10 Things to Know About the Psychology of Weight Loss

Losing weight is often seen as just a physical challenge, but there’s much more to it than just eating less and exercising more. The psychology of weight loss plays a crucial role in how successful we are in reaching our goals. Our thoughts, emotions, and habits all influence our ability to make lasting changes.

By understanding the mental aspects of weight loss, like motivation and self-control, we can develop healthier behaviors and a more positive mindset. In this article, we’ll explore how psychology can helps people on their weight loss journey, offering insights that can make a real difference. Whether you are an aspiring psychology student or simply interested in this topic, we hope you enjoy what’s to come. Here are 10 things to know about the psychology of weight loss…

A desire for weight loss is typically a result of someone’s lifestyle. However, it should be noted that sometimes people’s weight is a result of a health condition, such as digestive and kidney diseases, or a medication such as one for high blood pressure. Aside from this, lifestyle choices can lead to this desire or need. Successfully losing weight is also determined by lifestyle choice. It is an all around commitment. It changes physical activities, daily food intake, daily calorie intake, the desire for a good night’s sleep, and so much more. Our lifestyle choices are a representation of where we are at psychologically as well as where we want to be at.

Obesity can be a result of unhealthy eating habits. These unhealthy habits can be formed at any age and can exist for many different reasons. Some parents never make healthy food a priority or teach their children about these things. Some people never learn to cook or do the research on what they need. Often times…life is busy! This can result in always choosing quick and easy food to take on the go. However, all these things can be easily fixed once we learn and practice good habits. Because at the end of the day…when we eat well, we feel good.

One of the major psychological links for successful weight loss is moderation. Losing weight shouldn’t feel like a military program. Strict fad diets don’t work long term. Weight loss programs and weight loss products can be a waste of money. They tend to result in unhealthy cravings or binge eating once the diet is over. Discipline for exercise routines can be nice but it also shouldn’t feel like torture! For most people, making small adjustments over time is the best way to continue to lose weight.

Additionally, a common misconception is that fewer calories means fewer pounds. However, adding in healthy fats, consuming a high protein breakfast, and other things you may not expect are crucial for any weight loss plan. Ultimately, eating a balanced diet, seeking out physical activity, and not being too hard on yourself with strict calorie counting, are the key to weight loss and a healthier lifestyle.

As we mentioned before, the desire for weight loss is typically found because of poor eating habits. So when looking to lose weight, we need to leave our comfort zones with our meals and snacks. While this can be intimidating, it can also be exciting! Vegetables, healthy whole grains, protein, fruit juice and clean snacks are the goal but what are the most delicious ways to consume all of those things? A new diet can mean buying new cook books, finding inspiring food blogs, trying out recipes with friends or a partner, and learning what works with what. Once our brains make the switch, the fun begins!

Throughout evolution, our species has learned that eating means survival. Because of this, our ancestors may have over eaten to fulfill their hunger. When we are struggling to find food every day, our brains are essentially starving as well. This may lead to over-eating.

Now, if we are fortunate enough…there is food all around us. It is easily accessible – whether it be a grocery store, farmer’s market, restaurant, fast food chain, or a food delivery website or app. Food is all around us! Plus, the portions are huge! This only furthers our psychological impulse to over-eat. When this isn’t properly managed, obesity can easily become a problem.

Obesity is not a rarity in our modern world. As mentioned in our previous point, many of us are surrounded with an abundance of food. And with humans’ history of struggling to find enough food, of course having this abundance means we have succeeded. With the ability to grow, create, and sell food just about anywhere now, this also means that our economy is reaping the benefits. Food is now made cheaper and quicker with the help of poor quality ingredients. This isn’t helping when it comes to obesity, lingering body fat, losing weight.

Being able to consume enough food to cause obesity means that we are no longer struggling. However, just because obesity is not uncommon does not mean that is healthy.

Meal prepping or meal planning has been shown to not only physically help with weight loss, but it also helps mentally. Meal prepping helps us save money, spend less time grocery shopping, avoid processed foods when we’re in a rush, and help us manage our time more! When healthy meals are ready to go, our unhealthy options are limited. We are less likely to give into cravings. It is also a great way to maintain lost weight and  help us to mentally know what we are going to eat and when we are going to eat it. When our path is right in front of us it’s way easier to continue traveling down it. There are fewer road blocks when there are fewer question marks.

The other advantage to cooking your own meals is that it creates a psychological bond with our food. We created it, we payed for it, we savor it.

A food craving is a strong desire for a certain type of food. However, a craving doesn’t mean that we are just hungry. A craving means that our bodies are lacking a certain type of nutrients and the food choices we make matter. This is key when it comes to weight loss. Simply giving into our cravings may not help us on our weight loss journey if the food we are craving is unhealthy for us. Learning the nutrients our bodies are actually desiring is the goal. Finding a healthy way to feed that craving is the goal.

When our brain tells us that we are hungry, it doesn’t mean that it’s time to cook a three course meal. We need to psychologically understand what type of hungry we are. Depending on the weight loss journey, there may not be many large meals throughout the day. This means snacks! This means healthy snacks! This can mentally be a challenge at first, but understanding that our stomachs do not need a ton of food to feel full is key. Small snacks also give us more energy and keep our brains sharp and active.

Weight loss can be a difficult journey. It can be a psychological journey, as well as a physical one. And with any mental journey, there may be slip ups. It’s okay to not be perfect. It’s okay slip up sometimes. However, there may be a reason why that craving won. There may be a reason why the gym hasn’t been our friend lately. There may be a reason why meal prepping just didn’t happen. Falling off track is totally understandable, but we may want to analyze why it happened! If we do that, we may be able to avoid it in the future.