Psychological components of losing weight: motivation to lose weight
The condition for successful weight loss is having a goal.
The condition for successful weight loss is having a goal.
But failures of previous diets cast doubt on her achievement. Millions of people suffer from a lack of motivation who want to lose weight, but do not know how to set themselves up to lose weight.
The realization that the process of losing weight is a long one significantly complicates the formation of motivation. Nutritionists advise comparing the long path to slimness with a journey.
Going towards a goal without a break is difficult both physically and psychologically. Therefore, it is necessary to arrange “halts” for yourself - small (!) indulgences associated with significant events: birthdays, corporate parties, March 8th.
The main thing is to return to your eating plan the next day and continue to lose weight. This will allow you to avoid large-scale breakdowns and self-flagellation over a piece of cake eaten on your own anniversary.
The first thing psychologists advise every woman to do, regardless of whether she is going to lose a couple of kilograms or not, is to love herself. It is much easier to be in harmony with yourself and your body (even if not quite ideal) and improve. You need to immediately grasp one idea: not all people manage to lose weight, some simply cannot stand diets and exercises, and others cannot do this due to diseases of the endocrine system.
Motivation
Then you should sit down and think about how to set yourself up for losing weight and not give up. Everyone has their own personal reasons for struggling with weight. You can write them down on a piece of paper and see if losing weight is really a necessity. Reasons like “look good in a dress”, “get rid of health problems”, “wear your favorite pants again” show that a person really needs to lose weight, and they can really curb your appetite.
And if the list is dominated by such positions as “prove to everyone that I can”, “get rid of offensive jokes”, “become more attractive to the opposite sex”, this means that the person does not want to lose weight himself, but does it under the pressure of others. Perhaps this is why it’s impossible to understand how to set yourself up for weight loss and not fail.
Note! To avoid breakdowns, you need to, with the help of a doctor, choose the optimal combination of nutrition and sports for yourself. In no case should this be a very strict diet and grueling exercise; it is much more likely to start overeating under severe restrictions, and motivation disappears much faster when hungry.
All people who have ever lost weight are familiar with the situation of diet failure. To understand how to get ready to lose weight and not fail again, you need to understand the reasons for this phenomenon. Diet failure is a natural reaction of the body to restriction and harsh attitude. It is necessary to take this nuance into account when losing weight and start anew the fight against extra pounds, but with a different attitude. First you need to decide on priorities and set the right settings.
The right goal
In order not to start losing weight over and over again, but to lose weight once and for all, it is important to carefully consider your goals. A good motivation to lose weight will make you move forward, not paying attention to laziness. The target will control the actions. Since human behavior is controlled by the subconscious, it is necessary to reprogram it by changing your thinking.
- bad heredity;
- poor metabolism;
- I love to eat delicious food, so I will never lose weight;
- no time to play sports;
- I like fatty, fried, etc.
Positive thoughts for the mood:
- enjoying the process;
- I’m getting slimmer every day;
- what else to do to lose weight;
- what foods burn fat;
- I will achieve a beautiful figure in any case.
The right psychological attitude towards losing weight is no less important than diet. Visualization techniques will help you achieve the desired result faster. Regularly imagining oneself slim, a person figuratively draws a picture in his head, which remains in the subconscious, and then comes to life. The main thing to get lasting results is complete relaxation.
The mindset of losing weight is good, but you shouldn’t forget about your loved ones. Get their support. Often ladies who want to lose weight complain that they have to cook for the whole family, work takes up a lot of time, so there is no time to pay attention to losing weight. Be sure to share your plans with family members.
Have you asked yourself more than once - what is the most effective diet?
Let's just say there are a lot of good diets out there. The question is simply posed incorrectly. You need to ask: which diet is right for me personally?
Low carb, low fat or better paleo? It's not easy to go through the jungle diet. After all, we are all different - we gain weight and lose weight in different ways too.
Are you frustrated because you can't lose weight and are angry that your diet isn't working? The choice of different diets is now huge, but it is difficult to find the right one for yourself.
The decision to choose a diet often depends on what goals you want to achieve and how the diet fits into your daily life. But once you decide to “go on a diet,” the first step has already been taken!
How to find the right way to lose weight that can be combined with your daily life
Depends
- how much
- or at what time do you want to lose weight,
- how much exercise do you do
- and how much time you can spend on cooking,
- what products do you like
- and do you have food intolerances...
There are many factors involved in choosing the right diet.
Why breakdowns occur and what to do in this case
Breaking the diet involves eating foods prohibited by the diet and deviating from the correct diet. A breakdown is considered to be an increase in the amount of food consumed.
Moreover, a person does not always understand that he is harming himself and reducing the effectiveness of the diet.
The causes of failure are:
- Lack of motivation. It is necessary to form the correct perception of the diet in advance, to realize that losing weight involves a transformation of lifestyle, daily routine, and eating habits.
