I have already spoken in this article about Dr. Traci Mann, an American psychologist and psychotherapist.

Mann has written an incredible essay on diets, titled ” Secrets From The Eating Lab: The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Willpower, and Why You Should Never Diet Again.”

Book that deals with the topic of weight loss according to a scientific but also behavioral approach.

In practice, the book explains both the mechanisms by which we lose weight and those for which we take it , and in particular its basic thesis is that weight loss diets DO NOT work. For six reasons.

SIX REASONS WHY SLIMMING DIETS DON’T WORK

1. Your genes want you to stay your weight.
   According to the theory of the weight set point, also accredited by Dr. Mann, our body oscillates in a range of up to ten kilos more or less (for overweight people: for those of normal weight the range is smaller, let’s say 5 kilos) , that is, does not gain weight over 10 kilos or does not easily lose more than ten kilos. After losing 10 pounds, your genes will do whatever it takes to keep you from losing any more weight: increasing your hunger and decreasing your metabolism.
2. Blame your brain.
   When you are on a diet and hunger sets in, the brain reacts by accentuating your needs, and making you crave countless countless foods. The food itself becomes more tempting, and you end up obsessed with it. Your fault? No. It’s a defense mechanism.
3. Your hormones are rowing against you.
   When you lose weight, in the lucky hypothesis that you are also losing fat mass, your hormone profile changes.
   In particular, those produced by the hypothalamus change, which also regulates hunger. The hormones responsible for hunger (for example ghrelin) increase and those of satiety (for example leptin) decrease. You don’t get full easily and you’re hungrier than usual, moral of the story.
4. It is scientifically proven that the metabolism is lowered.
   Our metabolism adjusts to make sure what we give it is enough, in order to avoid further weight loss as much as possible. From then on it’s easy to stall weight when we are on a diet, and tend to regain weight for a trifle. Ok, but how does the metabolism rise? Returning to eat. And he doesn’t get up right away.
5. Whenever you go without food, you are psychologically obsessed with it.
   From here the episodes of nervous and uncontrolled hunger or absurd cravings begin. So the body tries to push you to eat. But the obsession with food is also a consequence of the slower metabolism.
6. Stress: Stress is caused by lack of food, lack of sleep and lack of activity. In the case of diets, the stress of lack of food affects the metabolism and thus tends to make us gain weight. Therefore, if the various alarm bells of the previous points were not enough, it is the stress that makes us get back our weight, giving us the impression of inflating and gaining weight even with a glass of water!