Articles (2007-2008):

Psychology and overweight.

Approximately 135 million adults in the United States are overweight. That's 64.5 percent of the population. Of all U.S. adults, 4.7 percent or about 10 million are morbidly obese

Very many people engage in dieting.  Health professionals could be forgiven for assuming that reducing diets are for fat people.  However, this is far from the case. Up to one third of men and women in the western world is said to be overweight.  Yet twice as many believe that they weigh more than they should.  Thinking that one is overweight is more common in normal weight women than in men.  Moreover, not only do these normal weight people believe they weigh too much, many also have lives that are in some way restricted by worry about weight. There is no diet program nor diet pill that will yield permanent weight loss unless you are willing and able to process and resolve the psychological issues that you have concerning your extra pounds.

The popularity of dieting is fuelled by several factors, the first being a national aversion to fatness. This attitude sets in at a very young age.  Schoolchildren in one study showed a stronger aversion to being overweight than to being blind or physically crippled, Even children as young as 8 are restricting their food intake and by age 15 one in three has been on a diet.

Dieting also changes the way we feel about our body. 

The terrible internal conflicts which are the result of food restraint are a source of continual stress.  All dieters score higher than non dieters on measures of emotional agitation and are more likely to show impaired mental performance.

By denying themselves food, dieters also make it much more important.  Dieters are more likely than non dieters to turn to food when they are emotionally anxious or depressed.  This phenomenon is created by dieting itself.

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