One conversation I have with a lot of clients is how to encourage their partner to lose weight. This can be a touchy or difficult conversation to have with ones partner as they may see your interest in their health as either nagging or offensive.

As I have heard just about every method used from clients on how to persuade their partner into losing weight I’ll run through what I believe as the Do’s and Don’ts. I’ll start off with the Don’ts as some may think that these should fall into the Do category however for me they result in failure almost 100% of the time.

Don’t;

Send them to a PT (unless they want’ you to)

So many times I have had husbands/wives/boyfriends/girlfriends buy PT sessions for their partners only for them to never use the sessions they have bought. The reason being as they most likely are being forced to do something they don’t want to do or are not ready for. They also may have felt insulted by their partners “gift”. If I receive a phone call or email from someone wanting to buy PT sessions for their partner I’ll always make sure their significant other actually wants PT sessions to begin with.

Buy them a gym membership (unless they want you to)

Similar to the above reason, buying a gym membership for someone who doesn’t want it or isn’t ready for it is a waste of money and will most likely annoy the person it was intended to help. Having previously worked many years in a pretentious high end, bayside commercial chain gym I could only imagine the hesitancy of someone who feels slightly body conscious of being handed a gym membership.

Keep reminding them of their body composition

It’s not like someone who is overweight doesn’t realize it. They don’t need constant reminders or little guilt ridden jabs that they are no longer looking their best. They also don’t need you commenting on their food choices. This form of negative reinforcement will all build resentment and further annoyance at what you’re trying to achieve.

There’s also a number of other tactics you should avoid such as trying to control what your partner eats, being patronizing and making comments if they eat something they shouldn’t.

Things you should try.

Take baby steps first. Even the most motivated person won’t change all of their bad habits in one week. Don’t try and enforce strict rules on eating and exercise as this will only act as a deterrent.

The whole idea is that you are gradually introducing changes that someone can implement that they will be able to maintain for the rest of their life.

The first thing you want to try and address is diet. If your partners diet doesn’t change then all the exercise in the world will not help them get results and will only discourage them further.

One thing you can do is help with meal prep and make your meals interesting. People have a negative association of dieting and bland, boring food. You don’t need to live off boiled chicken, brown rice and broccoli. You can look up plenty of healthy recipes that taste great. We have plenty available on our website below. Try and do large cook ups and store for later use during the week. Also don’t try and kid yourself that food will prepare itself. If you both work long hours andalso have kids the last thing you’ll want to do is food prep when you get home. You’ll always eat what is quicker and easier and if healthier options are already prepared or partially in advance that will help make life easier.

You still want to have some flexibility. Remember you should be able to maintain this for ever so you still need to allow for eating out, social or work events. Also eating out doesn’t mean only non-healthy options apply. You can still eat out and keep it healthy. Remember this is not the last 12 weeks of a physique comp prep.

Once your partner realises they can still enjoy a meal out on weekends then they’ll be more inclined to make better choices during the week.

Exercise

You want to try and make exercise as enjoyable as possible. Start off by getting out and walking together either before or after work. On weekends get out to a different location that is more scenic and maybe more challenging. As you progress you can try doing daily or weekly step challenges to try and make things more competitive.

The next step would be to start doing home workouts together.

Again these steps shouldn’t be introduced all at once.

A lot of the above things I’ve mentioned such as going on walks together, helping with food prep etc I’d argue you should both be doing together regardless of whether or not you’re trying to lose weight.

You also want your partner realize the results that they are getting are from their effort. Don’t try and claim it’s a result of you making them do it. Your partners motivation to exercise and eat well will increase as they start seeing results.

If you’re after recipe ideas we have a range of recipe ebooks you can check out below.