Last Updated on December 31, 2025 by Michael Brockbank
Creating a weight loss plan is only half of the journey, as you still need to keep up the motivation to see it through. What are some of the most effective methods of keeping your head in the game?
After all, you don’t want to be one of those people who wind up petering out a few weeks into the process. It happens a lot, and everyone has their “reasons” as to why. Instead of giving reasons as to why you can’t follow your weight loss journey, let’s look for reasons as to why you can.
A massive part of success in health and fitness centers around your mindset. If you go into the journey with a negative attitude, you’re already decreasing your chances of losing weight or meeting fitness goals. The moment you look at a diet plan or exercise routine as a mundane chore, you’re more likely to give up on it.
How to Find Motivation to Lose Weight
Keep in mind that not all tips and tricks work for everyone. People will find motivation and inspiration through different means, and that’s OK. However, there’s nothing wrong with making suggestions, especially if others have found success using them.
With that being said, let’s take a look at several methods to help you drive motivation for weight loss.
1. Know Why You Want to Lose Weight
Those who have a purpose are more likely to continue an activity. In this case, do you have a solid reason as to why you want to drop the fat? Or, are you doing it to please other people? In reality, the opinions of others shouldn’t be a motivating factor. What matters is how you feel about yourself.
Take me, for example. I want to lose weight because it makes everything in my life so much easier to manage. I love camping, but hate gasping for air after a slight hill. I’m tired of worrying if I’m going to break a friend’s chair at their house because I am over the weight limit. And I love the idea of being able to move heavy appliances in my house.
This is aside from having a blood disorder that greatly increases the risk of heart disease due to being obese.
Of course, I’m also looking to improve physical fitness. That’s because I like the idea of doing most of the heavy lifting around the house, or being able to carry heavier loads while out shopping. There are a lot of practical benefits to focusing on health and fitness in general.
Something else to consider is the likelihood of developing heart disease, having a stroke, or developing one of many different cancers as an obese person. There are a lot of health risks associated with obesity, so no, there is no such thing as “healthy at any weight” in the grand scheme of things. Why would you want to roll the dice if the odds are that far against you?
Anyway, what is a good, solid reason why you want to lose weight?
2. Create Realistic Goals for Yourself
One of the reasons why so many people fail at weight loss goals is because the plan is often unrealistic. Essentially, those people set themselves up for failure by striving for something that is physically impossible according to their lifestyles and motivations.
Or, some will dwell on instant gratification. They want the weight loss right now and will look for the “quickest” or “fastest” way to lose weight. Weight loss is more of a lifestyle change. Otherwise, you are more likely to put back on all of the weight you lost and then some.
Creating realistic goals according to your specific needs and wants comes down to surpassing your personal bests. For instance, if you only drink three cups of water per day, set a goal to drink four. If your goal is to complete 20 pushups but you can only do five, start by doing six or seven per day to work your way up.
Well, what about weight loss goals? Everyone loses weight at a different rate due to their physiology. However, the average person can lose about 1 to 2 pounds each week without putting in a lot of effort. Now, it’s possible to lose more through various exercise or diet routines. Just make sure you’re setting weight loss goals that are realistic with your life and levels of motivation.
3. Post Reminders in Plain Sight
A lot of folks will find motivation for weight loss by leaving reminders for themselves out in the open. For example, a Post-it note on a fridge telling you to curb the snacking may be effective at reminding you to eat less.
These reminders don’t have to be little notes to yourself, as they can be virtually anything related to your goals. For example, you could put a size smaller pair of clothes on your dresser to remind you of what you’re looking to fit into.
In my case, I am constantly reminded of what I want to accomplish thanks to the ads on YouTube. I hate V Shred with every fiber of my being, and that drives a lot of motivation for me to keep pushing forward. I can’t stand people preying on the insecurity of others just to make a buck, especially when the information they “sell” is defunct or lacking in scientific data.
Anyway, visual cues and reminders can work wonders to help inspire you to get more out of your workouts or prompt you to eat healthier alternatives. The trick is to find those cues that will have the greatest impact on your motivation.
