9 Emotional Benefits of Losing Weight to Get You Inspired

If you’re looking for motivation, here are nine emotional benefits of losing weight that can help. From feeling more healthy and confident to becoming more successful in your career, these reasons will get you inspired!

People focus on it a lot.

They spend a lot of time thinking and talking about the physical benefits of losing weight. How you’ll look better, fit in smaller clothes, and be healthier.

And don’t get me wrong, all that stuff is pretty great. But you want to know what really kept me going when I was losing weight?

What actually inspired me to get up and do it on the days when my toddler had kept me up half the night or my husband brought home my favorite dessert…

It was the emotional benefits of losing weight! How much better I felt mentally, that helped keep me going.

When you are overweight, it is not just your body that suffers – your emotional health does as well.

In this blog post, I will discuss nine emotional benefits of losing weight. I hope they help inspire you in your own weight loss journey.

Let’s get to it!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links which I’m happy to promote. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Much love & thank you for your support. To learn more about my policy, click here.

Contents

The Emotional Benefits of Losing Weight: Research plus my own experience

Before we dive into the emotional benefits of losing weight, I want to share a little bit of my journey. I spent a long time being unhappy with my weight.

Pretty much most of my adult life. I got married and moved out at 19 and immediately started gaining weight.

With several moves and eventually having kids, I found it harder and harder to prioritize my health. I struggled to find time to eat well or exercise and was pretty much in survival mode.

And despite always telling myself I had “good reasons” why I didn’t do more to lose weight, it always bothered me. I was very unhappy about how I looked and felt in my body.

And that unhappiness spread into so many areas of my life. Areas that I didn’t even realize until I started losing weight and saw how they improved.

Being overweight can take a heavy mental toll on our lives beyond just what we see in the mirror. I’ve seen this in my own life and there has been a lot of research done to back this up.

In this article, I’m going to share the changes I’ve seen in my own life as well as some of the emotional benefits of losing weight that research has found.

Higher Self-Esteem

One of the first emotional benefits of losing weight that I experienced firsthand was an improvement in my self-esteem. As you lose weight and get in better shape, you’re naturally going to start feeling better about yourself.

It’s not just about how you look either. It’s also about how your clothes fit, having more energy, and feeling stronger. All of these things play a role in boosting self-esteem.

Women who lose weight often report feeling better about their appearance, as well as their ability to do physical activities.

More Self-Confidence

Losing weight can also lead to increased self-confidence. Self-confidence is about having the belief in yourself to do things and feeling capable.

One study found that overweight women who lost weight had increased self-confidence in all areas of their life.

When you lose weight, you often feel like you can take on the world! I certainly did.

Losing weight was the catalyst for starting this blog and later becoming certified as a health coach. It helped me build the confidence in myself that I could do hard things which carried over into lots of different areas of my life.

Less Self-Conscious

On the heels of higher self-esteem and more self-confidence, another emotional benefit of losing weight is feeling less self-conscious about your body. When you’re overweight, it’s easy to feel like everyone notices.

You worry that everyone is looking at you and has some sort of opinion about your body. This can hold you back from doing all sorts of things because you’re so self-conscious about your weight.

As you lose weight and get in shape, you can start to let go of that self-consciousness. You’ll feel more comfortable in your skin and won’t be as worried about what other people think.

This can lead to all sorts of new experiences, like being able to wear clothes you love, going swimming without feeling self-conscious about how you look in a bathing suit, or putting yourself out there romantically.

More Outgoing

When you combine the emotional benefits of higher self-esteem, self-confidence, and being less self-conscious, it makes sense that another emotional benefit of losing weight is becoming more outgoing.

Often being overweight can cause us to feel ashamed and uncomfortable in our bodies. Feelings that make it really hard to decide to go out and spend time with other people.

But as you lose weight, those feelings start to fade. You become more confident and comfortable in your skin. This makes it much easier to want to go out and socialize with other people.

You might start saying yes to invitations instead of making excuses. You might even find yourself being the one to initiate plans with friends or family members.

