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Small Weight-Loss Goals
Five simple ways to shed pounds
For those of us who’d like to be a bit slimmer, stepping on the scale can be truly disheartening. You do the mental calculation of how much you weigh minus how much you want to lose, only to think: How am I ever going to accomplish that? But perhaps that’s the wrong way to think of weight loss: Setting smaller goals may make it more likely you’ll succeed in a big way.
Even small goals have their benefits: If you’re overweight, shedding just 5% to 10% of your body weight can have significant effects on health. “Any of the major risk factors — blood sugar [for diabetes], blood pressure, cholesterol — are also weight-associated,” says Molly Kimball, R.D., sports and lifestyle nutritionist at the Ochsner Clinic’s Elmwood Fitness Center in New Orleans. “So losing weight will improve numbers, and it’ll help with conditions like sleep apnea and chronic acid reflux.”
Setting a series of smaller objectives may also make it more likely you’ll break the common cycle of dropping pounds only to gain them back. “This is true of everything, not just weight loss,” says Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., a former personal trainer and the author of The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising Unbiased Truth About What Treatments Work and Why (Fair Winds Press, 2008). “It doesn’t matter what your goal is, you have to cut back on things in a manageable way.” Here, a handful of doable goals to jump-start your weight-loss efforts.
Start small. “When I was a personal trainer, guys would come to the gym and plan to do a two-hour Mr. Olympia workout,” Bowden says. “They would last three days, maybe.” Bowden points out that when you aim too high and don’t achieve your goal, your brain registers that as a failure. “The brain is very yes or no, on or off; it doesn’t know much about shades of gray,” he says. “But if you say, ’I’m going to walk on the treadmill for three minutes and you do that, the brain logs that as a success.” Remember: Even what seems like a ridiculously small goal can be crucial in setting you up to achieve your overall objective.
Scale back. Anyone who’s tried to lose weight knows that the scale often isn’t your friend; sometimes you stick to a diet and exercise religiously but the numbers just don’t drop. So try using other measurements to gauge progress, Kimball says. Pay attention to how your clothes fit and use a tape measure to track the inches around your upper arms and thighs, setting these as your objectives. “I usually ask guys their waist size [as one way to measure weight loss], but for one guy his neck size had gone down three or four inches,” she says. “Looking at other measurements takes the emphasis off pounds and puts it on things you can see, other indicators of success besides the number on the scale.”
Create a temptation-free home. Bowden calls this “bulletproofing my kitchen. If I have any kind of ice cream, it’s not going to last through the night,” he says. So he doesn’t keep any at home — ever. “Take an inventory of your trigger foods — we all know what they are for us: salty, sweet, crunchy, whatever things set off your cravings — and keep them out of the house.” If you need to satisfy a craving, go out and get a single serving of your favorite food.
Make peace with the gym. Exercise definitely doesn’t need to happen inside a health club, but for many of us it’s the most convenient way to work out regularly. If you’re intimidated by the idea of going to a gym, you can take small steps there too. “When I was a trainer I worked with people who were terrified; they’d come in and see a meat market and the spandex, and want to turn around and leave,” Bowden says. “Sometimes, to start, I’d just have them come in, look at the locker room and go home — that was it.” This technique, he explains, helps retrain your brain, and is known in psychological circles as systematic desensitization, the same method that helps people overcome their fears of things like flying, public speaking or snakes. “You have to approach these things in small increments you can manage, so you’re managing the anxiety or the feeling of being overwhelmed,” Bowden says.
Pat yourself on the back. Every success in reaching a goal, no matter what or how small it is, calls for a celebration, Kimball believes. “If one of your weak spots is going all day without eating and then bingeing at night, and you make the change of having breakfast and lunch every day for a week, give yourself credit and celebrate when you make that change,” she says. “Just like you’d tell your friend ’good job,’ do that for yourself. Most people are way harder on themselves than they’d be with anyone else.” Rewards, big and small, help reinforce both achievement and motivation.
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I wish someone would write an article that would give tips for a person who only needs to lose 5 or 6 pounds. These articles are always aimed at people who want to lose BIG.