Don’t Lose Weight to Get Healthy. Get Healthy to Lose Weight.

Discuss weight loss these days, and you are likely to be overwhelmed by opinions about different diet and exercise programs.

Although these conversations play out countless times every day in the U.S., they typically yield discouraging results for two reasons: 1) When you get past the personal preferences and ideologies, there is little or no evidence that any specific diet or exercise program is superior for weight loss purposes;¹ and 2) When weight-loss discussions become lost in the labyrinth of diet and exercise dogma, they overlook arguably the most important contributor to success: your weight loss psychology.

All is fair in love, war, and weight loss

The conventional weight loss psychology in the U.S. is apparent in popular television shows such as The Biggest Loser. This psychology promotes radical changes in diet and exercise and a race mentality toward weight loss. From this perspective, boot camp exercise programs, liquid cleanse diets, and even tapeworms²–no matter how unsustainable, nutritionally inadequate, or even dangerous–are considered fair game because they rest on a hidden assumption: Weight loss is good for you regardless of how it is achieved. But is this really true? And what happens to people when this "weight loss by any means necessary" psychology plays out in practice?

The picture below summarizes two types of weight loss psychology. One is unfortunately extremely common and deeply embedded in our culture despite being counterproductive for weight loss and often detrimental to health, whereas the other is comparatively rare but invaluable to the person seeking a weight-loss experience producing improved energy, mood, and vitality. Care to guess which is which?

The point of the above picture is to illustrate how the weight-loss psychology of a given person creates a cascade of influences shaping their weight-loss methods (e.g., the types of nutrition and exercise changes they make), their short-versus-long-term focus, and whether they pursue weight loss in a way that also improves their health and quality of life more broadly.

In the bottom section of the picture, you see specific examples of how weight-loss psychology influences not only a person's weight-loss methods but also their weight loss and health results for either the better or worse.

Consider the accidental plight of a typical person seeking to lose weight for personal or medical reasons. All their life, they've probably been taught that weight loss is healthy no matter the method. They've likely been exposed to many products, commercials, and television and internet experts promoting extreme weight loss approaches. And they have almost certainly witnessed examples of people using these methods through their social networks.

Yet no matter how dismal the weight-loss results they've observed in others (or experienced personally), they probably feel compelled to follow the same path. Regrettably, this path is actually a circle, almost invariably leading back to where they began.

This "lose weight to get healthy'" psychology acts as a cultural spell. Once cast, it is difficult to resist, and the effects are long-lasting. For many, the effects will last a lifetime. Because this detrimental weight-loss psychology is so pervasive–not only in the general public but even among health professionals–I believe it is critical to be able to offer a clear and practical alternative.

A primary focus on improving health puts the horse before the cart. Enlightened by a health-first focus, a person can more easily prioritize nutrition over calories, fun over fanatical exercise options, and well-being over scale-obsessed weight loss. This is a mindset not only for success with weight loss but, more importantly, a richer and more rewarding life.