4. Create an Energizing Playlist
Did you know that 85% of people are motivated by music? There have been numerous studies regarding music’s impact on day-to-day lifestyles, and the vast majority of people are driven by their favorite songs or scores.
In fact, music can affect everything from rehabilitation to therapy. This includes using sound machines or background ambience to boost focus and motivation. So, musical scores are not the only way sound can influence how you approach health and fitness.
When choosing music to help drive exercise routines, there is no right or wrong answer. It all comes down to what you find to be uplifting and motivating. Virtually everyone has a few songs that make them feel empowered. What music gets you in the mood for greatness?
For me, it’s mostly faster-paced songs or something with a strong guitar presence. I also have faster classical music in my gym playlist. The best music or ambient sound is the one that gets you moving, regardless of what others might think.
5. Change Your Mindset About the Journey
How you view weight loss will ultimately affect motivation. As I pointed out earlier, going into your fitness journey with a negative attitude will increase the likelihood you’ll fail. Remember, positive things happen to positive people.
The reason why that saying holds true is because a negative outlook shapes how you experience anything in life. If you’re already thinking the diet or exercise isn’t going to work, you’re already looking for reasons as to why they won’t.
Something else you need to consider is that losing weight and keeping it off for the long term is a life choice. It’s a permanent change in how you view eating habits and physical activity. According to experts, between 80 and 95% of people gain weight back after trying various fad diets. That’s because the individuals didn’t learn how to keep the fat off after completing the plan.
I’d say about 80% of any diet or health and fitness regimen starts with your decision to make changes in your lifestyle. Without your mind being in the game, no diet or exercise routine is going to work. You have to address your own misgivings and doubts regarding the process.
6. Get Excited Over Every Victory
Relish every victory, regardless of how small. By focusing on all of your accomplishments, you’re fueling motivation to continue your weight loss journey. Learn from your mistakes, but don’t dwell on them. Focus on the positives.
This is the mindset I had to become a successful freelance writer. Every small accomplishment contributed to building an amazing career. And it’s the same mindset I take into my own weight loss goals. It’s the main contributor to how I’ve kept off the original 80 pounds thus far.
These victories can be everything from feeling proud that you didn’t stop by Dutch Bros for a coffee to breaking a personal record for consecutive push-ups. Celebrate the changes you make and the differences in your life.
What this does is help develop self-confidence while boosting motivation to do something greater. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks as long as you’re proud of what you’ve accomplished.
7. Don’t Compare Yourself to Others
They say that comparison is the thief of joy. What this saying means is that you wind up discrediting your own accomplishments because someone else is “better” in your mind. And comparing yourself to someone else can easily tap out motivation for weight loss.
You’re only in competition with yourself. It doesn’t matter what anyone else can do, only that you surpass your own expectations and abilities. It’s all about being the best version of yourself, not trying to put yourself in someone else’s position.
I remember when I set a personal record as an adult for 22 push-ups. Considering I started with 8, I was quite proud. It doesn’t matter that some fitness influencer, whom I’ll never meet, can do 100 in a single sitting. That influencer’s lifestyle is vastly different from my own, and I was still able to surpass my personal best.
Now, it’s OK to idolize or be inspired by someone. I mean, I look up to Ryan Reynolds for a variety of reasons. Just don’t compare your abilities to theirs. It can be ultimately destructive to your weight loss motivation.
8. Find Sustainable Diets and Exercise Routines
A sustainable diet and exercise routine is ideal for maintaining motivation for weight loss. That’s because unsustainable options can wreak havoc on maintaining them. If you view your diet or exercise routines as mundane, you won’t want to keep doing them.
I also pointed out earlier how fad diets often fail. Sure, you can lose the weight relatively quickly by doing something like fasting, keto, or a paleo diet. But are these things something you’ll want to do every day for the next 10 years?
To lose weight and keep it off, you’ll need to retrain how you approach food and exercise. Otherwise, you risk sliding into the bad habits that caused you to gain weight in the first place. As I’ve said before, keeping the fat off permanently is a lifestyle change.
