A challenging situation that psychologists may encounter is someone who wants to lose weight. They may sincerely want to lose weight, but they then find many ways to sabotage their progress.

For many people, controlling how much they eat presents a major struggle. Their self-control melts away when faced with something tasty and delicious. Regulating how much they should eat is out the window.

When the food is in front of you, and you are free to eat as much as you want, a large amount of food may be consumed.: Part of the challenge is controlling how much you eat, while you are actually doing the thing you want to control, which is eating.

Since you have to eat to survive, controlling the amount you consume is a challenge. This is a different situation from addiction to alcohol, gambling, smoking, video gaming or binge watching television. You do not need to do those things to survive.

A person can’t avoid food. There are more reasons to regulate food intake than just to look good. There may be medical or health reasons that can have serious consequences. The inability to control eating can lead to the development of an eating disorder.

When someone wants to lose weight and is faced with food, that can be a conflict situation. There is internal competition between two desires. One is the desire to eat that delicious food, while the other one is to eat only a small amount or not have it at all.

You must fight the desire to give in to the temptation in front of you, and stick to the long-term goal of getting your weight under control, along with the benefits that go with it. Psychologists call the ability to postpone immediate pleasure, delay of gratification.

The competition is between two competing goals, an immediate goal, and a long-term goal.

To be successful you have to resolve the conflict between wanting to eat immediately vs the correct action which is to either avoid or at least delay eating. Psychologists know that there are differences between people in relation to how much they experience and want pleasure.

The term is Reward Sensitivity. A reward is any act or item that is desirable and makes you want it more, and/or more often. Good tasting food is a reward. Therefore, a person’s reward sensitivity plays a role in how or if they regulate their eating. The higher the sensitivity, the stronger the desire to continue eating whether they are full or not, eating just for the mere pleasure of eating.

Then the pounds start to accumulate. Combining this with already weak control results in a bad situation that can spoil a dieter’s potential for success. It is long known that many people will eat more if they are experiencing some type of strong emotion. It is also known that negative emotions not only can trigger more eating, they can trigger binge eating.

A difficult and/or unpleasant situation or relationship can increase consumption. Chronic stress has an even higher probability of increasing either good or bad food intake. The combination of negative emotions and stress creates a real challenge to food regulation.

Psychologists have found that anything that can occupy your attention so that you do not pay attention to food can be quite helpful. Any distracting activity may be helpful in shifting your attention away from the food.

If you cannot shift your attention, the ability to resist the temptation will weaken. The longer you look, the higher the probability that you will reach for the food. The more strategies that you have to develop and maintain self-control the better. By the book, a strategy is basically a plan or way to achieve a goal. It lays out the choices that must be made and when you have to make them.

Almost every strategy studied involves reduced food intake. The more strategies that a person has, the higher their probability of success. Adding additional healthy food to what you are already consuming does not help. Reducing food intake is what helps.

There is so much more that could have been included here. It is hoped that this brief information will trigger you to research this subject further. If you have to admit that your eating is out of control, and is actually self-defeating or self-harm, there are resources in the community that you might consider trying.

— Dr. Joseph Switras provides clinical psychological services at United Health District in Fairmont to people age 5 and up.