Weight loss requires just as much mental energy as physical energy to succeed. If you ask people why they gave up on their weight loss, it’s rarely—”My muscles were weak that month”, it’s more often—”I just didn’t feel like going to the gym, or I missed my old diet.”
The truth is, your mind is a muscle just like your glutes or biceps. It takes time and effort to build mental strength and to change old habits.
Contrary to popular belief, motivation is not a spontaneous moment of awakening. Oftentimes, motivation and perseverance needs to be built up over time to a level that is sustainable.
You need to constantly find new perspectives and ideas to grow mentally. So, while you wait for your muscles to recover and grow—why not read some books on weight loss to give you some food for thought?
Here are some of the best books for weight loss motivation:
1. Mini Habits for Weight Loss By Stephen Guise
This is a great book by author Stephen Guise because it tackles the root of difficult weight loss—bad habits. The book talks about how it is counterproductive to start off with complicated diets and exercise regimens. Your mind needs time to adjust just as much as your body.
Guise talks about starting small, and building up on that instead of going hard from the get go. He talks about letting go of ‘rigid’ rules when it comes to diet and fitness.
He delves into the deeper psychology of habit formation and how old habits really do die hard. Guise talks about how our brains aren’t actually designed to form new habits, and change behavioural traits. The book offers weight loss behavioural strategies that are inspired by research into neuroscience.
2. The Obesity Code: Unlocking The Secrets Of Weight Loss By Dr. Jason Fung
This book is written by Dr. Jason Fung—a doctor and researcher who has authored numerous best-selling books on obesity and fasting. This book stands out from the other weight loss books because it gets down to the hard science behind hunger and obesity.
Dr. Fung’s book talks about an area that is often overlooked by diet and weight loss gurus—the role of hormones in weight loss. As much as we’d like to think that we can instantly switch our dietary habits, it takes a lot more work.
Our established eating habits are hard to get rid of because they have caused chemical reactions in the body—in the form of hormone changes. These would have been made gradually over time, and will take just as long to reverse.
Dr. Fung goes on to talk about insulin resistance. He suggests a 5-step plan that is meant to be a game changer for many weight loss journeys. He talks about the benefits of intermittent fasting and how it can reset bad eating habits.
3. Wheat Belly By William Davis
This book by cardiologist William Davis was a New York Times best seller. He talks about one of the biggest culprits in modern day obesity and blood sugar issues—wheat. He says that eliminating wheat from our diet is one of the ways to lose weight.
In Wheat Belly, Davis talks about how deeply ingrained wheat products are in American food culture. His observations and strategies in the book are based on seeing how over 2,000 of his patients regained control of their diet by ditching the wheat. He provides strategies to navigate modern food cultures to lead a wheat-free lifestyle.
4. Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think By Brian Wansink
Next up on the list of the best books for weight loss motivation, is Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink, who is the director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab. This book focuses on how ruthless marketing tactics by the food industry is adding inches to your waistline.
He delves deep into the psychology of food and how it affects our mind-body connection. He talks about the psychology of common food deceptions, such as eating more around friends or how the size of your plate affects your appetite.
Wansink discusses in this book how clever marketing strategies have created a culture of ‘mindless eating’. He then offers strategies on how to use ‘mindless eating’ strategies to lose weight instead of gain weight.
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5. Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution By Dr. Steven Gundry
When you’re looking for the best book for weight loss motivation, who better to listen to than a thoracic surgeon specializing in heart disease? In this book, Dr. Steven Gundry talks about how weight loss and dieting actually goes against your genetic makeup that result from millions of years of evolution.
This book is great for anyone feeling demotivated, because it puts your mind at ease about typical pitfalls in weight loss, such as plateauing. Dr. Gundry argues that reaching a weight loss plateau is actually a sign that you are heading in the right direction.
Another reason this makes it to the list of best books for weight loss motivation is because it offers some tidbits that you won’t find elsewhere. For example, he talks about how artificial sweeteners are no better for your waistline than sugar, and how modern medications like statins and antacids brushes health risks under the rug.
6. Eat Stop Eat By Brad Pilon
Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon is another great book for those interested in intermittent fasting to lose weight. In the book, Pilon talks about how intermittent fasting is not a fad diet and is here to stay.
He discusses the mounting scientific evidence that supports intermittent fasting. This is a great book for people who are not too keen on the green juices and want to lose weight by still eating the foods they love.
If you have read Dr. Fung’s books and want to learn more about intermittent fasting, Eat Stop Eat is the perfect follow up. It goes into a bit more detail about fasting and sets out a robust eating plan to lose weight, while still enjoying the foods you love.
7. Always Hungry? By Dr. David Ludwig
In Always Hungry? Dr. Ludwing talks about the overlooked importance of dietary fat. He theorizes that it is not dietary fat that causes us to consume too many calories, that it is actually the other way around. The lack of dietary fat, he says, is what causes overeating.
This is an interesting book that dispels much of the fear mongering that exists about dietary fat, in a world obsessed with low fat foods. Ludwig goes into detail about how a lack of dietary fat can cause changes in the body’s metabolism, which can trigger you to overeat.
The changes in metabolism will also make body fat really hard to get rid of, after a long period of fat starvation. Dr. Ludwig suggests including multiple sources of healthy fats in the diet, such as fish, nuts, seeds and meat.
8. The Adrenal Reset Diet By Dr. Alan Christenson
Are you someone that enjoys their carbs, and are upset about the demonization of carbs in modern dieting? In this book—The Adrenal Reset, Dr. Alan Christenson talks about the importance of carbs when eaten strategically.
In the book, he talks about ‘cycling’ proteins and carbohydrates to optimize fat loss. Cycling means that you only eat that food at a certain time, when your body needs it the most (e.g. just after working out).
So, while other diet books paint carbs in a negative light, this book doesn’t do that. Instead, it talks about how you can still eat your carbs, as long as you do it strategically.
There is another reason why this is one of the best books for weight loss motivation. Christenson explores the link between our mental health (e.g. chronic stress) and weight loss, in scientific terms.
He also touches on a very important point that is not covered much in other weight loss books—stress. He claims that one of the biggest reasons people have such a hard time losing weight now, is due to the high levels of stress in modern lifestyles.
He talks about the importance of the stress hormone, cortisol, and how it impacts fat storage and fat loss. Overall, it provides a fascinating insight into the scientific links between our mind and our bodies, and how they affect our weight loss goals.
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A Final Word From Energetic Lifestyle
If you are looking for the best book for weight loss motivation, there are several great ones out there. As the books in this list discuss, a strong mind is not just important to get yourself to the gym.
Our mental state causes chemical changes in the body that directly affect the biology of fat loss. A happy, motivated mind might be what is standing between you and your dream body.
I really need this. I’ve been trying to lose weight but get demotivated sometimes. Thank you for the recommendations!