Do you think that personality has an effect on weight loss success?

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Replies

  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    threewins wrote: »
    I do because I think that I am highly motivated towards weight loss (I've been at goal weight 5 times, yo-yoed nearly 300 kg) however I have a habit of half-donkeying* things. Maybe successful weight losers have a special personality which makes them highly motivated and experienced at completing tasks, hence they reach goal weight quickly and stay there. What do you think?


    *American name for donkey

    IDK...I successfully lost 40 Lbs and have kept it off for the most part going on 7 years this spring. I don't have any kind of special motivation powers or anything. When I started, it wasn't even really about losing weight...I just had a bunch of bad health markers and my Dr. told me to get my *kitten* together.

    From there is was about researching better nutrition...what should I be eating that will help with this or that...starting to get in some regular exercise, etc. I understood early on that this was all going to be a process, and a rather lengthy one. I embraced that process rather than embracing some end result or number on a scale. I used that process to educate myself and develop healthy habits that would be necessary not only for maintaining a good weight, but also my health in general.

    I think a lot of people just aren't educated to the process and therefore have unrealistic expectations of how things are going to go...they end up giving up because their unrealistic expectations aren't met and they do not understand process. I think people who lose weight only to put it back on have somewhere along the line failed to understand that much of what they were doing while dieting has to be continued in maintenance...you can't just say "done" and go back to the things you were doing before...you have to have a new normal...you have to continue to monitor your weight regularly and have an intervention point...you have to continue to eat well for the most part and most people who maintain long term have some kind of regular exercise in their lives.

    Speaking of unrealistic expectations, mine were certainly warped when I first came to MFP after watching Biggest Loser!

    Seriously, the Biggest Loser is a travesty of what weight loss actually looks like in the real world. Waaaay too much emphasis on exercise and the number on the scale rather than nutrition and health markers.
  • Mr_Healthy_Habits
    Mr_Healthy_Habits Posts: 12,588 Member
    RelCanonical wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    threewins wrote: »
    I do because I think that I am highly motivated towards weight loss (I've been at goal weight 5 times, yo-yoed nearly 300 kg) however I have a habit of half-donkeying* things. Maybe successful weight losers have a special personality which makes them highly motivated and experienced at completing tasks, hence they reach goal weight quickly and stay there. What do you think?


    *American name for donkey

    IDK...I successfully lost 40 Lbs and have kept it off for the most part going on 7 years this spring. I don't have any kind of special motivation powers or anything. When I started, it wasn't even really about losing weight...I just had a bunch of bad health markers and my Dr. told me to get my *kitten* together.

    From there is was about researching better nutrition...what should I be eating that will help with this or that...starting to get in some regular exercise, etc. I understood early on that this was all going to be a process, and a rather lengthy one. I embraced that process rather than embracing some end result or number on a scale. I used that process to educate myself and develop healthy habits that would be necessary not only for maintaining a good weight, but also my health in general.

    I think a lot of people just aren't educated to the process and therefore have unrealistic expectations of how things are going to go...they end up giving up because their unrealistic expectations aren't met and they do not understand process. I think people who lose weight only to put it back on have somewhere along the line failed to understand that much of what they were doing while dieting has to be continued in maintenance...you can't just say "done" and go back to the things you were doing before...you have to have a new normal...you have to continue to monitor your weight regularly and have an intervention point...you have to continue to eat well for the most part and most people who maintain long term have some kind of regular exercise in their lives.

    Speaking of unrealistic expectations, mine were certainly warped when I first came to MFP after watching Biggest Loser!

    Seriously, the Biggest Loser is a travesty of what weight loss actually looks like in the real world. Waaaay too much emphasis on exercise and the number on the scale rather than nutrition and health markers.

    That show made me sick tbh...

    The way they tempted people with food was *kitten* up, not really trying to help those people so much as exploit them.. M
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    Mr_Healthy_Habits wrote: »
    RelCanonical wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    threewins wrote: »
    I do because I think that I am highly motivated towards weight loss (I've been at goal weight 5 times, yo-yoed nearly 300 kg) however I have a habit of half-donkeying* things. Maybe successful weight losers have a special personality which makes them highly motivated and experienced at completing tasks, hence they reach goal weight quickly and stay there. What do you think?


