7 Psychological Blocks That Can Make It Hard to Lose Weight

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Weight loss isn’t an easy journey for most people, and oftentimes, the things that stop us from making progress come from inside our own heads.

Here are seven of those psychological barriers that may be hindering your weight loss.

1) You’re thinking “all or nothing”

Most people who start a weight loss journey quit everything “bad” cold turkey and start doing all the things they feel are good for them.

That’s great, but you can’t take on an all or nothing mentality that will cause you to give up the second you slip.

Everyone faces setbacks and bad days on their weight loss journey.

But, the wrong mentality can stop you from reacting to this bad day with the right attitude.

You aren’t perfect.

You might overeat or skip a workout. The important thing is to get right back on the bandwagon and keep moving forward.

2) You’re staring at the scale

Your weight is always fluctuating, and those fluctuations have a lot more to do with uncontrollable water weight than they have to do with fat loss or gain.

Even if you were to weigh yourself first thing in the morning and then go straight back to bed, when you got up again, you’d find that the number on the scale is different–sometimes slightly and sometimes drastically.

You’re better off using measuring tape and progress photos to determine how you’re doing.

3) You’re not looking in the mirror

So many people who are striving to lose weigh have a very poor self-image.

That’s a bad place to be. You should love yourself and work towards a healthy lifestyle, not just a “slim” body.

You should be looking to lose weight for your health and happiness, not so you fit an ideal body type that you have stuck in your head.

4) You’re depressed

Most people regain the weight they have lost because of depression.

Most people don’t realize when they are experiencing it.

If you thought weight loss would fix all of your problems, this can contribute to depression and weight regain.

5) You’re comparing yourself

The only person you should compare yourself to is the person you were yesterday.

6) You’re letting your emotions control you

Most people eat when they get sad, stressed, or even happy.

Don’t allow emotional eating to be a part of your life.

7) You’re overeating

Don’t just think that you can eyeball everything.

Read the labels and always count calories so you know exactly what you are eating.

Make healthy food choices.

3 Ways to Stay Focused On Weight Loss

Starting a diet is incredibly easy.

Every year hundreds of thousands of people make a pledge to start losing weight and for a few weeks or maybe even a month, they stick to that pledge.

The difficulty arises in sticking to that pledge for a long enough period of time to actually lose significant amounts of weight. In other words, starting a diet is easy, actually sticking to one is hard.

But, don’t lose hope just yet, there are some strategies that you can use to stay focused on weight loss.

Avoid Temptation

This may seem obvious to some, but given how often people expose themselves to temptation, evidently, it’s not.

If you’re on a diet, it’s crucial that you don’t expose yourself to situations where you might be tempted to overindulge.

For example, your friends and you may go out every night after work for drinks and food.

If you can’t stop yourself from overindulging, then you’re going to need to stop doing that.

It may sound harsh, but losing weight is a major undertaking and you’re going to need to change your day-to-day life.

Get Someone to Support You

This is often easier said than done, but if you can pull it off, you’ll find that losing weight is a lot easier.

So many people out there try to lose weight on their own, without realizing that losing weight is difficult enough without having anyone to support you.

Find someone who is willing to tell you when you’re overindulging, who is willing to make sacrifices of their own to support your weight loss (i.e. they’re willing to not eat fatty foods in front of you, they’re willing to go different places to help you avoid temptation, etc.).

This someone can be a spouse, a friend, a sibling, anyone who is willing to support can be extremely helpful.

Set Realistic, Small Goals

A big issue that people have is that they set these very lofty goals for themselves.

This is an issue because if you aren’t regularly achieving things, you’re going to get discouraged.

By setting realistic, small goals for yourself, you will regularly achieve them, which makes you feel like you’re making real progress.

So, to give you a good example, instead of saying that you’re going to lose 50lbs. in a year, say that you’re going to lose 5 lbs. every 2 weeks.

This is a much shorter goal that will give your regular fulfillment.