With up to 40 percent of U.S. adults considered obese1 and up to 70 percent overweight,2 weight loss is something that’s on a lot of people’s minds. People try all sorts of diets, supplements, and exercise plans to shed unwanted pounds, however, studies indicate that only 5% percent of people who try to lose weight ultimately succeed.3
Why is it so hard for people to successfully lose weight and keep it off? The answer comes down to several factors, but one particular factor involves the neural pathways in the brain, specifically in a primitive part of the brain called the limbic system.4
In this article, we’ll be exploring the importance of using neuroplasticity to address weight loss roadblocks and the benefits you can expect from incorporating neuroplasticity into your weight loss program.
The re-origin program is based on the concept of neuroplasticity and has helped thousands of people overcome challenges to feel like themselves again. Learn more about the re-origin program here.
What Exactly Is Neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change, both structurally and functionally, throughout a person’s lifetime. When we learn new things, whether it’s a new language or how to drive a car, our brain creates new connections between neurons,5 helping us remember how to do a certain task.
The repetition of every action, emotion, or thought reinforces particular neural pathways. The more the actions, emotions, and thoughts are repeated, the more deeply these neural pathways become ingrained in the circuitry of our brains. That’s why the more you practice something, be it playing the guitar, speaking Spanish, or baking and cooking, the better you get at it.
Neurons that are used frequently will develop stronger connections, whereas those that are rarely or never used will eventually be removed—a process known as synaptic pruning.6 By developing new connections and pruning away weak ones, the brain is able to continuously adapt to its changing environment.
How Is Neuroplasticity Connected To Weight Loss?
You may be wondering what any of this has to do with weight loss. Well, a major reason that many people can’t lose weight and keep it off is that they have particular thoughts and behavioral patterns that hinder their efforts—the more these thoughts and behaviors are repeated, the stronger the neural pathways relating to these weight loss-hindering thoughts and behaviors.
These neural pathways make it very difficult to resist certain destructive habits, such as overeating, eating in response to emotions, excessive snacking, putting off exercise, and eating junk food.
In order to improve your odds of losing weight and keeping it off, you and your brain have to get on the same team. If you don’t change your brain, chances are you’ll eventually go back to your old habits and regain the weight that you lost. Experts estimate that as many as 80 to 95% of dieters gain back the weight they worked so hard to lose.7 That’s likely because they only focused on cutting calories and exercising without the neuroplasticity-based work to change their brains.
That’s not to say that eating a healthy diet and exercising aren’t important parts of the weight loss puzzle—they are essential and always will be. You can’t “think” yourself thin without putting in effort by eating healthy and performing cardiovascular activity. What you can do, additionally, is to create new, functional neural pathways in your brain that support productive beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors.8 In turn, these brain changes will make it easier for you to stick to your healthy eating and exercise plan.
A Closer Look At Stress And Weight Loss
Overeating is the most common cause of people being overweight or obese. Many researchers are convinced that people’s struggles with overeating are based on the emotional part of the brain. The emotional brain, also called the limbic system, is the command center for fear, appetite, and reward.
When under stress, three brain structures in the limbic system9—the amygdala (“fear center”), the hypothalamus (“appetite center”), and the nucleus accumbens (“reward center”)—activate a cascade of biochemical changes that increase hunger, slow metabolism and favor fat deposition.
Additionally, when in this hyperactive stress state, feelings of anxiety, fear, and uncertainty arise—and what’s an effective (although destructive) way of quelling those uncomfortable feelings? Food, of course!
The more the habit of overeating when stressed is repeated, the more deeply it becomes rooted in the brain. The specific neural pathways that trigger stress eating and other stress-induced emotional and behavioral patterns are called survival circuits.10 They encode instructions on how to feel, think, and do when stressed – once encoded, they reactivate automatically in response to stress.
In other words, the habit of overeating becomes conditioned,11 so when a person experiences a stressful situation, their brain automatically defaults to specific neural pathways, or “instructions,” for overeating.
Change Your Brain To Change Your Body
The process of changing your brain to support your weight loss efforts entails de-stressing the overactive limbic system and creating new neural pathways. This involves interrupting destructive thoughts, beliefs, and habits and replacing them with healthier, more functional ones.
The creation of new neural pathways can be achieved with the help of re-origin, a neuroplasticity-based treatment program. Our program involves applying an easy-to-follow neurocognitive technique that can override and rewire faulty conditioning in the brain.
To be clear, re-origin isn’t a weight loss program and won’t magically make you lose weight. Rather, it helps undo some of the root causes behind why it’s so difficult for people to stick to diets and exercise plans—namely, stress, anxiety, and depression. Addressing these issues at the brain level can alleviate roadblocks to weight loss, such as emotional eating patterns or overeating.
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What Benefits Can You Expect From Retraining Your Brain?
By harnessing the power of neuroplasticity and creating new, healthy neural pathways to support your weight loss efforts, you can expect numerous benefits, including:
- Overcome sabotaging thoughts
- Change destructive beliefs
- Resist food cravings
- Handle emotions in a healthier way
- Stick to goals
- Maintain an exercise schedule
- Eliminate overeating
- A more enjoyable weight loss process
- More control over your health and weight
The Bottom Line
Trying to lose weight without changing the brain’s properties can be a recipe for failure. By addressing the underlying neural pathways that contribute to stress and emotional eating, you can transform your approach to weight loss. At re-origin, we provide the tools needed to retrain your brain, helping you break free from old patterns and support your long-term health goals. If you’re ready to explore how neuroplasticity can unlock new possibilities for your well-being, learn more about the re-origin program and start your journey to reclaiming your health.
