It is common knowledge that success and failure can have an effect on self-esteem. People try to restore their self-esteem if it has been harmed. What people want is a positive self-image.
So, if you have a dieting failure, you are likely to experience a feeling of lower self-esteem. It would be good, in this case, if you could repair your sense of yourself as being capable. If not, you may fall into even more eating, to compensate for the injury to your self-esteem. Many women say that their eating gets out of control most, especially when they feel bad about themselves.
Pay particular attention to this idea of injured self-esteem after you fail at dieting. It's not just that you failed to lose weight - or lost it only to gain it back. It's that your psychology is involved, how you feel about yourself, how disappointed you are in yourself, and how you might go about repairing the psychological damage.
It feels good to do well. It feels bad when you don't do well. Interestingly, someone who
turns to more food after a dieting failure may be trying to soothe the bad feelings related to failure. In some cases it may be a somewhat convoluted attempt at restoring self-esteem by trying to feel "deserving" of this food, this comfort.
Whatever the particular issues that arise for you around a dieting failure, your self-esteem is bound to be involved, and is worth thinking about.