- Wrong target. The desire to acquire the figure of a 15-year-old girl at 30-40 years old can inspire, but not for long. A few days after starting the diet, the understanding will come that the goal cannot be achieved. This will lead to breakdowns and decreased motivation.
- Incorrectly selected power mode and menu. The choice of menu largely depends on your daily routine, work, financial capabilities, and food preferences. It is necessary to choose a diet that meets the listed requirements. If your work involves traveling and requires business meetings with partners over lunch or dinner, it will be difficult to maintain a strict diet. It is much more pleasant to eat right if the menu consists of familiar products and tasty dishes.
Nutritionists have prepared a list of 8 simple rules for those losing weight that motivate them to start a diet. They will make the process more enjoyable and easier.
Doctors advise losing weight gradually, losing no more than 5 kilograms monthly.
Taking this into account, you need to develop a weight loss schedule. An extra month is added to the total period to consolidate the result. Setting a deadline is the strongest motivation.
Be sure to read:
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It is wrong to set long-term goals aimed at achieving maximum results while ignoring short-term ones. It is necessary to divide the goal into intermediate tasks: lose 1.5 kg in a week, lose 2 kg in 2 weeks.
The results must be recorded in a diary. Weekly summing up will keep you motivated.
If you managed to achieve what you wanted, you should please yourself with some purchase or going to an event. The anticipation of reward contributes to the fight for every gram lost.
When starting to lose weight, you need to clearly define your aspirations in order to understand the meaning of the restrictions. The list is compiled independently.
Example:
- Achieve a 70 cm waist to look beautiful on the beach.
- Lose weight to size M so you can buy stylish clothes.
- Lose an extra 15 kg to get rid of shortness of breath and easily climb the stairs to your apartment.
By giving meaning to your actions, you can be motivated to go on a diet of any duration.
Diet in the minds of many women is inextricably linked with hunger. But fasting and dieting are completely different things. In addition to strict diets, there are many gentle diets that will allow you to gradually lose all those extra pounds.
The correct diet, after which the kilograms do not return over the next few weeks, does not involve starvation. Its principle boils down to limiting fatty, fried, balanced menu composition, and counting the calorie content of dishes.
Calorie balance
The basic principle of losing weight is to consume fewer calories than you expend. Using special calculators, you can calculate the approximate calorie consumption depending on your type of employment, gender, age, and weight.
If on any day you consume extra calories in the form of a cake or a piece of fatty meat, you need to “work off” them by increasing the duration of physical exercise, or make the next day a fasting day by sitting on the water.
To successfully lose weight, you need to enlist the support of other people. It’s great if your loved ones lose weight for company: relatives, friends. If there are no such people in your immediate environment, then you can join a fitness club to spend time among people who are also interested in losing weight.
Be sure to read:
Vitamins and drugs to increase appetite for adults and children: 4 main types, names
Comparing results will bring a spirit of excitement to the weight loss process. Even communicating on a forum with other people who are losing weight, discussing pressing problems with them will help you not to break down in difficult situations.
This method helps in moments when willpower fails, the temptation is great to quit the diet or indulge in excess.
You need to look at the photo for at least 15 minutes and at the same time imagine that over time you can find yourself in the place of this person with an ugly body.
The word “diet” subconsciously creates a negative perception of the process, because it implies giving up familiar foods and all kinds of restrictions. To avoid this, the word “diet” must be replaced in the mind with the phrase “proper nutrition”.
It creates a completely different context, because proper nutrition is associated with a healthy lifestyle, success, good mood, that is, it evokes extremely positive thoughts. This is exactly what the general attitude should be.
Forcing yourself not to eat unhealthy foods is the most difficult stage. A few tips to help you set yourself up to achieve your desired weight:
- reduce the serving size gradually - this way the stomach will narrow slowly but surely;
- do not eat the entire portion on your plate in 5 minutes, because the feeling of fullness comes only 15-20 minutes after the start of the meal;
- arrange fasting days once a week;
- regularly look at photos of people before and after losing weight;
- do not watch food or dish advertisements on TV;
- allow yourself sweets at least once a week;
- Try to keep as little food in the refrigerator as possible.
Willpower will help you achieve a positive result. However, in addition to avoiding unhealthy foods and regular physical activity, you need to eat right. Research has shown that in order to lose weight without harm to your health, you need sources of energy. These include:
- Cellulose. Just 20 g per day will help reduce hunger and saturate the body. It is found in grains and legumes, the peels of vegetables and fruits.
- Squirrels. Necessary for maintaining muscle mass during weight loss. The average daily intake is 20% of the total diet. Proteins contain: meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, seeds, nuts, legumes.
- Monounsaturated fatty acids. Serve as a source of energy and remove bad cholesterol. They contain nuts and vegetable oils.
