What do Weight Management Coaches do?

The message from the global weight loss industry is clear; follow the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches we keep dishing up and if you can’t stick to it and keep the weight off – that’s your problem. In reality, because we are all very different in what we think, how we live and what we do – the only way to lose weight and kept it off, is to be supported in developing an approach that respects who you are and acknowledges your unique situation. Weight Management Coaching is the antidote to the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.

Weight Management Coaches focus on behaviour, not food, pills, or supplements

‘’Assumptions are made, and most assumptions are wrong” (Albert Einstein)

A qualitative study [1] exploring the experiences of 76 people who had tried to lose weight numerous times, found that the interventions were perceived to be: unrealistic, unsustainable, not suited to existing lifestyles, and focused exclusively on food rather than behaviour.

The inability of the study’s participants to sustain weight loss tended to reinforce their feelings of failure and left many of them feeling frustrated, depressed, and angry.

The study highlighted a problem common to most weight loss interventions; they assume that people will magically change their behaviour to accommodate the demands of the intervention. Not only is this assumption wrong; it demonstrates a fundamental ignorance of human behaviour.

Behaviours are built by repeated actions. The more we repeat an action, the more we programme that action into the neural structure of our brains. Overtime, repeated actions become habitual behaviours where they are run automatically by the deeper, unconscious regions of our brains.

It’s magical thinking to believe that new 'desirable' behaviours will just appear, and the undesirable ones will conveniently disappear – they don’t. For any undesirable behaviour to be changed its constituent parts; the triggers (called antecedents) that prompt or cue the behaviour, the behaviour itself, and the consequences that reinforce the behaviour, and make it more likely to be repeated, need to be understood and accounted for.

In short, it’s all about the ABCs.

General knowledge about food isn’t the problem we face – most people know what’s healthy and what isn’t. What’s lacking is our understanding of how to build healthy behaviours and prevent the unhealthy ones from re-emerging. When it comes to behaviour, we don’t always have a working knowledge of our ABCs.

Weight Management Coaching works like this.

Once a client has identified the behaviour(s) they’d like to change, their coach focuses on helping them to identify and understand the ABCs of that specific behaviour. Sometimes the ABCs are simple – feelings of hunger and thirst might prompt the consumption of an afternoon Coke and pastry. This satisfies the hunger and thirst, reinforcing and sustaining the behaviour.

Sometimes the ABCs are harder to identify and understand; behaviours, like the one above can be prompted by feelings of boredom, stress, frustration, or loneliness. They can be reinforced by actions that alleviate these unpleasant feelings.

Identifying and understanding the ABCs of a behaviour is an essential component of behaviour change; only once the ABCs are understood can they be altered successfully. Weight Management Coaches help clients to identify healthier behaviours that can replace their existing behaviour whilst providing similar reinforcement. In this regard the process of change is more appropriately described as behaviour modification.

Once the modifications are made, clients are supported to repeat the behaviour so that it eventually overwrites the old neural programming and becomes a healthier new habit.

Behaviour change doesn’t just magically happen – it’s the product of identification, planning, and support. All of which are core to the process of Weight Management Coaching.

If you're interested in becoming a Weight Management Coach and helping people to build healthy, sustainable behaviours, more information is available here.

Weight Management Coaches operate from a person-centred framework

Tailoring a diet or commercial weight loss programme to better suit a person, doesn’t make the approach ‘person-centred’. The core principle of a truly person-centred approach is that it is not centred around the expertise of the practitioner (i.e., the dietician who tells you what to eat) or the specifics of the approach itself (i.e., to adhere to the ‘Paleo’ diet you must exclude all dairy and grains from your diet).

The person-centred approach has its origins in Person-Centred Counselling developed by psychologist Carl Rogers. Rogers believed that if people can be helped to see themselves and the situation they find themselves in, they will be able to identify the options available to them and make choices accordingly.

Implicitly, the person-centred approach is about empowering people to make changes and take control for themselves. The coach’s role is to encourage the person to explore their situation and the options that are available to them, and to provide support and guidance as they enact change.

