Is Weight Loss All About Willpower?

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28 Nov Is Weight Loss All About Willpower?

Posted at 13:36h in Advice, Uncategorized by

Have you ever spoken to someone about your weight loss challenges and been told: ‘well, it’s just about willpower, isn’t it’? You’re not alone. Many people are stuck in a shame cycle when it comes to their weight, and the stories we’re told about willpower, don’t help. Here’s why we feel strongly that weight loss is not simply all about willpower.

If you need tailored, one-to-one support to achieve your weight loss goals, we can help. Schedule your complimentary call today to find out how we can help you. 

WEIGHT LOSS IS ABOUT MORE THAN WILLPOWER

There are multiple factors that can impact on our weight. Say we’re working with someone who isn’t getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep is disrupting the hormones that regulate their appetite, driving up their hunger levels and causing them to overeat. What makes more sense? Supporting them in getting better sleep, so they don’t experience such overwhelming hunger? Or just telling them to use willpower?”

Or if we’re working with a client who has an underactive thyroid, making it harder for them to lose weight. Do we push them to be more disciplined, or do we work with them to improve their thyroid function so that their metabolism improves, and it’s easier to manage their weight?

So many people come to us believing that it’s a lack of willpower preventing them from successfully managing their weight, but there is so much more to it than that. Often, these other factors aren’t things our clients are aware of until we start working with them.

‘DIET FOODS’ DON’T HELP

There’s this tendency to live on bland and boring food when people focus on losing weight. No one derives joy from eating grilled chicken and steamed broccoli. Or sad, flavourless salads. Pushing yourself to eat miserable meals and depriving yourself of the enjoyment of food takes willpower. We want people to eat delicious, satisfying meals that are simple to prepare, so they don’t feel deprived and find it easy to continue eating healthily long-term.

The food environment we live in, full of readily accessible, designed-to-be-addictive, ultra-processed foods, combined with our evolutionary predisposition to seek out high-calorie foods, is a recipe for disaster. Until the government clamps down on the food companies pushing these products, we are, on a population level, fighting a losing battle.

We feel passionately about this because we’ve met far too many women and men who blame themselves, thinking they lack willpower, when so many other factors are at the root of their weight challenges.

At the clinic, we take a root cause approach to supporting people in losing weight and optimising their health. Our goal is to help you gain clarity on the factors that have prevented successful weight management in the past, and to create a tailored strategy to help you overcome those challenges and achieve long-term success. Rather than relying on willpower, we want to help you establish healthy habits that feel easy to stick to and become second nature.

Of course, self-discipline plays a role, but weight loss is about so much more than willpower.

Read more about the factors that can affect our nutritional needs.

WORK WITH US 

If you’ve been struggling with your weight and know that lack of willpower isn’t the problem, book a call with us today. This is an opportunity to talk through your challenges with a member of our team and decide together whether one of our Intelligent Weight Loss programmes is right for you. Or contact us to request a copy of our brochure and we will get back to you soon.

This article was originally from Kim’s weekly weight loss newsletter. If you’d like articles like this delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for the weekly weight loss and wellness newsletter to receive the latest news, expert tips and advice.

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LINDA ROBINSON

Linda is our Practice Coordinator, helping to keep the clinic running smoothly.

 

Originally from Texas, Linda completed her MBA at SDA Bocconi in Milan. Linda has worked as a Strategy Consultant across multiple industries globally in cities including Kyoto, Paris, Chicago and San Francisco. She developed an interest in nutrition whilst volunteering for an organisation that provides cooking and nutrition education to children and families.

Linda is now settled in London with her husband, two children, and her very bouncy, sociable dog.

SARAH LAW

Sarah has worked with hundreds of clients over the past decade to help them live in a healthy body that they feel confident in.


Sarah spent a large part of her teens and 20’s as a professional dancer battling with orthorexia and an unhealthy relationship with food and her body. This created a desire to understand the human body more so she could finally cut through the confusion and end the cycle of yoyo dieting. This fuelled her passion to help other women do the same.

