Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Weight Loss at Weight2Lose
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (often called CBT) is a powerful resource for battling the increasing rate of obesity. If you are obese or even just overweight, you should know that it can lead to a number of health problems ranging from type 2 Diabetes to heart disease. You should also know this; a proper mindset is foundational to a healthy lifestyle.
While this form of therapy is often used for treating anxiety disorders and depressive symptoms, it is also a powerful tool for weight management. Whether your problem is binge eating, emotional eating or obsessively checking your BMI (body mass index), our team of medical experts can help you modify these unhealthy behaviors. Whether you need an intervention to reduce binge eating in response to stress or to eliminate your Diabetes medications by following a mindful eating program, behavioral modification therapy can be highly effective.
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What is CBT?
The CBT approach is all about improving mental health by examining and challenging unhealthy behavioral impulses, irrational beliefs and self doubt. Patients treated with cognitive behavioral therapy may experience an enhanced ability to respond to stress related impulses and maintain a healthier emotional state. Successfully avoiding bad decisions becomes less difficult with a properly structured CBT plan.
CBT can be administered in a variety of ways ranging from talk therapy to filling out worksheets. For many people (including our weight loss patients), a combination of personalized and evidence based protocols will work best.
The Evidence-Based Approach to Successful Weight Loss
At Weight2Lose Medical Clinics we know that maintaining a healthy body weight is usually a matter of positive and long term behavioral changes. Our high success rate indicates that implementing behavioral strategies alongside clinical nutrition and personal training is the best established treatment for maintaining healthy weight and improving the patient’s quality of life.
Behavioral Therapy For Disease Control
When thinking of cognitive behavioral therapy, people often envision laying on a couch and talking to a psychologist or psychotherapist, but not only psychologists utilize these methods. Clinical trial after clinical trial has demonstrated CBT effectiveness in primary care, and it works hand in hand with physical activity to improve mood and stabilize healthy body weight. Many dieters do not realize that this form of therapy can help with issues ranging from emotional eating to binge eating and get them on a path to significant weight loss.
What is a CBT intervention?
Adopting a new healthy habit, or breaking an old, “bad one”, can be difficult. Research suggests that any effort you make is worthwhile, even if you encounter setbacks. Adopting a healthier lifestyle not only helps you today, but also improves your health and ability to function independently later in life.
Behavioral intervention is at the backbone of making long-lasting lifestyle modifications, including weight loss programs. Successful lifestyle changes are most likely to happen when the program participant is self-motivated with a strong focus on positive thinking. Too often we’re motivated by negative thoughts such as guilt, fear, or regret. Identifying such factors can contribute to successful behavioral modification, help patients adopt new healthy habits and lead to significant improvements in lifestyle.
Weight2Lose Behavioral Strategies For Positive Change
Weight2Lose Medical Clinics’ Cognitive Behavioral Therapy programs are research supported programs that lead to lasting lifestyle changes. They are facilitated by medical doctors and qualified health educators. Our programs feature evidence based content and practical tools designed to help our medical practitioners help patients make meaningful and sustainable lifestyle changes.
Our programs utilize a combination of private counseling and comprehensive resources. We also provide the following:
- Physician guided emotional eating assessment tool
- Weekly goals and homework assignments
- Tracking tools and other worksheets
- Practical CBT exercises
- Articles and web based materials
Overall this approach can be as beneficial as psychotherapy, while feeling much less invasive. CBT is an effective method to successfully implement the good advice of physiotherapists, dietitians and medical doctors. While turning environmental factors in your favor may help a little, the long term success of a weight loss program depends on sustainable behavioral changes.
What CBT Programs Do We Offer?
Naturally, there are significant differences in the programs needed by each patient. We tailor our programs to the individual needs of every patient, from obese patients looking to heal to those chasing a finely toned beach body. Currently, we offer three fully integrated programs with more on the way:
- Emotional Eating
- Mindful Eating
- Weight Loss and Chronic Disease Prevention
Emotional Eating
This module contains lesson plans that help patients identify specific emotions that lead them to overeat or eat unhealthy foods. Sometimes people are unaware of their emotions, so it can be helpful to tie the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety to how they are physically feeling.
For example you may be experiencing neck tension or pain in response to stress. You may want to get rid of that tension by eating unhealthy foods – instead we will teach you how to focus on the root cause of where the stress is coming from. Our practical behavioral change exercises will condition your mind to avoid emotional eating.
Mindful Eating
This module contains lesson plans that focus your attention on your body sensations and responses to food. Mindfulness is a state of mind; it is being aware of everything that is happening around you and within your body. To become mindfully aware of your natural hunger and fullness signals, you need to focus your attention inwards.
This may sound simple, but most of us rarely take the time to focus inwards and listen to what our body is telling us (i.e. that it is hungry, satiated, or full). For example, have you ever had the urge to munch on snacks even though you just finished a large meal? It is this lack of physiological awareness, or mindlessness, that results in weight gain and makes it harder to lose weight. The goal of this program is to teach you practical techniques to reduce those moments in front of your television or computer when you reach for the snacks… mindlessly!
For chronic dieters who are obese or overweight, mindful eating can make all the difference between feeling satiated and feeling like they are depriving themselves.
Weight Loss & Chronic Disease Prevention
There’s no point in trying to ignore the fact that obese people are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 Diabetes and most recently, Corona Virus. Sometimes, understanding the risk factors associated with negative behaviors is all it takes to start building someone’s weight loss momentum.
This module will teach you that staying the course and keeping your values close at hand are key to losing weight and keeping it off. Figuring out the reasons why you want to lose weight is an important first step in weight loss because it’s these values that will keep you in check and on the right track. When losing weight matters for a specific health concern (e.g. Covid-19 complications) we need to dig in and make hard decisions, staying consistent and making healthy choices throughout your day. At times it is hard to make healthy choices, especially if an unhealthy alternative looks or feels so much better (e.g. deciding whether to eat a salad with grilled chicken breast, or a burger and fries). Whenever you are faced with making a hard decision, picture yourself at a crossroad. One path of the road is a healthy decision that is aligned with your weight loss values; the other path is an unhealthy decision that will lead you further away from leading a healthy lifestyle. Our program will teach you practical techniques in how to choose the healthier path and when you reach future crossroads, you will select a path that does not lead to a dead end.
The efficacy of the Weight Loss and Chronic Disease Prevention program is easy to demonstrate; the majority of patients who dedicate themselves to lifestyle change have managed to reverse type 2 Diabetes and heart disease medications.