Neuron Speed: Why Rewiring Is So Essential for Treating Stress Eating and Obesity

When I used to have wires that made me overeat, I didn't understand why I could be so sensible about food at times, yet at other times, I was completely out of control. I even felt guilty because I "knew" what I should eat, but couldn't eat that way.

Neuroscience has an answer: circuit speed.

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

The circuit causes self-sabotage

The universal, most effective way to change a behavior is to erase the circuit that is triggering it. That is not hard to do for circuits that are encoded when in low stress. You identify a response, like exercise, and say, "Okay, I'll track my steps, and you do that. However, if the behavior was encoded during a time of stress overload, the wire is not just the tail end of a homeostatic (think "tame" or "self-balancing") wire, but an allostatic (think "careening out of control" and "reflexive") wire.

When a habit is difficult to change, it is typically due to the self-sabotaging nature of the allostatic circuitry on three counts: 1) once activated, the stress chemical cascade causes the prefrontal cortex ("thinking brain") functioning to be compromised; 2) the circuit activates toxic emotions (e.g., numbness, hostility, depression, panic) which are difficult to process, and 3) the fight-or-flight wires are extremely simple, which makes them fire reflexively.

The drive is a "knee-jerk" response

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

However, the third cause is related to the nature of the circuit itself, which is emotionally reflexive. Much the way if you happen to put your finger into a flame, instantly you will pull it away, when these circuits fire, we repeat the maladaptive behavior as if our life depended upon a response that required no thinking brain processing.

The wire activates the spiral cord as the memory is associated with perceived consequences that are life-threatening. For example, the encoded wire of my Food Circuit told me I "had to have it" and was "going to get it" no matter what. It launched an emotional reflex to overeat. Add that element to the biochemical effect of the wire, which is dysregulate toward weight gain, the eight major chemicals that drive overeating (cortisol, dopamine, insulin, serotonin, leptin, PYY, ghreling and GLP-1) and its a wonder that anyone in modern sociaty where food, especially highly processed food is normal weight.

The diet industry ignored neurophysiology

The nutrition literature indicates that regardless of the diet used, most weight is regained by the one-year follow-up. Prescribing diets is not supported by scientific evidence, but the practice remains widely accepted.

The assumption is that we are running a very tame homeostatic wire when we eat, and patients are told to be mindfully aware, which nobody can accomplish when one of those lightning-fast wires is controlling us. They say to write down what we eat. However, when these wires are activated, the behavior rapidly follows, and the spiral cord is in charge. Nobody can record their food intake when control is relegated to the most primitive part of the central nervous system.

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

Instead of relying on drugs or diets, rewire the circuit

This science is encouraging to people who have blamed themselves for their struggles with food. Keep in mind: the problem is not you, it's a wire! Then, learn the tools of EBT and get into an EBT Support Group so you have everything you need to keep that reflexive wire from sabotaging your weight loss.

Rather than relying excessively on weight loss drugs, which do not rewire these circuits or trying to "white-knuckle" dieting, rewire your brain for weight loss that is natural and lasting.