When I started dieting for the first time, I had a strange feeling which I later realized was one of the psychological consequences of dieting. Whenever any individual starts dieting all the person wishes is to eat – the person is concerned about eating, what to eat next, what is available for eating and when the next eating phase shall be? This is experienced by almost everyone who plans a strict diet – this is perhaps one of the psychological effects of dieting which cannot be avoided.

I can tell you from my experience – when I started dieting, my thoughts were preoccupied or rather obsessed with food and snacks. I would often wonder -

• What I would eat in my next meal? My present meal is so boring....how long do I have to continue?
• What others are eating?
• If it is possible to have a snack?
• If you can pamper yourself with a snack?

I often wondered, if it was normal? Maybe, yes…our mind and body are linked and when we are on a diet, our body passes on the message to our mind and it starts thinking about food. It is like a famine for the mind, which starts to prepare and gear itself for the coming days when the food supply is going to come down. If you try to find out the medical reasons, you will know that since we are eating selective foods, our body becomes a very slow burner of foods as it tries to cling on to every calorie which it gets – as a result the mind starts reacting too in its own way. The person who is on a diet starts thinking about recipes, plans menus and thinks about cooking meals along with some elaborate sumptuous dishes…not only this, I have even heard that people who are on a diet often have dreams about food! All this has just one message – body wants food and the mind starts thinking about it and desires food too.

Those who are on a strict diet have some other psychological effects too in the long run.

• The person feels like spending time alone as he feels a lack of energy. This happens because due to prolonged period of diet the person starts depriving oneself and slowly starts to feel a void. We often associate good food with pleasure and once you deprive yourself from good food, you start feeling that you are depriving yourself from pleasure which you can actually avoid.

• The person becomes much more anxious and gets more obsessed about food.

Many experts believe that dieting has negative effects on human psychology…this is not true! It is dependant on how a person thinks about dieting. However, in most cases the person starts getting depressed and anxious – there is a concern whether so much deprivation is actually going to work in a positive way and if it shall help to lose weight in the long run.

Image credits: http://drhewitt.files.wordpress.com, lifehack.org