3 practical tips to outsmart your overweight brain
You are listening to WEIGHT WISE REVOLUTION with Dr Anu Gupta, episode ____2____
Hi there. Did you know that you have an overweight brain. Yes, you heard me right. Each one us has a part of the brain, a huge part of the brain that is designed to make you put on weight, stay fat & make it extremely hard to get rid of that fat. That is what is coming up for you in this episode. So stick with me till the end.
Alright now coming back to the greetings. How are you doing my friend… I hope you are having a good time. Did you listen to the first episode? If not, I insist that you that. You see, in the first, I don’t know, 6 to 10 maybe, in these episodes, I’m laying down the foundational principles of life long weight loss success, so its import cant that you understand them well as we proceed in our podcast journey.
So today, I want to talk to you about that part of your brain which wants yo to put on weight & stay fat. And that is the main player in your life which makes it extremely hard to lose weight & if by chance you do happen to lose some weight, this is the part which almost kind of ensures that you gain the weight back again & some more.
And then, I will also teach you 3 practical & incredibly powerful steps that will help you outsmart that fat causing part of your brain while you are losing & maintaining your weight.
First off I want to start by telling you about a brief conversation I had with a friend a week back…This is exactly what she said…
“Anu, every single time, I’m on a weight loss plan and I’m losing weight…in fact I do very well in the first couple of weeks n then I don’t know what happens, I begin to deviate from my plan, I start eating all the foods that I know I should not be eating but I’m not able to stop…and all the lost weight comes back…ahhh so frustrating…its like I become my biggest enemy the moment I lose some weight…why do I do this to myself !”
Hmmmmm well, lemme ask you… isn't this the story of every person who struggles with extra weight.
It was surely my story for the greater part of my life as well…until I discovered the cause of why we are not able to consistently stay on our diet & actually end up sabotaging our own success or quitting all together.
Think about it….
How may of us know than an apple is better than a chocolate or a fried snack, or a salad is better than a pizza , yet we find so difficult to consistently choose healthy, fuel options for our body. Isn’t it…
In fact, if you are like any of my clients whom I work with, then my guess is you have a generalised sense of what is healthy & what will help you lose weight…n most, if not all can even give a diet plan to me ! Right….
So what is that THING which cause you to eat the foods that you know will NOT help you, at all…
So here’s the thing….KNOWING MAKES NO DIFFERENCE…
I want to repeat….Knowing makes no difference.
I’m sure you know this by experience
Yes, knowing gives you zero results…it doesn’t move you forward…
Knowing is very different from being able to FOLLOW that knowing ….and more importantly FOLLOW that knowing CONSISTENTLY…which of course is the only factor that gives you results…following consistently…right…
So between the KNOWING & FOLLOWING THE KNOWING, there is a GAP.
And that gap between knowing & applying your knowledge is sealed with an understanding of how your brain functions. And I call this particular brain understanding, an absolute game changer concept…
And this concept will also answer the eternal question haunting every chronic dieter & weight struggler which is - Why do I feel out of control around my favourite foods?
So let’s understand this concept
Now, in very simple, easy to understand way, your brain can be roughy divided into two functioning parts.
One part is the primitive brain or the primal brain. And this is the part which we humans also share with animals. From an evolutionary perspective, this is the part that was developed first, so thats why primitive, old part…the part that dates back to the time when we stayed in the caves. The pre-historic, stone age part of the brain. Anatomically this is the mid & posterior part of the brain. The so-called reptilian brain which developed tens of millions of years ago.
And what I want you to remember is that this part is programmed for your survival. And so this part is constantly scanning for any danger to your life in the environment. And if there is danger, it would cause you to run or fight back
And then there is new brain on top of the old primitive brain…new because its relatively the newer part from an evolutionary perspective. This is the part of the brain which is exclusively present in humans. And its called the Pre-Frontal or the Neo-cortex. And this is the part that makes us humans…a totally different species. This is your highest, the most sophisticated…the best part that can think about what you are thinking…this is the creative part that comes up with new ideas…this is the logical, the analytical part of your brain…this is the part that can dream, evolve, make plans & decisions, set goals, evaluate your options… Animals can’t do that.
And so this is your wise, adult part of the brain…that nudges you that you can better…
The other thing is when we learn something new, it is this part that is involved. And once we learn & repeat that new information over & over again, then that is delegated to out primitive brain. And this so that you don’t have to consciously think about the new skill that you learned. You can set it & forget it, literally. And whenever you need to access that skill, you can do it on an autopilot I.e without any conscious thought.
