Tuesday, December 3, 2013

What Makes a Good Weight Loss Coaching Programme?

Numerous ways to lose weight are marketed, sold, and undertaken. Some are good, some are bad, and some are even dangerous.

In desperation people starve themselves, take pills, and even undergo surgery all in the quest to lose fat from their bodies, often with disastrous results: starving results in binge eating and can lead to eating disorders; taking pills can cause serious negative health problems including organ failure and usually results in rebound weight gain once the pills are stopped; and surgery can leave the individual seriously malnourished, doesn't deal with their thought processes, and can even be fatal.

However, there is a gold standard which does have good results and that is a cognitive behaviourally based weight loss treatment programme that incorporates sound nutritional advice and encourages lifestyle changes. Such programmes have been shown to have the highest success rate in a clinical setting.

Outline of a Good Weight Loss Programme

A good weight loss programme will incorporate nutrition, lifestyle, activity, and attitude:

Nutritional guidelines will cover a large number of areas including, just for example, understanding what happens to food in the body as it is digested including how it contributes to energy levels, how it is stored, what it is used for; how to keep blood sugar stable; understand why all calories are not equal; learn about hidden calories and fat; how to eat for weight loss and maintenance and how much protein, carbohydrates, and fats to eat; superfoods, how to be creative with lower fat foods, and how to increase fibre in the diet.

Lifestyle guidelines are very important in learning how to lose weight effectively and permanently and should cover a large number of areas including, for example, keeping a food diary, how to maximise awareness of eating, identifying food triggers, how to follow an eating plan, shopping from a list, shopping on a full stomach, leave the table after eating, develop strategies for eating away from home, plan and prepare for special events, address drinking alcohol, handle eating situations at work, understand your behaviour chains.

Activity guidelines should include, for example, understanding the benefits of exercise, destroy myths about exercise (e.g. it makes you hungry, it has to hurt to work etc.); increase lifestyle activity such as walking, using the stairs, consider programmed activity and make it fun, don't use exercise to punish yourself for eating, don't be all or nothing, and so on.

Attitude guidelines will cover common cognitive distortions in obesity such as wrong information; all or nothing thinking; rule based thinking; beliefs about food and eating; beliefs about healthy eating; beliefs about health and weight; beliefs about diets, thoughts acting as commands (automatic fattening thoughts); obesogenic values; mind reading; beauty bound thinking; labelling; and awfulising.

The coach will be able to deliver this information whilst examining the personal circumstances of the client and exploring their psychology, including their values and beliefs, whilst coaching for behavioural change. The coach will be a teacher, motivator, educator, supporter, and mentor.

A number of areas will be explored including the client's history of weight, personal difficulties, lifestyle, relationships, any emotional eating, body image, food meaning, attitudes, lapse and lapse management, nutrition, motivation, the self, personal physiology, and activity levels.

A good weight loss programme is not about handing out a diet sheet and then weighing the individual at regular intervals, weighing might not even come into it, it will be holistic in nature looking at the client's lifestyle, relationships, eating habits, and psychology, past and present. and its aims will be to help the client change at a cognitive and behavioural level so that current thought processes and eating habits are changed and weight loss achieved and maintained.

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