Why Look for A Weight Loss Partner

A person who coaches another person in terms of helping them keep a promise is known as an accountability partner. The phrase is a neologism that has been very popular during the 1990s. It was first employed in the 1960s in conjunction with weight-loss regimens. Christians frequently use the term to describe a situation in which a person’s accountability partner assists them in sticking to a moral commitment, such as not visiting a pornographic website.

By 2016, a weight loss partner can assist with various physical fitness, beginning or improving a business, a business or personal endeavor, or any other goal-oriented reason.

According to a University of Scranton study by Dan Diamond in Forbes and an article by Dale Tyson, not having a weight loss buddy to help a person achieve their goal is one of the reasons 92 percent of people failed to keep their New Year’s resolution.

Accountability partners frequently exchange commitments to assist one another in following through.

Find An Accountability Partner to Help You Form A Healthy Habit

If you want to make significant changes in your life, build on a lesson that many of us learned in 2020: be accountable to yourself.

Both to yourself and others, accountability has been a crucial aspect of pandemic survival. We had to be responsible for wearing a mask, limiting our contacts, and keeping our distance to avoid spreading the infection.

On the other hand, accountability might assist you in achieving your health objectives. It’s a crucial tool for developing and breaking behaviors.

When accountability comes from the outside, it is most effective. Every day, checking in with a friend to talk about healthy eating will help you stay accountable. If you’ve planned a walk with a friend or a workout with a personal trainer, you’re more likely to exercise. By announcing your plan on social media, you can generate public responsibility.

If you wish to be accountable just to yourself, you can do so by utilizing an app that sends you daily reminders or by tracking your activity habits with a Fitbit or smartwatch. You can also use a daily journal entry to hold yourself accountable.

“We perform better when someone is looking, even if we are the ones watching!”

According to a 2018 North Carolina State University research of 704 persons enrolled in a 15-week online weight-loss program, participants with buddies dropped more weight and waist inches than those who took the course without a buddy.

So, for today’s Well challenge, consider a health goal you’d like to reach and how you can hold yourself accountable to it. We offered a few ideas on how to go about it.

Make a partner to hold you accountable. It might entail getting together once or twice a week for a stroll or a text check-in to see how you’re doing on your diet or a Zoom chat to collaborate on a decluttering project. Make a strategy with a friend who wants to reach the same goal.

Dr. Tim Church, a well-known exercise and obesity expert and chief medical officer for Naturally Slim, a Dallas-based app-based behavioral health program, stated, “Some people are very accountable to themselves, but not most people.” “There’s one thing that drives accountability more than anything else in my years of working with thousands of individuals: Get a buddy if you want to keep people behaving.”

While having a weight loss partner adds some light peer pressure, the idea is to concentrate on the conduct rather than the outcome. If a person is trying to reduce weight, don’t put too much emphasis on the scale. Instead, check-in with them and remind them to keep track of what they ate, urge them to eat more fruits and vegetables, and remind them of the benefits of a regular weigh-in (though you don’t have to inquire about the outcome). Discuss what might have sparked an emotional eating binge if they criticize themselves for eating two desserts.

People are pretty critical of themselves. You don’t have to be so harsh with them.

• Make use of an app. An app is a terrific approach to make your day more accountable. Most will update you about how much weight have you already lost. Headspace and Calm, for example, will give you regular reminders and track your progress. Noom, a weight-loss app, requires you to check in every day for a few minutes, complete mini-health courses, and log your food intake. Fitbit counts your steps, syncs with your smart scale, and vibrates to remind you to move about.

• Make a to-do list. Once you’ve chosen a health goal for yourself, use calendar reminders to help you stick to it. Schedule walk breaks or check-ins with your weight loss buddy daily or weekly.

• Make a social media announcement. Virtual accountability is created by telling your pals on social media that you’re cutting back on packaged foods or sending a tweet every time you finish a class on your exercise bike. Commit to sharing your feelings on days you’re struggling or completing a goal on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or another channel. When you share your plans on social media, you’re more likely to meet a supportive friend who wants to join you on your path.

Is it True That Having an Accountability Partner Can Help You Lose Weight?

Yes, they certainly can and do! Now, don’t just leave because we have told you the solution; let’s discuss why it works and find the ideal accountability partner.

Why Does It Work?

“Losing weight is difficult. According to a study, weight loss with responsibility is more likely to succeed since you create good habits together. Dieters who went on a diet with a spouse did better than those who tried it alone in that study. Losing weight is much more difficult if you’re working alone.

A weight loss partner (obviously) holds you accountable, ensuring that you stay to your strategy and achieve your objectives. If you eat a pint of ice cream every day, they will patiently assist you in breaking the habit. They’ll grab you off the couch and work out with you if you haven’t exercised in days. It’s easy to talk yourself out of working out or persuade yourself that you don’t need to.

That harmful food, but a partner can assist you in making the best option and developing the positive habits necessary to lose weight. When two people work together and help one another, they can succeed. It will take different forms for different people, depending on their requirements, ambitions, schedules, and locations, but the general goal is to assist one another in succeeding.

How to Find a Companion for Accountability

Look for someone who has the same challenges and has the same goals as you.

You’ll be able to encourage each other better, but you’ll also be able to generate a sense of competitiveness that can aid with results, given you’re both pursuing comparable objectives. Someone trying to lose 55 stubborn pounds after years of effort may not be the most excellent fit for someone trying to shed their last 5 pounds after having a kid since the two may not relate well. Remember, no matter what, we can all be cheerleaders for one other! Finding someone who will understand and be familiar with the emotional and physical experiences you will have along the process is significant.

