The Brain and Weight Loss

To understand why we struggle with our weight, and why we do what we do, for example emotional eating, skipping the gym when you promised you would go, we need to start with the brain.

So let’s have a look at the brain and the workings of the mind.

There’s two parts of the brain. There’s the intellectual brain, this is the Prefrontal Cortex. This is the conscious, intellectual, logical part. It’s attached to the Cerebral Cortex, a vast intellectual resource library, like a computer database and this is the subconscious part of the intellectual mind.

Now when we are working from this part of the brain, we feel positive, brave, motivated. When we’re in this part of the brain, we know what to do for the good of our health AND we do it. We understand that all food is good for us if we eat only what our bodies need. We are able to make choices that place long term goals ahead of short term gains. So we know what we should be doing, AND we do it.

Now there is another part of the brain. This is the original primitive part. It’s the subconscious part. It’s part of the limbic system and runs all the autonomic processes in the body; your heart is beating, you are breathing etc. It’s the emotional part and its priority is our safety and survival.

The central and most influential bit of the primitive mind is the amygdala.  It is the Fight/Flight/Freeze area of the brain. It works closely with two other very primitive parts. There is the hippocampus, which holds all our primitive and sometimes inappropriate learned habits and behaviours. Also, the hypothalamus, which regulates chemical responses in the body and mind.

Now this part of the brain just cares about our safety & survival, it’s focused on keeping us alive. It doesn’t care about our goals, dreams, wishes, wants. It just cares about keeping us alive. So when we’re working from this part of the brain, we know what we need to do to lose weight, BUT we don’t do it. 

The primitive mind is a negative mind.

The primitive mind is not intellectual and can’t come up with new ideas.

It always refers to previous patterns of behaviour. So, if what we did yesterday worked, and we have survived, then we will do the same thing again. And this is why it’s hard to break the habit of having that biscuit (or pack of biscuits) at 11am with our mid morning coffee. And how we can find ourselves saying first thing in the morning, this is my day I’m going to eat sensibly and healthily, and move more today, and then come 6pm you’re sat on the sofa eating your favourite junk food and missing that workout you promised yourself you’d do.

We tend to use black and white thinking particularly with food, categorising this food as good and that food as bad. This is unhelpful as we’re designed to enjoy food, we need food to live.

When we’re in the primitive part of the brain, we still know what do for the good of our health, but we don’t do it.

So you can see how it’s our brain that controls our actions and behaviours. So if we want to change our habits and behaviours, and be able to live a healthier lifestyle, we need to start with the brain. We need to spend more time in the intellectual part of the brain where we feel brave, motivated, happy, and in control. When we’re in the intellectual part of the brain, we know what we need to do to lose weight, and we do it.