Overweight and obesity are among the major health problems of the modern world. More than half of the people in Germany are affected and the numbers are increasing. We will tell you how cognitive behavioral therapy can help against obesity.
A quarter of adults in Germany suffer from obesity. This means that more than nine million people in Germany have a BMI over 30 and are at risk of health consequences such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure or fatty liver. Despite health education and low prices for fresh fruit and vegetables, many attempts to lose weight fail. Why is that? And can cognitive behavioral therapy help?
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What is cognitive behavioral therapy?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a non-drug method of treating mental and emotional illnesses. CBT is used, among other things, for depression, anxiety disorders, addictions and eating disorders. Obesity is not yet recognized as a disease in the German health system. Nevertheless, it causes considerable limitations and an enormous amount of suffering in everyday life. Many institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Parliament have therefore been calling for obesity to be officially classified as a chronic disease for years.
This is how cognitive behavioral therapy helps against obesity
Cognitive behavioral therapy is based on the assumption that our thought patterns and everyday behavior are learned over the course of our lives. This occurs in the form of feedback loops, e.g. food can serve as a reward or encouragement at times when we are feeling down. This imprints the learned behavior pattern of compensating for bad feelings with food. In cognitive-behavioural therapy, a therapist helps analyze the person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in order to replace them with healthier patterns over the course of therapy.
Recognize automatic eating patterns
Learned eating patterns usually run completely automatically in stressful everyday work, as this saves more energy for our brain. If we thought for a few minutes before every snack and every big meal and weighed the advantages and disadvantages of the respective food, this would be very time-consuming on the one hand and extremely energy-consuming on the other. Therefore, the first step in losing weight is to look at your automatic eating patterns and become more conscious about what and how you eat going forward. You can start with a food diary on your own.
Acquire new behaviors
The second step is to practice new behaviors with the aim of integrating them into everyday life as automatic, healthier routines in the long term. You should set aside one or more relaxing days for planning. Replace your unhealthy meals with healthier alternatives bit by bit – you don’t have to suddenly change everything from one week to the next. Also make so-called “if-then plans” . These help make healthier behaviors a routine, such as, “Next time I get cravings between meals, I’ll have black coffee or ginger tea instead of a snack, or do 10 squats to take my mind off things” .
Get professional help
If you cannot manage to lose the excess weight on your own, do not hesitate to seek medical and therapeutic help. Consult your family doctor, a nutritionist or a nutritionist. With their help, you will learn techniques that will make it easier for you to switch to a healthy, balanced diet .
