When a loved one is attempting to lose weight, many of us struggle to know how to help them. Often, we struggle to know what to say to them, and also the ways that we can help them with their journey.
The main issue is that when it comes to our weight, many of us are incredibly sensitive. While we want to help a loved one on their weight loss journey, we also don’t want to upset or offend them in any way. Often, we avoid helping others if we fear that it will cause awkwardness, but this shouldn’t be the case.
Don’t ignore your loved one’s weight loss journey, find ways to encourage and help them. It might be hard knowing what to do and say, but if you care about the person, it’s essential that you find ways to help them.
To help your loved one, give these seven ideas a try. Just try a couple and see how they go, don’t stress, your friend or relative will be happy that you want to help them.
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Cheer them on
Don’t be their coach, be their cheerleader. If you think that they’re doing something wrong, don’t tell them. They’ll appreciate it much more if you’re supportive of what they’re doing and respect their decisions. This means celebrating when they reach a new goal, encouraging them to continue, even when they’re feeling like they can’t.
Losing weight is incredibly difficult, especially if you are severely overweight. Help your loved one to make a success of their journey by doing all that you can to support them. Sometimes, all it takes for them to succeed is someone who they know is always in their corner. It’s amazing how much of a difference the right support can make to a person’s weight loss success.
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Become an active part of their weight loss
Tell your loved one that you want to be an active part of their weight loss, doing anything that you can to help them. Whether that’s sharing healthy recipes or attending doctor’s appointments for support, it shouldn’t matter.
As well as helping them to stick to their diet plan, help with any other aspects of their weight loss. For example, if they decide to undergo weight loss surgery, spend some time talking it through with them. Make sure they consider questions like, “How much is gastric band surgery?” and “What are the pros and cons of stomach stapling?”.
Be open and honest with them about what you think, but no matter what they decide, always be supportive. You can help them along the way, but it is their journey, after all. So you need to support whatever decision they decide to make.
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Help them to live a healthier lifestyle
A big part of successful weight loss is learning how to keep the weight off and stay healthy for the long-term. This can be hard for people who have been overweight for a long time, so it’s essential that you help your loved one with this.
Invite them to join you for sports classes, like Zumba, and for walks on the weekends. Share how you like to stay in shape with them, so that they can get some ideas. Find ways to incorporate healthy living into your loved one’s life, such as by treating them to a new bike. It’s simple acts like this that can make all the difference to your friend’s weight loss success.
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Be there for them
When they’ve had a bad day and fallen off the wagon, be there to support them. Don’t judge them, instead listen to what they have to say, and make suggestions to avoid the same thing happening again.
When we’re upset, often we turn to food. If your loved one is angry, the chances are that they’re going to binge eat. Tell them that they should talk to you instead, if they feel the urge to eat lots of unhealthy food. The important thing is that they get into the habit of talking about things, instead of using food to mask their feelings. Otherwise, they’ll never successfully keep the weight off.
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Learn about their weight loss goals
You’ll be able to offer them better support if you know what their weight loss goals are. Ask them how much weight they aim to lose and what their target is for their final weigh in. By understanding what their goals are, you can then use these to help motivate them.
Sometimes when dieting, we forget our goals and reasons for following a diet. So having someone on hand who can remind us of them, can come in handy on those days when we’re struggling with our motivation.
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Share your positivity
For weight loss success, positivity is crucial. You may find that at some points in your loved one’s weight loss journey, that they lose positivity and become negative. Perhaps they haven’t noticed a difference in their size or haven’t lost any weight that week? It’s important that in these times, you are there to share your positivity with them.
On a bad day, when your friend or relative stumbles, remind them of their achievements so far. Encourage them to think back at how far they’ve come and how well they’ve done. Doing this will help them to become more positive about their weight loss, and will also help to keep them motivated.
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Respect them
Be a good friend to them, and never tempt them. Being on a diet is hard enough, without someone sticking foods that you can’t eat in your face. When you’re around them, stick to healthy foods, so as not to tempt them.
It might seem like one nibble of cake will be okay, but it can take the dieter off track. This can lead to them piling on the pounds they’ve spent months losing, as well as even more weight. Respect your loved one enough to only eat the things that they can eat while you’re around them – they’ll thank you for it.
When it comes to helping your loved one with their weight loss, it can be hard to know how to go about it. Take note of the tips above, and you can ensure that you’re doing all that you can to help them.
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Kindness Blog 
Good suggestions.
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I would add to number one Cheering them on, by saying that you should not say ” I can’t see it” when they say I have lost a couple of kilos or such
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