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9 Psychological Tricks to Help You Lose Weight
Weight Loss
12/10/2024
8 min read
Losing weight isn't just about dieting and hitting the gym. Significant weight loss involves both the mind and the body. Understanding how our minds influence what we eat and how we feel can make the weight loss journey a little bit easier.
In this blog post, we'll explore 9 psychological strategies that can make all the difference in shedding those extra pounds.
1. Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful eating involves being fully present and aware throughout the eating experience. This technique focuses on paying attention to the colours, smells, flavours, and textures of food.
By chewing slowly, eliminating distractions, and managing emotions related to food, mindful eating is one way to build healthy eating habits and avoid overeating.
Many of us turn to food for pleasure or as a way to deal with stress. Mindful eating can reduce emotional eating behaviours, helping us to distinguish between physical and emotional hunger. It also supports digestive health and fosters a healthier relationship with food and body image.
Tips on how to eat mindfully
Start by evaluating your hunger scale before meals.
Eliminate distractions like TV or your phone during meals.
Look at and smell your food to engage your senses.
Eat slowly and be mindful of the sensation of fullness.
By embracing eating mindfully, individuals can develop a more conscious and positive approach to food.
2. Reframe Your Mindset
Limiting beliefs about weight loss like "I'll never be able to lose weight" or "I always fail at diets" can be really unhelpful. Recognising and challenging these thoughts is the best way to create the positive mindset that's needed to help you lose weight.
Try to reframe these negative views and aim for a growth mindset. This means aiming to see challenges as opportunities for growth and learning. Embracing this mindset helps you to see setbacks as temporary, and develop the resilience to overcome challenges that will inevitably come up when trying to lose weight.
Focus on progress, effort, and self-improvement rather than fixed outcomes, and make sure to praise yourself as you go along. Positive self-talk and affirmations can rewire the brain to focus on your strengths rather than your limitations.
By replacing negative thoughts with empowering statements like "I am capable of reaching my goals" or "I am making healthy choices every day," you can boost your confidence and motivation. You'll be more likely to keep working towards your weight loss goals.
3. Visualise Your Success
Visualisation is a powerful tool that can aid weight loss by improving motivation and purpose. By creating a mental image of your desired outcome, whether that's your ideal body weight, a more active lifestyle, or fitting into your favourite pair of jeans, you can trigger positive behavioural changes.
Imagining yourself at your ideal weight and picturing people complimenting your progress can help reinforce a positive self-image and motivation to reach a healthy weight.
Dedicate time daily to visualise your body in its ideal state. Picture yourself with your desired physique, feeling confident and healthy. Think about loved ones praising your progress and admiring your transformation.
Visualisation is a powerful tool to manifest positive changes as part of a healthy weight loss journey.
4. Manage Emotional Eating
Emotional eating is often a response to stress, boredom, loneliness, or anxiety. It's a common coping mechanism to deal with negative feelings. However, it can have serious health consequences, including eating disorders, and can make it difficult to lose weight.
Using food to cope with feelings rather than addressing the underlying issues is unsustainable and usually results in excessive food intake, weight gain, and a high body mass index. It also makes it more likely that someone will regain lost weight.
Recognising triggers like work stress, relationship struggles, or health issues helps when managing emotional eating. Keep a food and mood diary to track what prompts emotional eating episodes.
Healthily exploring your emotions can help you avoid turning to food. Talk to a friend, write about your feelings, or engage in physical activities to express your emotions. You may also consider therapy with a mental health professional or advice from a specialised dietician.
5. Master Portion Control
How Can Portion Control Help with Weight Loss?
Research shows people eat more calories when given a bigger portion.
Portion control helps manage the number of calories you eat.
With smaller portions, you're more mindful of what you eat.
As long as you don't fill your plate with high-fat foods and simple carbohydrates, smaller portions usually mean fewer calories.
Practical Tips for Portion Control
Use smaller plates
Opt for plates around 9 inches across to make portions appear larger and to stop yourself from eating extra calories that your body doesn't need. Try to fill at least a quarter of the plate with low-calorie vegetables.
Read your food labels
In the UK, we have red, amber, and green colour coding on all packaged foods. This helps to understand the nutrients in the food you're eating, and how much of your daily intake of calories, fat, saturated fats, sugar, and salt is in the packaged food.
