Candidates for Weight Loss

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Brenda Thompson, a registered dietitian and owner of Life Skills Nutrition. In this segment, I'm going to ask you some questions about are you ready for weight loss? Losing weight takes time, planning, and effort. Just because you want to lose weight does not mean that you are ready to lose weight. Choosing to lose weight when you are not ready may lead to another failed attempt of not losing weight. Yo-yo dieting can be just as unhealthy as being overweight, so don't compromise yourself. Give yourself the best chance when you are mentally ready to give weight loss the attention it deserves. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to determine if you are ready to lose weight to keep it off for health reasons. The first one is, do you want to lose weight to achieve a healthy life? If you want to lose weight because you have a wedding coming up and you'd like to lose ten pounds in one week, that is not going to be a strategy to lose weight and keep it off. So if your answer to this is no, then you're probably not ready. Am I willing to be patient with one to two pounds a week weight loss so that I can increase my chances of keeping it off? Your answer should definitely be yes to this question. If it is no, you may not be ready. On a scale of zero to five, how important is it for you to make a lifestyle change? Lifestyle changes are changes to improve your health, such as improving your diet, increasing your physical activity, and changing health related behaviors. If you select zero, one, or two, it's probably not very important, and you're probably not ready. However, if you select between three and five, it is very important and you are probably ready. Is there anything in my life that might keep me from making these lifestyle changes? If yes, will I be able to realistically conquer these challenges and how will I do it? I would write that down on a piece of paper so that you are prepared when you are faced with these challenges, and you have a plan. On a scale from zero to five, how confident are you that you can make lifestyle changes? Are you not very confident, if not you might not be ready, but if you are very confident you are probably ready. And last, on a scale from zero to five, how are ready, are you now to make the lifestyle change? If you're not very ready then of course you're not ready to make the lifestyle change, but if you are, now is a good time to start losing weight on the average of one to two pounds a week. "