Do you know how to find the perfect motivation to lose weight? A friend asked me, “how do you lose weight?” She recently gave birth to a child and struggled to lose weight after the pregnancy. I thought to myself, everyone must know the answer to this question. So I replied, eat less and move more.
As I thought more in-depth about her question, I realized many people ask this question. But does the question “how do you lose weight” reflect what she wanted to know? After all, people continue to ask the question.
A staggering 42.2% of adults over the age of 20 in the United States are obese. Yet, you can diet, work out, and lose weight in more ways now than ever before. After thinking about what she asked, I concluded she wanted to know, “why was it so hard to lose weight?”
Eating Less and Moving More Causes Weight Loss.
The simple process of eating less and moving more requires you to understand the psychology of weight loss. When you are younger, you can eat anything and not get fat. But one day, something changes. You gain weight. The cupcake, glass of wine, and sitting around the house make you fat. Mental and emotional changes occur to complicate the process further. You must now earn and calculate what was accessible.
The five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) explain the beginning of a weight loss journey. Who wants to pay for something that used to be free? At first, you will not see it. Then you will refuse to do it. Next, you will try weight loss schemes.
When the weight loss schemes don’t work, then the depression will set in. Finally, you will accept your weight loss journey. You can quickly lose weight. When you decide to lose weight, then you will do it. It helps to accept a weight loss journey mentally before physically starting it. You must mentally and emotionally be ready to burn stomach fat before physically starting your weight loss journey.
Weight Loss Is a Science, Not Magic
Your metabolism sets the standards for your diet and workouts. It works on a biological clock using two hands. Metabolic flexibility (the fast hand) and metabolic adaptation (the slow hand) determine how quickly you lose weight.
Metabolic Flexibility Changes the Body’s Energy Source.
Your metabolism can change from digesting food to burning body fat within hours. Metabolic flexibility addresses your body’s short-term energy needs. Understanding metabolic flexibility can make your weight loss journey more enjoyable.
Metabolic flexibility keeps your body stable even when your diet and activities change. When you are under-eat or over-train, metabolic flexibility determines how to meet your energy needs best. Like a light switch on the wall, metabolic flexibility switches from one power source to the next.
Metabolic Adaptation Changes the Body’s Energy Level
Metabolic adaptation controls how much energy your body requires. Your metabolism adapts over weeks, months, and years. For example, when you age or give birth to a child, it causes your body to slow down. When your metabolism slows down, the same foods you used to eat will now make you fat.
You can change your metabolism by changing your lifestyle. Metabolic adaptation does not respond to short-term events. Several participants of The Biggest Loser experienced metabolic adaptations 2 -3 years after the show ended.
You can use metabolic flexibility and adaptation to burn more body fat for energy. Your metabolism can change for the best or the worst. You can take the steps needed to look and feel better by listening to your metabolism. However, it is not your metabolism that gives you the motivation to lose weight.
The Lack of Knowledge Makes a Weight Loss Journey Difficult
Most people can eat right for a day, a week, maybe even a month. They don’t struggle until they have to do it repeatedly. To lose weight, you must stay with it. When you change your lifestyle, then you can change your weight. By adopting a healthy lifestyle, you can burn fat quickly and naturally.
Hunger and cravings, two internal factors, and primal instincts cause you to overeat. However, hunger and cravings do not work alone. Many times, other internal and external factors exhaust eating problems.
Internal Problems Will Sabotage a Weight Loss Journey.
The reason you gain weight involves many factors. Emotions, thoughts, and motivations create internal problems that sabotage a weight loss journey. I know your metabolism slowed down when you aged. But so did everyone else’s metabolism.
Accept your unknown world because it is your reality now. What worked in high school or before you gave birth no longer works. But not to worry, eating less and moving more still works at any age with the right attitude and mindset.
External Problems Can Sabotage a Weight Loss Journey
The kitchen and bed determine your success as much as the gym does. People, places, and time create external problems that sabotage a weight loss journey. Many weight loss journeys never stood a chance because of unperceived threats.
Healthy choices must compete with unhealthy decisions for your time and energy. Who wants to go to the gym when you can go to happy hour with your friends? And let’s not forget about those late-night snacks you bought while shopping. Well, now they keep calling your name when you should be sleeping.
What Is the Right Weight Loss Motivation?
You determine how your weight loss journey ends. After all, you eat the food, perform the workout, sweat, and burn body fat. First, find out what motivates you. It doesn’t take much to figure out the external reasons and obstacles.
