I got a very excellent question from a reader over the weekend. She was interested in whether focusing on goals or behaviors was more important in the weight loss process.
This is such an important concept to consider in many areas of our lives, but especially when trying to get to a healthier weight. Losing weight does involve setting goals, it does involve changing behaviors, and it does involve a lot of soul-searching.
Goal setting is absolutely important in the weight loss and fitness arenas; however, we sometimes get so involved in setting goals that we forget what will ultimately lead us to meeting those goals.
Behavioral changes enable us to meet goals.
Behavioral changes and healthy choices are what get us to that ultimate goal of losing weight and keeping it off. Without change, there is no way you will reach your goal. For example, as I outline in my book, one of the techniques I decided to use to get to a healthier weight was to exercise regularly. My goal was to start an exercise program, but unless I made the behavioral change of getting up earlier and actually walking down the street, I was never going to meet that goal.
Another example of a necessary behavioral change is our food choices. We may set a goal of eating less processed food, but unless we change our purchasing behavior and consumption of processed foods, we will not ever reach that particular goal. Portion control is another behavioral change that is necessary to help us not only control calories, but also to learn to be satisfied with a reasonable portion. (This can be hard in our super-sized society.)
Other areas in the weight loss arena that involve behavioral changes may be making a commitment to eating breakfast, running a certain distance, becoming more flexible, reducing the number of calories eaten, or counting calories. Each of those goals require at least one or more behaviors.
If you focus only on a goal such as “I’m going to lose 20 pounds by March 1st,” you may find yourself easily discouraged if you do not meet that goal. Likewise, if you set a goal of fitting into a certain pair of jeans by a high school reunion or other event, and don’t reach your goal, you may quit trying.
I used to be very guilty of setting what turned out to be unrealistic goals and quitting my weight loss efforts. I also failed in changing my behaviors to meet those goals which were attainable. I somehow wanted the whole weight loss process to magically work without a lot of behavioral changes. For most of us, we have become overweight because of poor choices in certain areas of our lives – whether it is food choices, a sedentary lifestyle, or a combination of both.
For us, behavioral changes allow us to meet our goals.
As you move from weight loss to weight maintenance, cementing those positive behavioral changes by practice, practice, practice can help you maintain your weight for years to come.
What do you think? How are behavioral changes and goal setting interlinked in weight loss? Diane
I’m so glad you write about this. I think the notion of focusing on behavior was one of the best things I learned from other bloggers and from readers when I was on this journey. But, I don’t have an issue with goals themselves, per se. Just the typical “I will lose X pounds by Y date” that so many people set. We can never control the scale. We can ONLY control our behavior.
I believe in one goal above all other goals, and I have been teaching this to weight loss clients, fitness clients, and competitive bodybuilding clients for years: Win the day. That is, long-term, and even shorter-term goals are pretty much meaningless (in my opinion) if one doesn’t first win the day. Conversely, if one focuses exclusively on winning the day, short and long-term goals will be fulfilled before they realize it.
Always reminds me of the kid on the back seat of a car enroute to a distant destination,
“Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet.”
Shut up kid. Just play some license plate bingo and we’ll be there before you know it…
What a great focus: ‘win the day’!
I do pat myself on the back every evening when I’ve stuck to my plan, and obviously every single day the choices we make are what help us reach our goals.
I now have a mantra, thanks Emergefit : )
Win the day – I love that!
I spoke this to a client just today, Emergefit. What a great one-liner that cuts to the chase! Thanks!
I think you’ve made some really excellent points. I’ve always known what I needed to do to lose weight, but knowing and putting that knowledge into practice were two entire different things – and of course they yielded two entirely different results.
I like the idea of setting short-term goals along with a plan of how to achieve them. I definitely think these two should go hand in hand.
Reading “X pounds by X date” on a blog always drives me a little nuts. Weight loss challenges bug me for the same reason. It is the daily habits that make or break one’s process. Very good post.
Whatever works for you
I break so many “rules” that I never use my way as someone else’s highway!
I love the discussion here. as a weight loss coach I often work with clients to create the plan and then the ACTIONS. I use this analogy:
Point A is the reality of where you are today.
Point B is wehre you want to be tomorrow (the goal.)
And then you have the little action steps in between that get you from Pt. A to Pt. B.
It’s not rocket science but it helps me get my clients to set the goal and then CREATE the ACTIONS that will get them there. Obviously, more work is spent in the actions or behaviors because there are more of them!
I am with you on this too Diane. I know many need goals to set but I think if we change behaviors, it helps lead us there… for me that works. To each their own but if things are not working, ya got to reevaluate…
” I somehow wanted the whole weight loss process to magically work without a lot of behavioral changes.” Wow, that was me for many, many years. I would lose weight but would not make the changes to keep it off. Thanks for a great post, Diane.
As you were saying, one must make behavior changes to reach goals. I’m not a big fan of x amount of weight by a certain date. I focus more on being healthy, eating right, and exercising as a lifestyle. I struggled when my doctor said, “wow, you have lost so much weight we now need to talk about a goal weight where you will no longer need to lose weight.” I just couldn’t answer the question. Just pulling a number out of thin air just doesn’t make sense to me. I will know my goal when I cross the finish line. My goal on my blog page was literally a number out of thin air and it won’t stick I’m sure.
