Weight control would be much simpler if the reasons people consciously believe for their overweight were true.   But they are not.

Don't you just hate it when people—especially professionals like physicians who really should know better—say something like, "all overweight is simply the result of taking in more calories than are burned. To lose weight, eat less!"  

You get this kind of blather from people who have never had an eating problem.  They might have had a minor problem with a few pounds, and it was easy for them to cut down on their eating and lose five or six unwanted pounds.  But all they had was a teeny, tiny weight problem.

What I'm talking about here is problems with weight that stem from eating problems.   And all weight problems are eating problems!

Serious eating problems really should be classified as "eating disorders."   I know it is easier to think of a weight problem as simply a failure of will that will be overcome as soon as you figure out how to upgrade your willpower.  But let's face it:  If you are overweight, you don't want to be overweight, and you have been unsuccessful at doing something about it, you have an eating disorder.

The sooner you acknowledge that and stop pussyfooting around trying to develop some mythical willpower, the sooner you will be able to do something about it.

So what causes these eating problems that are, for some of us anyway, so hard to deal with?   They certainly are not caused by stupidity or ignorance.   Being overweight, at least significantly so, is almost never just a matter of not knowing any better.  It is far more complicated than that.  Here are most of therealreasons why so many of us have problems with food:

Environmental Reasons
  •  Poverty
Physical Reasons
  •  Metabolism
  •  Genetics
  •  Handicaps, injuries, etc.
Conscious Reasons
  •  Eating to feel good
  •  Bad eating habits (Ignorance of nutrition and health.)
  •  Insufficient exercise
Subconscious Reasons
  •  Health
  •  Rejection (as a Need; as an Excuse)
  •  Moral Imperatives; or, Does Fat Fend Off Fidelity Failures?
  •  Jolly Needs
  •  Social Compliance
  •  Psychological Threat
  •  The Evil Eye
  •  Punishment.