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More Assertive

Another interesting benefit to losing weight is that people often feel more assertive. When you’re uncomfortable in your body and you worry about what everyone is thinking about you, sometimes it can be difficult to speak up or share your opinion.

I’ve heard from plenty of overweight women that prior to losing weight they often struggled to speak up for themselves. They found it easier to hide in the shadows or go along with what others wanted because of how their weight made them feel.

Once they lost the weight, however, they were much more comfortable asserting themselves. They felt confident in their opinions and were able to share them without feeling self-conscious or anxious.

This emotional benefit of losing weight can lead to all sorts of great things, like being able to stand up for yourself at work or in your personal life or finally going after that promotion you’ve been wanting.

Improved Mood

Next on the list of emotional benefits of losing weight is an improved mood. This is one of the benefits that I noticed early on in my weight loss journey.

Not only did I feel more confident in my body and my self-esteem was on the rise, but I genuinely felt happier about myself. I was proud of myself for finally taking steps to improve my health and reach one of my goals.

And it wasn’t just about looking better either. It was about doing something that I knew was good for me and I had wanted to do for a long time.

I felt good knowing I was taking care of my health and my body and that went a long way toward improving my mood overall.

More Patience With Others

The next emotional benefit of losing weight is that you will probably be a lot more patient with those around you. A lot of that stems from the improved mood I just talked about.

When I feel good about myself and I’m in a better mood, I have way more patience for my kids and family. I’m also more likely to be understanding and tolerant of other people’s quirks and idiosyncrasies.

This emotional benefit can lead to all sorts of good things, like being able to better deal with difficult people or situations and having healthier relationships.

Sense of Pride and Achievement

One of my favorite emotional benefits of losing weight is the sense of pride and achievement that you feel. Losing weight is not easy.

If it was, none of us would have a weight problem. It can be challenging, frustrating, and in my case, take years to accomplish.

So you can bet that when I finally figured out what worked to help me lose weight I was beyond proud of myself. And every year that I continue to keep that weight off, that feeling keeps on growing.

Increased Sex Drive

Next on the list of emotional benefits of losing weight is an increased sex drive. Often being overweight makes it really hard for women to get in the mood.

It’s hard to get excited when you’re so self-conscious and unhappy with your body. I mean, when you’re doubtful if your partner could really be attracted to you, it’s going to be really hard to enjoy yourself.

But when you start to lose weight and you become more comfortable in your skin, that often leads to an increase in sexual desire. You’re able to relax and enjoy the experience a lot more as well.

Decreased Depression

With this long list of emotional benefits of losing weight, it’s no wonder that the last item on our list is a decrease in depression.

All of the positive emotions and feelings that you experience as you lose weight can go a long in way in helping reduce feelings of depression.

Now let me say for the record, that weight loss is not a cure for depression. Depression is often caused by chemical imbalances in our brain that require more help than losing some weight can provide.

But if your depression stems from being overweight or is increased by it, then getting in shape is going to have a significant impact on improving it.

When your mood is improved, you have higher self-confidence and self-esteem, and you feel more comfortable getting out of the house and socializing with others, you have a much better chance of creating a life that makes you feel happier from the inside out.

Conclusion to the Emotional Benefits of Losing Weight

Losing weight isn’t just about looking good. It’s also about improving how you feel and your mental health as well.

I hope this list of emotional benefits of losing weight has helped to give you an idea of some great side effects of getting in shape beyond just wearing a smaller pant size.

Hopefully, they can provide the motivation you need to stick with it when times get tough. If you’re looking for more support and encouragement in your weight loss journey, join my weight loss coaching and accountability group No More Excuses!

What emotional benefits to losing weight are you looking forward to the most? Tell us below in the comments or email me at Candice@littlestepsbighappy.com. Follow me on Pinterest for more weight loss tips and advice.

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Candice McDaniel

I’m a busy mom of 3 turned Health and Fitness Coach and Self Defense Instructor. I help inspire other moms to reach their health, fitness, and weight loss goals. You can usually find me chasing my kiddos around, training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or sneaking away to read romance novels. About Me