Guilt and weight gain cycle

Shaming yourself or others to go on a diet, stop snacking or cut back on food causes more harm than good. Often called “diet shaming”, find ways to stop doing this.

It’s good to think about what we eat, how much and when, and if you are overweight, you will probably do this already, which is good. But it can become unhelpful if it causes guilt and makes you or others just feel bad.  

Don’t let unhelpful comments from others derail your weight loss attempts. You don’t have to explain yourself to anyone if you eat food you like or eat a snack. Ignore these comments; it’s your weight loss journey and you own it.

The benefits of a health improvement plan 

A health improvement plan involves many ups and downs along the way. These are known as lapses and relapses and are often a normal part of our relationship with food.

These relapses happen, often a lot over a lifetime, as we may be dealing with concerns  around family, work, relationships -- and managing our health..

So don’t let negative words derail your efforts. It’s about doing your best over a long period of time, not just in that moment.

You should avoid diet shaming yourself, too. Don’t be a victim of negative self-talk, so avoid telling yourself that you’re never going stick to a healthy diet, or that you “look fat”, or “you’re naughty” for eating something you shouldn’t.

Remember, you wouldn’t say those things to other people and yet you don't think twice about talking to yourself this way.

Learn to forgive yourself if you make a mistake, and treat yourself as you would a close friend or loved one.

Talking back to negative thoughts 

If you swap unhelpful thoughts for positive ones, you’ve a better chance of getting the results you want, especially if you do this for a while and keep practicing.

Negative talk about your weight and how you look make it more difficult to keep a constant positive attitude.

So compliment yourself and compliment others. Use phrases like, “I did great today”. I said “No, I’m ok thanks”. The old me would have said “Yes go on then”.

Talking about your weight issues helps

If years of put downs and unhelpful thoughts has made you stress and worry about weight loss, talking about your worries could be a great first step on your weight loss journey. Take a look on our programmes page and see if there is a programme that suits your need.

Online tools to help with weight loss

Check out some of the self-assessment tools in our Health Tools section or take action and make use of some of our free downloadable weight loss resources.