There is a small segment of individuals who have daily concerns with weight management. You are torn between your cravings and your need to manage weight and stay in a healthy, optimum weight range. Food addiction is just as similar to any other addiction. Ingredients such as sugar, fat, and salt can be highly addicting. Just, like drugs, they have the ability to stimulate dopamine receptors in your brain. When these reward and motivation parts of your brain are stimulated the brain wants that reward again and again hence it becomes highly dependent on that reward to feel awake, alert, and energized. Most addictions require more and more of the substance to get the same effect. We have endo cannabinoids in the gut lining that are the same as cannabinoids in the brain. This is why when people are addicted to food they will choose high-sugar, high-fat, and high-calorie foods to get the fix fast. Eventually, individuals begin to lose the ability to feel when they need to eat or when they need to stop. The addiction is driving the cycle not appetite or hunger cues.
Why are long-term diets not sustainable?
Diets are not a sustainable way of living. While they may be the quick fix to lose weight they are not long-term fixes. The key to healthy weight management is to create a healthy lifestyle that is easy to sustain over time. Diets need to address the real problem at hand. The majority of people with fluctuating weight are eating to social, emotional, and environmental cues. The other problem is that individuals lose awareness of their satiety cues. Some satiety cues include feeling when your stomach is full, feeling satisfied, and/or feeling content after meals.
How does neurofeedback help?
Neurofeedback is a technique that allows for self-regulation of the brain. It helps bring your body and emotions back to a state of balance and control. The body’s functions, such as sleep cycles and appetite control will be nudged to reset. Appetite and sleep centers are right next to each other in the brain. When sleep is off a person’s ability to listen to other signals from the body gets compromised. With neurofeedback training, your brain will relearn how to know when you are hungry, and when you are feeling full. It will also give you permission to listen to other signals, such as fatigue. You may be one of those overeaters who eat when you are tired. The brain will begin to be more in tune with its satiety and body cues. Neurofeedback training will allow you to gain more control over your eating habits and cravings will start to become reduced. When you feel calm, regulated, and balanced you are less likely to use food as a drug.
Habits are subconscious and are usually performed in a chain of activities. Habits are often set off by triggers. In the case of weight management, the triggers may be emotional or even environmental triggers. When one is feeling stressed or overwhelmed it may lead to overeating or undereating. Changing habits can be difficult as they are subconscious and not conscious thoughts. Our unconscious tends to guide many of our habits and choices similar to how we don’t have to think about breathing or creating a heartbeat. One does not choose to consciously overeat or crave foods. For people who are dysregulated with food, often your unconscious is programmed to react to stressful events with unhealthy eating. Neurofeedback shows you how the brain’s wave patterns are functioning in real time and allows it to reset itself to unlearn unconscious behaviors. Through neurofeedback, we are talking directly to the brain waves that are creating your unconscious patterns and we are teaching the brain to dial into itself and the body in a more calm, alert, and mindful way. When you are more connected with your body and brain in a more regulated way, you will feel a sense of calm, competency, and connection with yourself in a compassionate way.
At Healthy Within, we do not diagnose or medicate our patients but instead, curate individualized protocols for our patients.
Contact us for more information about how we can help you get your mind and brain back to functioning at its calm, confident self.
References
https://www.drugrehab.com/2016/02/03/food-addiction-similar-drug-addiction/
