UAE fitness: Do you have the right mindset to lose weight?

What if I told you that neither dieting nor working out are the most important step towards losing weight? It’s where most people start their journeys and often end up disappointed. Where do they go wrong? During my 20 years of experience in the fitness industry, I have learnt that the missing element is mindset. The fitness industry has witnessed immense growth over the past few years. There have been new gyms and fitness centers opening, more meal delivery companies, more influencers sharing fitness-related content, more fitness apps, and more research and information than ever before. However, obesity rates continue to rise. Over the past 20 years, global obesity rates have risen; along with the rates of strokes, heart diseases and type 2 diabetes — all of which are linked to obesity. Regardless of how many gyms and fitness resources are available, a person can only truly lose weight once they have the right mindset. This is because overcoming obesity is not simply a matter of showing up to the gym for an hour in the day — it is a lot more than that. It requires you to change what you eat, when you sleep, how active you are throughout the day and most importantly, it requires you to change how you think.

It helps to think about why you gained the weight that you did. Are you an emotional eater? Are your food choices purely convenience-based? What triggered the weight gain in the first place and what is it that you struggle with the most when it comes to losing the weight? It’s also important to look at the excuses you make for yourself and the daily habits that contribute towards the weight gain. Most importantly, it’s crucial to ask yourself why you want to lose the weight. The stronger your sense of purpose is, the more committed you are likely to be to your goal.

You may hire a personal trainer or a nutritionist to push you towards your goals. Does this guarantee that you will lose the weight? Unfortunately, the answer is no. A lot of times, these experts will only help you work out or give you diet plans but if your mindset isn’t on track, you will not follow your diet plan or do your workouts. You will make excuses about how tired you are, how busy you are or how difficult it is. An expert can only help you if they can help you work on your mindset or if you yourself have the right mindset. I find that an exercise which truly helps my clients is sitting with a large piece of paper and writing down a summary of their weight gain journey. We also write down the excuses they need to leave behind, the habits they need to change and the steps they need to get to their goals. We visualize each goal and write it down and we refer to this paper each time the client needs a mental push.

Yasir Khan is a Dubai-based transformation expert with experience in fitness and mind coaching.