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91 Weight Loss Motivation Tips

  • Do you start every diet full of motivation only to lose it a short while later?
  • Does every diet start “tomorrow”?
  • Are you looking for motivation to improve your eating habits?

If you are frustrated and unable to stick to a diet, then the following weight loss motivation tips will help you. These tips really work and you will actually WANT to eat well.

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See also workout motivation

  1. Focus on self-respect. Providing your body with food that can nourish it instead of food that can destroy it is a sign of self-respect and self-love. I used to think of healthy food as deprivation. I used to focus on the junk food I love that I can’t have. Now I focus on self-respect and self-love. I choose to nourish my body well so that it can continue to serve me well.
  2. Print our free weight loss motivation journal. It has 41 pages of motivational tools such as habit trackers, progress charts, motivational quotes, food logs, water trackers, etc.
  3. Write down 10 reasons why you want to lose weight. Why is it meaningful to you? Make copies of this page and keep one in your bag, next to your computer, in your office, or in your bathroom. Read it daily. Keep reminding yourself why you want to lose weight.
  4. Root cause analysis (RCA) can help you stop overeating by identifying the underlying factors that contribute to your habit of overeating. By focusing on the underlying causes of overeating, rather than just the symptoms, you can develop a more effective and sustainable plan to change your habits and improve your health. By performing RCA, you can gain a deeper understanding of why you overeat, which can help you develop a more effective plan to stop.
    For example, RCA might reveal that you overeat due to stress, boredom, or emotional triggers such as anxiety or depression. With this information, you can take steps to address these underlying issues, such as finding healthy ways to manage stress, engaging in activities to reduce boredom, or seeking help for emotional issues.
    RCA can also help you identify any external factors that contribute to overeating, such as a lack of healthy food options, a sedentary lifestyle, or a lack of support from friends and family. By addressing these factors, you can create a more supportive environment that encourages healthier habits and helps you stop overeating.
  5. Find out why your previous attempts didn’t work. Use our free root cause analysis template to understand the real reason you didn’t succeed in the past. If you keep trying to do what you did in the past, it won’t work. You need to do something different and address the root cause.
  6. The most effective way to change your habits is to focus on WHO you wish to become, not on what you want to achieve. Make the habit part of your new identity. Focusing on who you want to become is a powerful way to change habits and create lasting behavior change. When you align your habits with your values and desired identity, you are more likely to follow through and make them a permanent part of your life. By making the habit part of your new identity, you are creating a new belief system about yourself, which makes it easier to stick to your goals and make them a part of your daily routine. For example, if you want to become someone who prioritizes exercise, you can make it part of your daily routine and integrate it into your identity as a fit and healthy individual. This shift in mindset and focus on identity can help you overcome challenges and stick to your habits, even when faced with temptations or obstacles. It’s important to be patient with yourself and recognize that changing habits takes time and effort, but with a clear vision of who you want to become, it becomes easier to make sustainable changes.
  7. Create posters with weight loss affirmations and motivational quotes. We offer a free poster maker to create customized posters.
  8. Create a vision board with inspiring and motivational photos. Add weight loss affirmations and motivational quotes. We offer a free printable vision board pack that you can use to create a physical vision board or a free app to create a digital vision board in only a few minutes.
  9. Keep a weight loss journal and write down your feelings, accomplishments, reasons for losing weight, victories, etc. Start a journal with a list of the reasons you want to lose weight. Try to add new reasons every day. These could be entries about how good you felt when you ate well one day or how good you felt after a workout. Read your journal when you need motivation. You can use our free journal template or our free weight loss journal.
  10. Set weight loss rewards for each small milestone. Either celebrate each milestone reached or reward yourself with something special. We have a free weight loss tracker with a list of milestones and a reward for each one. When you know you are going to be rewarded you will be more motivated.
  11. Use a weight loss tracker to see your progress. Seeing your progress on a chart is extremely motivating.
  12. Make a commitment and tell people about it. Tell people who you will be embarrassed to disappoint. The more people you share with the greater the accountability.