In any case, exploring your options is ideal to find a diet and exercise routine that is sustainable for the long term. For me, it’s about burning more than I consume while finding ways to gamify exercise. I’ll go a bit into gamification in a moment, but these are things I can maintain for the long haul. That’s why I’ve lost 80 pounds and have kept it off for the past several years.
9. Set Fitness Goals Outside of Weight Loss
Creating fitness goals that are outside of focusing on weight loss can help with motivation. It’s a way to give yourself something else to think about while simultaneously burning fat.
For instance, I am a fan of trying to break personal records for various workouts. I geeked out for several weeks when I crushed my record for consecutive push-ups. And when I held a plank for just over two minutes for the first time, I was quite ecstatic.
You can create goals for the distance you walked in a week, how much weight you lifted at the gym, or even surpassing your average for the number of steps you walk in a day. Every fitness-relevant goal you set only works to help you burn fat. That is, as long as you’re eating better and reducing the carb intake.
My point is that you can fuel motivation for weight loss by focusing on various fitness goals. As long as you’re getting the heart rate up and often working yourself into a sweat, it all works together like a well-oiled machine.
10. Find a Physical Activity You Love
What if you’re not into bodyweight exercises or lifting weights at the gym? Why not look for a physical hobby that you truly enjoy? It can easily work into keeping motivation to burn away some fat.
By finding a physical activity you enjoy, you’ll find yourself getting more excited about the prospect of doing it. That leads to burning away fat as you’re having fun doing that particular activity. However, no activity will help you lose weight if your eating habits are still poor.
Burning 300 calories playing Beat Saber on the Oculus won’t matter much if you follow it with a 1,200-calorie trip to Taco Bell for lunch. You need to find a balance between intake and output.
Nonetheless, finding a physical activity you enjoy will keep your body moving more often. This works to fuel motivation as you’re more likely to keep doing something you enjoy rather than something you view as mundane and dull.
11. Join a Community (Online or Offline)
A great way to maintain motivation is to join a community of those who are also on a weight loss journey. For the most part, these people are there to encourage and inspire each other to succeed. They are often less judgmental than the random stranger on social media, and some can be quite protective of the members.
Now, not all groups and communities are going to be the best fit. Ideologies, goals, and personalities will be different across the board. However, they are relatively easy to find, especially on sites like Facebook. Though, you’d probably have better engagements with others by finding an in-person group or community to join.
The hardest part about online communities is stumbling into the ones that are dripping with toxicity. There are a lot of fitness influencers out there who seem to attract some of the worst people on the planet. Still, it’s worth your time to explore some options, especially if you’re having trouble maintaining motivation.
Perhaps you can create your own community of fitness folks by inviting friends and family to join you. Maybe you could incorporate the idea of finding a physical activity everyone in the house enjoys and make it a weekly appointment.
12. Keep Track of Your Intake
Tracking what you eat is not only a good idea for weight loss, but you can also discover all kinds of things about yourself and what you’re consuming. For instance, perhaps you’re lethargic one day and don’t know why. Maybe it was something you ate, and keeping track will help you find those allergens.
One of the pivotal moments for my weight loss journey was when I input my entire lunch from Taco Bell one day. The calorie count was well over 2,000 for a single meal! From that moment, the motivation to make changes was great, and I never ate the same amount of food again. That was more than 10 years ago.
Food and calorie tracking apps can boost motivation, especially if you’re into data and seeing numbers, such as myself. When you start seeing just how much you’re consuming versus what you burn, it can be scary at first. But when you start making changes in your intake, the fat starts coming off rather quickly, especially if you’re active.
There are a lot of health and fitness apps on the market. Try a few and see if you can find one that fits your needs and goals. I use MyFitnessPal while my girlfriend uses Fitbit. There is no right or wrong answer as long as you’re getting something out of your app of choice.
13. Gamify Your Workouts
Gamification is the process of turning virtually any activity into some kind of game. The idea is that if you make the activity “fun,” you’re more likely to commit to doing it more often. This process is so effective that a lot of businesses include gamification from marketing to maintaining staff positivity.
In this case, you want to find ways to gamify your workouts. Turning workouts into a game may improve your levels of motivation, as you’ll be more excited to “play” rather than exercise.
