Sandi Kaplan, MS, RD, Associate Director, Clinical Development & Support:
Sounds like a reality TV show, doesn’t it? Would you believe this happened in my own family?
Years ago, my mom offered this trip to my 18 year old sister if she could lose 50 pounds. My mom, a longtime dieter, was very concerned about my sister’s weight. After years of watching her so called “lack of motivation”, my mom increased the stakes. My parents booked the European vacation and invited my sister along… as long as she was at her goal weight when she got on the plane. Really motivated by a possible adventure in Europe, my sister jumped in with both feet - seeing a “diet doctor”, getting weekly shots, eating 800 calories a day and exercising every spare minute she had. Six months later, she boarded the plane skinny, but basically starving, and figured she was setting off on an adventure in both a new land and a new body.
Another 6 months later…
My sister’s weight was right back up to where she started. A few weeks of pizza, bruschetta, gelato and fondue followed by a laissez-faire attitude at home, and her weight loss had vanished.
Yes, my mom had the very best of intentions. She was worried about my sister’s weight and so badly wanted to help her. She truly believed she could tempt my sister into a lifetime of being thin. But, through this experience, she and the whole family learned a profound lesson: health and one’s relationship to their body is intensely personal and changing behaviors is a true commitment that doesn’t bend to bartering.
Decades have passed since I watched my sister’s struggle to lose weight so she could travel to Europe. Since then, I’ve immersed myself in research on the way external motivators (such as a vacation) and internal motivators (such as a personal desire to just feel healthier) impact one’s success with weight loss and behavior change. And I have also watched reality TV shows like “Biggest Loser” which is a study in and of itself. The findings, in both the peer reviewed journals and the TV weight loss contests, remain consistent. External motivation does not work in the long-term.
Motivation is defined as something that energizes, directs and sustains behavior. For some people, external motivators (like a prize, approval from others, money) are a great jumpstart to improving their health behaviors. I have an external motivator that works for me. When I fall off track with my exercise routine, I turn to gold stars on the calendar. Yes, even as an adult, putting a gold star on my calendar for each day of exercise helps me feel excited about my progress. But after a couple of months, the gold star effect wears off – their shiny luster loses its effect and I stop caring. At that point, I know to focus on the internal, deeper rewards of exercise (more energy, sense of accomplishment, role modeling a healthy lifestyle for my kids), and I get back on my treadmill.
Unless our motivation moves from external (related to factors outside of ourselves) to internal (a deeply felt desire that is personal), we will struggle to sustain our new, healthier behaviors. We will regain weight, stop exercising and fail to manage our stress if we are not eventually internally motivated to continue.
For many of us, moving from external to internal motivation is a process. Ask yourself: “why is it truly important to me to continue this behavior?” I ask myself this question and then write down my own reasons. When I find my motivation wavering, I review the list. I still rely on external motivators from time to time for the fun boost they give. But nothing compares to the true motivation that is present when I focus on my own values and I see how my healthy behaviors support those.