5 Weight Loss Lies That Might Be Keeping From Losing Weight

LIE #1 – YOU NEED TO FIND THE PERFECT DIET

This one is a good one. Let’s break it down. First of all, there is no one perfect diet.

The truth is all diets if followed perfectly will result in weight loss.

However, as soon as you stop following them, you’ll gain all the weight back and usually more.

I know for me every time I tried a new diet (and I tried a bunch), it was like one step forward, two steps back.

I’d lose, and then I’d gain it all back plus five, then try another diet, lose, and gain even more.

I was stuck on what I call the “eat, repent, eat, repeat roller-coaster”.

We hop on this roller-coaster when we recognize our overeating is causing us some consequences that we don’t like, like weight gain or poor health, and so we repent by going on a diet – one we saw online, or one recommended to us by a friend or maybe even one we’ve been on before that gave us some results.

The problem with dieting is that dieting is temporary. It’s temporary actions with temporary results.

Not to mention diets are so hard to stick to, and we have to use so much willpower just to hang in there for as long as we can.

Meanwhile we’re starving and dreaming about the day we can go back to eating “normally” again.

You know the drill -once our willpower wears out or we hit our goal weight, we go back to eating like we once did and (let’s be honest) usually more than we once did to make up for old times’ sake.

The truth is DIETS MAKE YOU FAT.

There’s a much better way to lose weight other than going on a diet. We’ll get more into this later.

 

LIE #2 – WEIGHT LOSS IS ALL OR NOTHING! YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP ALL YOUR FAVORITE FOODS IN ORDER TO LOSE WEIGHT

This was the biggest lie I used to buy into.

I can’t tell you how many times I swore off sugar and all desserts.

What ends up happening when we take away our favorite foods is we then overeat on “healthy foods” which, of course, is still causing us to be overweight.

What I’ve found for myself, as well as for my clients, is that for weight loss, it’s best to incorporate good foods, better foods and best foods.

Allow me to explain.

Good Foods are foods that just taste good but don’t do much for your health nor your waistline.

Better Foods are foods that are a step up from good foods. These foods aren’t the most nutrition, but they still allow you to lose a little weight if you eat them.

Best Foods are foods that are full of nutrients and will help you lose weight and to reach your natural weight.

The 90/10 rule

Personally, I live by the 90/10 rule.

90% Best Foods things like fresh vegetables and healthy fats, and grass-fed lean proteins, and then 10% is Good and Better Foods. Things like fruit and whole grains and dessert/treat foods.

I’ve found that when we eat this way, we end up way eating less than we would if we were omitting all the foods we love.

Why? Because there’s no compensating an entire bag of baby carrots when a handful of Cheetos would have satisfied you.

 

LIE #3 – NEGATIVE SELF-TALK WILL MOTIVATE ME TO LOSE WEIGHT

For some reason we think that reminding ourselves of how ugly we are, how lazy we are, how  we’re never going to lose weight, that we deserve to be fat because of how stupid and worthless we are and literally beating ourselves up with our words will motivate us to lose weight.

If this is you, you are not alone.

I hear this over and over from my clients: “If I love my body and myself the way I am then I’ll never change.”

They think they need that constant stream of hypercritical messages to try to keep them in line.

But they don’t.

It doesn’t work that way.

We are not motivated long term by criticism from others nor from ourselves because it’s impossible to be motivated from a place of hate.

Let’s look at it from The Self-Coaching Model perspective:

Our thoughts create our feelings, and our feelings drive all our actions and inaction, what we do or don’t do (our actions or inactions) create our results.

Negative thinking only leads to negative feelings which only EVER leads to negative actions.

Negative thinking can never lead to positive actions or results.

Plus, negative thinking always leads to negative actions and then to more harsh criticism.

Think of it this way:

Would you talk to your child the way you talk to yourself? Would you say out loud what you that little negative voice says to you every time you pass by a mirror or put on a bathing suit or whenever she shows up, would you say out loud these things to your mom? Your best friend? Your daughter?

My guess is probably not, I know I wouldn’t.

That’s because they’re just plain mean and hurtful.

The truth loving yourself exactly how you are and where you are as well as positive self-talk and compassion are what motivate us to lose weight.

Self-talk such as, “You’re doing great! That was a good attempt. What can we do today to make ourselves feel even better?” will motivate you to make better choices verses “You stupid idiot! I knew you couldn’t do it. You’re such a loser!”

See the difference?

Talk to yourself like you would to your own child who was struggling with the same thing. That’s how you will motivate yourself to make the necessary changes to lose weight.

 

LIE #4 – WEIGHT LOSS IS ALL ABOUT CALORIES IN/CALORIES OUT

We’ve been fed this lie for years and years.

Science now tells us weight loss is more than calories in and calories out.

The truth is that our bodies know exactly how many calories we need to settle in at our natural weight.

We don’t have to guess!

When we’re dieting and trying to survive off of 1200 calories, but our body actually needs 1600 calories that day, our metabolism will slow down and our body will go into fat storage mode.

Fat storage mode is not what we want our body to be in when we’re trying to lose weight.

We want it to be in fat burning mode.

The best way to lose weight is to not count calories, but to get really good at being in tune with your body’s built-in hunger scale. If you’re in tune, your body will tell you exactly how much it needs and when it needs it.

 

LIE #5 –  WEIGHT LOSS SHOULD BE LINEAR 

We think the number on the scale should go down every day, that we should consistently be losing weight day after day, and that each day the scale should be lower than it was the day before.

This is a lie.

The truth is weight loss is up and down.

There will be some days you’ll hop on the scale and it will be down and then the next day you’ll hop on and it will be back up.

Our weight, especially as females fluctuates. We can weight 5-8 pounds differently day by day.

The problem with this lie is we’ve been conditioned to believe that if we hop on the scale and if it hasn’t budged or maybe the number has gone up and then we have thoughts like:

“This isn’t working! Something must be wrong with me!”

We put blinders up to all the good successes we’ve had and how amazing we feel, and all we can see is that 3-digit number.

We allow it to have all the power.

Either it motivates us or it discourages us and then we self-sabotage.

I didn’t weigh myself for a year or so because of this very lie.

I’d be doing really well at listening to my body and the other fundamentals of weight loss, I’d feel lighter and my clothes would feel loose, and then I’d step on the scale and the number wouldn’t be what I thought it should be.

I’d have a negative thought like “Screw it!”

I’d feel discouraged and then my actions looked like stuffing my face with a sleeve of Oreos, a bag of Doritos and some ice cream to wash it down.

Which created the result of the number on the scale going up.

Day by day your weight will be up and down.

If you want to check in with the scale, go for it.

What you want to be looking at is if the number is going down every couple of weeks or every month. Not every day.

What I recommend you look at instead when it comes to weight loss is really not a number at all. It’s more of:

How are you feeling? Do you have more energy? Are you sleeping better? Are you feeling less moody? Do your clothes feel looser? Are you feeling better about you?

Because weight loss is more than the number on the scale.

It’s about how feel and your relationship with you, and learning to be more confident, and growing as a person.

There’s 5 lies. I hope you just take one nugget of what I taught you today to help you get a handle on your eating habits.

WANT MORE HELP?

If you want more help, I really want to encourage you to join me in The Joyful Body Breakthrough– a group coaching program where I’ll teach you to do the mental and emotional work of weight loss along with all the other tools you need along the way.

If you want to go all in with me and not just change your body but also change your entire brain and your relationship with yourself and with food so you never have to diet again, then this is the program for you.

You can check out the program here.

I’ll take care of you there and we’ll continue on this journey.