08 - Psychological Energy: How to Avoid Giving Up Halfway?
Hello, welcome back to "Scientific Weight Loss Course". I'm Jessica.
to exercise scientifically. In this lesson, we'll talk about the third
fundamental aspect of lifestyle adjustment - psychological factor
management.
This way, the three fundamental aspects of lifestyle management - diet,
exercise, and psychology - are completely delivered to you, and you can
comprehensively adjust your lifestyle.
What's the Most Difficult Part of Weight Loss?
Before we start, I want to ask you a question: What's the most
difficult part of the weight loss process?
Is it lacking methods and not knowing what to do? Definitely not. All
academic consensus on weight loss has been delivered to you in our
dozen lessons. Is it because you need to eat less and can't tolerate
hunger? Not really. As mentioned before, eating more fiber-rich fruits
and vegetables makes you less likely to feel hungry. Is it because
preparing weight loss meals daily is too troublesome? Not really
either. There are foolproof recipes everywhere online - following them
isn't troublesome at all.
What's the most difficult part of weight loss? In my view, it's
psychological factor management. It's invisible and intangible,
hardest to grasp, and most easily overlooked. But if you're not
careful, it can make all your weight loss efforts fall short.
Let me talk about my friend Xiaoman again -
When summer came, Xiaoman was determined to lose weight. She made
scientific diet and exercise plans, not only full of confidence but
also executing them meticulously. After one month, she lost 3kg. But
recently, Xiaoman took on an important project. To meet deadlines, she
often worked late and overtime, sleeping only 4-5 hours daily. However,
due to lack of cooperation from other departments, the project was
still behind schedule.
Xiaoman was very anxious and under great pressure. Finally, on Friday
night, she couldn't hold on anymore and went on a crazy eating binge.
The next day when she stepped on the scale, her weight had increased by
2 kilograms. Xiaoman broke down and cried to me, saying "I gain weight
even drinking water" and "I can never succeed at weight loss."
Did you notice? Psychological factors are our energy field. When
psychological factors are well managed, our hearts are very full and
energetic - "controlling mouth and moving legs" is no big deal; if
psychological factors aren't managed well, we immediately lose the
energy to persist.
Xiaoman failed to handle two psychological factors: first, the project
couldn't move forward, causing great pressure; second, frequent late
nights disrupted her sleep completely. Finally, she couldn't hold on
anymore, and after one binge eating session, she was "back to square
one overnight."
That's right, pressure and sleep are the two main battlefields of
psychological factors on the weight loss journey. Only by handling
these two influencing factors well can we clear obstacles for weight
loss.
How to Scientifically Manage Stress?
Let's discuss how to manage stress first. You might be curious why
stress affects weight loss.
It turns out there's a hormone in the human body called "cortisol" -
you've probably heard this name. Research has found that when
responding to stress, cortisol levels in the human body gradually
increase.
First, it affects the body's fat breakdown - if fat is difficult to
break down, weight loss becomes impossible, right? Second, cortisol
affects the body's water balance, causing edema. But ordinary people
don't know it's edema - when they step on the scale, their weight has
increased again, their face seems to have gotten bigger, and they
immediately feel their efforts are useless and want to give up.
Besides cortisol, research has also found that stress blocks leptin
from releasing signals to the brain. "Leptin," as the name suggests, is
a hormone that increases metabolism and makes you lose weight. Blocking
leptin naturally reduces metabolism and affects weight loss.
Of course, physical changes are secondary - the most frightening
thing about stress is that it changes our cognitive patterns.
Faced with numbers on the scale that don't budge or even bounce back,
we often fall into negative suggestions like "I have no hope of losing
weight" or "I'm someone who gains weight even drinking water." This
self-suggestion, besides weakening our confidence, also causes us to
worry about weight and the consequences of not being able to lose
weight, step by step dragging us into a black hole of negative
emotions.
The result is either giving up too early because weight loss seems
hopeless, or giving up effort because we feel our efforts are useless,
or giving up struggling and engaging in revenge binge eating... In
short, all lead to one result: giving up.
But modern life moves so fast that stress is inevitable - what to do?
How to break this cycle? Here are three suggestions -
First, and most importantly - change your mindset.
As mentioned, the most frightening thing about stress is that it shifts
people's attention from the present to an uncertain future, worrying
about not being able to succeed at weight loss, worrying about not
being able to maintain weight loss results. As a result, mental energy
is wasted in useless anxiety.