  13. Sign a habit contract that will keep you accountable.
  14. Focus on health and not weight loss. Instead of making your goal to lose weight, make it to eat well.
  15. Read about the dangers of the food you love. Most delicious food that people crave is unhealthy. It’s sad but true. I have never heard of anyone craving broccoli. I crave sugar. Reading about the dangers of sugar motivates me. Netflix has some great documentaries that are motivating.
  16. Find an accountability partner or weight loss buddy. Make commitments to each other and check in with each other daily.
  17. Sign up for a support group. There are many support groups available. Find one that you can relate to and get support from the group.
  18. Sign up for a race. If you don’t run then sign up for a 5K. If you already run then sign up for a race that you will need to train to complete. Make it something that you can complete with regular training. Consult with your doctor before you start training.
  19. If you hate wasting money then sign up for an exercise program and pay in advance.
  20. Try hypnosis for weight loss. There are many videos on YouTube.
  21. Try meditation for weight loss. It will help you relax and to sleep better which will both help with motivation and with weight loss. There are many videos on YouTube.
  22. Buy waist beads. They will feel tight on your stomach when you overeat and they enhance your appearance which helps to motivate you.
  23. Do something that will make you love yourself. See our free self-love journal. When you love yourself, you will be less likely to fill your body with junk.
  24. In our free gratitude journal, you will find a page titled Things I love about myself. Fill out this page. Keep adding to it.
  25. Create a Pinterest board with motivating pins.
  26. Find healthy substitutes for the fattening food you love. For example, frozen dates taste nearly as good as chocolate (and I LOVE chocolate).
  27. Get a watch with a step count or an activity tracker. I find my Apple Watch to be motivating. It makes me want to close the circles every day which forces me to walk for at least half an hour a day. I find that when I walk every day I lose more weight than when I don’t.
  28. Think about it in terms of control. Are you going to control what you eat or are you going to let food control you?
  29. How you do anything is how you do everything. Think about your eating habits. Are they similar to other habits? For example, I am an “all or nothing” kind of person. My eating habits are either really good or really bad. I am that way with a lot of other things in my life. I realize that this isn’t a good quality, so I focus on ways to improve it and learn moderation. The chances are your eating habits are similar to other habits you have. Take a few minutes to think about this and how it will help you to change it in other areas of your life.
  30. Treat yourself like you would treat a stranger. If you make an appointment to meet someone for a meeting would you blow off the meeting and not show up? No. Why do you schedule workouts that you don’t do? Why do you make promises to yourself that you don’t keep?
  31. Teach yourself that when you set a goal, such as eating healthy food, you achieve that goal. When you force yourself to achieve your goals despite challenges on the way then you will benefit in other areas of your life.
  32. Think like a thin person. A thin person has a bite of something yummy and says that tastes so good. I’ll stop now because the rest tastes the same. A thin person doesn’t eat when full. Think of yourself as a thin person and always try to adopt their thinking. Fake it until you make it.
  33. Try using the 80/20 rule. Eat well 80% of the time. When you know you can eat something tomorrow you won’t be so anxious to eat it today. It will be there when you really want it.
  34. Make an effort to wear clothes you like and put an effort into your appearance. Wear makeup, jewelry, or whatever makes you feel good. Love yourself and how you look.
  35. Look in the mirror every day and find something you love about yourself. Make a note of one thing every single day. Tell yourself how awesome you are!
  36. Find an exercise that you enjoy doing and sign up for a class. Try new things if you don’t know what you love.
  37. Make a workout playlist that will motivate you to move. Some songs just want to make you get up and dance. Make a list of the songs that do that for you and listen to them when you go for a walk or run.
  38. Make a decision that the next big vacation you take is subject to you reaching a reasonable weight loss goal. Each time you reach 5% of that goal put away 5% of your vacation budget in a piggy bank or a separate bank account. When you have 100% of the budget saved you will have reached your goal and you can take your vacation.
  39. Sign up for a service that delivers healthy meals. When you go to the trouble and expense to buy healthy meals you can’t eat junk food.
  40. Stock your fridge with healthy fruit and vegetables.
  41. Install a camera in the places where you tend to overeat. You can get a cheap surveillance camera that operates on WIFI. It will give you the sense that someone is watching you.
