It is paradoxical that with improvement in development, the challenges for weight loss are increasing. The quantity and quality of intake accompanied by lower physical activity are leading to higher obesity around the world.
Challenges for Weight Loss
Common Challenges for Weight Loss
According to WHO, worldwide obesity has tripled between 1975 -2020. Some of the common challenges that we face when trying to lose weight are:
- Rising Obesity in the World
- Difficulty Changing Our Habits
- Unrealistic or Unclear Weight Loss Goals
- No Goal Setting
- Not Having a Plan
- Not optimistic of success with weight loss
- Stress, emotional eating, or binge eating
- Undereating and overeating
- Lack of motivation
- Lack of Patience
- Lack of Accountability
- Unhealthy dietary habits and choices
- Overtraining or lack of exercise
- Weight-loss plateaus
- Family, work, or social pressure
Most of the weight loss challenges that we face ours due to our habits. Many of our habits are shaped by our environment. We need to understand how our environment affects our habits, and how we can come out of this influence.
Habits Influenced by Our Environment
Our habits have changed with the change in our environment. Rising Obesity is hugely influenced by the changes in our environment. The change in the societal pattern has created obesity as a crisis. Each individual needs to be aware of the fact that our environment may not be guiding us to the right choice as long as the crisis prevails.
- Access to Food: With greater availability of food, we have been making poor choices of either eating more or eating the wrong kind of food.
- Automation: Technological changes have made our lives more sedentary. With technology more and more of the work done by human beings is automated. With automation, the physical work is becoming lesser than before.
- Change of Work: With economic activity focus spreading from agriculture to manufacturing to services there is a wide variety of vocations involving minimal physical work. With lesser physical activity, we need lesser energy than someone who is engaged in physical activity.
- Freedom of Choice: With a lot of food available to eat and not much physical activity, we have more choices as to what to eat and what to do with the energy we have.
What activities we choose to do in our recreational time determines how much energy we need. Anyone involved in a sedentary lifestyle is more likely to become overweight unless they consume the right foods and expend energy wisely. Are we doing enough to adapt our lifestyle to the changes around us?
Overcome Challenges for Weight Loss
1. Develop a Self-Regulating Process Habit to Overcome Challenges for Weight Loss
Rising Obesity in the World and Difficulty Changing Our Habits can be countered by developing a healthy process habit. We need to counter the influence of our environment by creating a self-regulating personal weight management process habit.
- The first step is to take a decision to improve your lifestyle habits. Weight loss or management is a lifelong process and can be sustained on the basis of lifestyle habits alone. Short-term approaches give short-term results, and hence a firm decision to stick to developing good lifestyle habits is important.
- The second step is to understand the basics of weight loss/weight gain and health. You can begin by learning about the main pillars of weight loss.
- The third step is to start to make mini-habit changes to move toward the goal set by you. Choose a good habit that can be sustained for life.
- The fourth step is to periodically review the progress and then continue with the process.
Over a period of time, the 4 steps should become a self-regulating habit that helps to manage your weight effectively throughout your life.
2. Learn to Set and Achieve Goals to Overcome Challenges for Weight Loss
Unrealistic or Unclear Weight Loss Goals, No Goals or Not Having a Plan are some common challenges to weight loss.
You can learn to use powerful ways to set your goals, goals that you can achieve.
3. Learn to Succeed with Mini Habit Changes to Overcome Challenges for Weight Loss
Not being optimistic about success with weight loss can be another hurdle in our desire to lose weight. Drops of water form an ocean. Similarly, excess weight is caused by a number of reasons combined together. Instead of stressing about the end goal, it is important to develop good lifestyle habits that support our weight management goals.
We need to learn to make simple micro or mini-habit changes that we can sustain for life. All these small changes will eventually add up and help us achieve our goal.
4. Overcome Psychological Barriers to Overcome Challenges for Weight Loss
Stress, emotional eating, binge eating, Undereating, overeating, Lack of motivation, Lack of Patience, and Lack of Accountability often point to psychological issues.
You need to learn more about overcoming psychological challenges to weight loss and maybe take the help of a support group or a coach.
5. Eat Right to Overcome Challenges for Weight Loss
Unhealthy dietary habits and choices can be due to a lack of knowledge or poor habits. If it is due to poor lifestyle habits, we need to work on mini-habit changes as suggested earlier.
If it is due to a lack of knowledge, one can always learn more about nutrition and food choices or consult a nutritionist, or a health coach.
6. Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle to Overcome Challenges for Weight Loss
Some of the other challenges like Overtraining or lack of exercise, Weight-loss plateaus, Family, work, or social pressure may be more about creating a more balanced lifestyle.
- Overtraining can deprive your body of the rest that it needs.
- Undertraining can lower your metabolic rate. Maybe you need to exercise more.
- Weight loss plateaus can be frustrating. Maybe it’s time to identify and modify some lifestyle mini-habits or seek advice.
- Family and work challenges may be a challenge, and a time to relook at the work-life balance situation.
- Social pressures may result in less time for exercise, poor food choices, or psychological challenges. You may need to look at your life more holistically and find the answers. You may want to enroll in a suitable holistic development workshop or seek help from a coach.