How to keep you motivated during fat loss
Motivation is the basis for every action we take. Being aware of it makes things much more simple.
Carl Jung, a famous Swiss psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst of the late 19th/early 20th century once said:
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
We can extend this to motivation. Entering a fat loss phase without any clear goal or direction is like boarding a plane without knowing where you want to go; you are likely to get lost.
The first question you want to ask yourself is
- Why am I doing this?
The second one may be:
- Who am I doing this for?
If the answer is not you or any goal related to yourself, then you may want to work a bit on this again.
Motivation comes under two types :
- Extrinsic motivation: Recognition, fame, financial reward
- Intrinsic motivation: Passion, satisfaction, self-recognition, pride
Also, if your GP advises you to lose fat, it can have a different impact than that of a friend telling you to lose fat. If you have any serious medical condition related to overweight, then this can have an impact on your motivation. Losing fat because you want to look good or because you need to medically is different in terms of motivation. The process is the same though.
To lose fat, you are required to be in a calorie deficit and this implies some restrictions. During hard times especially, you want to go back to basics. You will feel tired, sometimes unhappy, or unmotivated and by going back to basics you will go back to your core; motivation.
How to find motivation?
First, you want to identify what triggered you to consider fat loss. Maybe you are doing this out of health purpose or simply because you want to look good, for yourself first and foremost. This is completely fine.
Then you need to create a plan where you will turn this motivation into action. You may want to get info on how to implement fat loss such as:
- How much you need to eat per day
- Should you do cardio? If so, how much?
- Which type of food may be suitable for you?
You can have a look on the web or hire a coach. There is nothing more motivating than knowing what you are doing.
Moderate your expectations and think objectively
Then, moderate your expectations. You need to be patient and have reasonable expectations. Try to think objectively and use data to support your thinking. As I said in a previous post, you should aim to between 0.5 and 1 % of your BW per week.
My gym coach is used to saying:
What gets measured, gets managed.
Having clear data will help you assess your progress more objectively and you will feel less emotional about the process which will be good. You will, therefore, make better decisions. This will translate into better results and reinforce your motivation.
Celebrate the daily small wins
A famous quote attributed to Lao Tzu states that:
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Each step is a step toward your goal. They are all worth to be celebrated and should encourage you to keep moving forward.
That better look you have in the mirror, that one more rep you can add in the gym, or one pound less on the scale the last week. These are all very motivating steps.
You may use journaling to take note of what you accomplished on any given day. We tend to forget how productive or successful we can be.
One thing you could do is write down which small steps you’d like to achieve today or simply write down what makes you grateful. Practicing gratitude helps you relieve stress and makes you more grounded.
Meditation is definitely worth mentioning. It can be a game-changer.
Let’s note that it’s completely normal to be more motivated on some days and less on others. This only makes us more human after all.
Only compare yourself to your former self
Also, I know it is SO easy to say this and hard to implement but please please, avoid comparing yourself to others. We all do this and having a competitive mindset only makes things worse. The truth is that most of the time when you compare yourself to your former self, you see how much you have achieved. This is truly motivating. When you compare to others two things can happen:
- You are better than the person you’re comparing yourself to. You can become complacent and you will achieve less.
- You are “worse” than the other person. You feel bad, you’re wondering why you can’t have what he/she has at the moment. You want quick fixes to remedy this (because you want to be as good as him/her asap). Quick fixes rarely work.
Be it in terms of fat loss, muscle gain, or life in general, you can only accurately compare two things when all others things are kept equal, hence the famous “ceteris paribus” so often used in economics.
So much can be different: lifestyle, genetics, number of years of training, …
Again, almost everybody knows that he/she shouldn’t compare but we keep doing it. A quick reminder that we can only compare what’s truly equal can be a weight off your shoulders and prevent your motivation from sinking.
Finally, here is a little example to help you stay motivated in the long run.
Application
Take a piece of paper and answer the following questions:
In 90 days:
- What will have I achieved?
- How will I look?
- How will I feel?
- Which routines will I have implemented?
You can do so for 180 and 360 days. This is a contract with yourself and this will help you stay motivated. Each time you need motivation, have a look at this roadmap. Knowing where you’re going is a great source of motivation.
Happy Fat Loss!