Rewiring Your Relationship with Food: Using CBT for Sustainable Weight Loss

According to Gallup's annual Health and Healthcare survey, conducted Nov. 6-20, 2025, 43% of adults in the United States said they’re overweight. Of these, 55% indicated they wanted to lose weight, though only 27% reported they were actively working to manage their weight.

In part, that may be because a lot of people try to lose weight, but they give up when they don’t see results.

Losing weight can be hard, even if you’re doing all the things you’re supposed to, like eating a healthy diet and engaging in regular exercise.

There’s also a component that many people overlook: an unhealthy relationship with food that may make it hard to stick with a healthy weight loss plan or obtain the results that you want.

At Sidhu Psychiatric Clinic, board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner Kanwaljit “Kavi” Sidhu, NP-C, PMHNP-BC, and our staff offer a medical weight loss program for our patients in Palm Harbor, Florida, who want to shed the weight but need some help in accomplishing the task.

Our program is different from many other medical weight loss programs in that we give you psychological support in addition to physical support, to help you achieve your goals. One valuable tool is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps you look at problems in new ways. Here’s what’s involved.

What is medical weight loss?

Medically supervised weight loss programs are services provided under the direction of a healthcare professional, including doctors, nurse practitioners, registered dieticians, and psychologists. The team provides guidance, stability, and accountability, all factors necessary for success.

When you come in for your initial consultation, we take a complete medical history, including previous weight loss attempts and if you have any weight-related diseases, such as high blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes, or heart disease. We also try to determine if there are any underlying medical causes for increased weight, and what your psychological relationship is with food.

Our team also provides necessary accountability, something a solo diet attempt can’t provide. You have regular weigh-ins, which means you have to keep working to see success. If you fall short, our team can suggest alternative measures that may help. If you’re successful, our team can cheer you on for your results. It’s a great motivator.

Using CBT for sustainable weight loss

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a form of psychological treatment that’s been demonstrated to be effective for a range of problems, including eating disorders and weight loss. In many studies, CBT has been shown to be as effective as, or more effective than, other forms of psychological therapy or even psychiatric medications.

CBT is based on several core principles, including:

• In part, psychological problems are based on faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking
• In part, psychological problems are based on learned patterns of unhelpful behavior
• People struggling with psychological problems can learn better ways of coping with them

CBT treatment, therefore, involves efforts to change the patient’s thinking patterns.

Learning to recognize one’s unhealthy thinking patterns, such as viewing food as a comfort item or something you eat when you’re bored, can help make positive lifestyle changes. You can reevaluate these thoughts and learn to overcome them, helping you to successfully approach a weight-loss program.

With CBT, you use problem-solving skills to cope with a difficult situation and learn to have more confidence in your own ability to overcome obstacles.

If you’re trying to lose the pounds and need some help, our team at Sidhu Psychiatric Clinic can help. Call our office at 727-382-1383, or contact us online today.