Body Image Distortion will usually leads to unsafe weight loss behaviors

Scientists have a name for what is going on the minds of these non-overweight girls who view themselves as fat:  Body image distortion.

So, who are considered suffering from this body image distortion? Check out the symptoms:

• Non-overweight girls who long to be skinnier

• Girls of normal weight and even those who are underweight often have difficulty seeing themselves the way they really are.

“A distorted view of one’s weight status makes one more vulnerable to using unsafe weight loss behaviors. The key is to cultivate a positive, realistic, and appreciative relationship with your body regardless of your weight, then get support to develop eating and activity habits that balance input and output, and that you can live with for long time.”

Body image dissatisfaction is different from body image distortion. Body image dissatisfaction is where a girl sees her body the way it really is and finds it unattractive, but a girl suffering from body image distortion falsely interprets what she sees  in the mirror.

Have I met such girls before?

As a personal weight management coach, of course I have met such girls before. It is just a few and surprised to me is I met one guy too. Some that I can’t meet face to face and I do a quick analysis on their weight based on their height, their weight is perfectly falls in the range of ideal weight. But these people keeps telling me that they still very fat and need to lose more weight. As an experienced personal weight management coach, by the look at the number from the calculation and also from the body shape, we can tell whether the person needs to lose weight or just to eat healthily and maintain the current weight and body shape.

Will I still coach and guide people who are suffering from body image distortion?

No, because they don’t need a weight loss coach to teach them how to lose weight as they don’t need one. But what they need is support of 3 A’s for their mindset.

The 3 A’s:

Attention: Refers to listening for and responding to internal cues (i.e., hunger, satiety, fatigue). People suffering from body image distortion will usually starve themselves and this will leads to an unsafe weight loss behavior. Instead of starving, they should eat right.

Appreciation: Refers to appreciating the pleasures your body can provide. There is no “perfect” body. Different culture, different race, different ethnic will make us looks different individually. Learn to appreciate what you’ve got.

Acceptance: Refers to accepting what is — instead of longing for what is not. Learn to accept the truth.

Healthy body weight is the size a person naturally returns to after a long period of both non-compulsive eating* and consistent exercise commensurate with the person’ s physical health and condition. People who are suffering body image distortion must learn to advocate for themselves  to aspire to a naturally determined size, even though that will often mean confronting misinformed family, friends, and media advertising again and again.

*Simply stated, non-compulsive eating means eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied. This involves being able to distinguish emotional hunger from physical hunger, and satiation from over fullness

Motivation For Weight Loss: Learn from the Japanese

I want you to watch this video. If you are having any distraction at this moment, do not watch this video.Come back and watch when there is no distraction around you.

Few weeks back, I met up with one of my old client who has started with her weight loss program. She initially lost few kgs but then she decided to give up even before reaching her healthy weight range. She did not contact with me after a year. One day out of the blue she texted me and she told me that she has gained more than 10kgs. She told me that she really wanted to lose weight this time because she is getting married soon.

I got a shocked…

When I met up with her. Is because I almost cannot recognize her. She really put on a lot of weight. She told me that she is sad because she is now wearing her mom’s clothings and she couldn’t fit into her own clothings anymore. She said she missed to go shopping and to wear nice clothes.

I then asked her…

How is your eating lifestyle like for the past one year when you stopped your weight management program? I asked her, did you drink at least 2L of water every day or are you back to your old habits to drink lots of sweet drinks and snacks a lot of junkies? She shyly replied to me that she drinks a lot of sweet drinks, hardly drink plain water and her favorite is junkies.

I asked her why she gave up to reach her healthy weight range

She answered me that is because she does not have motivation and does cannot resist all the junkies. Colleagues always invite her for unhealthy breakfast to have frequent tea breaks. I asked her, is your colleagues paying for you? She said no.

What we can learn from this lady?

Her future husband is accompanying her to meet up with me. As I have spoken to him before, I can feel that he is very supportive her future wife’s weight loss action.But, she gave herself a lot of reasons not be healthy. Here is the list of reasons that she gave me:

• No motivation to lose weight
• The junkies is too tempting and nice
• A lot of delicious food around her office area
• I just don’t like to drink plain water…it’s tasteless

She is working with a reputable and big company in Malaysia. Just imagine one day, their organization implemented the same thing like what the Japanese government is doing (like in the video).. do you think by then she can afford to give herself reasons for not losing her weight? Do you think she will still says that junkies are nice and so tempting?

