Lose Weight With Help From Your Peers

Losing weight when you’re overweight can be easy with the lap band procedure in Pembroke Pines—but sometimes a little encouragement can really do the trick. A new study revealed support from your peers can really help motivate you to lose some extra pounds. Researchers monitored team members who participated in a weight loss competition and discovered encouragement from their teammates helped inspire them to lose similar amounts of weight.

This is the first study to show being surrounded by others with similar health goals can really help you with your weight loss efforts because you’re all working towards the same goal. For this study, 3,330 individuals who were overweight or obese teamed up to participate in 12-week weight loss competition.

Of those who completed the competition, investigators found the overweight or obese individuals reported losing 4.2 percent of their initial body weight. Weight loss was similar amongst the teams in that those who were on the same team lost at least 5 percent of their body weight. Participants who reported being more highly influenced by their peers had an increased likelihood of achieving 5 percent weight loss. The study also revealed team captains lost more weight than individual team members, possibly due to their increased motivation and engagement levels in the campaign.

This study goes to show, who is on your team really does count for something when it comes to losing weight. Surrounding yourself with encouragement and support from people with your similar weight loss goals can really increase all parties’ likelihoods for achieving greater weight loss. Whether you’ve already undergone bariatric surgery or you’re just trying to lose some weight to live a healthier life, it’s important to surround yourself with tons of support from your peers—encouraging one another is not only going to increase morale but help motivate everyone to lose more weight.