Episode 74: Setting Weight Loss Goals – 3 Novel Approaches

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Did you know that setting weight loss goals requires different strategies than setting career or financial goals? In fact, if you set your fat loss goals the same way that you set career or financial goals, you could literally be setting yourself up for failure! In today's post, I'm going to share with you the best approach for setting realistic weight loss goals and how to immunize yourself against the frustration that usually occurs when people use the "S.M.A.R.T Goal" formula for their body-change goals. Why S.M.A.R.T. Goals Aren't So Smart For Fat Loss If you've ever heard a weight loss expert discuss setting goals on television, they almost always suggest following the S.M.A.R.T. formula, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Sensitive. If you're like me, you look at this formula and think, "That makes sense." In fact, it does make sense if you're setting all other goals but weight loss goal, here's why... Weight Loss Is An Ugly Science The reality is...You have no control over how much weight you lose... You only have control over what you do and you can't "do" weight loss. When we say weight loss is an ugly science we mean that we could take 100 people and put them on exactly the same diet and exercise program and see 100 different results. Some people would lose 10 pounds, the person standing right next to them would lose 2 pounds, and the person standing next to them would quit the program because it was too restrictive. The bottom line is S.M.A.R.T. goals would work if weight loss was linear and predictable, but it's not...it's totally unpredictable. This means that we can't dictate the time it will take to achieve a certain weight loss result for any given person. If we can't predict how much weight we lose in a set time, that means we can't predict whether or not a goal is realistic or achievable. So, the best you can do, when it comes to weight loss, is set a "S.M." goal, and a "Smmmm goal" isn't quite as catchy as a "S.M.A.R.T." goal... Human Beings Make Terrible Psychics When it comes down to it, we're trying to predict the future by setting a goal. We're in essence, estimating what we are capable of achieving, but we leave out one very important factor within that prediction... That is...our promised effort. In other words, that result isn't going to come magically in the night; you're going to have to do something to achieve that goal and here's the fatal problem... Our default programming, as it pertains to estimating future weight loss is not to do "something", it's to do "everything"! Let me explain... So, when we picture ourselves losing 20 pounds by the end of next month, we hardly ever sit down and figure out what we're going to do to achieve that goal...we just imagine that we'll do everything, such as, eat perfect food all the time, avoid all sugar, drink nothing but water, exercise every day, all day, park our car 12 blocks away from work so that we'll be forced to walk, etc. Obviously, I'm exaggerating to make my point, which actually isn't much of an exaggeration because the lifestyle that we assume we will follow is usually equally impossible given our busy schedules and endless responsibilities. The reality is we assume that because we set a motivational goal, that the motivation will propel us through all of our road blocks, and it does for a few days, then our motivation wanes and we give in to the temptations that stare us in the face every moment of every day... So, let's review... * We can't predict how much weight we can lose in a set time. We can't even accurately estimate it... * Because we can't predict weight lost in a set period of time, we have no idea what's achievable or realistic * We're terrible at predicting the future and even worst at estimating the amount of effort we're willing to put into a particular goal Needless to say, it's not looking good for setting realistic weight loss goals.