Weight Loss Sabotage

Some people in your life might try to sabotage your weight loss success.

If you’ve decided to lose weight and announced this decision to various friends and family you’ve likely been faced with mixed reactions.

This is because the idea of weight loss hits at a very deep emotional level for just about everyone. This is because it’s a conscious decision to change your body.

Which could also be taken as a open admission that you’re not currently happy/satisfied with your body…otherwise why the hell would you be trying to lose weight.

I think it’s perfectly fine and normal for people to want to strive to change the look/shape of their body. After all, it’s your body, so it’s your right to choose what you’d like to do with it.

When you tell someone you want to lose weight and you get a less than favorable reaction, it’s more than likely that they’ve got a body weight and self perception issue that is causing the negative reaction. It’s not that they’re really don’t want you to lose weight, it’s that if you’re successful it will somehow make them feel worse about themselves.

This is something you need to be aware of if/when you ever set out to lose weight and are looking for some social support.

Choose the people you tell wisely.

I like to call it ‘recruiting your weight loss team’. Some people will be very supportive, while others will be a drag on your progress and make you feel lousy about trying.  If this ever happens just realize that their negativity is not about you, it’s about them.

If you are in the middle of a weight loss program,  I suggest taking an inventory of everyone who is positive and supportive and those that are a drag and negative about it. From there you can either cut back the amount of time you spend with the negative people, cut them out completely, or if they’re really important people ask them to support you no matter how it makes them feel cuz it’s important to you.

Weight loss is tough enough, having anyone around you that is trying to sabotage it will make it almost impossible. It’s your job to be aware of who the likely saboteurs might be and insulate yourself from them.

John

Posted by johnbarban in Human Nature, Weight Loss
Tags: social support, Weight Loss, weight loss team |5 Comments

5 Responses to “Weight Loss Sabotage”

  1. blwegrzyn Says:
    August 2nd, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    This is true. All I hear now is:
    “man you look bad, you lost so much weight, are you sick?”
    I am 6.1 and 168 with around 8-9 body fat. I know I need bigger shoulders, but it takes time and I am in the process of getting to my ideal AI. So until I get there people will think I have a cancer or something. Even girls tell me that I need more meat!!!
    And when I say that I am still working on muscles, they say no , no muscles you need more fat.

  2. usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
    August 2nd, 2010 at 1:56 pm

    blwegrzyn, I used to hear that too (before I started lifting weights consistently). So ass backwards, huh?!

    Great blog post as usual, JB, and good point about surrounding yourself with positive people and spending less time with people who drag you down (unless they are people important to you).

  3. johnbarban Says:
    August 2nd, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    blwegrzyn,

    I think two things are going on there.

    1) People are getting so used to seeing fat people that they’ve lost their conception of what a perfectly healthy and lean body looks like.

    2) Your weight loss is making them feel awkward or uneasy about their own body (and in some cases it may make them feel like you’re progressing past them or leaving them behind)

    JB

  4. tswede11 Says:
    August 3rd, 2010 at 8:53 am

    theres happened a paradigm shift in mainstream society fat is the new fit so anyone who is trying to break the circle is deemed as unhealthy . we have to be aware of that we are fighting a complete belief system about nutrition and weightloss and exercise , but thanks to people like jb and brad pilon we can peak behind the curtain of what really causes fatloss = eat less calories move more , enjoy life !

    the swede

  5. clementinho Says:
    August 3rd, 2010 at 9:32 am

    Hi John, I just wanted to say, great podcast for the Adonis lifestyle. And by the way, what is the phi-life about?

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