Fatloss Secrets: Focus on Neurobehavioral Process......

ninerbuff
ninerbuff Posts: 49,040 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
and Not on Personal Choice.

Many fitness professionals employ behavior change strategies to help clients drop fat. However, according to researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, lifestyle improvements are more effective when the focus is on upgrading neurobehavioral processes. “Typically, overweight and obese patients receive education about dietary contributions to weight gain, and they are simply encouraged to fight the powerful urge to eat delicious foods that are available almost everywhere in the environment, and instead, make dietary choices consistent with weight loss,” says Brad Appelhans, PhD, co-author of the report, which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association (doi:10.1016/j.jada.2011.05.014). These approaches, he continues, are rarely successful.

Tom Terwilliger, a certified Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) master practitioner and the author of 7 Rules of Achievement (Morgan James Publishing 2010), finds that telling a client what to do to be healthy is a waste of time. “You would be hard-pressed to find someone seeking the help of a personal trainer who doesn’t already know at a fundamental level what they should or shouldn’t be doing from a fitness or nutrition standpoint,” Terwilliger points out. Simply telling someone what choices to make will have very little impact on true behavior change, he adds. Instead, he suggests implementing a few techniques rooted in NLP that are designed to disrupt faulty patterns and implement new, healthful ones. While NLP requires significant study, Terwilliger offers two techniques you can implement in your training sessions:

Reframe the Debate. Reframing is a process for eliminating inner conflicts and resistances by addressing and modifying the “positive intention” behind a negative behavior. A person with a resistance to loss in general may be internally conflicted by the thought of losing weight. Instead, focus on what is gained, such as strength, vitality or energy.

Create a Compelling Future. The use of visualization can have a profound impact. Ask clients about their internal vision of their goal, and make note of the language they use in describing it. At the beginning of every session, encourage clients to close their eyes and bring the vision into focus. Ask questions like “What does that feel like?” This will help sharpen their internal vision, which helps carve a new neural pathway for what they will achieve.

Behaviors are learned and can be changed, but many times the way it's approached (insistence, association by guilt, etc.) can make some resistant to change behavior. As article implies, I've had much more success focusing on the gain of behavior change.

A.C.E. Certified Personal & Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Replies

  • PercivalHackworth
    PercivalHackworth Posts: 1,437 Member
    Interesting, thanks for sharing
  • tabinmaine
    tabinmaine Posts: 965 Member
    great article... I am all about Neuro behavioral standpoints. We use this a lot with our clients :)

    I am imagining a strong, smooth kick butt body, that can run or jump or lift anything I want to, I want muscles to be noticeable even when I am not lifting... I want that sleek, athletic body...... I can feel it in me... I just can't see it yet, but I feel it, I am zoned in and energized when at the gym, I envision just how much I will tear that gym up in a few months....and look good doing it ! haha
  • skinnybabe123
    skinnybabe123 Posts: 11 Member
    Interesting.... thanks for sharing
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,040 Member
    Think about it: people aren't dumb. They know what they need to do and what not to do to get overweight/obese. Hammering them about it seldom works. It's like telling your teenager to clean up their room. So work on changing to positive behavioral processes of gain rather then ranting on about the bad.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal & Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • ByrdMessy
    ByrdMessy Posts: 94
    People don't talk about this enough. Thanks.

    A lot of people use old photos of themselves at a lower weight for inspiration, but I don't really have any pictures of myself at an "ideal" weight. I don't like the idea of using a picture of someone else as my inspiration, either. I can't really visualize myself being around 100 lbs (I'm 5ft). It just seems foreign to me. That's why my goal is for something I can visualize, but should I be pushing myself to see that tiny little me right now? My instinct is to do what seems attainable and then try to imagine whether or not I'd want to aim for "ideal". I want to be strong, I don't want to blow away in the wind. And yeah, I guess to an extent being that tiny freaks me out.
  • twentytwobecky
    twentytwobecky Posts: 35 Member
    What this article talks about is exactly what I did almost two years ago.
    What finally motivated me was when my mom got diagnosed with heart disease and I got diagnosed with the same genetic condition she has. I knew if I wanted to live a long, happy life I had to make healthy changes.
    Now I am going through the process to be a fitness instructor and personal trainer so I can help people make positive changes in their lives too.
  • JennieAL
    JennieAL Posts: 1,726 Member
    Two thumbs up, Ninerbuff! Good stuff here.
  • lilojoke
    lilojoke Posts: 427 Member
    Instead, focus on what is gained, such as strength, vitality or energy.