She will not afford to give herself reasons if such rules is being implemented

If she wants to keep her job with her company, she got to lose those excess weights and trim down the waist line just to fit the qualification of a fit employee. To be successful in losing weight, you really don’t need an on going motivation for your weight loss management program. What you need to have in your mindset is “WHY” you want to lose weight. When the “WHY” is very strong, you will not give yourself the reasons.

Like what is shown in the video. The “Why” is I need to lose weight in order for me to keep my job. I will need to eat healthy food, even though is tough, but I need to do it, because I really need a job. Job is so important to a lot of people because people have monthly and fixed commitments like housing loans, car loans, insurance, telephone bills and etc. We need a job to pay for our commitments.

When you are given just 2 options, to lose weight or to lose your job…which one will the individual person choose? Definitely it will be lose weight. People tends to be able to lose weight more successfully when they have no other options .

Have you ever wondered why air stewardess are not overweight? This is because from time to time, there will be a weighing session for all the air stewardess. If you are overweight, you will need to stop for a moment just to lose their weight in order for them to resume their work. It’s like a standard for them to have a healthy weight range.

What is the Motivation For Weight Loss?

Learn from the Japanese. You need to visualize and imagine that if the same thing happens to our country, there will be a lot of people are going to be out of job due to obesity. Are you going to start to take action and stop giving yourself unnecessary reasons to enjoy food?

The Best Motivation For Weight Loss

The best motivation for weight loss is about mindset. You will need to clearly define WHY you want to lose weight and the consequences of not losing those excess weight from your body. If you are not doing anything to lose those fats and weights, can you afford to pay a lot for your future medical expenses?

I find that this video is really useful and we should learn from the Japanese. I do hope that this video will help you in motivating you to lose weight.

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As someone who teaches both doctors and the public about obesity, for me I would think that weight loss has been overemphasized and body shape under emphasized. How many teaches us how to get back our body shape? And how many people are more concern about their body size or shape? Or in their mind, losing weight = slim. No way, someone could lose weight up to 10lbs, but nothing change to their shape. Just from the weighing scale, it is showing the difference.

You have probably read about the Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a weight-to-height ratio. If your BMI is greater than 25, you are considered overweight in the U.S., and if it is greater than 30 you are obese. This ratio has been a powerful way for scientists to document the obesity epidemic in this country and its effects on health and disease. However, when it comes to you as an individual, it can be misleading.

An athlete can be considered overweight on the BMI scale, but if the extra weight being carried is muscle, he is not really fat. A thin woman can have a normal BMI, yet still be over-fat. So shape counts.

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Before you ready to change your body shape, you need to understand about your own body. This is the first step to reach your best personal shape.

Here are the questions to understand about your body:

1. When you looked in the mirror, are you busy trying to cover up the unshapely areas?
2. Do you know how much fat you’re carrying, compared to how much muscle?
3. Do you know where you tend to gain weight–upper body, lower body or around the middle?

If you know the answer to the questions above, then you are ready to make your personal plan for losing weight and keeping it off.

Shapes are personal and go beyond the usual apple and pear. Women can have three typical body shapes–upper body fat, lower body fat and both upper and lower body fat. Men usually only get upper body fat. The upper body stores fat in times of stress and some people can lose and gain weight rapidly in the upper body. The lower body fat in women responds to female hormones such as estrogen and progesterone and stores fat for breastfeeding a newborn baby. Women who have both upper and lower body fat will lose their upper body fat first. Women with more upper body fat tend to have more muscle than women with lower body fat and will need more protein in their diet to help control their hunger. Losing weight is harder if you have lower body fat rather than upper body fat, but the medical benefits of losing your upper body fat are greater. Losing weight around your neck, face, chest and waist usually goes along with losing fat on the inside as well. So as you look better, you are also improving your health tremendously.

Finally, there are two more body shapes to consider: The shape you CAN change and the shape you CAN’T change. It is important to know the difference and work on the shape you can change, while adjusting your wardrobe and attitudes to the shape you cannot change. Due to low metabolism, many women with lower body fat can’t lose weight just by cutting calories. These lower body-fat cells are resistant to both exercise and diet. Only a personalized program can help make sure you get enough protein to control cravings and build or maintain lean muscle.

So if you’re a serious about being in control of your body shape and weight, I’d like to invite you to get your free tips here. Just put your name and e-mail in the little boxes below. You wouldn’t wanna miss the one tip that could make all the difference in your life.