Last Updated on May 13, 2020
How to Get Motivated to Lose Weight
Asking yourself, “How can I get motivated to lose weight?” or “Why Can’t I Stay Motivated?” or “How can I get motivated to exercise to get fit and healthy?”
If so, you’re not alone.
Anybody trying to lose weight goes through a similar journey.
First, you start out on fire, completely motivated to lose weight. You know the number you want to see on the scale and how you want your transform your body.
It’s easy to exercise and say ‘no thanks!’ to junk foods in the beginning.
Making healthy choices feels natural and effortless.
But then, everything shifts. Suddenly, everything good for you that felt so easy to get motivated to do suddenly feels like a pesky inconvenient chore.
It become easier and easier to make excuses and harder to get motivated to keep losing weigh. Exercise seems evil, your diet feels like the devil, and you want the junk foods you’ve left behind.
“I don’t want to workout! I’ll start over Monday! Pizza sounds so good right now!
When you realized you’re off track you start feeling guilty and less and less confident.
You start to feel like a failure. You know better but you did it anyway… and you find yourself thinking, “Why can’t I get motivated to lose weight and exercise again? Why does it feel hard to get motivated now even though I was motivated before.”
Sound familiar? This is the frustrating weight loss motivation cycle that virtually every person attempting to get fit and healthy experiences on a regular basis (myself included). If you’ve ever lost your motivation to diet and exercise, then this post is for you.
Master Motivation to Lose Weight and Exercise in 3 Simple Steps
- First, we’re going to go over the weight loss motivation stages people cycle between.
- Second, I’m going to go over the top 5 reasons why people struggle to get and stay motivated to lose weight and exercise.
- Third, I’m going to give you thought prompts that will make it easier for you to get motivated to reach your weight loss and wellness goals again.
- Finally, I’m going to share links to other motivational posts that will give you tons of tips to get motivated.
Weight Loss Motivation Step 1: Figure out what Motivation stage you’re in
Being a weight loss success story is about changing your lifestyle, habits, and behaviors. Not continuously attempting temporary fads and gimmicky diets and inconsistently exercising.
Fortunately, I’ve studied behavior changed in depth. See me explain my take on the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change.
To stay motivated to lose weight, you need to make sure you’re in the right stage, mentally. What stage are you in? Watch this video to find out. When you’re done watching leave me a comment and let me know what stage you’re in.
THE 5 STAGES OF WEIGHT LOSS MOTIVATION
Motivation Stage 1: Pre-Contemplation
In the first stage, people have no intention to change their lifestyle. They either don’t see a reason to change their habits, don’t think there’s a problem with their body/health, or they’re happy just the way things are.
In this stage, people rationalize their thoughts. They may think to themselves “losing weight is too much work” or “life is good just the way it is” or “I don’t need to lose weight to be happy.“ The good news? If you’re reading this, you’re probably not in this phase.
Motivation Stage 2: Contemplation
Contemplation is the second stage where most people get stuck. In this stage, you’ve made a conscious decision to lose weight and start contemplating how to do it. During this stage, you seek out information but aren’t actively changing your eating or exercise habits. You may be in this stage right now.
Motivation Stage 3: Preparation
During the preparation stage, you feel ready to make lifestyle changes because you see that there’s a benefit associated with them.
You see change as rewarding and feel inspired to take action. People in this stage make the effort to lose weight by making small changes like drinking more water, walking, or swapping out fries for salads.
Moving from the contemplation stage to the preparation stage is a big deal. Many people stay in this stage while others skip this stage completely start taking action. Skipping step 3 dramatically decreases weight loss success and motivation because it’s hard to get results without an action plan. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
Having a meal plan or exercise program helps ensure you’ll get results, which positively reinforces behavior change. If you don’t get results (aka reward) or lose weight, most people quit.
Motivation Stage 4: ACTION
The action stage of weight loss is where people struggle with weight loss motivation the most. The action is when you’re actively changing habits, eating healthy, and exercising regularly. It’s where you’re breaking your emotional connections to food and unhealthy habits. This stage is where most people reach but end up relapsing back to the 1st or 2nd stage because they didn’t get results or couldn’t stay motivated.
