For decades, weight loss has been on the top of many Americans’ minds, especially with things like diet culture, popular fad diets, and social media putting pressure on people to look a certain way. But a recent survey has revealed that Americans may now have a different motivating factor for wanting to shed pounds.

Earlier this year The Mayo Clinic surveyed over 200,000 Americans to learn more about why people want to lose weight. Out of the people surveyed, 83% stated that physical appearance is no longer their #1 motivator. In fact, their main motivation in 2022 is improving their health. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, these results show that the amount of people wanting to lose weight for their health is 5 times greater than the people doing so for their physical appearance. And the main components of the survey included looking into how someone viewed themselves, where an individual was in their actual weight loss journey, and also how highly motivated they were.

On The Today Show, Dr. Donald Hensrud, a Mayo Clinic associate professor, says “we think there may be a new movement on focusing on improving health.” TODAY reports that it’s this type of intrinsic motivation that seems to keep people going more so than other types of motivators.

And according to researchers in the survey, the lock down may be one of the key factors in this major mindset shift. “Authors of the study say this follows a global trend of people focusing more on health and wellness following the pandemic,” reports TODAY.

To comment more on the survey and its implications, TODAY sat down with Dr. Natalie Azar, NBC News Medical Contributor. According to Azar, a dieting mindset has been notoriously unsuccessful for many Americans. “55% of Americans have tried six or more diets in their lifetime, and we know historically that people have a really difficult time sticking with diets.”

This survey isn’t the first instance in which research has shown the success of intrinsically motivated weight loss. A review published in Obesity Reviews concluded that internal motivation and focusing on personal health goals helped patients lose weight and keep it off at a more successful rate.

Harvard Health Publishing also found that things like self-motivation and having feelings of pride for yourself and your accomplishments helped significantly in the process of weight loss and weight management.

To get more ideas on healthy eating and losing weight in a safe, sustainable way, check out 5 Best High-Fiber Breakfasts.

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When people believe age-related weight gain is inevitable, they tend to turn to comfort food, which often leads them to turn that belief into reality, according to a new report in the International Journal of Environmental Research.

Researchers interviewed eight men between the ages of 35 and 58, asking about their relationships with food and diet, as well as their thoughts on why they may have gained weight. They were also asked whether they were concerned about their health, if they’d made previous attempts to lose weight, and how they felt about being overweight or having obesity.

Related: Eating Habits to Lose Abdominal Fat As You Age, Say Dietitians

These discussions often revealed discouragement about their weight and a loss of self-esteem, especially if they’d been a lower weight when younger. This attitude caused many to turn toward high-calorie comfort food, which caused even more weight gain. However, that wasn’t the only habit that proved problematic, according to the study’s lead author Mark Cortnage, PhD, senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K.

“Although they often mentioned comfort eating, participants also showed poor awareness of other factors that cause weight gain,” he says in a statement. “Many men would benefit from an education around food, such as food selection, integration of diet, and sustainable weight management practices, as a way to develop a more complete understanding of the relationships between food and lifestyle.”

Although the recent study focused only on men, many women also tend to believe that weight gain is inevitable when aging, and that might cause them to turn toward comfort food as well, even though research suggests that metabolism stays steadier for much longer than previously thought.

The study was also limited by its small sample size, but this perception tends to be widespread, according to trainer Ronnie Lubischer, CSCS, who often works with older adults.

“What I see most is sheer mental frustration and a feeling that they’re personally failing if weight begins to creep on as they get older,” he tells Eat This, Not That! “Instead of feeling discouraged, a better approach is to see this time as an opportunity to reset your health, including your eating habits, to support yourself for decades to come. That’s more important than focusing only on weight loss.”

In addition to a different mindset, Lubischer suggests men and women do strength training to build muscle mass, focus on sleep quality, and reduce stress since feeling overwhelmed has been associated with increased accumulation of belly fat.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

He also advises talking to a dietitian who can help you develop the best strategy for healthy eating. Most of all, remember that even if you don’t lose weight, changing your body composition can go a long way toward better health, which means increasing your muscle mass and lowering body fat—even if the number on the scale doesn’t budge.

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