The 3 Biggest Reasons People Fail to Lose Weight and What to Do About Them?
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Recently, researchers have discovered that the overall success rate is pretty much equivalent among the most popular weight loss programs. In the investigation of weight loss programs something else was discovered too. The success of a weight loss program for a given individual had almost nothing to do with the specific methods of the program itself. The key determining factor was how closely the person stuck to the program!
Given this information, I wish to discuss what in my experience are the top three reasons why people fail to lose weight and/or are unable to keep the weight off long term.
The first problem is that most people view weight loss as a short-term “project” rather than a life-long change in the way they live their lives. What happens is they get motivated to lose weight for one reason or another, they set a goal to lose a certain amount of weight in a certain period of time, they choose their weight loss approach, and they begin. Then one of two things happen. They either lose motivation and quit long before they really even get started, or they follow through and they accomplish their weight loss goal (or at least get close). In the best case scenario of someone who successfully accomplished their goal, what happens next? All too often, they discontinue the diet and/or exercise they were doing and begin to gain weight again. Instead of viewing weight loss as a goal to be accomplished, I think it is important to begin with the concept that weight control is a life-long lifestyle choice.
This next reason people fail to lose weight is that they lie to themselves. People trying to lose weight often become self-delusional as to how well they are following diet and exercise recommendations. Often when I review the diet journals of the people on my weight loss program, it becomes readily apparent that they haven’t even come close to following my recommendations.
For example, I usually recommend that people cut out bread and other refined carbohydrates altogether because insulin release in response to consuming carbs is the most powerful block to fat burning that there is. Yet, those people who complain that they are doing everything perfectly but it’s not working will almost always have things like sandwiches (on bread), toast, cereal, pasta, and even cookies and cake on their diet journals. When I confront them about it, they’ll usually say something about that just being a one-time exception - yet they have a “one-time” exception on every meal! While it can be difficult to stop self-delusional thinking, a diet journal is an excellent way to keep yourself honest. By writing down (or digitally recording it in some way) what you have to eat, when you eat it (don’t wait to write it down later when you may “forget” that brownie!), you have a record to review and help keep yourself honest. The process of writing down what you eat AND reviewing it each day (my patients who claim they have been perfect on the diet have usually not reviewed their diet journals on their own) will help you keep yourself honest, and hopefully the realization of how many times you are cheating will begin to prevent you from doing it.
Finally, probably the biggest reason people fail to lose weight and/or keep it off is that they simply haven’t found a good enough reason. I believe that part of the reason why there is such a tendency for weight loss to be approached as a short-term project rather than a long-term lifestyle change is that the reason people use to motivate themselves to lose weight is usually a temporary reason. A lot of people have motivation to lose weight that is tied to an event. For example, brides-to-be want to lose weight to look good in their wedding gowns. Some people want to lose weight before summer so they’ll look good in a swimsuit. Whatever it may be, the vast majority of the time, people want to lose weight by a set time, and whether or not they are successful, the motivation to control their weight vanishes when that predetermined time has passed.
The other part of people not having found a good enough motivation to lose weight is that they really don’t have any major emotion behind their weight loss goals. There’s a big difference in the emotion and therefore the amount of motivation in the person who casually says “I want to lose 20 pounds” and the person who angrily proclaims “I am sick of being fat and I am going to lose these disgusting 20 pounds of flab if it KILLS me!”.
The number one key to losing weight and keeping it off is to figure out a highly emotional reason you want to lose weight. If you can’t find that, my advice is to forget about trying to lose weight until you do. No matter how easy a weight loss program’s advertising hype makes it sound, you are wasting your time and money on it if you are not strongly motivated to lose the weight. The fact of the matter is nearly all reasonable weight loss programs work, but they all require effort on your part to make them work.
Different things will motivate different people. Some may fear health problems if they don’t lose weight. Some are motivated to be more attractive to others. Whatever motivates you, the more emotion you can attach to your desire to lose weight, the better your chances of success.
In summary, to have the best chance of losing weight and keeping it off long-term, you must begin thinking of weight control in terms of being a long-term change in lifestyle, rather than as a short-term goal. Second, you need be honest with yourself, and make sure to have a system of accountability to keep yourself on track with your weight loss program. Most importantly, you need strong emotional reasons to motivate you to stick to your weight control plan.
