The truth is, it's a life-changing event. Obviously, there are physical, social and economic effects.

But often, your greatest enemy when losing weight is fear. You have to battle self-doubt. You have to deal with the pain of how cruelly people have treated you.

You have to confront all the hurts, fears, and agonies you've endured - and kept inside - possibly for years.

When you're severely overweight, many people treat you like you're stupid, lazy, even worthless. Some of the worst offenders have "MD" after their names.

Sound familiar?

I think many of you who are obese know exactly what I mean. Experiences like that change you - even if other people don't realize it.

Many times, before you can succeed with weight loss, you have to conquer your fears and self-doubt. You have to learn to believe in yourself.

As you begin to lose weight, your body may change faster than your emotions can handle. So even though you want to lose weight, it's natural to fear it.

You may become anxious, filled with self-doubt, even develop irrational fears.

Suddenly, every headache is a brain tumor, every car ride is an accident waiting to happen, every ring of the telephone is bad news.

But these irrational fears may just be a way of releasing all the emotions you've kept inside for so long. Maybe these are some of your real fears instead:

1. You've tried to lose weight so many times before, you can't believe it'll work now.

2. You'll have to give up all your favorite foods, possibly forever.

3. You'll gain the weight back.

4. You'll let other people or yourself down if you regain the weight.

5. You're not good at exercise or you don't want people to see your body when you exercise.

6. You won't be able to cope with problems if you can't have food.

7. You're overwhelmed by how much weight you have to lose.

8. Other people will react with jealousy, anger, or resentment.

9. You'll lose your overweight friends.

10. Other people will expect more of you after you lose weight.

11. You'll always have to be perfect - your hair, your clothes, everything.

12. You won't be able to cope with all the attention you'll get when you're thin.

13. You'll become attractive and sexy to the opposite sex.

14. You'll become one of the skinny people you hate.

15. People will still reject you when you're thin and you can no longer blame your weight for the rejection.

Of course, not everyone who has to lose weight develops irrational fears. Especially if your friends and family are supportive of your weight loss efforts.

But even then it's natural to feel self-doubt when you have a lot of weight to lose. And it's easy to let those fears or self-doubt sabotage your weight loss.

There's an old saying that sums up why so many of us are afraid of change, even when it's good for us: "It's easier to stay in a known hell than to risk an unknown heaven."

I think it's worth the risk. Do you?

Copyright (c) 2007 Debbie Fontana