Operating from a person-centred framework means that the relative expertise of coach and client are equally important. Coaches help equip clients with the skills and knowledge required to make sustainable changes. Clients use the expertise they have in understanding themselves and their unique situation to identify the changes to make.

Coaches then support clients in the process of change and help develop their problem-solving skills so potential barriers to change can be minimised or eliminated.

Weight Management Coaches practice genuine empathy – not token concern

Occasionally, clients need help determining the difference between healthy and unhealthy food…but not always. Sometimes clients need to be re-assured that their weight struggles are not due to a personal fault or a lack of effort…but not always. Sometimes clients need help to minimise their exposure to high incentive foods or the pervasive influence of food marketing…but not always. Sometimes clients need extra support to deal with a challenging event…but not always. Sometimes clients will have low expectations of success due to a history of yo-yo dieting and weight regain…but not always.

The point here is that no two clients are the same. Every client has unique needs, and different circumstances that need to be considered and catered to. To be able to provide the support and guidance that each client needs, Weight Management Coaches practice from a position of genuine empathy.

In recent years the term ‘empathy’ has become somewhat fashionable, yet it remains widely misunderstood. Empathy is not about feeling sorry for another person’s misfortune and ‘looking concerned’ when the time is right. Empathy means listening to another person with full attention, to gain insight into the emotions, perspective, experience, and challenges that the person faces.

Empathic listening enables Weight Management Coaches to provide only and exactly the type of support and guidance that each client needs. Nothing more, nothing less, 100% personal, 0% generic.

Weight Management Coaches spend time building a relationship with each client.

This involves finding out what each client wants to achieve and why. Coaches help clients to explore their bodyweight history to gain insights into the links between weight gain and significant events that may have influenced their eating and/or physical activity behaviours. Previous attempts to lose weight are explored to find out what clients liked and/or struggled with so that positives can be built on, and there’s no repeat of negative experiences from the past. Coaches gain an understanding of how clients attribute their weight-related struggles so that any self-blame can be discussed and ascribed, most often, to biological or environmental factors that are outside of the clients control.

In the words of Carl Rogers, the ‘father’ of the modern counselling movement:
“We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.

Weight Management Coaches help people overcome challenges and obstacles

New Zealand’s former chief health and nutrition advisor, Grant Schofield, has described our modern food environment as the pathological driver of tooth rot, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, stroke, and mental health problems…as well as obesity.[2]

We live in an environment where consumers of mainstream and social media are bombarded with advertising for ultra-processed foods loaded with extra fat, salt, and sugar.[3,4] Fruit and vegetables make up less than 1% of products located in the high profile areas of supermarkets, compared to sugary foods and drinks which make up 43%.[5] Fast-food outlets are everywhere, especially in our lower socioeconomic areas, with more coming everyday.[6]

The reality is that big food companies understand the ABCs of human behaviour very well. The function of food marketing, whether in-store or via an assortment of media channels, is to prompt consumption. And the prompts are everywhere. The ultra-processed products that dominate our food environment are manufactured to reinforce consumption by optimising the physiological pleasure they provide.

Nine teaspoons of sugar are added to the typical 330ml can of soft drink. Not eight or 10. Nine is the magic number, established in a lab to provide the maximal amount of physiological ‘bliss’ upon consumption.

We all live in this ultra-processed food environment. Ignoring this reality doesn’t make it go away. Pretending that dieting will combat the pervasive influence of this environment is yet another example of magical thinking, unabated hope, or neglectful avoidance.

Weight Management Coaches help people to overcome the challenges and obstacles presented by the modern food environment. Where possible and practical, coaches help their clients to minimise their exposure to food marketing and by doing so, minimise exposure to the prompts for unhealthy behaviours. Where this isn’t possible, coaches help clients to manage and cope with their exposure.

Plans are often made to help clients take part in social gatherings where treat foods exist in abundance, and not indulging runs the risk of social ostracism.

Coaches help their clients to deal constructively with the reality they live in. Occasionally this involves slip-ups where a plan might not work. From the perspective of Weight Management Coaching, this provides an opportunity for coach and client alike to appreciate the challenges the food environment provides; to learn from the experience, and refine the plan so it is more effective in the future.

