On weight control motivation

What's up?

What's up with weight control motivation?

A lot of people want to be thin, a lot more than actually are.  So why doesn't motivation translate to action?

My colleague Maurice Larocque and I have discovered there are two kinds of weight control motivation.

All the "reasons" for being thin constitute "Positive motivation." To be healthier, happier, sexier, more beautiful, more accomplished....less guilty.

Are all reasons to be thin equal, probably not. If you're doing it for someone else, or just to assauge your guilt, then you're likely to lose motivation over time.  On the other hand if your reasons are more "autonomous," for yourself, then your motivation should be pretty stable.

People moving forward on a weight control program invariably have a lot of Positive motivation.  However, there are big differences between individuals in the amount of what we call "Negative motivation."

Negative motivation refers to the predicted affective (emotional) response to the "process" of weight control.  In our research, we assess feelings of regret, resentment, doubt and effort, which seem to constitute a general negative factor.

What happens to motivation during a weight control program? We have studied this in about 10,000 people in Canada, Ireland and France.  We find that over the first 5 weeks of treatment, when the average weight loss is about 10 pounds, that Positive motivation stays about the same, while Negative motivation drops considerably.  It's primarily the decrease in Negative, rather than Positive motivation that is associated with faster weight loss, and greater improvements in eating habits, depression and stress.

The bottom line is that the actual process of weight control is less negative than most people expect.  Developing new, more positive ways of thinking about the process of weight control should be related to better long-term results.

Stephen Stotland, Ph.D.