Often, the packaging also advises on how big a portion or serving should be. This is helpful for you to know how much you should be eating.
Measuring servings
Use measuring cups or other tools to start with to get an idea of appropriate portion sizes. You don't have to always do this, but it can be helpful initially.
Unsure where to find out about reasonable portion sizes? Visit the British Nutrition Foundation website and read their handy portion guide.
6. Tap into Social Support
Social support is really important when you're trying to lose weight. Knowing your loved ones are behind you can help with motivation, but also gives a level of accountability to your actions. As long as your friends and family aren't too pushy, it can be good to have someone checking in and motivating you to keep going.
Finding an accountability partner can help you stick to those healthy habits and boost your morale when you're struggling. Weight loss communities can also help with this, as they offer a sense of belonging.
But how do you get an accountability partner? Find a friend or family member who can support your weight loss program and hold you accountable. Set up regular check-ins to discuss progress, and challenges, and celebrate achievements together.
By tapping into the power of social support, you can benefit from encouragement along the way.
7. Practice Self-Monitoring
Why Is Self-Monitoring Effective?
Self-monitoring gives you a chance to reflect on your behaviour around eating, food choices, and physical activity/exercise.
Research suggests accountability and self-monitoring strategies lead to better weight loss outcomes.
Monitoring throughout your weight loss regimen encourages responsibility and reveals problematic habits that can be changed.
Tools for Self-Monitoring
Food journals
Tracking food intake helps monitor calories and makes you more aware of what you're eating, including certain foods that are full of empty calories.
Fitness trackers
Monitoring your physical activity levels encourages you to stay active and meet your exercise goals. You're more likely to notice positive physical changes that can help motivate you to keep going.
Goal-setting apps
Apps like MyFitnessPal let you track your weight loss goals effectively. Weight loss targets can be great motivators, and research suggests targets can lead to greater long-term weight loss.
8. Celebrate Non-Scale Victories
What are non-scale victories? Non-scale victories are achievements that go beyond the numbers on a scale.
These victories celebrate the progress that extends beyond body size and focuses on changes contributing to overall wellness.
Examples of non-scale victories to celebrate include:
Noticing clothes feeling looser or fitting better
Lifting heavier weights or doing more reps during workouts
Feeling happier, less stressed, or more emotionally balanced
Experiencing increased energy throughout the day or avoiding midday slumps
Sleeping better or waking up feeling more rested
By celebrating these achievements, it's easier to stay motivated, boost self-confidence, and maintain a positive mindset even if the results on the scale are a bit disappointing.
9. Embrace a Holistic Approach
Everything is about balance. Weight loss affects the body but begins in the mind, so it's important to consider both.
Nurturing the Body
Exercise
Regular physical activity doesn't just help with weight management. It also improves cardiovascular health, boosts metabolism, and enhances overall well-being.
Sleep
Quality sleep is essential for weight loss as it regulates hormones and promotes metabolic function.
Hydration
Staying hydrated supports metabolism, digestion, and overall health. Drinking water can also help control appetite, helping you to eat less and lose weight.
Diet
We can't talk about looking after the body without mentioning diet. Try to eat a diet full of nutrient-dense foods like fish, eggs, legumes, nuts, vegetables, and fresh fruits. Do your best to avoid liquid calories (like sweet drinks or alcohol), fast foods that are high in saturated fat, ultra-processed foods, and foods with added sugar.
Nurturing the Mind
Stress Management
Stress-reducing techniques like meditation, deep breathing exercises, or yoga can help lower cortisol (the stress hormone) levels. This can help to reduce emotional eating and support weight loss goals.
Self-Care
Self-care can include anything from mindfulness to walking in nature. Spending time doing hobbies you love can improve your mental well-being and enhance your overall health.
Remember, It's a Journey, Not a Race:
In this article, we've discussed our top weight loss psychological tips, including:
Eating mindfully
Reframing your mindset
Visualising success
Dealing with emotional eating
Controlling your portions
Using your support network
The importance of self-monitoring
Celebrating non-scale victories
Taking a holistic weight loss approach
A weight loss journey is about more than just counting calories. It requires a holistic approach, encompassing both the mind and the body.
Remember, it's not about perfection but progress. Celebrate every step forward, no matter how small, and stay committed to your goals. With dedication and self-compassion, sustainable weight loss is within reach.
