By Natalie Vertoudakis- Registered Psychologist

The Difference Between Helpful and Harmful Weight Loss Goals 

Goal Setting and Tracking is a trending topic of late – there are all sorts of mixed messages and advice –  SMART goals, Lifetime Goals, Daily Goals. It’s especially hard when it comes to weight loss – it can be incredibly overwhelming to know 

  • Where to start? 
  • Which Goals Are SMART Goals? 
  • How to Track them ? 
  • Where Does it End? 
  • When is Goal Tracking Productive and when is it Harmful? 

Often when I meet with patients who are about to embark on their weight loss journey they have very rigid and black and white views of what they imagine their weight loss success will look like. They will come in with a goal weight, goal weight loss amount and a strict expectation of how quickly they should lose weight. Managing our goals and expectations around weight loss is just as important as engaging with the weight loss efforts itself – this process determines whether we are about to reach these goals, acknowledge our accomplishments and maintain our achievements over time. This is why I’ve put together some key factors to consider when we are setting our goals at the outset.  

 

The way we measure success matters! 

The happiest patients I see are the patients who focus on goals that encourage intrinsic or internally regulated motivation rather than extrinsic or external regulated motivation. What I mean by this is, how we measure if we have achieved our goal. Yes SMART goals are measurable, but HOW are we measuring them?  When we measure our weight loss goals with weighing too frequently or a specific Kg amount, we are reliant on external forms of motivation. What’s the problem with this? Well, the availability of weight loss results on a scale fluctuates and eventually stops – then what? Does this means our efforts also come to a halt? Does this mean our hard work means nothing when we hit a weight plateau?  

Rather than fixating on Kg’s – shift your focus to outcomes such as feeling comfortable wearing jeans, being about to complete a 20min walk without exhaustion, having more energy to play with your kids. These are internal forms of motivation that focus on outcomes not numbers. Once we reach our outcome focused goal, we are on to the next – not disheartened by a lack of results 

Building on this, try to work on your long term and short term goals in different ways – focus on short terms goals that are specific, meaningful to you and achievable in a week time interval. Such as, “I will walk for at least 10mins daily for a week”. When we set goals too far into the future, we neglect celebrating our achievements, because, we just are not “there” yet. Instead, set long term goals on a more monthly or quarterly basis for example, “next month I want to try a new exercise class for the first time” or “in December I want to be able to throw away my old swimmers” 

In summary, SMART goals are great but the smartest goals are focused on; 

  • Internal sources of motivation 
  • Outcomes not numbers focused 
  • Meaningful and specific to you  
  • Involve weekly tracking for satisfaction and accomplishment 

Give these a try and happy goal setting!