Let me an example…when we learn to drive a car, our pre frontal is involved. It is deliberately thinking about the clutch, the brakes, the vehicles that are around the car. You have to look at the gear & memorise the whole sequence of how to drive the car. Now when you repeat that whole process over & over again, then that skill is assigned to the primitive brain. An then what happens…the moment you sit in the car, it almost feels like your hands & legs are reaching out without any thought & driving the car. And how many of you can multi task while driving the car…and at times, it almost feels like…Im here & I don’t remember reaching the destination. I just win the car & I’m here. Right…thats your primitive brain.
And so when new information is repeated over & over again, whenever you need that information again, it is retrieved from your primitive brain at a super high speed…milli milli seconds…and so the primitive brain is called the fast brain…its like a record keeper of information.
While the pre frontal is the slow brain…because it consciously needs to think…n this process is slower than retrieving old information.
The other thing is primitive brain being so fast is actually kind of dangerous…why because it has no sense of whether a particular action is hurting us or not. Whatever you have repeated over & over again, the entire thought-feeling-action loop, it simply gets good at making that your default way of being in life….until…& unless your higher brain, the pre frontal intervenes…
Now research shows that 90 to 95% of all our daily actions are driven by primitive brain. And think about it…if that is the case, we are all doomed. Because once we have repeated something several times & that has become a automatic behaviour which we have no control over, there is no possibility to create anything new in our lives.
So… there is this primal lower brain which is like a toddler…does not understand what is good for you & what is not. It simply follows repeated instructions. And then there is this higher pre frontal brain which is analyse the effects of your actions & its like a supervising mother that has the ability to control & manage the toddler, the lower brain.
Understanding how these two parts of the brain work is key to creating results that you DO desire from the core of your being.
Let me walk you through what happens when we go on a diet or why do we deviate & self sabotage our progress in the weight loss journey. So lets say you go to a dietician & gives you a diet plan. You are fully charged & motivated especially in the beginning and this again is because our brains love to “start” a new diet…not follow it but start a new plan. And you have no clue about your automatic primal brain running in the background. The primal brain that has caused you to overeat & become over weight in the first place. Anyways, you go on this diet, you lose a bunch of weight…and you are feeling pretty good. Few days roll by…so say few weeks pass by…and then you come back exhausted from work one evening and you are hit by sudden cravings…you decide to just have one pice of cake…and then you order something from swiggy…you finish that meal…and you are not done still…so you eat some ice cream late at night.
Next day, you eat some cookies…n then next day again you overeat again. And then once more you binge on the weekend. And the weight starts coming back. You are left wondering, whats going on. Why don’t you want to diet anymore. You tell yourself, you ll start tomorrow but that tomorrow is becoming more & more distant. And before you know it, the weights back…you feel like a failure & you end up blaming yourself. Sounds familiar.
The reason this same story…same sequence of events happen is because you have a brain…which is working perfectly fine & efficiently…far from being a failure, this happened because you have a robust, well-functioning primitive brain. The primitive brain has practiced eating all the junk food & overeating, so so many times, that when you go on a diet, it becomes louder. It is constantly telling you “hey this is not a good idea”… “lets eat sugar”… “you are not that fat”…come on you have a pretty face”…oh why are you killing yourself…this one doesn’t matter…all these are programming of your primitive brain…
Now how do you conquer the primitive brain & power up your super smart pre frontal to make your goal weight a reality, how do you activate that part of the brain which knows how important it is for you to lose weight & end the struggle. The way to do this is what I call slowing down the fast brain & speeding up the slow brain.
And I’m going to tell 3 simple yet extremely powerful steps that will help you do the same.
The first tip is you have to make decisions ahead of time. I mean eating decisions…In order to break the automatic unconscious eating, you got to interject with your pre frontal brain, very deliberately & frankly speaking quite strictly in the beginning.
So so sit down & make all your eating decisions a day ahead by using your highest pre frontal part of the brain…as a said your pre frontal being the slow brain is not very smart in making “in the moment” decisions until you have practiced doing that over & over again. Putting brakes on the automative, compulsive overeating, you have to make your eating decisions, precise eating decisions ahead of time. And I highly recommend you do that in writing. Write down your meal plan a day in advance. Like tomorrow, this will be my breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks…and you do that in precise portions. Ok
What you are doing essentially is making it very easy for slow brain pre frontal to win.
If you do not make eating decisions ahead of time, you can actually be assured that primitive brain will be running the scene tomorrow. Like say for example, if you not decided ahead using your pre frontal, when you come back from work tomorrow or you are tired running after the kids, your primitive brain will make decisions against your will. As in it will make reach out for foods you do not intend to eat & are completely aware that they will make you put on weight. So do yourself a favour, decide exactly what you will be eating & make that non-negotiable.
