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Behavioral therapy can be a big help in losing weight. In behavioral therapy, people talk about their weight problem with a health professional—such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, nurse practitioner, or other trained mental health professional. The
health professional gives the person suggestions about how to change their behaviors to lose weight. Behavioral therapy is a big help to obese people, but it can also help overweight people.
A special kind of behavioral therapy is called “cognitive behavioral therapy.” Cognitive behavioral therapy attempts to change how people view eating. For example, it might change someone’s views about the size of a healthy meal. Regularly meeting with a trained health professional can be very helpful in changing how people view food.
In cognitive behavioral therapy you discuss the positive reasons to lose weight (e.g., it will improve my health ... it will make me look better) in order to reinforce these reasons in your mind. Cognitive behavioral therapy also reinforces your belief that you will succeed at weight loss.
One of the key concepts in cognitive behavioral therapy is “people, places, things”.
“People” means not eating with other people who are going to encourage you to eat. This might mean not eating with friends when you know they are going to go to McDonalds®.
“Places” means avoiding places where you will be tempted with high caloric density food, such as a Krispy Kreme® donut shop. “Places” also means going to places that serve healthier food, such as a vegetarian, Japanese, Italian, or Californian restaurant.
“Things” means avoiding things that stimulate the desire for high caloric density food. For example, the music from an ice cream truck will remind you of ice cream and can stimulate your desire for it.
Other helpful behavioral changes include avoiding situations where you snack too much. If you are watching television, don’t have a bowl of potato chips with you! In general, you should try to keep food out of sight and out of reach. The Golden Gate Diet calls for 3 healthy meals a day and 3 healthy snacks a day to keep you full.
 
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