It’s clear how to encourage yourself to go on a diet, but how to stay on it and not break down? The main thing is motivation. Get rid of all current problems so that nervous stress does not force the problem to “seize”. Try to set up your weight loss not for someone else, but for yourself, so as not to depend on circumstances. Do not give up! Even if you can’t stay on a diet for a long time right away, lower the bar and continue. Remember that a long journey begins with small steps.
When is the best time to go on a diet?
For some reason, many women who decide to lose weight and choose a diet think that they can start on any day - and more often for some reason on Monday. But it's not that simple. Every woman knows that the amount of energy, her emotional background and even her appetite change greatly over the course of a month. These changes occur strictly in accordance with the menstrual cycle. On average, the full cycle of changes occurring in a woman takes 28 days and includes three phases. Therefore, it is important to know when it is better to go on a diet, at what phase.
The first phase begins around day 2-3 of the menstrual cycle and lasts about two weeks. This time is great for any achievements: starting a new life, actively playing sports and adhering to the principles of a healthy diet. Because at this time a woman is not drawn to nightly communication with the refrigerator, and going to visit does not become an evening of gluttony. Metabolic processes in the body are accelerated, so we can get tangible results from losing weight. On average, this is 2-2.5 kg.
During the second phase, you can relax a little. Already from the 15th day of the cycle, a gradual decrease in estrogen levels begins in the female body. This change can lead to a gradually increasing desire to break the diet you have started. At this time, you can only slightly increase the number of calories, sometimes allowing yourself deviations from the diet. As for sports, it is better to abandon strength exercises and exercise machines, giving preference to shaping, swimming, aerobics, running and cycling.
And finally, the third phase is time for a little gluttony. It is important that gluttony does not develop into uncontrolled eating of everything in the refrigerator. Otherwise, in a week you will not only gain back all the lost kilograms, but also gain new ones. And such a development of events is very possible.
How to tune your body to lose weight
All women know the rules for losing excess weight, and on the Internet it is easy to find diets for every taste, but how to adjust yourself? The psychology of weight loss is based on compromises, not prohibitions. Giving up your favorite foods and dishes should be gradual. First, you need to reduce your calorie content and switch to low-fat foods, for example, replace the pork ball with chicken, and replace the wheat loaf with whole grain bread. Such actions will not cause resistance from the body during the diet, but will give it time to switch to a more strict diet.
Cleaning is necessary to get the best effect from the new diet. To make the weight loss process more effective, you should stabilize your stool and remove excess fluid from the body. The most radical method of cleaning is an enema, but it is better to refrain from it. Basic methods of cleansing:
- Removing excess water. Before you start, you should consult your doctor. It is optimal to drink diuretic herbs such as horsetail, juniper, bearberry, birch buds, and fennel fruits.
- Use of activated carbon. The peculiarity of the drug is its ability to remove toxins and waste. Norm: 1 tablet per 10 kg of weight. The course of treatment is 10 days.
- Taking a mixture of dried fruits and herbs. Raisins, dried apricots, prunes, rose hips in syrup and senna herb can cleanse the body. To do this, you need to grind the ingredients, mix and take 1 tsp on an empty stomach. a day for three days in a row.
- Drink one-day kefir. The essence of the method is to drink fermented milk drink throughout the day in any quantity.
Having set yourself up for the transition to a proper diet, you should find out which foods contribute to weight loss. It is also important to provide the body with the necessary minerals and vitamins, so the diet menu should contain:
- vegetables fruits;
- pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts;
- wholemeal bread;
- low-fat dairy products;
- lean meat, fish;
- cereals;
- green tea;
- natural vitamin and mineral complex.
The desire to lose weight will be fulfilled faster if you set up motivation, create the right diet and supplement this with physical activity. There is no need to torture your body to the point of exhaustion in the gym. Daily walks in the fresh air at an invigorating pace are optimal for losing weight. Dancing, stretching, and yoga classes promote the breakdown of fat no worse than strong aerobic exercise, the main thing is that they are regular.
Setting a weight loss goal
The goal of losing weight should be logical and feasible. The desire to achieve ideal parameters and weight loss limits will complicate the process and negatively affect your health.
The goal of losing weight should be logical and feasible.
The right weight loss goals are related to the following areas:
- Health. Excess weight provokes the development and complication of diseases associated with the cardiovascular system and musculoskeletal system. Obesity aggravates the course of diabetes and increases the risk of developing cancer. Excess weight is an additional burden on the body, which causes shortness of breath and worsens overall health. Being overweight makes it difficult to fully exercise.
- Personal life. Some men like plump women, but most prefer slender girls. The fact is that a positive reaction to a woman’s slimness is subconscious. A man subconsciously associates excess weight with psychological instability, a tendency to depression, and laziness.