People struggle with weight loss because they didn’t have the education, tools, plan, and support needed to stay motivated. If you can stay in the action motivation phase for at least 6 months, your chances of losing weight and keeping it off skyrockets. Unfortunately, do to restrictive diets, overly intense workouts, and mindset, most people don’t stay in the action phase very long.
Motivation Stage 5: Maintenance
In the maintenance stage, you’ve lived a healthy and active lifestyle for more than six continuous months. Eating healthy and exercising makes you feel better than temporary happiness from junk food and skipping workouts.
People (including the original non-supporters) are complimenting your weight loss and asking you for advice. Congratulations, you have successfully changed your lifestyle! NOTE: You can still relapse back to the other stages.
Weight Loss Motivation Step 2: Figure out WHY YOU CAN’T STAY MOTIVATED TO LOSE WEIGHT
To lose weight you have to stay in the action phase of motivation long enough until you reinforce new healthy habits but people tend get unmotivated before that happens.
Top Reasons why People Struggle with Weight Loss Motivation
1) They haven’t accepted that you have to give up the habits that caused the weight in the first place (aka You don’t want to)
Are you really ready to give up your bad habits? You don’t have to change overnight. Make a conscious effort to slowly phase out your vices, and replace them with healthier alternatives. Resistance to change comes from fear-based limiting beliefs. Most people either are afraid of change, afraid of failure, or afraid of rejection.
2) They’re not emotionally excited enough about their weight loss goal as much as they need to be
They don’t want to lose weight bad enough. Get crystal clear about what you want, why you want it, and how (freaking!) good it’s going to be when you get it. Visualize it! Think about how bad you want it every time that little devil on your shoulder is trying to get you to cheat on your diet or skip the gym. A Weight Loss Vision Board can help you stay motivated and focused.
3) They aren’t getting the results they want… so they give up out of frustration
This happens when you don’t follow a complete plan that’s best for you and your goal. Make sure you’re following the right program for you. But it’s also important that you follow professional weight loss and wellness advice. Preferably a professional who completely understands the exercise, nutrition, and how to use both to lose fat, and keep you motivated, in a way that’s tailored to suit you perfectly.
Hint: That’s what I do. ; ) Learn more about my story about how I mastered weight loss motivation and how I work here.
4) They have something working against their metabolism that makes them feel unmotivated
Motivation struggles are often a symptom of a much bigger root cause. It is A LOT HARDER to stay motivated if you have toxic build-up, metabolic dysfunction, hormone imbalances, and limiting beliefs working against you.
The good news is, it’s completely possible to use food and exercise to reset your body quickly and reverse problems so you can lose fat fast. (like up to 10 pounds in 7 days fast)
Please leave me a comment and let me know which of the 4 motivation issues you struggle with the most or if I missed one.
Weight Loss Motivation Step 3: Get motivated to lose weight again
Every single day people ask me how to get motivated. Then there are people who feel bad because they were motivated but feel frustrated because they can’t STAY motivated.
The key to getting – and staying motivated – is getting crystal clear and focused about what you really want and why it’s important to you. Not your mom, significant other, doctor, friend, or anyone else. Motivation must come from YOU otherwise you’ll never stay motivated.
What do YOU want?
- To lose ___ pounds?
- To wear a size ____?
- To fit into your favorite dress?
Why do YOU want it? Why is it important to YOU?
- Why is your goal important to you?
- Do you want to look good?
- To feel good?
- PRO TIP: The more emotional you put behind your reasons from wanting your goals makes it easier to get motivated! What do you want?? Why do you want it? What benefits will you experience? Why do you want to look and feel good? To turn heads? Prove people wrong? Make your ex’s jaw drop?
Whatever your why is make sure it jazzes you up so that you remember why losing weight is important to you when you’re tempted off track or to skip your workouts. The more emotionally powerful your reasons aka ‘Why you want this is’ the easier it is to get motivated to take action.
Please note, life and emotions cycle. Everything does. Feeling motivated isn’t sustainable. When you know what you want and having really good reasons for wanting it, it’s a lot easier to get motivated and stay motivated to lose weight and exercise.