 

Sarah specialises in supporting women who are struggling to lose weight due to underlying health issues. She’s helped many women manage their weight during and after the menopause, as well as clients with thyroid disease and immune system dysfunction. Sarah loves food and sharing healthy recipes with her clients. Her aim is to ensure that clients don’t feel deprived and instead, achieve their weight loss and health goals in a positive and sustainable way.

 

To enquire about working with Sarah, please contact us.

AILSA HICHENS

 

Ailsa is one of our most experienced practitioners. She specialises in helping clients to lose weight, develop a healthy relationship with food and finally feel comfortable in their skin. Ailsa’s mission is for everyone she works with to enjoy the journey and that working with a nutritionist should not be a punishment, but your access to a new possibility.

 

Ailsa is not only an experienced weight loss nutritionist, she is also a skilled coach. She helps our clients overcome emotional eating, destructive habits and self-sabotaging behaviours that have prevented successful weight loss in the past. Ailsa has spent years in clinic working with clients who have experienced yo-yo dieting and have discovered that long term weight loss is not just about eating less until you can stand it no longer.

 

Working with Ailsa you will be comprehensively supported, not only in improving your nutrition and lifestyle, but also your eating habits and your relationship with food. When you work on all these elements together, the results can be truly astonishing.

 

To enquire about working with Ailsa, please contact us.

Test Nikki is our Practice Manager, managing our team of practitioners and heading up the day-to-day running of the business. Nikki is involved in the strategic development of our practice, coming from a strong business background in town planning. A Florida girl, Nikki relocated to the UK in 2014 with her husband and two children.

NIKKI ANDRIANI

Nikki is our Practice Manager, managing our team and heading up the day-to-day running of our clinic.

 

Coming from a background in town planning, Nikki is involved in the strategic development of our practice, continually ensuring we are delivering the very best service to our clients.


A Florida girl, Nikki relocated to the UK in 2014 where she lives with her husband, two children, and her rescue dog Skyy.

STÉPHANIE ACHAR

Stéphanie is a skilled nutritional therapist and functional medicine practitioner with additional training in eating disorders, disordered eating and obesity. She believes that working towards both physiological and mental health is key in achieving optimum wellbeing.

 

Stéphanie’s personal experience of emotional eating and the ongoing struggle to find the right support led her to combine the science of nutrition with behavioural coaching to motivate and empower her clients. She specialises in helping people who struggle with their weight and their relationship with food. She helps them develop a healthier and more peaceful relationship with food and their bodies.

 

To enquire about working with Stéphanie, please contact us.

INNA WEARN

Inna is passionate about supporting women on their journey to improved health and wellbeing. She believes that the solution to effective weight loss does not lie in ever more restrictive diets, but a more sophisticated approach that optimises health and vitality, as well as promoting effective weight loss.

 

Working with Inna you will benefit from her in-depth knowledge of female health and hormones. She will support you in developing a healthy diet, lifestyle and mindset that ensures you reach your ideal weight and maintain it in the years to come.

 

Inna is passionate about food with a wide repertoire of delicious healthy recipes and meal ideas to ensure your weight loss journey is as enjoyable as possible!

 

To enquire about working with Inna, please contact us.

ANIA MASON

 

Ania is a firm believer that improving your health and losing weight should be a positive, empowering journey, not one centred around deprivation.

 

After being diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions in her twenties, Ania spent several years educating herself on the power of food and nutrition. She put it all into practise and changed her diet and lifestyle, reversing her endometriosis and thyroid disease. After experiencing such a significant improvement in her health, Ania had a big desire to help others. She embarked on a four year journey to study nutrition, graduating from the Institute for Optimum Nutrition with distinction.

 

Ania specialises in autoimmunity and works with clients who have underlying health issues preventing successful weight loss. Her expertise enables her to successfully support our clients with conditions such as hypothyroidsm (underactive thyroid), PCOS and diabetes. 

 

To enquire about working with Ania, please contact us.

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