The Obstacle to Weight Loss That No One Talks About

On the day of his 21st birthday, the son of a famous poker player asked his father what he should watch out for when he hits the casino for the first time. His father, who had made a living from games of chance, told him one thing:

“Make sure you lose.”

“Winning” with a Diet Mindset Is Losing in the Long-Run

When you read studies about why dieting doesn’t work, do you notice a strange fact from each of those studies? It varies, but according to the research, roughly 95% of people who lose weight from a diet gain it back and then some within 5 years. Notice that the failure rate for dieting isn’t about all the people who tried and didn’t succeed—the worst failure rate is from those who successfully lost weight.

How can that be? How can people predictably lose weight and gain it back at such a high rate?

Most likely because they were still in a dieting mindset. See, when we deprive ourselves of something we want or need, our mind never lets it go. That “thing” haunts us, stays on our mind, and continues to nag us. Alcoholics will attest to it: we rarely “forget” about anything we develop a dependence on.

Dieting fails because it relies on us “willing” ourselves to refrain from food our body is used to getting—and we tie our success to a specific number. As a result, as soon as we hit our goal weight, we think our diet is “done.” That’s when our long-term weight loss is at its most likely to fail.

The most important thing we can do is remember that dieting is never “done,” and we need to treat our food choices as a permanent lifestyle change. As soon as we buy into the lie that we can crash diet, lose weight, and go back to our old ways of eating, we’ve already lost—and we’ll most likely gain our weight back plus some extra.

Surgery & Lifestyle Change

Ultimately, our bodies resist weight loss with every fiber. By combining medical procedures with genuine lifestyle changes, we can create the long-term weight loss we’re all dreaming of.

Wall Street Cosmetic Surgery wants to help. Let our New York City cosmetic surgeons figure out how we can guide you toward a new normal.