Focus on changing behaviour; the rest will fall into place. In my case, weight loss is at a slow pace, but I know it will be permanent. It’s also easier to eat healthier in the end because I’ve changed from the top down starting with my brain and thoughts.
It took me a very long time to switch this thinking….I have my goals…but to make them permanent goals not just wishes I had to learn to change the focus on creating the routine and the consistency within the actions…behaviors to take the steps to the goal….it made all the difference for me! that is WHY weight loss is a lifestyle change….You have to change the style in which you live
Wise words – it’s nearly impossible to achieve our goals, if we don’t do anything different than we already do, i.e. if we don’t change our behaviors. My current goal is to try to get to the gym 3 to 4 times a week. I don’t like working out on the weekends, but because of my current work schedule, I had to change that latter behavior – I had to fit in weekend workouts in order to achieve my 3 to 4 times a week goal. In fact, I just started relying on the program I mentioned on my blog (Jamie Eason’s LiveFit Trainer) on a Saturday instead of a Monday! That’s progress for me…haha.
Another great post:) Isn’t everyone required to change their behavior in order to reach a goal? Otherwise wouldn’t it be day dreaming instead of goal planning? Goal Planning requires action.
Love this – just linked to it on my blog http://myattemptatfuturefitness.wordpress.com/
Behaviour change is key in breaking learned habits to achieve goals!
Totally agree Diane! It makes sense to focus on the behaviors because that is the only thing we have contol over.
I read a blog post once by someone who swore that the way to success was merely to have a system to do things, and not set goals. For example his system was that every day at 3.45pm he went to the gym for half an hour. By default, a year later he would have achieved various fitness goals.
Personally I think goals are useful but the above point shows that without habits that move you in the right direction you wont ever reach a goal.
SO SO SO many things that people want to achieve are like this — not just maintaining a healthy weight, but everything. Music, art, education … This is what I call falling in love with the process. I liken it to people who fall in love with a big handmade lace bedspread, one of those Irish crochet things with all the roses and leaves. They love it, they want it, they’d do “anything” for one of them.
But they love the goal. What they don’t love is the sensation in their fingers of making stitch after stitch after stitch, millions of times, before they will ever come near that goal. They love the goal, but they hate the process. And because of this, they will never achieve the goal. With weight it’s so much harder because if you don’t maintain the process, that lace bedspread will gradually unravel on you until you are left with a pile of string. You have to work just to keep the thing from coming apart, even if you do manage to finish it.
And there is a strong chance that the amount of work — years and years in both cases — that needs to be done to get there is so daunting that love for the goal will just not be enough to get you there.
If you don’t fall in love with the process, with making stitch after stitch after stitch, you either won’t get the bedspread, or you may get it for a split-second before it starts unraveling on you. Falling in love with the process is the only way.
I managed to lose 50+ pounds without ever setting a goal…and since then, at times when I have tried to set a goal (n the traditional way) around weight, it tends to backfire. For me it’s ALL about mindset leading to improved behaviors.
Thanks for pointing this out… you know, ultimately the goal can derail us. If you target something more general in terms of poundage released and then make specific behavioral targets, that’s one thing. But if you insist on “2 pounds a week” that won’t work… some weeks you’ll lose 4 and some weeks 1/2 a pound and sometimes none, even if you’re doing everything “right” and heavy… and closer to one’s ideal weight, it slows down. And all my ectomorph friends trying to pack on muscle, it doesn’t go on evenly no matter what exercise/eating routine they use–it’s an effort with the behavior and then results happen–but at the rate and amount they do… we have individual metabolisms.
I find that using a “this is my minimum” is a great way to target. For example, “I’m going to walk for at least 1/2 an hour at least 3 times a week.” You can always do more–but not less.
Personally, I have had a lot of goals in my life but until I changed my lifestyle, I was never able to meet them. The one goal I do not have is a “goal weight”. Instead I have items I want to cross of my bucket list. Slowly by changing my lifestyle to a more healthy one, I am getting that done.
Great post as usual, Diane. Although I have a general number in mind, the end goal is good health, or as good as post 60 can get.
It’s all about the behavior, and changing the knee-jerk reactions we have become so ingrained with. Thx!
I think it’s so important and crucial to remember to not only change the behavior, but also outline a plan to do that. For me, it was making mini-goals each day. For example, “Today I’m going to consume 1,600 calories, run 10.5 miles and only eat one cookie.” It sounds silly, but by taking it one day at a time I was able to achieve what I started and get to the fitness level I wanted to be at.
Great post here. Thanks for getting such an interesting conversation going around it!
Great post!
Well for me, it all started with the goal idea, to be a certain weight by a certain date. I still hold that thought in the forefront because it keeps me on my path. Having said that, I am changing all my behaviors that have led me to be overweight. I am learning to change my relationship with food. I am learning about my body, and my emotions. I am doing all this so I can maintain the weight loss. I have lost huge amounts of weight before, and have never kept it off. Why? I never changed the behaviors that caused the problem in the first place.