  42. Make a photo collage of a before and after photo. Use one “fat photo” and one “thin photo”. If you are anything like me you will have had a few fat and thin stages. Make a few copies of this photo and hang it up.
  43. Sometimes we try for years to reach our goal weight and it never happens. Why not set a much smaller goal that you will reach? Don’t think about your final goal as that is often too overwhelming. Set a reasonable goal for the next month and don’t think long-term.
  44. Find a diet plan that works for you. Some people can only lose weight if they cut out their trigger food completely and for others, the thought of not eating something will send them on an instant binge. Some people like to have a cheat day each week or month and others want a small treat each day. Find a diet plan that works for you and stick to it.
  45. Clean out your closet and try on clothes that make you feel good when you are tempted to binge or overeat.
  46. Tidy your room or any room in your home. It will make you feel so much better and keep you busy. Decluttering your home often helps you feel lighter.
  47. Stop comparing yourself to others, particularly to models who have an eating disorder or who have been Photoshopped.
  48. Sign up for a gym preferably with a friend and go together.
  49. Act as if you are already thin. Too many people put off too many things until they reach their goal weight and then land up never doing them. Don’t put your life on hold until you get where you want to go. This will help you change your mindset.
  50. Imagine you woke up tomorrow and you are where you are today but 90 years old. What will you regret? What would you wish you had done differently? Do it today!
  51. Start a weight loss competition with a friend. Weigh yourselves on the first day and weigh in every week or two. Measure your weight loss as a percentage of your weight to keep it fair. Set a prize for each weigh-in and the loser pays the winner each time you weigh in. The winner is the person who has the bigger weight loss (as a percentage of their previous weight at the last weigh-in).
  52. Clean your pantry and get rid of all foods that you don’t want to eat. You can donate things that have not been opened if you have someone to donate to.
  53. Spend some time trying to understand what causes you to overeat. Try to understand the emotional or physical triggers that cause you to overeat. Journal about them and try to avoid them.
  54. Try professional counseling if you feel that you are an emotional eater or suffer from an eating disorder.
  55. Don’t weigh in every day. Your weight fluctuates daily and weighing in every day is bad for your motivation and can be an instant mood changer. If you find that your mood is determined by your scale then ditch the scale altogether and measure yourself with a tape measure once a week or once a month.
  56. When you burn fat and build heavier muscle, your weight may not change or may even increase even though your body is tighter and smaller. Therefore, taking your measurements can be a better gauge of your progress than weighing yourself. We suggest taking your measurements every 2-4 weeks. See our free body measurement chart.
  57. Get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation is one of the causes of weight gain and it also makes it more difficult to lose weight. Also, when you are tired you tend to eat more. See our sleep chart tracker.
  58. Make a DIY treadmill desk or buy a real one if you can afford one. See how to make a DIY treadmill desk.
  59. Drink more water. See our free water trackers. When you drink more water you tend to eat less.
  60. Focus on gratitude and appreciate what you do have instead of what you don’t have. Keep a gratitude journal.
  61. Find healthy alternatives for the foods that you love. Focus on fueling your body with healthy food (i.e. on what you want to give your body instead of deprivation).
  62. Brush your teeth after meals to signal to your brain that you’ve finished eating. This will reduce your cravings until your next meal.
  63. Eat before you go grocery shopping so that you are not hungry. It will prevent you from being tempted and buying items you didn’t intend to buy.
  64. Go grocery shopping with a grocery list to avoid temptations.
  65. If you find yourself buying junk food that you didn’t intend to buy then have your groceries delivered.
  66. Spend time preparing delicious healthy meals so that you enjoy your food and don’t feed deprived.
  67. Don’t eat in your car or on the go. Have each meal at a table.
  68. Get rid of food that tempts you instead of trying not to eat it.
  69. Try intuitive eating. Instead of dieting according to diet rules, listen to your body and feed it what it needs and wants. Try our free intuitive eating journal/workbook to understand the method and how to use it.