- Job. Appearance is of great importance when hiring. Representative professions (flight attendants, secretaries, artists) require an appearance close to that of a model. The leading role of appearance is assigned to professions associated with direct social interaction. In other areas, there is no obvious discrimination based on appearance, but other things being equal, the employer is more likely to give preference to a slimmer candidate. A priori, a fat person is less prone to physical activity, more lazy, and weak-willed.
- Self confidence. Overweight people face open criticism or receive hostile glances from passers-by. Getting rid of complexes is the task of losing weight.
Be sure to read:
Proper diet: how many times a day should you eat to lose weight?
There are short-term and long-term weight loss goals. Short-term goals are clear: fit into a new dress, lose 2-3 kg on the eve of the holidays, achieve sports results. Achieving a goal in the short term promotes long-term motivation.
The mood for losing weight Sytin
Doctor Georgy Sytin advises using the magical power of words for weight loss. The essence of the technique is a special order of expressions and words, which is based on folk conspiracies. Sytin’s moods work like this: you need to choose the right words and pronounce them, but only with a positive emotional mood. It is important not only to perceive the meaning of what is said, but also to feel every word.
Motivation is what the entire weight loss process is based on. Without it, there will be no plumb line on the scales. But how can you force yourself to lose weight? The secret is that there is no need to force it. Absolutely not necessary. The more you force, the greater the resistance. The process should be enjoyable.
However, it is not so easy to wean yourself from some habits and instill others. “If you sow a habit, you will reap a character,” is that what they say? In order to “cultivate” the right character, you need to make an effort.
The thought is material. This truth has been proven more than once or twice by the leading minds of mankind. If you think of yourself as fat and ugly, it is unlikely that anything will change in your life. In this regard, I would like to mention the method of academician, doctor of medical sciences, professor Georgy Nikolaevich Sytin.
He became famous for his methods of psychological training, worked at the Cosmonaut Training Center, with Soviet athletes, and artists of the Bolshoi Theater troupe.
The essence of his method is to influence a person’s thoughts with the help of specially composed moods. No magic, or, if anyone thought, quackery. One psychology.
Self-conviction is a great thing, the entire practice of the academician, starting with the facts of his own biography, speaks of this - during the war he was seriously wounded and received the first group of disability, but he managed to set himself up for a cure in such a way that after a few years he was recognized by doctors as fit for combatant.
Try it if you want these moods, and then share the result - does it really work?
I also advise you to read my article on meditation for weight loss.
Extra pounds not only spoil your appearance and worsen your health, but also give rise to many complexes. To set yourself up for weight loss, change your psychological attitude towards food. Unfortunately, buns, ice cream, and sweets not only bring pleasure, but also create problems in the form of fat. Think less about food, because it is only needed to replenish energy.
Nutritionists give practical advice on how to tune your brain to lose weight without breakdowns and pain:
- If you decide to lose weight, do not delay the start even for one day. Any concessions delay the entry into a new life and reduce your mood;
- Do not allow half measures and strictly adhere to the developed nutrition plan. Losing weight requires a comprehensive program that includes a low-calorie diet and exercise;
- Don't swear when you fail and don't be critical of your appearance. By acting this way, it is easy to lose faith in success and lose morale;
- Praise yourself only for specific achievements when you have overcome at least a small step towards your goal. Giving up sweets is not a reason to be proud; it can subconsciously weaken your motivation.
Figure out what habits are preventing you from getting ready to lose weight. This could be frequent snacking, eating cakes in front of the TV, drinking alcoholic cocktails in the evenings, ordering pizza at home. Get rid of such behavioral stereotypes, develop new ones, and try to follow them.
4 more effective tips from a nutritionist on how to encourage yourself to lose weight
Motivation
Psychological techniques will make a significant contribution to the formation of motivation, but preventive measures are no less effective:
- Don't fill the refrigerator with food. If there is a minimum of food in the refrigerator, the risk of a breakdown is reduced significantly, since there are no temptations.
- Go to the store with a list. The shopping list should include only healthy food products that are included in the diet menu. The task becomes much easier if all family members lose weight.
- Hike. Daily walks lasting 20-30 minutes will increase the effectiveness of the diet and allow you to occasionally treat yourself to a candy or supplement (no more than once a week).
- Get a dog. Your pet needs to be walked at least twice a day, even if you don’t feel like going outside at all. This is another reason to go for a walk.
“Is this lean beef?”
When we are on a diet, being invited to dinner or a celebration becomes even more of a challenge.
By eating exclusively at home, you can easily control the preparation of dishes and the purchase of ingredients for them. Conversely, when we are invited, everything becomes more complicated.
Lunch with family or dinner with friends means an abundance of high-calorie delicacies, which are strictly prohibited at the moment. So questions arise that are strange to others, like the composition of cakes or salad.