The superficial things do not last without the support of your internal motivation. You can walk away from external factors but not your inner motivation. Think long and hard about what motivates you. It can solve your problem, but it also causes your pain. When you want something enough, you will make it happen. Now let’s discuss the top 4 motivations and find yours.
Weight Loss Motivation Comes from People, Competition, Adventure, and Knowledge
Motivation explains why you lose and gain weight. You will spend most of your life relating, connecting, understanding, and pursuing your inner motivation. It causes you to act, neglect, and even create your reality.
When you struggle to go to the gym, it’s because deep down inside, you don’t want to go. You may tell yourself you do because you know it’s the right thing to do. If you wanted to go, then you would already be there. The factor that influences how you think, feel, or act is your inner motivation. Connect any goal to your inner motivation and see it achieved.
The Weight Loss Motivation from People Causes Weight Loss
You need to include people in your weight loss journey when your motivation comes from people. To be successful at burning body fat, you must have a tribe. For example, you can get more out of playing tag football with friends and family than jogging or walking alone.
To stay motivated, shop and cook healthy meals with friends and family. If you try to go it alone, you will fail. For you, success includes connecting and relating to people. In addition, you gain strength and motivation when you work with and help others.
Finding a tribe and working together changes a struggle into an opportunity. Your tribe will either help or prevent you from achieving your weight loss goals. Choose your tribe wisely and focus more on them than your fitness goals. As long as you guys work toward the same purpose, you will succeed. Use your tribe to change your weight loss journey from a negative to a positive.
Weight Loss Motivation from Competition Causes Weight Loss
When your motivation comes from competing, you need to identify, track, and celebrate your goals. To be successful on a weight loss journey, you must overcome an antagonist. Join a challenge or find a workout partner who competes as hard as you do. Competitive people lose weight quickly once they begin a weight loss journey. Unfortunately, other priorities can prevent competitive people from completing a fat-burning journey.
Competitive people naturally focus on or become consumed by a goal. A goal causes competitive people to put less important things on the back burner. When work, money, hobbies, and projects take the top spot, weight loss takes a back burner and gets left behind. Use competition to change your weight loss journey from a failure to a victory.
Weight Loss Motivation from Adventure Causes Weight Loss
When your motivation comes from adventure, you need to find alternative ways to work out and eat. To be successful on your weight loss journey, you must try new things. Go to the gym and try rock climbing, cross-fit, and boot camp. You enjoy new things and know how to have fun. You love roller coasters and thrive on an adrenaline rush.
Use your excitement about adventures to your advantage. Discover new healthy foods to cook and eat. Try a new exercise or workout program. To stay motivated, you must try new things and challenge your emotions as hard as you challenge your body. Use adventure to turn a tedious, dreadful weight loss journey into one you can’t wait to explore.
Weight Loss Motivation from Curiosity Causes Weight Loss
When your motivation comes from curiosity, you need to learn and understand the weight loss process. To be successful on a weight loss journey, you must exercise outdoors or cook by a campfire. You will find better results from visiting a national park than from working out at the gym when curiosity motivates you.
To stay motivated on a weight loss journey, conduct fitness research. Don’t be afraid to read articles, watch videos, and track your goals with fitness calculators. Then, figure out how things work and turn your weight loss journey into a classroom. You can move more and eat healthier by learning about the world around you. Use curiosity to change your weight loss journey from a mundane task to an insightful experience.
The Last Word on Using Weight Loss Motivation to Reach Your Weight Loss Goals
You can quickly lose weight; when you eat less and move more. The things that prevent you from doing either or both make losing weight complicated. When eating less and moving more conflicts with what motivates you, you cannot lose weight. To lose weight, align your weight loss goals with your inner motivation. Make burning stomach fat easier by placing it at the top of your priorities.
You can not align your goals and inner motivation just by saying or thinking about it. Use your actions to make sure that your motivation and goals work together. Become friends with people who share a similar weight loss journey. Add a weight loss goal to an activity you love performing, like dancing or hiking. Join a weight loss challenge on social media and compete with others.
Finally, try something new that helps you to lose weight. You can lose weight in one million different ways, from walking to swimming. Use your motivation to lose weight. Enjoy your weight loss journey by staying true to yourself. Start nothing you don’t like and can’t finish. When losing weight becomes a part of something that makes you happy, you will lose weight.
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