Weight Loss Burnout

You are probably well aware of the idea of burnout. Someone works really long hours for months at a time, or they study all hours day and night, and end up crashing both mentally and physically. What you may not ever have considered is the idea of weight loss burnout.

This is the idea that you spend so much time thinking about your weight, your food, your exercise, counting calories, planning meals, and talking to other people about weight loss related topics that you end up so exhausted you give up altogether.

Are you at risk?

What multiple studies have found is that weight loss tends to work best when you adopt a long term lifestyle change, building healthy habits and fitness levels over time. If you are finding that you approach is leaning more towards fast weight loss in a short amount of time, you may run the risk of burning out.

This could happen either before or after you reach your goal. How many of us have worked incredibly hard to lose that 10kg, only to find that once we get there we regress to our old habits and the weight comes back on?

How to prevent it

Make sure that you make changes that you are confident are sustainable. That is, changes you can be happy to adopt for many years to come. Be mindful of your thoughts, and how much time you are spending focusing on weight loss.

Keep in mind that at the start, it’s natural to do some research, find new recipes, look into different forms of physical activity, and learn about ways to overcome some of your personal weight loss barriers. You are arming yourself with the knowledge and skills you need to make healthy choices.

If you do notice that after that initial learning period that you are still spending many hours dwelling on weight loss related topics, or you are feeling any anxiety vs. positivity about your weight loss, you may like to try some strategies to avoid burnout.

Things like taking time for self care, quiet time, or moving more of your attention to hobbies or other things you enjoy can be helpful.

Avoiding analysis paralysis

With the overwhelming amount of information out there about different diets, supplements, workouts, and motivational techniques it can be easy to become overwhelmed in sorting out fact from fad.

That is why we offer education workshops as part of our weight loss retreats. If you would like to find out more about the topics we cover you can find them here.