The short answer is yes*. There are two main reasons for this. First, we are social animals and it is normal to compare ourselves to others, which occurs both consciously and unconsciously (Mlodinow 2012; Garcia & Halldorsson 2016). Second, it
Conflicting Visions: a reason for fat loss failure
Do you know who you want to be? In 1 year? In 5 years? Do you know what relationships you want to have? What job? What hobbies? Do you know where you want to live? Do you know how you
Think Rationally – Lose More Weight
While watching a video of 1%er Peter Schiff at the Occupy Wall Street movement, I was reminded how few people seem to possess the skills necessary to have a calm, rational thought process about many topics. Politics is one of
How Often Should I Check My Weight?
Checking your weight is one type of self-monitoring, which falls under the umbrella of Self-Regulation theory of behavior (Bandura). Other common self-monitoring variables include tracking daily calorie intake, activity levels, blood pressure, and sleep patterns. The question at hand is
The potential problems with the Biggest Loser and other weight loss competitions
The 12th season of the Biggest Loser show started a couple of weeks ago. There is no doubt that this “reality” show is popular and that most of the competitors have lost a lot of weight during the season. That’s
What type of MINDSET do you have?
Recently I have been doing a good amount of reading about success, i.e., Why people are successful. My readings have included some popular books, Talent is Overrated: What really separates world-class performance from everybody else by Geoff Colvin, Outliers: the
1(0) Thing(s) You Need to Know About Losing Weight – BBC Documentary
I stumbled upon a large portion of this documentary from the BBC, “10 Things You Need to Know About Losing Weight” a few nights ago. Medical journalist Michael Mosley investigates what science has actually proven to work for weight loss
Autonomy, Weight Loss, and Personal Trainers
“My name is Matt and I’m a personal trainer…” It’s hard to admit, to be completely honest, since most people associate the words “personal trainer” with “meathead who counts reps and yells Ronnie Coleman’s catch phrases.”
Recent books I have read that I think are worth reading
Most of these books are not weight loss or fitness related books, but they still have some great information that relates to motivation and adherence issues, which for exercise and eating behaviors, is very pertinent. Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates
A Month of Weight and Body Fat Measurements
Starting on May 16th, I recorded weight and body fat percentage as measured by an Omron HBF-500 on a semi-consistent basis. At the time, I wasn’t planning on writing about it so I wasn’t diligent about recording the measurements every