For millions of Americans, losing weight is a constant struggle, but local nutrition expert claims it may have less to do with what you're eating, and more to do with what you're thinking.

KVUE News

Shortly after the birth of her second child, Ange Eaton weighed nearly 230 pounds. "I was overweight," said Eaton.

She tried to lose the weight by dieting.

"We've all been on a 'diet' where you have a set amount of food you're supposed to eat and then you waver a little bit, you cheat a little bit, and suddenly, I blew my diet. I failed," said Eaton.

"The weight loss effort dies an untimely death," said Gary Avignon, a psychotherapist in Austin. He says it's one of several "psychological traps" that can "sabotage weight control." Those "traps" are the focus of his new book, Psyche your Weight.

Psychological Trap #1: You think that you want weight loss

"Most people focus on weight and weight loss like it's the highest good, but what people really want is to achieve a desired weight, which certainly involves weight loss, but they also want to sustain it for life with a relative degree of ease -- while they live and participate in the real world," said Avignon.

Psychological Trap #2: You think that weight control is simple and should be easy

"In the subconscious mind, most people who are overweight, they think it should be simple and easy because they've been told it should be simple and easy, 'Just have some will power, just push yourself away from the table, this is not that complicated, just buck it up. You can do this,'"

Psychological Trap #3: You have unrealistic weight loss expectations

"All you have to do is stand in the checkout line in the grocery store and look at the magazines and you see -- 14 pounds in two weeks and you see nine pounds every 11 days, lose five pounds by tomorrow. You have to take 3,500 calories less than you need to lose one pound of fat, so losing 5 pounds in a week is not possible week in and week out," said Avignon. "When we don't meet these realistic expectations, then we feel like we're not doing something right, the diet's not working, and what happens when we feel like the diet's not working and we're a failure -- we quit," said Avignon.

Psychological Trap #4: You assume that you understand the scale, but you don't

"People think that when the scale goes up -- that it means something about their weight and it does, but they fail to distinguish between muscle mass fat mass, and fluid mass. Fat mass cannot fluctuate 3 pounds, 4 pounds, 5 pounds in a day's time, but fluid mass can," said Avingon. "Fluid can fluctuate very easily and there's some things that cause fluid retention that people are not aware of like medication changes, sodium intake -- so that the body weight fluctuates very rapidly," said Avignon.

Psychological Trap #5: You assess your performance against a standard of perfection

"We identify a perfect way that things should unfold and if we fall short of that, all we see is that, 'I didn't do it right,' so anything less than perfect is defined as a failure or a breakdown. I don't give myself credit for the 95 or 98 percent of the nutrition intake that's on target," said Avignon.

Psychological Trap #6: You ignore deprivation, but then you overeat

"If we go without foods that are important to us, there's going to be a sense of deprivation, and the law is for every deprivation, there's an equal and opposite overeating event," according to Avignon.

Psychological Trap #7: You think in "black & white"

"The diet industry has taught us that we're either on a diet or off a diet. When I'm on the diet, I'm good -- when I'm off the diet, I'm bad," according to Avignon. He says if you 'digress' from your diet, get right back on it.

Psychological Trap #8: You believe that weight control requires willpower

"I feel like this is not an emotional issue. There are very profound, biochemical, physiological underpinnings that set people up for their body to be in fat storage mode and for them to have food cravings and a very strong urge to eat," said Avignon.

Psychological Trap #9: You believe that eating healthfully must be high maintenance

After changing her mindset, Eaton is finally satisfied. She weighs about 200 pounds.

"I would ultimately like to lose about another 20 or 25 pounds, but I've sort of gotten to a place where I'm pretty happy with where I am," said Eaton.