    Best I have heard on here... Really good stuff!
  • JennieAL
    JennieAL Posts: 1,726 Member
    Instead, focus on what is gained, such as strength, vitality or energy.

    Best I have heard on here... Really good stuff!

    Best method of change, imo.
  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
    bump
  • USMCConditioning
    USMCConditioning Posts: 84
    This is a good read! definitely something that i notice in myself every once in awhile and it really keeps me going. My BIGGEST problem is consuming food AFTER dinner, any suggestions with that!?
  • yangside
    yangside Posts: 1
    Byrdmessy,... You said: "Should I be pushing myself to see that tiny little me right now? My instinct is to do what seems attainable and then try to imagine whether or not I'd want to aim for "ideal". I want to be strong, I don't want to blow away in the wind. And yeah, I guess to an extent being that tiny freaks me out."
    My input and interest lies in your statement;You don't have any past photos of yourself at your ideal weight,... The key here is yet.... One of the interesting things about N.L.P. has to do with the actual point it creates in your minds eye. You may want to try to visualize (picture) your ideal weight while you are in the act of physical exercise and also while eating nutritionally dense foods and not (calorically rich ones). The more you can hold this image, and when you visualize this image your minds eye your brain will actually assist, support and help create the actual physical state, . It (your brain) wants you to succeed, stay strong...! sincerely, Yangside
  • Justacoffeenut
    Justacoffeenut Posts: 3,749 Member
    bump
  • itgeekwoman
    itgeekwoman Posts: 804 Member
    This is a great read. Thanks. It is true. Until the person is ready to commit to making a change and understands that there will be ups and downs, but more ups than downs.. then and only then will they succeed.

    I was there last year. Now I am leading by example.

    Thank you!
  • HBL2012
    HBL2012 Posts: 31
    Very interesting :) Thank you for sharing
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    Thanks Ninerbuff! Great info and very accurate and effective as an approach I'm thinking. Have you applied this in any specfic ways with your clients? it'd be interesting to hear about an example or 2.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,040 Member
    Thanks Ninerbuff! Great info and very accurate and effective as an approach I'm thinking. Have you applied this in any specfic ways with your clients? it'd be interesting to hear about an example or 2.
    A client got turned over to me who had sessions left from another trainer who had moved on. Afer sitting down and listening to the story of how she was training with other trainer and finding out her "wins" doing it, I put a program together which emphasized what she did well while also taking small steps to improve what her weaknesses were.
    She now doesn't look at herself as "I can't lose weight" but more now "look at what I can do now which is something I've never done before" and along with it her physcal appearance and attitude have changed for the better according to her friends and even her husband whom I spoke with when I ran into him. She still has some work to do, but the approach now is one she looks forward to rather than "hopes" the work she puts in achieves anything.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal & Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • ByrdMessy
    ByrdMessy Posts: 94
    Byrdmessy,... You said: "Should I be pushing myself to see that tiny little me right now? My instinct is to do what seems attainable and then try to imagine whether or not I'd want to aim for "ideal". I want to be strong, I don't want to blow away in the wind. And yeah, I guess to an extent being that tiny freaks me out."
    My input and interest lies in your statement;You don't have any past photos of yourself at your ideal weight,... The key here is yet.... One of the interesting things about N.L.P. has to do with the actual point it creates in your minds eye. You may want to try to visualize (picture) your ideal weight while you are in the act of physical exercise and also while eating nutritionally dense foods and not (calorically rich ones). The more you can hold this image, and when you visualize this image your minds eye your brain will actually assist, support and help create the actual physical state, . It (your brain) wants you to succeed, stay strong...! sincerely, Yangside

    Thanks. I don't mean to sound negative, but I know that when I was at my most active, I still wasn't thin. I cheered most days of the week (and held my own with the skinny girls) and danced three or four times a week and did marching band (bass drum one year) and was on the tennis team and had a paper route all at the same time. I don't think my brain can visualize a 100 lb me, because I don't think I'm meant to weigh that little. I think that's an ok thing, and maybe I'll change my mind in a year or two. I also know that before I have time to lose that much, if I do decide to lose that much, I'm going to want to have a baby. So a tiny me is even further down the road, and I hope it's ok to be patient with my brain's ability to process the possibility.
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