Fast & Healthy Weight Loss -Why Rewiring Is So Essential for Treating Stress Eating and Obesity | uxa2.com

When I was wired to overeat, I couldn’t understand why I could be so rational about food at times and be completely out of control at other times. I even felt guilty because I “knew” what I should eat, but I couldn’t eat that way.

Neuroscience has an answer: circuit speed.

All behavior is the downstream end of a neural circuit, which is a series of neuron activations. For example, the woman eating the chocolate bar in the photo above is doing so because a stimulus entered her brain and activated a neural pathway that then biochemically caused her to eat it.

The circuit causes self-sabotage

The most common, effective way to change a behavior is to clear the circuit that triggers it. This is not difficult to do in circuits coded at low voltage. You recognize an answer, like an exercise, and you say, “Okay, I’ll retrace my steps,” and you do it. However, if the behavior was encoded during stress overload, the behavior is not just the downstream end of the homeostatic (think “tamed” and “self-balancing”) thread, but the allostatic (think “control concern” and “reflexive”) thread.

When a habit is difficult to change, it is typically due to the self-sabotaging nature of the allostatic circuit in three ways: 1) when activated, the stress chemical cascade causes the prefrontal cortex (the “thinking brain”) to become compromised; 2) the circuit activates toxic emotions (eg, numbness, hostility, depression, or panic) that are difficult to process, and 3) the fight-or-flight wires are very simple, causing them to trigger reflexively.

Driving is the “knee-jerk” response

The first two causes of self-sabotage are addressed by learning the EBT 5 Point System, as the skills quickly get the thinking brain back online and functioning well, transforming toxic, allostatic emotions into flowing, homeostatic emotions.

However, the third reason has to do with the nature of the circuit itself, which is emotionally reflexive. In the same way, if you happen to put your finger on a flame, you immediately pull it away, when these circuits are ignited, we repeat maladaptive behavior, as if our lives depend on an automatic response that requires no thinking brain processing.

The thread activates the spinal cord because memory has perceived consequences that are life-threatening. For example, my Food Circuit coded wire told me that I “had to have it” and “was going to have it” no matter what. It triggered the emotional reflex of overeating. Add this element to the thread’s biochemical effect of dysregulation toward weight gain of the eight main overeating chemicals (cortisol, dopamine, insulin, serotonin, leptin, PYY, ghrelin, and GLP-1), and it’s a wonder that in today’s society anyone who eats food, especially highly processed food, is at a normal weight.

The diet industry ignored neurophysiology

The nutrition literature shows that, regardless of the diet used, most of the weight loss is regained with a year-long follow-up. Scientific evidence does not support prescribing the diet, but the practice is still widely accepted.

The assumption is that we use a very tame, homeostatic cord when we eat, and patients are advised to be aware of what no one can achieve when one of those lightning fast cords is controlling us. They say write down what we eat. However, when these wires are activated, behavior quickly follows and the spinal cord is responsible. No one can keep track of what they eat when control has been transferred to the most primitive part of the central nervous system.

By ignoring neurophysiology, the diet industry set itself up for failure and vulnerability to pharmacological interventions (diet drugs). These wires can be erased, and the skill required to do so is the focus of EBT. Obesity is not a product of poor willpower or psychological problems, but rather the result of treatment that fails to address the root cause: very basic wiring.

Instead of relying on drugs or diets, rewire the circuit

This science encourages people who have blamed themselves for their struggles with food. Remember: the problem isn’t you, it’s the thread! Then learn the tools of EBT and join the EBT Support Group so you have everything you need to ensure reflective thread doesn’t sabotage your weight loss.

Instead of relying too much on weight loss drugs that don’t rewire these circuits, or trying to follow “white” diets, rewire your brain for natural and sustainable weight loss.