Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Works for Weight Loss
You or your child has probably heard the misconceptions-that obesity is a result of “laziness” or a personal “defect”. Research and Wellspring do not support these misconceptions. Biology plays a critical role in a person's weight.
However, biology is not destiny. At Wellspring, students learn a teen diet and teen fitness program that works for lasting weight loss results. Cognitive behavioral therapy is the “glue” that holds it all together. Students learn goal-setting, stress management, and frustration tolerance skills required for initial and long-term weight loss success.
How CBT Works for Weight Loss
Overweight people, however, differ dramatically from their leaner peers in the ways their bodies work. For example, an overweight person’s body, compared to a non-overweight person, has:
- Many more fat cells
- A greater ability to store food more efficiently (called “diet induced thermogenesis”)
- Different levels of hormones and enzymes that maximize the storage of fat and affect hunger (like Leptin and Lipoprotein Lipase)
- A tendency to transport any fat consumed into storage (in fat cells) rather than into muscles to be used for energy
But as we often say at Wellspring, biology is not destiny. CBT can help overweight people manage their biologies more effectively. CBT helps them become super-normal self-regulators who are better able to set goals, observe themselves systematically, stay committed and manage the stress of everyday living.
Research published in the 1990s compared very overweight children who had received CBT for weight loss with equally overweight children who didn’t receive this treatment (the control group). Ten years later, the control group actually gained weight and averaged 60% overweight whereas the CBT group lost weight and averaged only 30% overweight. While Wellspring students have achieved results far superior to this research, studies indicate that CBT has significant benefits for initial and long-term weight loss success.
