If you’ve ever tried to lose weight you know how tough it can be.
There always seems to be something holding us back.
And these barriers can come in many forms.
They can be environmental, social, mental, or behavioral.
But as a whole, they keep us from achieving what we desire most; a body that we feel comfortable in and which functions optimally.
In todays short post I want to speak about the more mental side of things.
More specifically, I want to go over 5 key thinking traps that keep us from losing weight.
These 5 patterns of thinking keep us on a seemingly never ending path of failure.
And I truly believe that knowing these thinking traps and learning to overcome them could make the difference between you losing weight and you remaining on the path you have been stuck on.
With that being said, let’s get into them!
1.The “Lose it as quickly as possible” mindset.
In a world where we can have just about anything we want in a very short period of time, we have become very impatient.
We don’t want to wait weeks or months (let alone years) to lose weight.
We want it off today!
However, quick losses almost always end with quick regains. While some fad diet may allow you to lose weight very quickly, that quickness says a lot about your likelihood of long-term success.
Why? Because quick usually means restrictive and uncomfortable.
And those usually equal unsustainable.
Remember this, if the methods cannot be maintained (or something similar enough) neither will the results (weight loss) which they produced.
Sustainability is one of the most negated aspects of most weight loss programs.
And I believe that this “lose it today not tomorrow” mindset is a key cause of this lack of sustainability.
The fix?
Teach yourself away from this quick result mindset. Spend time reminding yourself that weight loss is a long-term game.
Remember that your ability to sustain the methods are just as important as the weight loss the strategy promises.
In other words, it is not just whether or not it will help you lose weight. But whether or not YOU can continue this strategy for the rest of your life, i.e, make it part of your lifestyle.
2.Black and white, succeed or fail thinking.
Many lose a sufficient amount of weight (5–10% of their body weight) yet backslide because in their eyes it wasn’t enough.
They maybe set out to lose 50 and “only lost 20”. So, as far as they are concerned, they’ve failed.
Ironically, they end up just as heavy or heavier than when they started because of this negative mindset.
They give up 20 lbs because they wanted to lose 50.
When they regain that 20 lbs they’ll likely wish they had just maintained it.
The fix?
You must remember that progress is progress.
It is better to lose 5-10 lbs than to lose nothing. It is also wise to create several measures of success, not just focusing on weight loss.
For example, maybe you only lost 1/3 of your desired loss but you notice that you are able to do more push ups, can run longer, and/or can keep up with your kids/grandkids better.
These other wins help you stay positive and balance out any disappointment over not fully hitting your weight loss target.
Redefining success and remembering that progress is progress allows you to stay positive and keep moving forward.
3.Supplements will give me a boost.
As far as weight loss supplements go, no, they certainly will not.
They will at most provide a negligible result that you would not even notice, i.e, there would be no noticeable difference between taking the weight loss supplement and not.
Most who take supplements do not even have the basics under control.
Their diet, exercise regimen, physical activity, sleep, etc are all suboptimal (even poor) and yet they are hoping a pill will solve their problem?
There is no weight loss supplement that will negate the need for a healthy, well-balanced diet, a physically active lifestyle, sufficient sleep, etc.
If you want to lose weight you need to live a life that promotes that goal.
The fix?
Understand and accept that there is ZERO scientific evidence that any legal weight loss supplement will do anything for you except waste your money and/or produce a negligible, unnoticeable result.
4.There is a ‘’special” or “best” diet out there.
No one diet works for everyone. In fact, most diets fail because they are not tailored to the unique individual using it.
Best is a relative term. And no one will know what is best for YOU unless they have all the necessary information on you.
As far as special goes, there are no special diets that appear to produce greater weight loss.
Adherence of a diet is the key!
The fix?
My best general advice is to focus on making small, gradual, trackable improvements to key health behaviors (e.g, diet, exercise, physical activity, sleep, and stress management).
Place your focus on small behaviors rather than aiming to completely alter your entire diet.
Overtime these small behaviors compound and create a diet that works for you and your lifestyle.
Learn more about finding the best diet for YOU here.
5.Focusing and/or planning so much on weight loss and negating weight loss maintenance.
Weight loss is only half the battle. Too many put so little effort in maintaining any weight loss they achieve and yet wonder why they don’t maintain it.
You don’t simply lose weight on a program, stop the program, go back to your old ways and keep the weight off.
Remember, When the methods go, so do the results which they produced.
You have maintain the methods (or similar enough methods) if you want to maintain the weight.
The fix?
One of the best things you can do to ensure weight loss maintenance is focus your time on building healthy habits and/or a lifestyle through small improvements.
NOT following some diet plan or random exercise regimen promising an awesome transformation.
That’s it.
Those are the 5 key thinking traps that I believe keep many of us from being successful in our weight loss goals.
I believe it’d be wise for all of us setting out to lose weight to learn them and focus on avoiding them if we want to be successful in losing weight and keeping it off.
If you have any weight loss related questions or need any guidance in your weight loss efforts feel free to message me anytime.
If you want to learn more about what truly matters when losing weight, you’ll want to get a copy of my free Ebook.
It covers the 10 MOST IMPORTANT aspects of successful long-term weight loss.
Get your FREE copy here.
I also have a NEW Ebook that is free for download, “Eat Better, Move More: A Simple, Practical Guide to Successful Weight Loss”.
You can get your free copy of that here. (No email required)
I hope that helps!
Best of luck in all of your health and fitness goals!
Michael Cruz
Weight Loss Coaching 