We’ve previously discussed how internal motivation is essential for achieving long-term health and fitness objectives, yet our resolve might sometimes falter. Having a weight loss buddy to hold you accountable during those times can help you stay on track.

Lose weight easily by working with a supportive social network. They provide additional encouragement and accountability, increasing your chances of success. It can be the difference between clicking snooze and lacing up your sneakers if you have a friend to meet for an early morning gym class.

So, how do you find a workout or diet accountability partner? Are you out of luck if no one wants to join you at 6:00 a.m. for spin class? Here’s how to get some encouragement from outside sources in any situation.

Be aware of your objectives.

Before asking someone to be your weight loss buddy, you should have specific goals in mind. Setting a S.M.A.R.T. goal—something concrete, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based—rather than asking a friend to hold you accountable for something generic like “exercise more” is more effective. It’s easy for your accountability partner to check in on Wednesday and see if you’ve been to the gym yet if you’ve stated that you intend to work out three times a week.

Please inform your friends.

Tell your pals once you’ve decided on a specific aim. If your family, friends, and coworkers know that you’re trying to cut back on sugar, you might ask them to keep an eye on you when you’re presented with the dessert menu at a restaurant. Finding an accountability buddy who shares your goals might also be as simple as utilizing your existing social network. When you talk about your goals, you’re bound to meet someone who shares your goals, and then you’ve got yourself an accountability buddy!

Do it as a group.

When you make plans to lose weight with a friend, you feel more significant pressure to stick to them than if you plan to exercise alone. Let’s say you and a friend both want to work out a couple of times a week. That’s fantastic! Partnering up for your exercise is one method to keep each other motivated. Perhaps you arrange to go for a run early in the morning or meet at the gym after work for a cardio session. If you’re attempting to eat healthier, make it a hangout session where you and a friend prepare, eat the meal together, then store the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Enroll in a course.

If you can’t find somebody to join you at a local gym, consider partnering with someone who already attends. Enrolling in an exercise program will put you in touch with a group of people who have similar aims and workout schedules to yours based on their regular attendance. In an exercise class, finding an accountability buddy might be as simple as swapping numbers with the person next to you and committing to check in with each other if one of you skips class. A certified personal trainer can be your buddy too.

Request a text from a friend.

Simply asking a friend to check in with you a couple of times a week is one of the simplest methods to find a weight loss buddy. Receiving a text that asks, “Did you go to the gym yet today?” could be all the incentive you need to get started. This can be a one-way or two-way street, and it allows you to collaborate with someone even if your goals are entirely dissimilar.

You can find a buddy who will hold you accountable on the internet.

The internet is another option to obtain accountability and support for your goals. To discover a walking, hiking, or jogging group in your region or connect with a local sports team, go to active.com. Meetup.com is another fantastic place to gather in-person support for various goals, such as marathon training or committing to a vegan diet.

Make sure it’s someone you feel at ease with.

This individual should be respectful, trustworthy, and encouraging for you to feel comfortable being open and honest with them. Talking about your weight and health can be a personal matter. They should also be someone you can rely on for assistance.

Choose a communication method.

You’ll need to stay in touch with each other to assist each other succeed, whether through text messages, phone calls, or in-person meetups. You’ll need to be deliberate about staying in touch and scheduling time for effective conversation. Think about how you and your weight loss buddy will spend your time together, and then move on to our next items.

Look for someone with whom you can spend time.

It’s incredibly beneficial to have an exercise buddy and/or someone you can food prep. We understand that this may not be practical every day, but going food shopping together can be beneficial once a week! Making healthy decisions as a group can feel liberating!

Find someone who will challenge you rather than condemn you.

While you don’t want a coach pushing you past your limit, you equally don’t want a spouse who encourages splurging or sits silently by if you make poor choices. The right partner will be open and honest with you, and you should expect the same from them. They should encourage you to stretch your boundaries by challenging you to be the best version of yourself without making you feel like a failure.

You should communicate your expectations.

Are you a list maker who enjoys crossing things off your to-do list? Do you need someone to motivate you throughout a workout to don’t give up too soon? Communicate your wants and expectations to your partner so that they can understand how you want them to assist you (and vice versa). You must both understand what form of assistance will be most beneficial to the other. To be effective, weight loss partners need to speak freely.

It is not necessary to have only one accountability partner. There is strength in numbers, so if you want, make it a group of nearby friends, family, or other supportive persons. If it’s most beneficial for you, try joining a well-established support group!

Weight to Wellness can serve as an accountability partner somehow, but we still believe it’s critical to find someone else on the same journey who you can support and who can support you. You might even run into that person at our place of business!

One of the main reasons our weight loss program in Birmingham, AL, works so well for our clients is accountability. Weekly weigh-ins, adjustments, and habit conversations assist in ensuring that each week is as effective as the last (if not even better).

Summary

Weight loss journey success requires a high level of accountability.

It motivates you to make small everyday decisions that build up to the consistent behaviors that lead to a better you, such as eating an apple instead of a cookie, working out, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

Continue to practice these regular routines until they become preferences rather than conscious choices, and you won’t be tempted to revert to the old habits that contributed to your weight gain in the first place.

“We’ve always attempted to be yo-yo exercisers without a support system, and we always appeared to get off track when we simply had ourselves to answer to,” says the author.

Jumpstart your journey to losing weight today! Having a friend cheer us on makes quitting tough because we hate the thought of disappointing them. It also lights a fire within us to encourage them right back.

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