  70. Be mindful and present when you eat. Don’t eat in front of the TV or while doing something else. Be present. Enjoy your food and stop when you are full.
  71. If you eat when you are bored then make a list of things to do when you are bored and do them instead of eating.
  72. Take out your best dinnerware when you eat. Treat yourself like you treat your guests. Enjoy your food.
  73. Try buying, cooking, and eating a variety of vegetables. We often buy the same vegetables all the time. Try new ones.
  74. Look for great healthy recipes. Don’t make your food boring. Find healthy recipes that you actually enjoy eating.
  75. Plan your meals for the week so that you are not tempted to eat junk food and you can prepare healthy meals. See our meal plan template.
  76. Make a list of things that relax you. Try to do one of those things when you have a craving.
  77. Make a list of things that make you feel self-love. Try to do one of those things when you have a craving. See our free self-love journal.
  78. Try deep breathing. This will instantly relax you. Take a few deep breaths every time you have a craving. Try to make each breath deeper than the previous one. You will feel much better instantly.
  79. Recognize the things that trigger your cravings. Some people get cravings when they are stressed, others when they are sad and some when they are happy. When you learn to recognize them then you will know that they are just cravings when they hit. A craving isn’t a command that you have to listen to. It is just a feeling that will pass. If it doesn’t pass and you act on it and eat whatever you wanted then you will only feel worse. Wait a while and it will pass eventually. Have patience or distract yourself.
  80. Call a friend or someone that you enjoy talking to. There are people who make us feel better about ourselves and those who make us feel worse about ourselves. Call someone who makes you feel good about yourself. If you do have toxic people in your life then keep your distance.
  81. Surround yourself with those people who make you feel good about yourself.
  82. Meal prep your breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for the week or for the next few days.
  83. Find a place to buy healthy ready-made meals for those times when you don’t have time or energy to cook.
  84. Make healthy meals that can be frozen and freeze them for a day when you don’t have time or patience to cook.
  85. Use the power of visualization. Take a few deep breaths and imagine how you will feel when you are thin, how will you look, how will people treat you, what will you wear, etc. Do this each night before you go to sleep.
  86. Use manifestation and the law of attraction. See how to manifest weight loss.
  87. Take a 30-day weight loss challenge. If you love challenges then this will help you. Challenge yourself to do one thing for 30 days such as cutting out sugar.
  88. Paul McKenna suggests a great Craving Buster technique. Think about a food that you often crave. A food that makes you lose your power. Rate your desire to eat it from 1 to 10 (1 would be the least and 10 would be the most). Think of a food that repulses you. It could be raw liver, a vegetable that you hate, or anything that you think is gross. Take the compulsion for the food that you have and replace it with the repulsion you have for the food you hate. Close your eyes and imagine biting into the food that you really like but as you chew it the food that repulses you is in your mouth. Imagine how this feels. Mix them in your mouth and imagine that you swallowed it. Now, think of the same food that you desired before and rate your desire from 1 to 10 again.
  89. If you find yourself eating mindlessly when you are working or studying then the Pomodoro Technique might be the perfect solution for you. According to this method, you break your time into 25-minute sessions during which you only focus on one task. After each session, you get a 5-minute break. This method will make you more productive but it will have an added benefit. If you focus on the task you are supposed to do during that session and don’t snack or take coffee breaks you will find yourself stopping the mindless eating habit. Allow yourself to only eat during your breaks. You will find that during your breaks you won’t really want to snack as much since boredom is often the cause of mindless eating. It will also force you to be more aware of when you eat and help you with intuitive eating.
  90. The first few days without sugar are really difficult. When you get sugar out of your system, it is so much easier. If you can afford to go to a health farm for a sugar detox for a few days, then do it. You will also feel so much lighter and better you won’t want to eat junk.
  91. Think of yourself as a car and food as fuel. You wouldn’t fill your car with gas that destroys it. When your car is full it’s full. You also wouldn’t put gas in your car when it’s full because the fuel looks really good.
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About the Author
Photo of NicoleMy name is Nicole and I created this website to share the tools that keep me organized and productive and help me reach my goals. I hope that you will find them helpful too.

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