What do you think is harder?

G

genius2687

Guest
Being motivated to lose weight?

Or

Being motivated to stay at your goal weight once you've reached it?


(Note that for those who have not reached their goal weight, the second question doesn't really apply so this is kind of a selective question.)
 
For me staying motivated is hard b/c I'm not a patient person and even though I've lost almost 30 lbs I don't feel like I look any different. But I'm sticking with it and being patient and I know that in the end it'll pay off. It's also hard to be around friends or family when they are eating things you shouldn't be eating but so far I haven't given in so I'm proud of myself for that. What really keeps me motivated is wanting to be completely happy with myself and knowing that as long as I'm overweight I won't be.
 
Your question intrigues me.

Overall, I think if you are doing an overall life style change (and not a quick fix) it should be easy to stay at your goal weight.

So, I would have to say (no experience though) that staying motivated to lose weight is tough, because you do not see results right away.
 
Being motivated to lose weight?
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I was lucky, because my motivation this time came almost out of thin air - I found it quite easy to lose weight. I found it a positive experience because I never let myself get hungry, I just ate lots of healthy food and started exercising.

Being motivated to stay at your goal weight once you've reached it?
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My goal for the past few months has been to gain weight! I lost a lot of muscle when I lost the body fat. Now I'm on a programme of strength training to increase my muscle, which I believe to be important at my age, if I am to improve my fitness and long term health. That means that I presently eat surplus calories, and also that besides the muscle, I'm also regaining some of the fat. It don't let myself worry about it. I can lose the fat again, my goal now is better fitness.

Motivation has been easy to find because I have been enjoying the exercise, and the feeling of fitness. I have enjoyed being able to exercise. I'm going to finish a long distance walk this afternoon - thats another achievement - I'm enjoying life more now.

I guess the answer is that once I reached my low weight goal (I fell under ten stone - 138 pounds, that was a little too light for a man, even at a height of 5ft 8" - I didn't want to be a wimp anymore than a fat man), I set myself new goals in fitness and in enjoying an active life.
 
I know it has been very hard to keep motivated to loose this weight. I have been very fortunate to have so many people supporting me :]

One day I will be able to answer if it is harder to maintain my goal weight. I cant wait to get there - I am pretty sure once I do it - I will be fine. I have made my healthy habits my life now. I'm so proud!
 
i try to stay motivated but its tough, i'll start one diet or workout routine and stick with it for awhile and eventaully a few weeks later i just fall out of it :(
 
Personally I've always found staying motivated to lose weight easy - and staying motivated to maintain that loss a 3-legged female dog. LOL. Mostly it's because I work best (in any situation) with clear, easily defined, measurable goals with periodic rewards and an "end" in sight. But, no matter how much I liked being a smaller size, without that structure, it was just insanely easy to fall back into bad habits.

I still find maintaining a pretty tough challenge, (and from everything I've read it will remain hard for another couple of years), but this time I'm putting my focus on fitness and nutrition because, like weight loss, they have clear defined, measurable goals and rewards (even if it's just a good feeling) associated with meeting those goals....and once I reach a goal, I can just raise the bar higher or set a new goal. For instance I started (a long, long time ago) with a nutrition goal of eating an apple ever single day...and now one of my nutrition goals is to eat a combination of 9 servings of fruits/veggies a day. Same thing with fitness...I can always work on increasing strength/speed/endurance. I figure by the time I run out of new nutrition/fitness goals I'll be at the five year mark when maintaining supposedly becomes "easier" -- I hope.
 
I think finding a good motivation is the hardest part.We create motivation based on our principles of life and our value scale.If health/a good image is a priority for you than you'll be strongly motivated to lose weight.Having the right motivation triggers the mind to find resources for achieving your goal.
 
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