Is Your Personality Making You Fat

Harvard Medical School Professor of medical sociology Nicholas Christakis makes the point that if your friends are obese then you have a better chance of being overweight yourself.  This was from a study that lasted thirty two years.  This makes you wonder if your own personality is contributing to your being obese.  Searching for the possibility of the personality of an obese person I discovered that there have been studies and that there is a defined personality of an obese individual.    It has been determined that our psychological makeup and psychological factors play an important role in either promoting or preventing obesity.

Characteristics of an Obese Person

The characteristics of people that are obese are pretty much accepted as:

1. There is a lack of self worth. 
2. There is a lack of self control or compulsive behavior.
3. They can be an emotional liability.
4. They have a tendency to become depressed.

Lack of self-worth

It has been suggested that the lack of self worth an obese person maintains can be directly proportional to how long a person has been overweight.  If a person has been obese since childhood the time spent in youth was more than likely time spent in peer hell.  Children are brutal when one child is different from the majority.  An obese child suffers from the tongues of other children during their developing years and this affects their self esteem well into adulthood.  People who lack self-worth and regard themselves as failures may seek comfort in eating and also give up the struggle to lose weight by dieting and exercise before they have even started. 

Lack of self-control or compulsive behavior

There is a huge percentage of overweight people who cannot stop making poor choices as far as food is concerned.  This applies to quantity as well as selection.  A morbidly obese person knows that their actions are slowly killing themselves, yet they cannot stop the compulsive behavior or exercise any self control.  There is even one chorus of researchers that believe that obese people only feel in control when they consume large portions of food. People who lack self-control also tend to benefit from diet clubs and organizations like LA Weight loss or Weight Watchers. The reason why joining an organization may work is because there is a need for regimentation or some form of discipline.  Severe cases of eating compulsion require medical treatment by a psychiatrist and a dietitian.  If you suspect that you are a compulsive eater, please refer to a qualified doctor or a dietician. 

Emotional Liability

Obese people tend to doubt themselves in social settings.  They have been falsely groomed since early obesity as to why they were fat.  The list of reasons can be long and revealing.  Parents may have scolded and friends were hurtful while strangers were hateful.  Over time the insulted individual starts to question the statements that have been hurled at them for so long.  This starts to really mess with the emotions of the individual and they start to really question themselves and this creates a see saw of emotions.  Over time this wave of humiliation and self doubt causes them to seek comfort in food.  If you are such a person who seeks comfort in food to retreat from public meetings or meeting friends then you should seek out a support group or a clinical psychologist.  You are not crazy or a loser, actually you are quite normal.  You are the product of your life and society has driven you to where you are now.  You must just get a map to learn your way back to a healthy lifestyle.

Depression

Depression has the ability to cause a person to gain large amounts of body fat.  When a person is depressed they tend to become very inactive.  Being inactive causes the person to gain more weight which allows for the depression to grow in severity.  It is a very vicious cycle that may need intervention to break.  It would be very difficult to treat obesity before treating depression.  It is encouraged to seek a doctor and obtain professional advice for depression.  Be careful though because doctors are quick to prescribe pills that help depression but cause you to gain weight.  Do not treat only the depression without focusing on weight loss.  In the long run the weight loss will help you treat the depression.  Fortunately weight loss is just as a perpetuating cycle as weight gain.

Other Scenarios for Different People

Do not think that all obese people can be crammed into any of the above categories like a dollar bill in an envelope.  Everyone is different and unique.   It would be possible to continue the dissection of personalities into many different directions.  What is definitive is that anyone is able to reflect inwards and see themselves and start to make a change.  Everyone is in control of their own life and if your personality is assisting you in being obese then realize that you can change yourself through inner reflection.  There is no secret in the inner power one holds within themselves.  Seek help if you need it but make the change one way or another.  Reflect upon yourself and impact your life in a positive way.  Countless others have done so and there really is nobody that can stop you but yourself. 

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