Trick yourself into weight loss? How NOT to lose weight

By Kelly Clark / Work With Your Body

Trying to trick yourself makes losing weight complicated
Short-term weight-loss methods trigger yo yo dieting
I lost weight when I simplified my approach

Here’s a short video about trying to lose weight by tricking yourself:

Yes, it’s funny. But it’s also a parody. In other words, there’s something underneath the humor that’s true. There’s something we can learn.

The 10 Sort-of-Helpful Tips for Healthy Eating video highlights just how silly it is to try to trick yourself to lose weight.

Trying to trick yourself makes weight loss hard

Your relationship with food because complicated when you try to trick yourself. And when something is complicated, it preoccupies you from everything else. Sadly so much weight-loss advice is about trying to trick yourself. Check out this collage of rules, tips and tricks. These captions were all cut from magazines I bought on one trip to my local pharmacy; a store that dedicates itself to health.

One headline I included even suggests you can lose weight if you “play mind games“!

Imagine adding up all the how to lose weight messages we get over a year, or over a lifetime. Then throw in all the advice we get from the internet, books, movies, friends, family and other sources. We’re inundated with bad ideas about how to lose weight. And many suggestions involve trying to trick yourself.

Trying to trick yourself triggers a self-defeating cycle

Short-term weight-loss methods make you think about food more than you normally would.

First you have to plan to trick yourself
Then you get hunger pains because your plan didn’t work
Eventually you break your plans by eating
Feeling guilty ensues …
All the while your attention has been diverted away from all the things you care about

Trying to trick yourself is incredibly preoccupying. What’s the point anyways? As the comedy clip in this post captures, trying to trick yourself doesn’t work.

Think about the drink-a-glass-of-water-before-you-eat trick. Sure, having a glass of water before a meal might slow you down during breakfast, lunch or dinner. But then you won’t eat enough. Soon you’ll be hungry and you’ll start thinking about food. At some point you’ll eat something. But it probably won’t be as good for you as just eating a proper meal in the first place. For instance, having a low-fat processed snack after eating part of a meal, isn’t as healthy as eating a balanced meal made of fresh foods. And worse, after your snack you’ll feel disappointed in yourself. The result? Rather than simply eating a meal, you’ll find yourself in a situation that makes reaching your goals more complicated.

Why has all this happened? Because you tried to trick yourself.

Free your mind and be kind to your body. Learn from my mistakes!

For 10 years I tried the trick yourself approach

What did I learn? Short-term weight-loss methods, like trying to trick yourself, lead to yo yo dieting. Then it’s harder to lose weight and easier to gain it.

When I finally understood that trying to trick yourself makes losing weight complicated, I ditched all the deceptive diet techniques. Then I redirected my energy and went back to the basics. To my surprise, I lost weight when I focused on being healthy instead of thin.

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How have you tried to trick yourself to lose weight? Do you try to trick yourself in other parts of your life? Has it worked? My partner and I keep the clock in our car a few minutes fast. But instead of tricking myself, I just end up doing the math as I drive to figure out the real time.

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