Accountability And Weight Loss: The Missing Link

09 Oct Accountability And Weight Loss: The Missing Link

Posted at 10:34h in Advice by

If you have struggled to reach your goal weight, or maintain it, in the past, accountability could be the missing link. It’s one of the five key pillars of our Intelligent Weight Loss Method. So what is accountability and how can it support your weight loss efforts?

WHAT IS DIET ACCOUNTABILITY?

Merriam Webster defines accountability as: an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions. Accountability is about deciding on a course of action or goal and creating a framework that holds you to account, ensuring you’re staying consistent in carrying out that action or working towards your goal. This is key when it comes to taking control of your weight loss progress.

There are various actions we can take to create accountability that supports us in achieving a goal.

WHY IS ACCOUNTABILITY FOR WEIGHT LOSS KEY?

My team and I speak with clients who have had varying degrees of success with losing weight and keeping it off in the past. It’s easy to think “I’m a grown adult, I know what to do and I should be able to get on and do it by myself”. But life happens. Many things can get in the way of preventing us from achieving things that are important to us. Accountability really can be the factor that makes all the difference in ensuring you stay on track, achieve your goal weight and maintain it long term.

Research, as well as our own clinical experience, demonstrates just how powerful accountability can be when it comes to achieving a goal like losing weight. A study on accountability was carried out by the Association for Talent Development. The researchers found that individuals have the following probabilities of completing a goal by taking these actions:

  • Having an idea or goal: 10% likely to complete the goal
  • Consciously deciding that you will do it: 25%
  • Deciding when you will do it: 40%
  • Planning how to do it: 50%
  • Committing to someone that you will do it: 65%
  • Having a specific accountability appointment with someone you’ve committed to: 95%

ACCOUNTABILITY AND WEIGHT MAINTENANCE

Many clients come to see a nutritionist believing we will provide them with a diet plan to help them lose weight. Of course we do this. Every client we work with receives a bespoke health and nutrition plan tailored to their needs. However, many new clients aren’t so aware of the extent to which accountability is such a valuable part of the service we provide. Often the value becomes more clear as we work together over time.

I have recently transitioned two of my clients to maintenance programmes. When I do this, we spend time talking through the most important things my client needs to have in place to ensure they maintain their results long term. Lack of a clear maintenance plan is one of the big reasons so many people go on to regain weight they have lost. I will ask my clients what they’re aware they need to do in order to maintain their results long term. More often than not, they identify ongoing accountability as one of the most important factors. Four years ago I created our Maintenance Membership Programme for clients have reached their goal weight and are committed to maintaining it. It has been hugely successful with no client on our Maintenance Programme regaining their lost weight.

HOW TO CREATE DIET ACCOUNTABILITY

Of course you can work with a nutritionist and have a qualified, experienced expert to hold you accountable. Our approach to accountability is not about telling you off, if for any reason you’ve not stuck to your plan. Far from it. It’s about supporting you in getting clear on what you want to achieve and how you’re going to achieve it, and then checking in with you to see how you’re doing. It’s about guiding you in getting back on track if for any reason you’ve deviated from the plan.

If you aren’t working with a nutritionist, there are other ways of creating accountability while you’re focussed on weight loss. Here are some strategies to consider:

  • Weight and / or measure yourself regularly. Once a week on a set day can work well.
  • Recruit a friend or family member and arrange to check in with them regularly as to how you’re progressing.
  • Keep a food diary. You can share your MyFitnessPal profile with a friend for added accountability.
  • Find (or set up) a support group. This might be an organised in-person group, an exiting online group or something you can create yourself. If you have a couple of friends who share a similar goal to you, why not set up a WhatsApp group so that you can support each other and hold one another accountable?

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

I am a qualified nutritionist with well over a decade of knowledge and experience and yet, at times, I can still deviate from healthy nutrition and lifestyle habits that I know support me. Creating accountability is what helps me stay on track consistently. How do I do that? I have a personal trainer who trains me via Zoom three times a week. While I enjoy working out, it’s unlikely that I get out of bed for a 7am training session, consistently, three times a week if there wasn’t someone on the end of Zoom holding me accountable.

I also use a WHOOP strap and fill in a daily habits journal as part of that. It tallies up the days you’ve carried out habits, both those beneficial to health and those not. It makes me very aware of how many days I’ve meditated, drunk alcohol etc. On top of this, WHOOP creates  monthly reports to feed back the data around the extent to which your habits are supporting or compromising your sleep and recovery. I go over my report with a friend who also has a WHOOP and has made much more of an effort to understand the technology and reports than I have. We then look at what’s going well and areas where I could focus on improving the next month. Knowing that someone is going to see my habits journal definitely helps keep me accountable.

