A Breakthrough Approach to Weight – with Marc David

It’s time to spice up the conversation of weight and its loss with some honest and straight shooting talk. It’s also time to introduce some fresh ideas about what’s really going on with weight. Tune in as Marc David, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, shares some great insights on this compelling topic. You’ll hear plenty of facts and distinctions from nutritional science, and eating psychology, that factor into the weight loss-weight gain equation. A great video from IPEtv. Not to be missed!

Here is a transcript of this week’s video:

Hi, I’m Marc David, Founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

Today’s topic: A Breakthrough Approach to Weight

First and foremost: Forget what you know about weight loss because it hasn’t worked. We need a massive shift in our understanding and our strategies.

Here’s the challenge: the fields of science and psychology have hit a dead end when it comes to real live sustainable weight loss.How do we know this? Because for several decades now, the research clearly shows about 99% of people who lose weight on a weight loss diet gain it back again within a year.

This is a shocker of a statistic that should be headline news.

The old and outdated strategy of eat less, exercise more is woefully inadequate in taking us where we need to go. By the way, if you’re one of those people who’s convinced that it’s all about calories in, calories out, eat less exercise more – than I’d bet large sums of money that you’re not a practitioner and you have no clinical experience in this realm. And if you are any kind of weight loss professional, your success rate in weight loss is rather low. Furthermore, you’re behind the times, and you actually have not gone into the research, nor have you examined the clinical evidence from professionals across all the disciplines that work on weight challenges.

Here’s the solution: an open mind

We’re going to look at weight loss through the lens of dynamic eating psychology and mind body nutrition. These are two important and complementary fields that I’ve originated here the Institute. They address the missing ingredients in nutrition, and the missing ingredients in psychology that I believe we need to know to advance our understanding and our success when it comes to weight

Consider these key highlights:

Every challenge we face with food or body is an opportunity for growth and transformation.

In other words, our weight challenges are here to teach us. It’s like a guru. It has something to say. It’s asking us to listen. If we don’t listen, we don’t learn, and we likely stay stuck. Likewise, when we listen to the wisdom of our extra weight, we have the greatest probability to let go of it in a natural, enduring, and sustainable way.

Extra weight then, is not the enemy, nor should we fight.

It’s the wisdom of life speaking through the body. Because each of us is on a beautiful, unique epic journey through life, then it stands to reason that there are as many reasons why we carry extra weight as there are people trying to lose weight.

So if extra weight is a teacher, what’s the lesson? Well, according to dynamic eating psychology and mind body nutrition, the lessons can be any of the following, and more:

1. Eating a poor quality diet
2. Lack of high-quality fat in the diet
3. Lack of high-quality protein in the diet
4. Excess sugar and high fructose corn syrup
5. An overall imbalanced macronutrient profile
6. Chronic dieting and food restriction
7. Metabolic issues related to thyroid
8. Metabolic issues related to adrenals
9. Heavy metal toxicity
10. Inflammation – from numerous causes
11. Insulin resistance
12. Excess cortisol
13. Poor digestion
14. Imbalanced gut microbiome
15. Nutrient deficiencies while in utero
16. Skewed and imbalanced meal timing
17. Lack of sleep
18. Use of prescription drugs
19. Lack of pleasure
20. Lack of awareness while eating
21. Eating too fast

The lessons we need to learn from weight can also be about stress.

This includes:

• Relationship stress
• Work stress
• Money stress
• Family concerns
• Job worries
• Negative thinking
• And more

The lessons we need to learn from weight can also be about emotional factors, such as:

• Locked in anger
• Locked in grief
• Intense judgment of self or others
• Lack of forgiveness
• Locked in guilt
• Depression
• Apathy
• Betrayal
• Abandonment
• Locked in disappointment
• Protection – against men, or against women
• Sexual safety – which is related to the next really big one
• A past history of sexual abuse

This list actually goes on and on, and there are even more factors that quite frankly, would surprise you.

Are there people who simply need some nutritional course corrections? Yes.

Are there people who eat all the right foods and do all the right exercise and still can’t lose weight? Yes.

Are there people whose excess weight is due to some combination of any of these factors that I just mentioned? Yes.

Are there people who think they need to lose some amount of weight and actually don’t have any weight to lose? Absolutely yes.

Here’s the point:

The topic of weight and its loss is beautifully complex. We need to approach it with a lot of humility. We need to update science and psychology and get a whole lot better at expanding our thinking – and if you’re a professional in this realm – this means expanding your scope of practice.

So, when it comes to weight it’s time to open our minds, open our hearts, stop the attack, stop the judgment, and listen with an honest curiosity. It’s time to get more skillful.

We’re creatures of body, mind, heart and soul, which means that we may have to address our weight challenges in any or all of these realms.

That’s the kind of work we do here at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

I hope this was helpful.

In the comments below, please let us know your thoughts. We love hearing from you and we read and respond to every comment!