Want to lose more weight? This is for you!

Many people both want to lose weight and the aim of this post is to enhance your motivation to lose weight with self-set goals and self-questions. People successfully use clear, focused, realistic goals in weight loss programs. You can use both personal and professional goals to help you lose weight. Goals help motivate and build confidence. In conjunction with charting one’s progress and other goal management techniques goal-setting behaviors lead to higher weight loss. As people learn to set their own individual health and fitness-related goals they improve their decision-making for instance regarding meal choices, and this leads to person’s health-enhancing behaviors.

Using your motivation for making personal health decisions is a key to regulating your weight. A person’s personal goals need to be consistent with their values in order to guide their health promoting efforts over a long period. Research has demonstrated social support relates to the successful obtainment of weight loss goals. This means that your family and friends should support your goal attainment.

You want weight loss results. Ask yourself questions.

Self-questions also improve a person’s motivation to change. Self-questions increase a person’s capacity to learn. Ask yourself these seven questions before you set a weight loss goal.

1. What are the good things about your current behavior? What are the bad things about your current behavior?
2. On a scale of 0 – 5, how important is it for you to lose weight? Do you need to become healthier? On a scale of 0 – 5, how confident are you about losing weight? What will help you become more confident in losing weight?
3. After evaluating the prior questions ask yourself where does this leave you now? What would you like to do to make a change?
4. In the past, what was helpful when you tried to lose weight? Do you know anyone who has accomplished a similar goal? If so, what can you learn from their attempts to lose weight?
5. How much do you already know about the health risk or health benefits of losing weight? Is there anything more that you should know or research?
6. What concrete, short-term goal that is highly specific can I set to help me achieve my long-term weight loss goal?
7. How will I continue to stay motivated as I work on reaching my weight loss goal?

Self-questions and goal-setting behaviors are ways to improve your motivation to lose weight. Self-questions should result in actionable items. Goals need to be specific and realistic in order for you to achieve and maintain them. See how these strategies help your weight loss goals!

The basis for this post came from the Physical & Health Education Journal (Cox, 2011).