Focus on positive feelings to successfully lose weight

Women should cut out the negative “fat talk” if they want to successfully lose weight, a new report has revealed.

As millions of British women embark on a New Year diet, new research by myspecialk.co.uk has revealed they could be setting up for failure by describing themselves as “fat”, “heavy” or “chubby”.

Eight in ten women said they believed a positive attitude was the key to losing weight even though over half of women said when starting a diet they are more likely to be self critical and use words such as “fat”.

It seems many women also start off with a mindset destined for failure with only a third of women actually starting a diet believing they will lose weight and three quarters having daily negative thoughts about their body.

However over two thirds of women said when they have successfully lost weight in the past they recalled having a positive attitude and “talked themselves up”.

Author and life coach Janet Thomson, who specialises in weight loss, said: “When women are looking to lose weight they want to change something about themselves they don’t feel happy with and of course are more likely to use words such as “fat” for this reason. However, what they don’t realise is this sort of negativity can become a self fulfilling prophecy. It is important to channel positive feelings about themselves and their goals when trying to lose weight as it gives them a much better chance of success.”

Sophie Colling from Special K said: “The message is clear, the key to weight loss success is having a positive attitude and cutting out the fat talk. Almost half of women surveyed said words such as beautiful, gorgeous and sexy made them feel most positive about themselves and a quarter said being described as a “real woman” made them feel good. They need to focus more on these positive feelings to successfully lose weight.”

Special K is asking women to share their positive feelings on twitter at #IwantToGain and also at www.myspecialk.co.uk to help them focus on the positive and achieve their slimming goals.