birthday party, Xmas dinner, or just simply when we cannot resist buying the Ben & Jerry's ice cream and a big bar of chocolate when we are in the supermarket.
But then... All of a sudden we find ourselves indulging in large quantities of food that we did not plan. We do not even understand how we went from doing so well on our diet to overeating. Maybe we are tired or just had a stressful day and we end up reaching out for unhealthy food.
Once we let ourselves go, we often end up eating much more than we would usually do. Especially when we feel like we have blown our diet anyway! There is a natural tendency to think that once we 'fall off the wagon', we may as well take advantage and eat everything we want. We then promise ourselves to re-start our diet again tomorrow.
The issue is not indulging once, but regular overeating leads to weight gain. One day of cheating easily leads to a full weekend of eating too much unhealthy food. As we keep on promising ourselves that we get back on our diet tomorrow, we are even more motivated to keep eating 'forbidden' foods.
As a result, we end up eating much more over a certain period of time than if we had not been on a diet!
This is why we gain weight when we go from diet to diet but end up overeating!
For this reason, the key to sustainable weight loss is to Stop Dieting & Stop Overeating.
Our 50-day Set Yourself Free Program shows you step-by-step how to achieve balance to get your freedom back from dieting & overeating. And you will still enjoy your favourite foods, integrated in your balanced lifestyle!
If you are ready to Set Yourself Free, you can find out more about the program here.
We wish you all the best!
Love,
Marco & Sabine