Use of behavioral treatment to motivate yourself in weight loss program

| December 14, 2009 | 0 Comments

The first and most important component of your weight loss program is motivation, without it there will be no weight loss program to begin with. No matter how much you nag someone to lose they will not lift a finger to do something about it unless they are motivated to do so.
There are various techniques through which you can attain motivation to lose weight and behavioral treatment is one of those. This approach aims to help individuals develop a set of skills to achieve a healthier weight.
This technique aim to help individuals to decide what to change in order to achieve their goals, it task doesn’t end there, behavioral technique aim to help individual in identifying how to change as well.

Principle of Behavioral treatment in weight loss:

It is based on principles of classical conditioning, which states that eating is often prompted by cues that become strongly linked to food intake. Behavioral treatment helps people identify cues that trigger inappropriate eating and develop new responses to them. It also seeks to reinforce the adoption of positive behaviors.

Behavioral treatment specifies very clear goals in terms that can be easily measured as specific goals giving a clear assessment of success. It is also process oriented, It is more than helping people to decide what to change (i.e. eating, activity, and thinking habits); it is helping them identify how to change. Thus, once a goal is specified, people are encouraged to examine factors that will facilitate or hinder goal achievement.

Approach, Aim and components of behavioral treatment:

  • This treatment approach advocates small rather than large changes. This gives weight loss program followers successful experiences on which to build rather than attempting drastic changes that are typically short-lived. It invokes positivity and discourages negativity thus making sure that motivation remains a strong component through the program and provides new zeal to the person at regular intervals through rewards system.
  • The aim of this technique is not to make people worthless by inducting in them negative thoughts like they are fat and need to reduce and be more attractive instead it aims to make people feel well about themselves and reduce weight through positivity like “I need to maintain a healthy life style”.
  • This technique involves multiple components such as keeping a food and activity record somewhat like a journal, this is called self monitoring. It also involves controlling the cues associated with eating through education about what we eat and how it affects our bodies, slowing the process of eating and physical activities. Last but not the least it involves problem solving and cognitive restructuring (i.e. cognitive therapy). All these components make up a behavior package.

This behavior package aims to help you in reducing weight in long terms through positivity. It aims in identifying and curbing negative behavior and inducing and encouraging positive behavior. It is like overhauling your life’s attitude, making lifestyle changes in achieving healthier and stronger you.

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