How to do this? My experience is to set short-term small goals for
yourself. Don't make them too difficult, and don't make the time cycle
too long - reward yourself when you complete them. For example, if you
don't drink milk tea for three days, reward yourself with a piece of
dark chocolate; if you exercise for 30 minutes today, buy yourself a
piece of exercise equipment... gradually increase the difficulty. When
working hard to complete small goals, your focus returns to the
present, and you become less anxious.
The second suggestion is self-monitoring.
Record your weight daily, photograph your meals, and note your
thoughts. You might think, can weighing yourself daily and taking
photos make your weight lighter? It really works this way. Because
weighing yourself is excellent psychological suggestion - every time
you step on the scale, it subconsciously triggers thoughts about weight
and unconsciously corrects your behavior.
What about photographing meals and noting thoughts? This mainly has two
benefits:
First, it helps you identify situations that might lead to poor dietary
choices, like eating snacks when bored or overeating when sad.
Understanding these patterns allows you to specifically distract from
and alleviate such situations in the future.
The second benefit is helping you discover food hazards. For example,
if you couldn't resist eating an extra ice cream in the afternoon,
that's not good in itself. But when you go home at night and flip
through these photos, seeing that you ate something unhealthy makes you
very careful next time.
The third suggestion is active relaxation and release.
Active relaxation and release is like using Tai Chi push hands against
stress - using minimal force to deflect maximum force. You can try
yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and other breathing-guided relaxation
exercises, or practice Tai Chi with breathing coordination for 10-15
minutes daily - this not only helps relieve stress but also directly
aids weight loss.
Of course, learning to release is also necessary. You can gossip and
complain with family and friends, or join weight loss and exercise
communities to chat when you're feeling down. Whether face-to-face
communication or online interaction, both help relieve stress.
How to Sleep Your Way to Weight Loss?
After discussing stress, let's talk about another battlefield of
psychological factor management - sleep.
A hundred years ago, our ancestors averaged 9 hours of sleep daily;
now, we only sleep 6.8 hours daily. This is just an average - over 30%
of adults sleep less than 6 hours nightly.
More than twenty epidemiological studies from around the world show
that sleep deprivation is related to increased BMI. Compared to
people who sleep 7-8 hours nightly, those who sleep 5 hours or less
have higher obesity rates - 3.7 times higher for men and 2.3 times
higher for women.
How can you get good sleep and even "lose weight while lying down"?
Actually, getting good sleep isn't difficult - you just need to do
three things.
First, sleep should be between 6-8 hours.
High-quality sleep itself consumes energy. A 6-8 hour sleep session can
consume 400-500 calories, equivalent to running 10 kilometers.
Note that it's sleeping 6-8 hours. If you sleep less than 6 hours, your
body secretes appetite-stimulating hormones, making you eat constantly
- staying up late leads to late-night snacking. But sleeping more than
8 hours doesn't work either - not only does sleep energy consumption
not increase further, but it also reduces daytime energy consumption.
So it's best to control it between 6-8 hours - not more, not less.
Second, you need deep sleep.
During deep sleep, two magical things happen: first, leptin secretion
increases - as mentioned, leptin is a good friend for weight loss that
increases metabolism; second, hunger decreases, so people naturally eat
less. See, both benefit weight loss.
How to ensure deep sleep? Don't be under so much pressure at work
during the day; try to sweat a bit during the day instead of just
sitting motionless. In short, tire the body a bit, relax the brain a
bit. Also note: absolutely don't eat anything 4 hours before sleep -
not even fruit.
Third, sleep should be regular.
That means sleep time should be relatively fixed - you can't sleep at
10 PM today, 2 AM tomorrow, and stay up all night then sleep during the
day the day after. Otherwise, the body's nighttime hormone secretion
becomes disrupted, including those that direct metabolism, break down
fat, and synthesize protein - everything gets messed up. The body
senses stress and potential danger and actively stores more energy for
emergencies.
So staying up late isn't scary - if you must stay up late, try to make
it regular. For example, if you sleep at midnight tonight and wake up
at 8 AM, try to maintain this fixed schedule tomorrow too, weekends
included.
Key Points
1. When losing weight, you must manage stress and sleep well - these
are the energy fields that help us persist.
2. Yoga, meditation, and mindfulness can all effectively relieve
stress.
3. Recommend doing two things daily: weigh yourself once; photograph
meals anytime and note your thoughts.
4. Tire the body a bit, relax the brain a bit, don't eat anything 4
hours before sleep - this helps you sleep better.
5. Staying up late isn't scary - irregular sleep is. If you must stay
up late, try to make it regular.
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