How does negative self talk affect me?

Negative self-talk, or cognitive distortions, can cause someone to sabotage their own weight loss efforts. Psychiatrist Sudeepta Varma, MD, discusses how negative self talk can make it difficult to stay motivated to lose weight.

Transcript

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So the thought may be, this is hopeless. I will never lose weight. I've been fat all my life. Or I've gained the weight, and I've tried before,

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and I just can't do it. This is not going to work. [UPBEAT MUSIC]

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We often find that there is a lot of negative self-talk going on when people are trying to lose weight. And particularly, that causes them

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to sabotage their own weight loss by giving in to those thoughts. So the thought may be, this is hopeless. I will never lose weight.

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I've been fat all my life. Or I've gained the weight, and I've tried before, and I just can't do it. This is not going to work.

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Other people think I'm a fat slob. By calling yourself names, by something, what we call mind reading, which is pretending

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to know what you think somebody else is thinking of you when, in fact, you really don't, they're things that we call cognitive distortions.

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These are distortions or ways of thinking that affect negatively people's view of themselves, of the world, and their future.

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And find out if you've become a victim of your own negative self-talk. And perhaps that might be the reason why you're having difficulty losing weight.