WORK WITH US

If you feel that you could benefit from having an experienced expert to support you and hold you accountable, we can help. Book yourself in for a complimentary 25 mintue call or contact us and a member of our team will be in touch soon. We can talk through your challenges and explore whether one of our Intelligent Weight Loss programmes is right for you.

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SARAH LAW

Sarah has worked with hundreds of clients over the past decade to help them live in a healthy body that they feel confident in.
Sarah spent a large part of her teens and 20’s as a professional dancer battling with orthorexia and an unhealthy relationship with food and her body. This created a desire to understand the human body more so she could finally cut through the confusion and end the cycle of yoyo dieting. This fuelled her passion to help other women do the same.

 

Sarah May specialises in supporting women who are struggling to lose weight due to underlying health issues. She’s helped many women manage their weight during and after the menopause, as well as clients with thyroid disease and immune system dysfunction. Sarah May loves food and sharing healthy recipes with her clients. Her aim is to ensure that clients don’t feel deprived and instead, achieve their weight loss and health goals in a positive and sustainable way.

 

To enquire about working with Sarah, please contact us.

AILSA HICHENS

 

Ailsa is one of our most experienced practitioners. She specialises in helping clients to lose weight, develop a healthy relationship with food and finally feel comfortable in their skin. Ailsa’s mission is for everyone she works with to enjoy the journey and that working with a nutritionist should not be a punishment, but your access to a new possibility.

 

Ailsa is not only an experienced weight loss nutritionist, she is also a skilled coach. She helps our clients overcome emotional eating, destructive habits and self-sabotaging behaviours that have prevented successful weight loss in the past. Ailsa has spent years in clinic working with clients who have experienced yo-yo dieting and have discovered that long term weight loss is not just about eating less until you can stand it no longer.

 

Working with Ailsa you will be comprehensively supported, not only in improving your nutrition and lifestyle, but also your eating habits and your relationship with food. When you work on all these elements together, the results can be truly astonishing.

 

To enquire about working with Ailsa, please contact us.

Test Nikki is our Practice Manager, managing our team of practitioners and heading up the day-to-day running of the business. Nikki is involved in the strategic development of our practice, coming from a strong business background in town planning. A Florida girl, Nikki relocated to the UK in 2014 with her husband and two children.

NIKKI ANDRIANI

 

Nikki is our Practice Manager, managing our team of practitioners and heading up the day-to-day running of th clinic.

 

Nikki is involved in the strategic development of our practice, coming from a strong business background in town planning.

 

A Florida girl, Nikki relocated to the UK in 2014 with her husband and two children.

STÉPHANIE ACHAR

Stéphanie is a skilled nutritional therapist and functional medicine practitioner with additional training in eating disorders, disordered eating and obesity. She believes that working towards both physiological and mental health is key in achieving optimum wellbeing.

 

Stéphanie’s personal experience of emotional eating and the ongoing struggle to find the right support led her to combine the science of nutrition with behavioural coaching to motivate and empower her clients. She specialises in helping people who struggle with their weight and their relationship with food. She helps them develop a healthier and more peaceful relationship with food and their bodies.

 

To enquire about working with Stéphanie, please contact us.

INNA WEARN

Inna is passionate about supporting women on their journey to improved health and wellbeing. She believes that the solution to effective weight loss does not lie in ever more restrictive diets, but a more sophisticated approach that optimises health and vitality, as well as promoting effective weight loss.

 

Working with Inna you will benefit from her in-depth knowledge of female health and hormones. She will support you in developing a healthy diet, lifestyle and mindset that ensures you reach your ideal weight and maintain it in the years to come.

 

Inna is passionate about food with a wide repertoire of delicious healthy recipes and meal ideas to ensure your weight loss journey is as enjoyable as possible!

 

To enquire about working with Inna, please contact us.

ANIA MASON

 

Ania is a firm believer that improving your health and losing weight should be a positive, empowering journey, not one centred around deprivation.

 

After being diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions in her twenties, Ania spent several years educating herself on the power of food and nutrition. She put it all into practise and changed her diet and lifestyle, reversing her endometriosis and thyroid disease. After experiencing such a significant improvement in her health, Ania had a big desire to help others. She embarked on a four year journey to study nutrition, graduating from the Institute for Optimum Nutrition with distinction.

 

Ania specialises in autoimmunity and works with clients who have underlying health issues preventing successful weight loss. Her expertise enables her to successfully support our clients with conditions such as hypothyroidsm (underactive thyroid), PCOS and diabetes. 

 

To enquire about working with Ania, please contact us.

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