Of course, you can also take gamification literally. Virtual reality sets often have a lot of fitness-related games that are quite fun to play. For me, Beat Saber is perhaps one of the most intense calorie-burning games I have on the Oculus. Yet, I’ll keep looking for more just because I love playing in VR.
I’ve also turned dieting and exercise into a game by creating a point system during my challenges. The idea is to continuously beat my “high scores” each week. But that is quite a bit more involved and elaborate than just putting on the Oculus. A lot of mathematical equations went into creating that particular spreadsheet.
The point here is to find a way to make dieting or exercise fun. The more engaging the “game,” the more likely you’ll keep playing.
14. Try Fitness & Motivation Apps
There are a lot of fitness and motivation apps available for both Android and iOS. I’m talking about more than just calorie trackers, such as MyFitnessPal. There are some that also take gamification to a whole new level.
Fitness motivation quotes, challenges, 7-minute workouts, HIIT, and more are ready for your mobile device. The hardest part is picking one that fits all of your needs and wants. Luckily, most have a free version to let you test the waters before upgrading to a premium version.
I’m still looking for something to replace Exercise.com. I want one that will save my personal records so I have something to look forward to beating. So far, I’ve come up empty. But if you have an app that saves your personal bests, feel free to leave it in the comments. I’d love to review it and give you a shout-out.
Anyway, take a bit of time and look for a motivational app that inspires you to continue your weight loss journey. You might just find your next favorite piece of exercise equipment in the form of an app for your phone.
15. Be Kind to Yourself
Perhaps the most important aspect of maintaining motivation for weight loss is to be kind to yourself. How you view yourself ultimately affects everything from rational decision-making to stress and depression, especially if you continuously put yourself down for minor failures.
A lot of people are extremely hard on themselves, including me. Usually, this comes from an idea of success that we think we need. When we don’t meet our own expectations of that, we can get quite negative. Instead, we need to realize that no one is perfect. Life will happen, and things will often derail our efforts. All we can really do is dust ourselves off and try again without dwelling on failing.
We are our own worst critics. And we need to take steps to be more constructive instead of trolling ourselves. Always remember that sometimes, shit happens.
Often, being kinder to yourself is linked with comparing yourself to others. If someone is doing better than you, it’s easy to get sucked into the mindset that you suck. In reality, you’re probably crushing goals that go well beyond what you were doing in the past. Remember, you’re only ever in competition with yourself.
Being Negative Will Sap Weight Loss Motivation
Now, I’m not saying that you need to wake up in the morning and be a massive spark of positive energy to succeed. However, the difference between a positive and a negative mindset is obviously night and day. And how you view weight loss, fitness, or dieting will influence your level of success.
It’s always best to try to keep an open mind before making judgments if something isn’t going to work for you. You may find that something you once thought of as dumb becoming your favorite activity or food.
For example, I thought planking was going to be the dumbest exercise, mostly because of the social media trend that happened several years ago. You know the one; the trend where people were pretending to be a plank of wood on various objects to post on Twitter or Facebook.
Anyway, after trying planks a few times, it turned out to be one of my favorite bodyweight exercises. Nowadays, I’m constantly trying to break my personal records for how long to hold the plank. In fact, we bought a Stealthboard to expand the effects and engagement of doing planks.
The bottom line is that having a negative mindset regarding diets or exercises will make the entire weight loss journey much more difficult. Mostly, you’ll be looking for ways to avoid taking those necessary steps to succeed instead of being excited for the process.
Keep Yourself Motivated and Positive
It’s not always easy to keep yourself in a positive frame of mind. As I said earlier, life happens. Some things are going to be out of your control that will impact your weight loss journey and motivation. The trick is to not dwell and find a way to get yourself back in the game.
If none of these suggestions work for you, take a moment for some self-reflection. What are these methods missing that would inspire you to succeed? What would really drive you to become the best version of yourself, both physically and mentally?
I can’t answer those for you. No one can. But you can bet there are those in your life who will support your decisions. Reach out to them for assistance. You may find that your friends and family are the best assets in your life.
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