Behavioral Activation To Help Lose Weight

Most people use behavioral activation in certain mood disorders such as depression. But this type of strategy aimed at increasing the repertoire of behaviors can have more benefits than that. For example, in psychological dietetics, behavioral activation can be a valuable tool when you want to lose weight.

Both psychologists and nutritionists play an equally important role in guiding patients to improve their BMI (body mass index). It is true that acquiring new habits requires constant effort. But precisely because of this, behavioral activation can act as a support tool to create healthy habits step by step and lose weight in the next stage.

Behavioral activation: what exactly is it?

Behavioral activation uses the individual’s context and experience to study the functions of their behavior in the present. When it comes to adopting healthy habits for a new lifestyle, such as a weight loss process, this can help the individual incorporate new ways to move forward in their behavioral repertoire.

The basic structure of a behavioral activation program is based on, as the name implies, an activation. Think about it for a moment: not all behaviors are motivating. We all know this. However, it may be necessary to activate them to achieve long-term results.

In other words, it is not easy to resort to behaviors that help a person adopt necessary habits, and often not motivating. In fact, the motivation tends to come at a later stage, when the individual has been allowed to perform the activities a few times.

In short, behavioral activation helps you work from the outside in. The motivation starts when you perform the activity. This technology is intended to divide your activities into smaller parts. That way, it increases the odds that you will be able to create certain specific behaviors.

How to implement behavioral activation to lose weight

First, self-examination is crucial, as this can help the doctor or counselor learn about the person’s lifestyle. In turn, it is important to collect other key data to initiate a behavioral activation.

The presence of a dietitian (or nutritionist) is very important because the process of initiating healthy habits and maintaining a healthy weight also needs a professional who is responsible for nutritional knowledge.

Evaluating the person’s abilities is also of particular interest. The reason for this is that it helps to shape the first steps that bring them closer to their goals. When the individual’s skills and abilities are clear, it’s a good time to start.

To do this, it is important to set up small steps that help bring the patient closer to their goal, a little at a time. In this way, the changes are introduced slowly but steadily. This prevents the person from getting bored or feeling frustrated with the process.

Benefits of behavioral activation when you want to lose weight

By dividing the activities that the individual will perform, this can create a positive reinforcement on more occasions. It is also worth mentioning that this process can be long and overwhelming. For that reason, it is important to divide each challenge into smaller steps as it gives a more organized feel during the process. As a result, it can help the person achieve their goals more easily. It also helps to add these new habits to daily life.

Among the benefits of behavioral activation, we can highlight the following:

• First, it gives the person a sense of competence (they feel they can accomplish what they have planned).
• In addition, it increases the person’s motivation when he or she reaches his or her goal.
• It also helps these people develop new skills that they may not have thought they could ever achieve.
• Finally, it works regardless of the individual’s thoughts and feelings, no matter how negative they may become. This helps the individual to stay focused on their goal.

Activities you can strengthen or learn during a weight loss program

It is common for us to set unrealistic goals when we decide to go through a weight loss program or want to maintain a healthy weight. For example, when a person who does not normally train decides to run the mile the day he starts training. This only leads to disappointment because it means setting yourself up for an early failure. Even if we were to cope with this first challenge, the pain that follows would be so damaging that we more or less unconsciously shy away from training again.

Setting unrealistic goals can also create a feeling of discomfort and frustration. People with too high goals can begin to think that they are not capable enough, when the problem actually lies in the plan they set.

To perform the desired behavior in a short time versus realistic goals

Behavioral activation helps you create healthy habits. This method means that you make small changes in your routine (ie do not set goals that exceed your ability right now). We can see this in the following example:

• You are embarrassed to go to the gym because you do not know what type of workout you should perform. You may only be able to do enough exercises to train for only 20 minutes. And you feel that these 20 minutes are not enough to achieve the goals you set. But with behavioral activation, you can get started with those 20 minutes of training, and then gradually increase the time with the help of new exercises. It’s about activating yourself, getting started and looking for an inherent motivation that strengthens as you go .

• You decide to change your eating habits but do not have enough cooking ability. With the help of behavioral activation, you can start by organizing your shopping cart to avoid buying a lot of industrially processed foods.
• You are interested in exercising outdoors but are afraid that others will laugh at you. In this case, with behavioral activation, you can start with short walks.

If you perform the intended behavior immediately (you are in the gym for an hour, you avoid ultra-processed food and cook your own food, you run a run…) without intermediate behaviors and activation, you will probably give up pretty quickly. This clearly shows how important it is to increase a little at a time.

In short, behavioral activation not only helps to perform certain activities that you have not done before but also determines the desired long-term behavior.