Goals and behaviors work together. You should set a goal, and then list the behaviors that will enable you to get there. And the goals can be behavior related, not just weight related. For example, one of the biggest issues I had while losing weight was binge eating (can you relate?). So I set a goal to stop binge eating, but in order to do that, I had to change certain behaviors around food. I think you have to know where you are going, but it’s the behavior change that gets you there!
For me I set a goal first and then changed certain behaviors to reach that goal. If I don’t reach my goal then I keep changing my behaviors until I reach it. You can’t reach goals without changed behavior.
Yup, absolutely behaviors. Goals are a result, but it’s the day to day choices that we enact that get us there.
I think that in some people it does help to make goals to achieve weight loss. Goals make those people work harder in completing those goals (small or big) and thus making it easier for them to lose the weight.
I think we need goals, we want to achieve something…so without a goal there will not be any behavioral change but if we don’t change our behavior then it will be difficult to maintain our goal. I feel its good to have goals but it is equally important to focus on changing behavior so we don’t go back to the same point we started
Yeah! When I came into work this morning and logged into my computer, my homepage (MSN) came up with your story! Congratulations!
That was pretty exciting! Thanks so much!
how weird that you wrote this… I have been struggling lately and I think it is because a few folks have asked me “what is your goal?” when the conversation went to eating and working out. I felt like a failure… Don’t I look like I am AT goal? Am I a failure?
I let those 2 people (that I barely even know!!) derail me!! I need to focus on my behaviors and not worry about the pot of gold that is supposed to be at the end of this journey… NEWS FLASH… there is no pot of gold!!!
It is about maintaining my weight loss, and keeping fit.
funny how comment from strangers can impact me the most, I need to obviously work on my self esteem!!
I am really excited to have discovered your blog today and I look forward to purchasing your book. I love this particular post because I think that in the past I have too often focussed on losing a certain amount of weight by a certain time, which many times have led to discouragement and feelings of “there is no use trying, when I always seem to fall short of my goals”. I really like the change in mindset of me focusing on one particular behavior instead, and changing old habits to new healthier habits. By doing so, I am sure that I will be pleased with the weight loss, but my focus will be coming a more healthier me for the long road, not just becoming this magical weight I have in my mind. Thanks again for the great article.
Totally agree. The behavioral changes HAVE to start in order to meet any of your goals. For me, it was also a decision to walk every day that was the first step. It was much easier to just do that at first. To make lots of drastic changes all at once can be overwhelming. It took me longer to lose the weight, but I feel that it is more sustainable and less of a yo-yo cycle.
When I started my weight loss plan, the only thing I could think about is the goal I had in mind. That “eye on the prize” kept me in the early weeks going forward with expectations. After a while, my behavior changed as I pounded out better habits. Before long, the goal wasn’t near as important as my behaviors had taken its place. AH-MAZE-ING!
Thank you for the great insight today Diane.
I was 235 lbs in 2010. I started my journey and have lost over 60 lbs. I have found that my goals and behavior, especially in the beginning needed to be very small. Such as, just make it through today. Each night when I made it an entire day, following my caloric and exercise plans, I had a little private dance party in my room. Sure, I slipped up sometimes, but I never was super hard on myself. I slapped my own risk, and woke up the next morning with a daily goal. Just get through this day too. The further into my journey I got, the longer these goals got. Just make it two days, then three, then it was a week. Now I treat myself a couple of times a month to something that doesnt really fit into my plans. A piece of chocolate, cake, or a couple of drinks with friends. Sometimes I treat myself to a new pair of jeans, and don’t make any adjustments to my diet plan. I am getting better and better at not taking food that I do not want. Especially at work, where people bring things in , and then make you feel guilty for not having “just a little piece.” Setting what seemed to be very small goals, and then letting them grow with me, has made this so much easier.
I do believe that if you can set goals, a meet those goals with behavioral changes, then in the long run, the goal become unimportant and the behavior becomes permanant!
I can say that I have failed everytime I have made goals and I have been the most successful when focusing on my behaviors. This may not be a one size fits all but I do think a lot of people that struggle with weight loss have the same thought patterns that I do. Something that was meaningful for me to know and hear was found in a habit book I recently read. If your brain creates a pattern, say, for me it used to be stopping for an ice cream sundae everyday after work. Then your brain has created the pathway that afterwork, as I get closer to that place, I am going to want to stop. I can have the goal of wanting to stop all I want to but it is always going to be a struggle for me until I create a new pattern. I replace that pathway with a new one such as, maybe I stop for a diet coke or maybe I take a different way home. My (very long) point is that I can create a plan but I HAVE to change my everyday behaviors and responses to have the strength to meet those goals. Good luck to all!
Hi Diane! I’m all about the process. 1) Food journal 2) drink 8 glasses of water/day 3) exercise 4) go to my TOPS meetings. This has been a successful formula for me, regardless of temporary scale fluctuations.
(Today is the first day that Blogger put this post on for me! Yay!)