5 Steps to Setting Successful Weight Loss Goals

If you want to be successful in your weight loss, the first thing you have to do is set realistic goals that will help you keep your weight loss on track and keep you motivated. However, if you set unrealistic goals that you’re not able to reach, it will quickly become discouraging and you may find yourself giving up long before you reach your goal.

So, here are 5 steps to setting successful weight loss goals.

1. Make Your Primary Goal be Health

When your overall goal is to live a healthier life, it’ll be a lot easier to feel successful as you work to make better eating choices every day. This will also help you stay motivated since you can evaluate yourself at the end of the day to determine what you can to better the next day to keep reaching your goal of being healthier.

2. Do Some Research

Before you set your main goal, you’ll want to spend a bit of time doing research to determine what a realistic goal is for you. Ask other people who have already lost weight how long it took them to help you determine how much you can expect to lose and how long it might take you. Then, you will be able to set up a realistic goal for your own weight loss.

3. Set Your “Big” Goal

This is your total weight loss goal and could take you several years to reach. However, it’s important to have this big goal so you know what your target weight loss is. Add a timeline into your goal, whether it’s one year, two years, or five years. It’s important to give yourself plenty of time to reach that goal so that you don’t feel rushed, but also keep it a short enough time to keep you focused and on track.

4. Set Up Milestones

These are little goals along the way that will help you reach your big goal. You’ll want to set these up the same way you set up your big goal: after doing some research and with a timeline. These will be spread out every month, every few months, or even every year.

What’s most important to keep in mind when setting up these goals is that weight loss is typically easier at the beginning and then takes longer as your body’s metabolism changes. So, you may be able to lose 10 pounds in the first month, but will need 3 months to lose the last 5 pounds.

5. Set Up Rewards

For reaching your big goal, set up a big reward, whether it’s buying your dream car or going on your dream vacation. Getting to your ideal body weight and to a point where you can live a healthier life is a big deal and should be celebrated, so don’t be afraid to go all-out.

For your smaller milestones, these should also be celebrated, but in smaller ways. Just make sure that the rewards you set up are activities or anything non-food related, since rewarding yourself by eating junk food contradicts the whole point of a healthy lifestyle!