Slip-ups are never attributed to failure or weakness because there is nothing to be gained by missing the real cause.

Weight Management Coaches help people become more physically active

One of the major reasons we struggle with our weight is that society has become very sedentary. We tend to spend more time sitting or lying down in front of a screen than we spend moving.

Physical activity is not the sole solution to our weight problems; it is an important, and misunderstood part of the solution.

It has been noted that physical activity contributes very little to weight loss because the caloric deficit required to affect significant weight loss is beyond the physical capacity of most people who struggle with excess bodyweight. Pushing people to exercise harder and harder for longer and longer is the exercise equivalent of pushing people to keep dieting.

It seldom works and usually results in people giving up, exhausted, and blaming themselves for not being able to ‘stick at it’.

Regarding weight loss and the prevention of weight regain, the greatest and most underappreciated benefit of physical activity relates to mental health. Physical activity can:

  • Positively impact self-esteem, physical self-worth, body image and mood
  • Reduce stress levels, anxiety, and depression, leading to improved general well-being and sleep patterns
  • Provide a source of pleasure and reward that does not involve eating
  • Provide an alternative to activities where eating is hard to avoid, or used as a means of gaining pleasure or comfort.

These last points relate to the principle of 'behavioural substitution' – the process of changing a behaviour by replacing it with another.

As we have discussed through this article, people often consume foods loaded with extra sugar and fat for the pleasure and comfort they provide. This consumption often occurs in response to stressful or unpleasant events. Physical activity can be used as a healthier means of attaining pleasure and comfort; it can be used as a substitute to high calorie comfort food.

Rather than telling people what type of exercise they should do to burn the most calories, Weight Management Coaches encourage their clients to identify types of physical activity that they would like to take part in. Once activities are identified, coaches help clients to initiate the activity and then troubleshoot and refine the activity so that it can be enjoyably repeated, indefinitely.

Substituting an evening bowl of ice-cream and glass of wine for a leisurely 45-minute walk with a friend or partner may not burn hundreds of calories; it stops hundreds of calories from being consumed.

The underlying and essential point here is that to benefit from physical activity, it must be enjoyable and rewarding. This essential point is never far from the mind of a Weight Management Coach.

Weight Management Coaches provide on-going support and encouragement

Practicing within a person-centred framework requires Weight Management Coaches to adhere to the principle of ‘unconditional positive regard’. In application, this means that coaches refrain from passing any form of negative judgement onto clients and their behaviour(s). Coaches believe that clients can make and sustain changes, if they are provided with the right support and guidance.


By holding clients in unconditional positive regard, Weight Management Coaches support clients in meaningful, specific ways rather than indulging in token, performative sympathy (where you perform in a sympathetic way). When slip-ups occur in the establishment of a new behaviour, rather than finding fault, blaming the client, and imploring them to ‘try harder’, coaches support clients to learn from the event, and refine their actions to avoid similar slip-ups occurring in the future.


Most importantly, Weight Management Coaches support clients to build healthy behaviours that the clients themselves have identified and prioritised; support is specific and personal to every client – only and exactly what each client needs, when they need it; no more, no less.

Currently, New Zealand has an urgent need for Weight Management Coaches. If becoming a coach is something you're interested in, you can find out more about study options here.

References

[1] Thomas et al. (2008). “They all work when you stick to them”: a qualitative investigation of dieting, weight loss, and physical exercise, in obese individuals.

[2] Jones, N. (2019, November 16). Expert rips into anti-obesity efforts: ‘It’s just negligence’.

[3] Obesity Health Alliance. (2017). A watershed moment – why it’s prime time to protect children from junk food adverts.

[4] Murphy et al. (2020). See, like, share, remember: Adolescents’ responses to unhealthy-, healthy-, and non-food advertising in social media.

[5] Obesity Health Alliance. (2018). Out of place – the extent of unhealthy foods in prime locations in supermarkets.

[6] Star News. (2021, January 20). Work starts on first Taco Bell restaurant in Christchurch.