    *American name for donkey

    IDK...I successfully lost 40 Lbs and have kept it off for the most part going on 7 years this spring. I don't have any kind of special motivation powers or anything. When I started, it wasn't even really about losing weight...I just had a bunch of bad health markers and my Dr. told me to get my *kitten* together.

    From there is was about researching better nutrition...what should I be eating that will help with this or that...starting to get in some regular exercise, etc. I understood early on that this was all going to be a process, and a rather lengthy one. I embraced that process rather than embracing some end result or number on a scale. I used that process to educate myself and develop healthy habits that would be necessary not only for maintaining a good weight, but also my health in general.

    I think a lot of people just aren't educated to the process and therefore have unrealistic expectations of how things are going to go...they end up giving up because their unrealistic expectations aren't met and they do not understand process. I think people who lose weight only to put it back on have somewhere along the line failed to understand that much of what they were doing while dieting has to be continued in maintenance...you can't just say "done" and go back to the things you were doing before...you have to have a new normal...you have to continue to monitor your weight regularly and have an intervention point...you have to continue to eat well for the most part and most people who maintain long term have some kind of regular exercise in their lives.

    Speaking of unrealistic expectations, mine were certainly warped when I first came to MFP after watching Biggest Loser!

    Seriously, the Biggest Loser is a travesty of what weight loss actually looks like in the real world. Waaaay too much emphasis on exercise and the number on the scale rather than nutrition and health markers.

    That show made me sick tbh...

    The way they tempted people with food was *kitten* up, not really trying to help those people so much as exploit them.. M

    It's definitely exploitation. I watch a trainer on youtube who has experience working with very overweight clients, and he is totally disgusted with the exercises that they're having people on that show do. I guess the most recent one was a woman trying to do box jumps. One wrong move would be a twisted ankle on a normal weight person, but for someone who's 350 pounds, especially one who has never exercised before the show, it's way more likely to break.
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    rodnichols69 wrote: »
    SaraKim17 wrote: »
    Yes, I definitely think that personality plays a part.

    Agreed. People with a negative outlook generally tend give up on the process. People with an optimistic outlook generally find even the smallest wins to keep them motivated.

    Yes, this makes a lot of sense. A positive outlook helps get you to the finish line much better than the 'woe is me, I just can't do this' attitude. Unfortunately I was the woe is me person for so long in my life; any sign of a struggle, inner or outer, and I gave up.

    Personality, I feel, does play a part in the success of adapting consistent lifestyle changes. It requires persistence, commitment, patience, follow-through, determination, confidence; how many of those are actually personality traits? I'm not sure, but if you don't give up, you find the success in your journey!!

    But thinking about it.....personality is just one part. :blush: I don't think my personality is all *that* much changed(maybe somewhat) as much as my circumstances. I ate due to stress, depression, anxiety, etc. so once I got that managed a bit, it all worked better for me.
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    DEVikingsMom wrote: »
    rodnichols69 wrote: »
    SaraKim17 wrote: »
    Yes, I definitely think that personality plays a part.

    Agreed. People with a negative outlook generally tend give up on the process. People with an optimistic outlook generally find even the smallest wins to keep them motivated.

    It cuts both ways! I'm a ridiculously positive & optimistic person, way too much so at times.

    Weight loss is easy = every day is a new day! every ounce lost is a win! etc etc

    However....

    Weight gain is just as easy = oh I still look great in these pants even though they barely zip! Sure I gained weight but it will be a breeze to get it off! etc etc

    A human being's ability to rationalize everything is really an astounding feat, lol. I do it all the time for crazy things.
  • oceangirl99
    oceangirl99 Posts: 161 Member
    2 posters above mention "inclinations" and "natural tendencies". Those 100% have to do with why I gain weight in the first place. Making sure I consume fewer calories than I spend is NOT a natural tendency of mine! If it was, I wouldn't be overweight. It is being aware and making changes that result in weight loss success. I'm pretty sure my personality also makes it difficult - For example, I am slightly extroverted and I really enjoy socializing with my friends......often. My natural tendency is to eat and drink when I socialize = tricky for weight loss/maintenance!!!
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    The jury is still out with personality types and weight loss success.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6696127/

