Is Perpetually Chasing Weight Loss Damaging your Health?

Weight loss is often treated as the ultimate sign of getting healthier. But what if focusing too heavily on losing weight is actually distracting you from the things that matter far more for your long-term health? 

Having worked with hundreds of different weight loss clients, too often people’s approach to weight loss is mentally and physically damaging – with at best superficial short-term benefits 

The number on the scales is an incredibly simple measure. But weight loss alone tells us very little about how that weight was lost or what is happening to your overall health. 

It is entirely possible to lose weight while maintaining poor dietary habits, doing very little exercise and missing out on many of the behaviours that actually improve health. 

Equally, BMI and body fat can be useful tools for identifying potential health risks at a population level, but they're poor measures of someone's lifestyle. You could have a "healthy" BMI while eating an extremely poor diet, doing no exercise and having poor cardiovascular fitness. On the other hand, someone may be improving their diet, becoming fitter and stronger, sleeping better and improving their metabolic health without seeing much change on the scales. 

And this is where weight loss can become a poor long-term motivator. 

If your motivation is simply "I need to lose weight," what happens when the scales stop moving? It's easy to feel like your efforts aren't working — even when your health is improving. 

Instead, focus on behaviours that you can maintain for life. 

Eat a better-quality diet. Eat more fruit and vegetables, increase your fibre intake, prioritise protein and minimise highly processed foods. Exercise regularly. Build strength, improve your cardiovascular fitness and simply become more active throughout the day. 

These are meaningful health goals regardless of what happens to your weight. 

Your BMI might not change rapidly, but your fitness could improve, your blood pressure could come down, your blood glucose could improve, your strength could increase and your overall risk of disease could be moving in the right direction. 

Don't make weight loss the goal and health the by-product. Make better health the goal — and let weight be just one potential outcome. 

The scales are one measure. They aren't the definition of your health.