The answer to permanent weight loss may well be all in the mind.  Behaviour modification is arguably the key to it all.  With 65% of Americans overweight, scientists are constantly looking at why the normal eat less, exercise more regimes tend to result in gaining back all the lost weight.

Scientists at the American Dietetic Association have concluded that overweight people need to address their psychological attitudes to food before they can successfully lose weight and keep it off for good.

Perhaps more of us suffer from Eating Disorders than we think.  Emotional eating is for a number of obesity sufferers the root of their weight problem - comfort eating, binge eating, or just grazing on snacks all the time even when not hungry to calm anxiety.

Elgin’s Provena Saint Joseph Hospital nutritionist Mary Carol MacDonald says emotions are an integral part of weight management.

“People who have more difficulty managing their emotions have more difficulty with managing their weight. Nutrition becomes second place when people are dealing with deep emotional issues. Once an individual has made some progress in those areas, then they can start focusing in on nutritional issues. Psychological problems need to be addressed first before someone can tackle their health habits that are related to those problems,” MacDonald said.

It’s important to take hold of the feelings we are experiencing when we are stuffing that extraneous food into our mouths.  We should consider where we are eating and when; keeping a food diary is an excellent idea to help us get to the cause of our overeating.

Rating hunger pangs on a scale of 1 to 10 is a great idea and keep your hunger at between 4 and 6 as much as possible.  Don’t get so hungry that you “could eat a man on a scabby horse” as we used to say in Manchester (!) and don’t allow yourself to be so sated that you rate a 1 or even a 0.  Notice your food triggers: rather like the smoker who lights up every time he/she picks up the telephone or finishes a meal, overeaters tend to eat when they come in from a trip out or from work.  Perhaps TV watching stimulates cravings for snacks.  Keeping a journal or food diary enables you to recognise these triggers which is surely half the battle.