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18549988/

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21744974/

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23176713/

    https://www.nature.com/articles/0802460


    CONCLUSIONS: "Our results provided no evidence of a general obese personality profile, instead considerable heterogeneity in personality traits was observed across our obese samples (treatment seekers vs non-seekers, men vs women) and generally only small differences were noted compared to a reference study population."
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,173 Member
    I'm finding it particularly reductive to to parse personalities into "optimistic" and "pessimistic" (or positive and negative) and associate better/worse weight management results with those. I can see that for particular individuals those might be a factor in their individual approach or success, but as a generality, I think it's more complicated than that . . . as the reseach links just posted would suggest.
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,981 Member
    corinasue1143 wrote: »
    springlering62 wrote: »
    In the words of Dave Ramsey (regarding both debt and weight), you just have to reach the point of “being sick and tired of being sick and tired”.

    I can pinpoint that moment.

    And I am just the opposite. I am “sick and tired of being sick and tired”, but I am also an “all or nothing, start at the last moment to slide into home minutes before the deadline” person. It took me years to push myself into trying the first time.
    I’m still trying to talk myself into it the second time. I really think I’m making progress, but I Soooo wish I could cross that line
    NOW!

    @corinasue1143 I'm with you. I have other areas in my life where I know I need to do better, I feel much guilt because I'm not doing as well as I know I should be, but I get told that I won't succeed until I want it bad enough. I've never figured out how you make yourself want something bad enough. Even though I'm now succeeding in losing weight again, I've never figured out why this one time out of the last 300 I've attempted actually worked; I don't know what flips the switch on and off!

    It doesn't help that I am usually a realistic to the point of being pessimistic, sometimes, especially when it comes to myself. Doesn't matter that I've lost 100 lbs; my mind wants to continue to pound on me because I still need to lose another 100+. I have a very hard time giving myself credit for successes along the journey; my mind won't relent until I've reach the ultimate goal post - the problem is, my mind is constantly moving that goal post!

    funny, though, that I do this to myself all the time, but have a much better outlook for others.
  • runinthewild
    runinthewild Posts: 8 Member
    edited February 2020
    Yes, people with an unhealthy obsession for perfection can develop some issues like too low cals and overeating after eating a cookie because they werent perfect according to their diet.

    Besides this mental health problems I think it is more about motivation than personality. Every person that has motivation and wants it bad enough could do it.

    It is often seen in very obese people that they are fed up with their looks and health and want badly the change. They stick to their regimen very precisely and lose a lot of weight. It is also observed that already good looking healthy people have hard time motivating theirselves because they dont have THAT kind of motivation for losing some stubborn fat. I am that person. I look great, but would like to be 10 lbs lighter for running races. At 5 ft 7, 136 lbs I am perfectly fine, but running-wise I would be so much better cutting 5-10 pounds. I came to the conclusion the reason I suck creating a deficite is that I am too happy with my weight and since I am not a profi runner, I dont have enough motivation. I now cut sth like... 1000 cals a week. :D If I was fat or overweight I can imagine my effort would be much harder in order to feel good in my skin ASAP.
  • AlexandraFindsHerself1971
    AlexandraFindsHerself1971 Posts: 3,106 Member
    runinthewild wrote: »
    If I was fat or overweight I can imagine my effort would be much harder in order to feel good in my skin ASAP.

    One of the things that seems (thank all the gods) to be easing as I lose weight and exercise is severe body dysmorphia. I'm not where I want to be yet (1/8 of the way there) but apparently doing regular exercise is enough to make me okay for now while I lose weight at a sensible rate. Part of the misery that I felt in the last years of my marriage was due to the dysmorphia, while living with a food addict who would not let me eat a sensible diet and lose weight. (If I lost weight, he went out, bought ice cream, and threw a fit until I ate it. No joke.)

  • runinthewild
    runinthewild Posts: 8 Member
    edited February 2020
    Dont know what you mean exactly in regards of my posting, but I am happy for you escaping this trap! Sunds awful!

    Edit: Oh ok, I got it!

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