What are your personal experiences with weight loss?

Nathan_Ayala

Nathan_Ayala

New member
Here are a few guiding questions, I'd appreciate if you answered them:

What is hard about losing weight? Why?, When do you think about losing weight? What have you tried? What worked? What is your motivation to lose weight?

Answer as specifically as possible. Stories (good or bad) are appreciated! :)

Thanks,
Nate
 
What hard about losing weight?

Breaking old habits, medicating emotional volatility with food, and cultural temptation to eat.

When do I think about losing weight?

When I decide it's time to lose some fat.

What have you tried?

Habit reform. Calorie counting. IIFYM. Low Carb. Cyclical Ketogenic.

What worked?

All of them.

What is your motivation to lose weight?

Depends on which attempt we're talking about. Sometimes it's because I need to get my relative strength up for mountaineering or mountain biking trips. Sometimes it's because I want to look good for summer. Other times it's because it's just what I want to do at the moment.
 
Steve, would you mind expanding on "What's hard about losing weight?" What parts of breaking old habits, emotional numbing where hard? Why were they hard?

Personal stories would be much appreciated!
 
Example Post:

When I tried to lose weight, for me the hardest part was eating less. I had just ended an amateur attempt to get really strong and had been eating 3-4k calories/day. Eating normal portions was tough because I craved that 'full feeling' you get when you over eat.

I often thought about losing weight when I tried to play sports with my friends, I just couldn't keep up and sports lost their fun. I also hated not wearing a shirt. Everyone seeing your belly is horrible.

I tried a low-carb approach, food journalling, running, weight lifting, and they all worked to some extent. But eating more vegetables and cutting back on simple carbs has had the most profound impact on my health and weight.

My motivation to lose weight was to have the body of a health coach. I'm very interested in a career in health coaching and I don't want to be that guy telling other what to eat when I have a belly myself. Looking good is another huge motivator. I'd love to feel confident with my shirt off in public.
 
Oh sorry, I was speaking generally. I've about 15 years experience working with over 1,000 people in that time... so I was just picking out the big ones that tend to apply to most situations.

But I'll play your game.

What parts of breaking old habits...

I had a nasty habit of eating a bunch of junk food late at night about a decade ago. It had nothing to do with physiological hunger. It was purely emotional. I hated my career. I was stressed and anxious. And I medicated with food. Food was abundant and offered immediate (though fleeting) relief. Not being equipped with the emotional wherewithal to manage things properly... and having fed the feel bad --> eat --> pleasure cycle run so many times before... and knowing what we know about habits and how they work on the neuro-endo level... it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why it's a hard pattern to break.

Eventually broke it with embracing vulnerability, learning to feel my feelings and respond to them with attention, and really dialing into the narrative that was running in my head with tools such as cognitive behavioral therapy.
 
thanks for playing :) Great answer!

So you used CBT, and emotional focus techniques, on yourself. Did any of these techniques help your clients?
 
Nathan_Ayala said:
thanks for playing :) Great answer!

So you used CBT, and emotional focus techniques, on yourself. Did any of these techniques help your clients?
Click to expand...

Did and still do.

As a coach who works primarily with folks wanting to lose fat... I'd say much more of my time is spent focusing on mindset than it is on movement or eating. I mean, I can talk about the latter two all day long if you want. But when the rubber meets the pavement... as in the day to day interactions with clients.. most of what's called for is an emphasis on the human side of the puzzle. There are plenty of "coaches" out there that try and fix human problems with set, rep, calorie, and macro prescriptions and that's grossly oversimplifying what's at play here.

Teaching things like a growth mindset from Dweck's Mindset Theory, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, mindfulness, emotional regulation, , acceptance & commitment therapy, environment management, etc... these are the tools that aren't discussed nearly enough.
 
That's awesome! For me, learning about cognitive behaviour therapy has been HUGE for achieving my goals. I'm pretty new to the coaching scene so I haven't taught it to anyone else, but I think I know what I need to study more if I want to be a good coach.
 
Nathan_Ayala said:
That's awesome! For me, learning about cognitive behaviour therapy has been HUGE for achieving my goals. I'm pretty new to the coaching scene so I haven't taught it to anyone else, but I think I know what I need to study more if I want to be a good coach.
Click to expand...

Good for you! You're on the right track. If that's where your nose is pointing... you're destined to be better than 99% of the garbage that's out there calling themselves coaches. Feel free to hit me up anytime if you want book suggestions or if you simply want to talk shop.
 
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