The message from the global weight loss industry is clear: follow the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches we keep dishing up, and if you can’t stick to it and keep the weight off – that’s your problem. In reality, because we are all very different in what we think, how we live, and what we do – the only way to lose weight and keep it off is to be supported in developing an approach that respects who you are and acknowledges your unique situation. Weight Management Coaching is the antidote to the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.
Weight Management Coaches Focus on Behaviour, Not Food, Pills, or Supplements
“Assumptions are made, and most assumptions are wrong” (Albert Einstein).
A qualitative study exploring the experiences of 76 people who had tried to lose weight numerous times found that the interventions were perceived to be: unrealistic, unsustainable, not suited to existing lifestyles, and focused exclusively on food rather than behaviour.
The inability of the study’s participants to sustain weight loss tended to reinforce their feelings of failure and left many of them feeling frustrated, depressed, and angry.
The study highlighted a problem common to most weight loss interventions; they assume that people will magically change their behaviour to accommodate the demands of the intervention. Not only is this assumption wrong; it demonstrates a fundamental ignorance of human behaviour.
Behaviours are built by repeated actions. The more we repeat an action, the more we programme that action into the neural structure of our brains. Over time, repeated actions become habitual behaviours where they are run automatically by the deeper, unconscious regions of our brains.
It’s magical thinking to believe that new ‘desirable’ behaviours will just appear, and the undesirable ones will conveniently disappear – they don’t. For any undesirable behaviour to be changed its constituent parts; the triggers (called antecedents) that prompt or cue the behaviour, the behaviour itself, and the consequences that reinforce the behaviour, and make it more likely to be repeated, need to be understood and accounted for.
In short, it’s all about the ABCs.
General knowledge about food isn’t the problem we face – most people know what’s healthy and what isn’t. What’s lacking is our understanding of how to build healthy behaviours and prevent the unhealthy ones from re-emerging. When it comes to behaviour, we don’t always have a working knowledge of our ABCs.
Weight Management Coaching works like this:
Once a client has identified the behaviour(s) they’d like to change, their coach focuses on helping them to identify and understand the ABCs of that specific behaviour. Sometimes the ABCs are simple – feelings of hunger and thirst might prompt the consumption of an afternoon Coke and pastry. This satisfies the hunger and thirst, reinforcing and sustaining the behaviour.
Sometimes the ABCs are harder to identify and understand; behaviours, like the one above, can be prompted by feelings of boredom, stress, frustration, or loneliness. They can be reinforced by actions that alleviate these unpleasant feelings.
Identifying and understanding the ABCs of a behaviour is an essential component of behaviour change; only once the ABCs are understood can they be altered successfully. Weight Management Coaches help clients to identify healthier behaviours that can replace their existing behaviour whilst providing similar reinforcement. In this regard, the process of change is more appropriately described as behaviour modification.
Once the modifications are made, clients are supported to repeat the behaviour so that it eventually overwrites the old neural programming and becomes a healthier new habit.
Behaviour change doesn’t just magically happen – it’s the product of identification, planning, and support. All of which are core to the process of Weight Management Coaching.
If you’re interested in becoming a Weight Management Coach and helping people to build healthy, sustainable behaviours, more information is available here.
Weight Management Coaches Operate from a Person-Centred Framework
Tailoring a diet or commercial weight loss programme to better suit a person doesn’t make the approach ‘person-centred’. The core principle of a truly person-centred approach is that it is not centred around the expertise of the practitioner (i.e., the dietician who tells you what to eat) or the specifics of the approach itself (i.e., to adhere to the ‘Paleo’ diet you must exclude all dairy and grains from your diet).
The person-centred approach has its origins in Person-Centred Counselling developed by psychologist Carl Rogers. Rogers believed that if people can be helped to see themselves and the situation they find themselves in, they will be able to identify the options available to them and make choices accordingly.
Implicitly, the person-centred approach is about empowering people to make changes and take control for themselves. The coach’s role is to encourage the person to explore their situation and the options that are available to them and to provide support and guidance as they enact change.
Operating from a person-centred framework means that the relative expertise of coach and client are equally important. Coaches help equip clients with the skills and knowledge required to make sustainable changes. Clients use the expertise they have in understanding themselves and their unique situation to identify the changes to make.
Coaches then support clients in the process of change and help develop their problem-solving skills so potential barriers to change can be minimised or eliminated.
Weight Management Coaches Practice Genuine Empathy – Not Token Concern
Occasionally, clients need help determining the difference between healthy and unhealthy food… but not always. Sometimes clients need to be re-assured that their weight struggles are not due to a personal fault or a lack of effort… but not always. Sometimes clients need help to minimise their exposure to high incentive foods or the pervasive influence of food marketing… but not always. Sometimes clients need extra support to deal with a challenging event… but not always. Sometimes clients will have low expectations of success due to a history of yo-yo dieting and weight regain… but not always.
The point here is that no two clients are the same. Every client has unique needs and different circumstances that need to be considered and catered to. To be able to provide the support and guidance that each client needs, Weight Management Coaches practice from a position of genuine empathy.
In recent years the term ‘empathy’ has become somewhat fashionable, yet it remains widely misunderstood. Empathy is not about feeling sorry for another person’s misfortune and ‘looking concerned’ when the time is right. Empathy means listening to another person with full attention to gain insight into the emotions, perspective, experience, and challenges that the person faces.
Empathic listening enables Weight Management Coaches to provide only and exactly the type of support and guidance that each client needs. Nothing more, nothing less, 100% personal, 0% generic.
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