Could Overeaters Anonymous Help You Lose Weight?
posted on: October 02, 2020. posted in: Weight loss, Nutrition
"I have a question, I have never dieted, the closest thing I found potentially helpful was the OA overeaters anonymous program, I just haven't stuck with it. I like it because it's not a diet and it's more of a life program, is your training twelve step friendly? As I would like to continue maintaining through OA once I have the necessary tools. I completely understand why diet plans are bullsh*t."
Hello and welcome to Rebelfit :)
The short answer?
Yes, Overeaters Anonymous is compatible with Rebel Weigh™.
And the long answer...
I actually really like Overeaters Anonymous and think the approach they take is brilliant. They are streaks ahead of any diet or slimming club out there, for one very simple reason...
They know and understand that overeating and weight gain is NOTHING TO DO WITH FOOD.
Now I'm a personal trainer, and I've spent my career learning about food. Learning about nutrition, meal plans, calories, macros and 100s of different ways to approach eating. I've also tested all of those approaches out with 100s of clients, and that experience has taught me something that Overeaters Anonymous knows only too well.
It's the untold secret of weight management. It's the key piece of information that anyone who wants to retake control of their weight needs to understand.
Don't ask...
"What am I eating?"
Ask...
"What's eating me?"
You see, about 4 or 5 years into my personal training career I realised that all of my clients were starting to regain their weight. I had seen amazing results in those 4 to 5 years, and was hailed as a "weight loss guru" amongst my clients.
But as they started to all regain the weight I realised something.
No amount of prescribing different approaches to food was helping. I could change their calories, change their meal times, change the types of food they were eating. But nothing would stop the rebound weight gain.
I knew they weren't lazy, or greedy, or not trying their hardest. Trust me, they were trying their hardest! But still the weight was going back on.
It was at this point that I realised...
Their weight gain was nothing to do with food, and everything to do with pain in their lives, driving them to overeat food.
That experience taught me that where there is obesity, there is pain. Where there is overeating, there is pain. Where there is repeated cycles of trying to lose weight, losing it for a while, the regaining it all back again...
There. Is. Pain.
Pain was driving my clients to overeat food, because food was like a drug. An anaesthetic. Something they could take quickly and easily, to numb that pain.
I didn't know it at the time, but this actually had a name....
The Self-Medication Hypothesis.
When I realised this and learned about this, my job was no longer to prescribe meal plans or diets or food rules to my clients. It was NOTHING TO DO WITH FOOD. My job was to find the source of their pain, eliminate that pain, and when I did?
Weight reduced naturally.
Take away the pain and you take away the dependency on food, naturally reducing their calorie intake and "set point weight".
__________
Pain comes in many forms.
There is the pain of STRESS. There is the pain of FATIGUE. There is pain of SHAME. There is the pain of ANXIETY. There is the pain of RESTRICTION.
And as I looked at my clients... who I had starved, bullied, fat shamed and forced into all kinds of weird and wonderful ways of restricting themselves... it was pretty obvious to me.
I was their pain!
So to reverse their rebound weight gain, I had to reverse my approach.
I had to reduce their STRESS. I had to reduce their FATIGUE. I had to reduce their SHAME. I had to reduce their ANXIETY. I to reduce their RESTRICTION.
And when I did all of that?
I reduced their pain. And by reducing their pain I reduced their dependency on food. And by reducing their dependency on food I reduced their "set point weight".
__________
Pain is complex.
Pain comes from other sources, not just mean, horrible personal trainers like the guy I used to be.
Sometimes pain comes from past trauma. Sometimes pain comes from our environment. Sometimes pain comes from our relationships. Sometimes pain comes from uncertainty. The list goes on and on.
But anything that gets focused on RESOLVING PAIN, rather than counting calories, points, syns, fasting periods or anything else to do with food... has 100 times the potential to reduce your weight than dieting ever will.
5% of people maintain their weight losses, long term.
And that 5% do so by resolving pain...
Not obsessing over food.
Overeaters Anonymous is an approach that is deeply involved in the resolution of pain, and that is why I would recommend it over a diet every time.
Liam
p.s. If you are "wearing your pain" and want to learn more about this, we call this The Lower Set Point Path, and it's something we teach you on our missions! If you can find your pain and resolve your pain, you reduce your appetite and eating addiction, and your set point weight with it. Book Now! »