If you find that you still struggle to stay motivated, you may simply not be ready to lose weight. And that’s ok, too. Give yourself time! Practice makes perfect and it only works if you work it! But you don’t have to be perfect to work it.
So work it! You are so worth it!!!
xxoo
Your Coach and Biggest Cheerleader
P.S. If you liked this post and think it will help someone else, please share it on Pinterest.
For 20 great tips to master fitness motivation click here.
If you need help getting motivated to workout because you don’t like exercise click here.
I can definitely relate to this, so I really appreciate this article’s perspective on approaching things as a matter of lifestyle. I’ve found that the most important thing in weight loss is developing a combination of habits that promote an overall healthy lifestyle, like you touched on in #1. That’s the only way to achieve permanent weight loss, and it’s a major part of any truly successful weight loss strategy.
Great article that so many can relate to. Biggest obstacle for me was changing bad habits and moving to a healthier lifestyle that includes low carb eating. I actually started a low carb food blog five years ago to keep me motivated and have done well ever since.
I constantly go in phases of motivation of working out and eating healthy. I am trying so hard to incorporate lifestyle changes instead!
Kari
I have been in the action stage several times now, but I guess I get bored and fed up with all the restrictions. I want to be that woman who can eat the chocolate cake once a week and enjoy pasta and bread!! If I cut out all the dairy and the carbs, I lose weight but then I crave those things and end up binging and falling off the wagon so to speak.
Everything gets annoying and I’m grumpy. How do I find the right balance, without it costing an arm and a leg!
Great article. The biggest hurdle in the way to weight loss is that when one begins losing weight, the body resists this. If you go on a diet, your body will begin conserving energy. If you lose weight suddenly, your body’s metabolic rate will slow, making it an uphill task just to maintain the same weight. What I’ve found useful is taking a sauna for just 10 minutes, 2-3 times a week. It helps improve circulation and increase the metabolic rate, which aids weight loss.
Thanks for this info. I know what to do and I am sorta doing it some days of the week but can’t fully commit to it. My struggle is I want to look like I’m still in my 30’s. I’m now in my 60’s and not sure how I should look. Lot’s of confusion and can’t make that commitment.
Great post.
I find it extremely hard to change my lifestyle that supports weight loss naturally. Well, taking ‘action’ is where I always finds myself during my weight loss journey – this makes me a forever Stage 4 contender 🙂
I love all your articles, advice and videos. I am currently once again at my highest weight and I want to begin the process of getting myself healthy again but I find I get so overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin. I do great in the morning with breakfast, lunch is not an issue but come about 3:00 and so on and I am history. If it is there I will eat it. And once I cheat I am done for the day and figure once I cheat … Oh well…there is always tomorrow. This is my pattern. So tired of this pattern….
I am like Diane and Karen. Some days I am glorious and by the end of the day not so much. Sometimes I struggle with what to eat (even though I have prepared food) I want something else. Balance is very important to me especially since I am 60ish and doesn’t know what 60 should look like/feel.
This is quite interesting for i have been trying to find ways on how i can one day lose weight without affecting my health.
This is a wonderful medicine for weight loss………
Nice post… Thanks for sharing! yeah its really hard to change our daily routine. Your post helped me a lot.
i really need help on losing weight im tired of not being good enough
It’s not easy to stay motivated when it comes to diet especially if there is a lot of temptation around you. BTW I really appreciate your article. It really boosted my motivation throughout the day.
It’s a worth reading post, I have been trying to lose some weight but haven’t succeeded yet.
That usually means you don’t have a goal or aren’t in a calorie deficit that’s appropriate for your goal… Check out my programs! They’ll help you with both and get results asap. Results are guaranteed or your money back! https://www.christinacarlyle.com/program
really interesting article
thank you xox
I’m in action phase for a very long time stop and start every time . I have Graves’ disease and hormone imbalance. I have tried and keep trying and still gain weight. The above information was helpful thanks for sharig
I’m glad this was helpful. If you’re not changing as quickly as you’d like I recommend reconsidering your approach… because you should be if you’re following a plan that’s right for your needs. Diet is a great place to start. Here’s a link to a free training with more info. https://www.christinacarlyle.com/mtwelcome/