Hi ,

Many people come to me with the primary goal of losing weight. My primary goal when working with clients is to get them off the diet roller coaster and begin to change their relationship with food and their body. I always stress that health promoting behaviors should be the primary goal and weight loss should be a secondary goal.

Weight loss, if it is meant to happen, will happen when you focus on changing your relationship with food and your body. Most people I work with are emotional eaters and binge eaters. When you start to meet your real needs without turning to food and eat intuitively, eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full, you naturally eliminate a lot of unnecessary food without dieting. Weight loss often happens as a result of these changed behaviors. 

Yet, there is no guarantee that intuitive eating will lead to weight loss. It really depends on the individual and where their body is at. Some people even temporarily put on a few extra pounds as they are making up for years of deprivation. As they progress with intuitive eating, their body and eating behavior comes back into balance.

Some people find they don’t lose weight but maintain their current weight, no longer caught up in the gaining, losing cycle. This is because their body is at its desired set point, the weight at which their body feels most comfortable. After years of weight gain and/or dieting, our weight set point may be much higher than we would like it to be. 

Scientists who study weight set point theory say that in order to lower the set point, you must lose weight (10% of your body weight) very slowly and maintain it for at least 6 months, then gradually lose some more weight (another 10%)and maintain it for at least another 6 months, etc.  This allows the body to adjust to a lower set point. When people try to lose weight too quickly, the body fights back by regaining the weight back quickly.

In my practice, I have met so many people who have lost 100 pounds or more and have regained the weight back. These people are left feeling like failures. Yet, they aren’t failures, their methods have failed them. Rapid weight loss through dieting is always a set up for failure. 

These people would be much better served by learning to change their relationship with food and learning to find movement that they enjoy doing and can sustain. After a while, many would find their weight will naturally adjust to a lower set point as a result of these practices. The problem is that too many people are impatient and focus on quick weight loss and it backfires on them. 

Losing weight is far easier than trying to maintain one’s weight. Maintenance requires real skill. That’s why you need to focus on changing your relationship with food and your body, and develop the skills that help you manage life without turning to food. That way, you will be able to maintain whatever results you achieve. 

When your focus is primarily on health promoting behaviors, you tend to stick with these behaviors much longer. Your focus is on health and feeling better, instead of just looking better. As you’re filled with more energy, your mood and self-esteem improves too and you naturally want to continue doing what feels good. Weight loss, if it happens, is just icing on the cake.

P.S. My older website is called Secrets of a Weight Loss Master. The greatest secret of a weight loss master is that it’s not about weight loss, it’s about how you live your life. How You do Food is How You do Life! ®

In vibrant health,