Weight Loss Motivation

By Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSc RD

The key to losing weight is wanting to do it badly enough and finding the motivation to carry it through.

To start with, you need to ask yourself who you are losing weight for. If the answer is ‘me’ you’ll find it easier.

Many people who struggle with motivation lose sight of the benefits of losing weight, so start by writing a list of how you would feel if you shifted that extra 2½ stone.

Here's some ideas to get you started:

• looking better in your jeans
• not getting out of breath
• feeling more confident
• enjoying clothes shopping
• looking forward to holidays and special occasions
• having more energy
• feeling good about yourself

Most people who lose weight say they get far more out of life once they’re slim. In one study, for example, successful slimmers said they were more energetic, felt more confident, had a better mood, felt their health had improved, got more attention from people and even felt they were better at their job.

Get Support

Surrounding yourself with a good support network may also help to spur you on – and WLR can certainly help you with that. By going into the Members Forum, you’ll meet plenty of like-minded people who all want to lose weight. The advantage of this is that you’ll always be able to find someone who has been through a difficult time with weight loss and has come out the other side. This alone can be all that it takes to keep you motivated and on track. (You can access members forum by taking a free 24 hour trial of WLR.)

In the meantime, you may also find it helpful to enlist the help and support of friends and family. Do you have a friend you could exercise with? Could your partner also do with eating a more healthy diet? Or could you encourage your work colleagues to do a fruit run rather than a chocolate run every afternoon?

You’ll also find that once the weight starts to come off, the compliments will start to flood in – and this will also help to keep you motivated. Ultimately, providing you really want to lose weight and have plenty of support to help you along the way, you’ll achieve your goal. Good luck!