"And when we feel like our efforts aren’t getting us to our goals, the most normal response is to give up trying and to not bother to try again.
This is an effect called “learned helplessness,” first described by Dr. Martin Seligman and his colleagues: when we feel we have no control, we just stop trying. Many of my patients living with obesity will describe trying over and over and over again to lose weight only to find themselves heavier than when they started. And often I will hear them say “and then I just gave up." That’s learned helplessness. And once learned helplessness sets in it’s hard to undo. But there is a way we can avoid learned helplessness: by focusing on behavior as a goal instead of weight as a goal. If you try harder to go for a walk, you’re much more likely to go for a walk, but if you try harder to "lose weight" you don’t necessarily lose more weight. In fact, the stress of trying to lose weight may increase the cortisol levels in your body and make it harder to lose weight." https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-psychology-weight-loss/201908/we-don-t-control-our-weight
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