Losing vs Getting Does the wording matter?

MidlifeCrisisFitness

Does declaring I want to lose weight vs I want to be more healthy have a psychological impact on achieving and maintaining the goal?

cwolfman13

I think so for myself anyway. When I started all this back in 2012 I wasn't really trying to lose weight...I had a bunch of bad blood work and my Dr. told me I needed to start exercising and eating better or I would be in a world of hurt not too far down the road. Started eating more veg and fruit, cut out fast food for the most part, stopped my 6 pack per day full sugar soda habit and started exercising regularly...the weight loss was initially just a nice bi-product. I lost a good 20 of my 40 Lb total before I found MFP and started doing things deliberately for the purpose of losing more weight.

Eating well and regular exercise have kept all of my blood markers in the good to optimal range and the only time I have issues is when I get lazy with stuff...so keeping my body healthy just keeps me going.

steveko89

I would expect that the nature of "getting healthier" would require more lifestyle and/or process adjustments and therefore, have more default sustainability to it compared to just losing weight, independent of weight loss/dieting methodology.

Either way, there's some research that indicate declaring goals to others before they're achieved lessens the likelihood of the goal being met. I watched a TED talk on it at some point.

33gail33

I have always been taught that using "towards" motivational phrases is more impactful than "away from" phrases, on a subconscious level. So you are reinforcing something you want, rather than something you don't want.
Whether that is true or not, it makes sense to me, so when I used to do hypnotherapy I always used that model.
Fwiw I would also phrase it as I am "moving towards good health" (or something like that) rather than "I want" to be healthier. I would always reinforce an "I am" phrase rather than an "I want" phrase.
To answer your question - yes I think that wording does matter.

dragon_girl26

I think so, yes. It changes your focus somewhat and gives you more goalposts to work with, depending on what "healthier" means to you. For me, I'm somewhat excited by seeing the scale go down, but I'm even more excited when I see my BP number going down with it. Right now that's my primary reason for losing more weight. I'm still a little bit overweight for my height, but now the weight loss is more of a side effect to my primary goal of better health (and reducing or eliminating BP meds in the process). Some people who are just solely focused on the weight loss aspect tend to want to get it over with as quickly as possible without taking their health into account.

Lietchi

If I had set health as a goal, I probably wouldn't have lost a lot of weight, or certainly not at this point in time. I was perfectly healthy while obese (no BP issues, no diabetes etc). Perhaps it would have become an issue later in life, although even that is dubious, both my parents are obese and healthy.

In my case, I'd say thinking about it in terms of fitness was more helpful. I started out wanting to lose weight, but when I realized how much easier it is to move and be active when weighing less, that was a huge motivation to continue.

So I'd say it depends on a person's situation, both the starting situation and the goal of course, to determine how the goal is best phrased.

ChickenKillerPuppy

For me, I'm only successful at losing weight if that definition includes keeping the weight off long term and maintaining my goal weight (range). So I think seeing it as "losing weight" doesn't factor in the part where the real work begins: keeping it off. I think when I changed the phrasing in my head to saying I wanted to develop habits that would allow me to live my life at my goal weight while still enjoying my life - that made a difference. The change in phrasing gave me permission to take my time on this journey and experiment and really look more clinically at my life and my habits, and less about whether I was "good" one day because I deprived myself a lot or was I "bad" because I ate sweets (or whatnot).

AnnPT77

Probably. But as with so many things, I think which may work best is situational and individual.

For me, it was obvious that I needed to achieve and maintain a more sensible bodyweight if I wanted to be healthy. I was already very active, pretty strong, didn't care whether I looked cute/attractive or not. "Healthy" and "thinner"/"lighter" were synonyms, for all practical purposes.

Not true for everyone. Different people, different situations, different values, different psychology.

hipari

I think it also matters how you define ”healthy” and what kinds of goals are you setting in that context. Most likely those health goals lead to longer-lasting lifestyle changes, but depending on your goal weight loss may or may not be a by-product. If your health goal requires changing your diet, like lowering cholesterol through dietary changes or cutting sugar to improve dental health, then it likely will cause weight loss on the side, but certain fitness goals and vigorous exercise routines might result in weight increase if they result in eating more to fuel those workouts.

Example: maybe a decade ago my uncle took up cycling and definitely didn’t lose weight even though he cycled a lot, since it increased his appetite and his long weekend rides included stopping at cafes to enjoy some very calorific treats. His cardiovascular health was still improved by a lot. Years later he had stopped cycling after a serious accident, and started losing some weight as a by-product of his doctor-ordered cholesterol-lowering diet.

lgfrie

For me, dieting (losing weight) is an impossibly difficult task in a vacuum. I can do it for 2-3 weeks and lose a quick 7-8 pounds but then something throws me off my game - a party, just getting tired of dieting, booze, whatever - and things fall apart.

But when the weight loss component is nicely tucked into a broader program to improve my heath and get in better shape, then it's much stickier. For me that means a minimum of an hour a day of intentional exercise, paying some attention to what I eat (calories for weight loss, but healthy foods for healthy living), and just generally taking better care of myself and focusing the things I do on things that will help me live longer and happier.

For whatever reason, in my case, the envelopment of calorie-restriction within a broader project that aims at bigger self-improvement than just getting down a size in jeans seems to keep me on track. Right now, almost 2 years into it, I've lost a lot of weight, and am still going pretty strong.

Whenever I can't work out - injury, flu, whatever - I start to recede back into bad eating habits. I really need the "total package" of lifestyle changes to stay motivated and on plan, not just a calorie target.

Everyone's different.

Speakeasy76

It definitely helped for me when I shifted my mindset from "eating/exercising to lose weight" to doing those same things to be healthy, improved quality of life, hopefully longer life (although with my genes I'm not so sure, unfortunately). This meant I was doing this for life, not just something to do temporarily to take the weight off. That meant no deprivation, but eating more of the healthy stuff and less of the not-so-healthy stuff. It also means taking care of myself to get stronger/prevent or lessen injuries, get more/better sleep and other healthy habits (like practicing gratitude, for example).

I have a long history of dieting, so the thought of "dieting" once again sets my mind running away! Having said that, I knew that if I wanted to lose a bit more weight, I'd have to start tracking again to be more mindful of just how much I was/am eating. "Eating for health" is a broad term, and it doesn't always necessarily mean eating that way will get one to his or her desired weight. When I wanted to lose a bit more weight, it was for vanity reasons, as there weren't any health conditions that could be improved, nor would it likely extend my life. Who knows, though?

lorib642

I like to have goals that are quantifiable. I want to get to x weight or since I am typpe 2 diabetic, I want to get to x fasting glucose. I don't think the words weight loss or get healthy are preferable but how do you know what you aiming for?

janejellyroll

For me, "I want to be more healthy" is a non-starter goal. When I was overweight, I wasn't experiencing any negative health consequences related to it and just the potential of future negative consequences wasn't enough to get me motivated. I do better with more action-focused goals that I can measure.

This isn't to say I don't think it can be genuinely motivating for others, but it wouldn't have worked for me.