Now you may ask, Dr Anu, what do I plan to eat. And I would tell you that it does not matter. Yes, you heard me right. What I’m saying is in the beginning when you are doing this work of making decisions ahead of time, it does not matter. What really matters here is that you make a plan & follow that to the T. Now, you will make a plan with your pre-frontal…right. The higher brain that has your well-being & goals in mind. And the thing is we all have a generalised sense of what is healthy & not healthy…right…at this point without getting in the nitty gritty of diet, plan with your well-being in mind…and sure you can even keep treats in your plan. But get in the habit of planning ahead…thats what we are working on. Because that is going to build trust in your self. Trust in ability to make a plan & staying committed to that plan, which is the core, fundamental skill that you need to cultivate to lose & maintain your weight for life.
The other thing that I want you to be aware of is that when the time comes to actually eat what you have planned ahead of time, you would not actually want to do that. This is because the primal brain will associate any change with hard work… the primal brain only wants to take actions that it perceives as pleasurable and the actions it is good at. So what are you currently good at? What have you practiced until now? That is unplanned, unconscious, reactionary eating….right. So according to the primal brain anything other than that, is not a great idea. Butttt…know this & still honour your pre frontal decisions. Anticipate actually that even if you don’t “feel like” eating what you have already planned, you will still eat what you have already planned.
Moving on, the second tip is to make it very easy for your slow brains decisions to play out…meaning you make it a no brainer for you to follow your plan. Like lets say you plan a salad for yourself in tomorrow’s lunch. Now when tomorrow comes, if you have not made it easy for your slow brain to act, the fast brain will raid the scene. Meaning, the primitive brain hates “effort” like seriously it perceives anything that is not easy to be painful…literally…and if something is painful…your brain will never want to do that…but at the same time, we have this higher brain that can clearly see that making the effort is worth it…our dreams are worth the effort. Right. So in order to speed up your slow brain, you got to make it easy, as easy as possible for you to follow through your decision. You wont believe, in the beginning on my journey doing this work, I used the refrigerator as my saving grace. I would soups & salads, all ready a day or two in advance. And I highly recommend you do the same. Whatever preparation you need to do ahead of time, so that when the time comes to eat, its easy for you to honour your decisions.
The third tip is actually doing the opposite of the second tip which is to make it very difficult for your fast brain to act. What do I mean by this?
I mean introducing some sort of friction in your impulsive, automative tendencies to reach out for unhealthy foods. Like there was even study done in a major reach institute which was like they kept all the junk kind of foods on the top shelves of the kitchen instead of at the eye level. And what they found was spontaneous reduction in people reaching out for such foods & losing some weight over a period of few weeks. Now I know environment is very powerful and initially when you are doing this work, it helps to re-train your primitive brain for sure
But at the same time, I don’t fully agree with out of sight is out of mind. So many people use will power for weeks and may be months together & their urges for overeating or eating unhealthy foods go down but in order for you to get rid of this entire issue, this weight problem, you got to work on your brain such that environment has zero effect on you. For how long could be shifting your environment & be dependant on that. Right…thats not freedom…Freedom is like now I can keep all the chocolates of the world in my house, but I have zero temptation, zero desire to have them. And that is because I worked not just on my biology but also on my thoughts & emotions which I will be teaching you in future episodes but having that, it is definitely a powerful measure, to keep the foods that do not serve you in your immediate environment. It taxes your primitive brain & gives rise to urges which may not be even present before.
So I like to give the example of , Diwali sweets. In my house we use to keep them in kitchen counter or may be dining table. And guess what, the whole house use to polish the box in no time. So don’t do that. Keep them away from your sight & better still make it difficult to get those sweets & easier to get the healthier stuff.
So these are 3 tips
Start. Making food decisions ahead of time, in writing.
Make it easy to follow through those decisions &
Make it difficult to follow through your primitive brain’s pre set reactionary eating.
So there you have it, three incredibly powerful tips to outsmart your lower, impulsive brain.
To conclude all this, I want to leave you by reminding you knowing that no matter how imprisoned or out of control you feel around your favourite foods and no matter how many times you have failed on consistently following your diet, it doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with your body or your ability to lose weight. It simply means you are following your primitive brain’s well practiced sequence of thought-feelings & actions. That’s it. In fact, it actually means you have a pretty normal well functioning brain.
It doesn’t mean anything else. And this is very good news. Why ? Because you also have a higher brain which wants you to go after your dream. As long as you have the Pre Frontal, you have the ability to overcome your impulsive lower brain. If size zero or losing ten, twenty, fifty kgs or quitting sugar or overeating or whatever is your deepest desire, you can create that. And the way to do that is by using your pre frontal & repeating the newer sequence of thoughts-feelings & actions consciously & deliberately over & over again, such that, this new pattern becomes your default & natural, effortless way of being. I have done that. So have my clients and by the way you too have done that in some area of your life, if not in health or weight department….I'm sure about that …..& now its your turn. I believe in you & your vision. So lets not settle for anything less. Deal !!
Alright have a great week ahead. I’ll talk to you next week. Take care.
