The Uneducated PT Podcast - Episode 95 – Cognitive Distortions & Reframing in Weight Loss (Solo Episode)

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

In this solo episode, I dive deep into the mental side of weight loss—specifically, the role of cognitive distortions and how to reframe them for long-term success. I break down common thought traps like all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophising, and emotional reasoning, and how they quietly sabotage progress. You'll also learn practical strategies to shift these unhelpful patterns and build a healthier mindset around food, fitness, and body image. If you’ve ever felt stuck in a cycle of guilt, frustration, or self-doubt, this episode is for you.

Hello and welcome back to another solo episode of the uneducated PT podcast with me, your host, Carla Rourke. So today we're going to talk a little bit about cognitive reframs and cognitive distortions and we're going to just talk about, you know, what it is that prevents people from achieving their weight loss goals or achieving their health and fitness goals. And, you know, when I started off my PT career, you know, for me it was all about you know calories and macros and protein and push-ups and going for a run and getting into the gym and progressive overload and you know pushing yourself hard and wanting it bad enough and you know

having willpower and all these things you know and if you did them things you would be successful and people who didn't do them things weren't successful and i seen fitness in a very black and white um with a very black and white view um but the the the longer I've done this job and the more people that I've spoken to and, you know, speaking from people from all different walks of life and, you know, grown up with different childhoods and grown up in different environments and you really start to understand that, you know, we're not all on a level playing field and we're not all on a level playing field in regards to our thoughts either. And a great saying that I like to say is, you know, transformation happens from

the neck up, not the neck down. You know, and the biggest barrier to people's success usually isn't, you know, what protein they should have or what protein shake they should have or, you know, should they have breakfast at 8 a.m. or 10 a.m. or should they have vegetables or should they have fruit or like people know what to do in that sense. That's not what prevents them from doing the thing. What prevents people from doing the thing, what prevents people from taking action and seeing success and to continue to pursue is their brain, is their thoughts. That's the thing that stops people. I always say that the longer you stay in the game,

the more chance you have of winning. But it's very difficult for people to stay in the game and to keep trying when they constantly feel like they're not good enough, they're constantly have this voice in the back of their head, telling them to stop, tell them to quit, telling them that, you know, it's not worth it, telling them that if they succeed, that everything will change, telling them that they'll never succeed because, you know, they've never succeeded at anything. There's loads of different reasons to why people stop pursuing their health and fitness goals

and then therefore never, never achieve them again. And a lot of the times we call these cognitive distortions, which is basically, you know, reality twisting thoughts telling you that you're not good enough or telling you that you're failing because you had an off meal or you ate out at the weekend or you had something that wasn't on plan

or you had a day where you didn't go to the gym or you had a week where you didn't go to the gym and now you're like, oh, I'm such a piece of shit, what's the point in going back? So that's what these are. These are cognitive distortions. These are reality twist and thoughts. And they come in many different versions, right?

So you have like the all or nothing thinking is the main one that people know about. And that's like seeing things is completely good or bad. You know, it's success or failure. There's no middle ground. So, you know, an example would be I had a takeaway on the weekend. So I've ruined my diet. You know, I might as well now just over-refer the rest of the day and the rest of the weekend and the rest of the week and the rest of the month. And now I should just stop trying, basically.

So that's like a common one people see or, you know, over-generalizing is another one. taking one instance and then applying it broadly. So making sweeping conclusions. Like, I didn't lose weight last time I tried, so therefore I'll never be able to lose weight. Or I tried this one diet and it didn't work for me, so therefore diets don't work for me. Or, you know, I tried to exercise before

and I didn't like it, so therefore I don't like exercise. So you're over generalising. When in fact, there's so many different ways to approach this and to approach exercise in general. Our mind reading is another cognitive distortion that people have. So assuming that you know what other people are thinking, and usually it's something negative. So like you go into the gym

and you think everybody's staring at you, or everyone's judging you, judging you for not knowing how to use this machine. And oh, we've got to look stupid. This machine, am I doing it right? Oh, no, I'm not going to go back to the gym because, you know, everyone there is really judging and everyone, you know, unless you're a fitness person,

people criticize you. So that's what mind reading would be. Or another one would be catastrophizing. So expecting the worst case scenario and turning mohills into mountains. So if I gain a couple of pounds on this holiday, that means I've ruined all my progress, which is very irrational thinking because, you know, weight fluctuates all the time. You could be doing everything right and you could gain a couple of pounds or you could lose a couple of pounds or stay the same. That has nothing to do with the fact that, you know, you've been training hard,

you've been looking after your diet, you've been feeling better, you've been sleeping better, you've been sleeping better, you know, your health markers have improved, your cardiovascular system might have improved, you're in a better mood when you see your friends and your family, you're more patient with your kids, all because you've been focusing on training or getting out and getting your steps in,

or, you know, you feel a little bit less sluggish, a little bit less bloated, you know, and all these things, they stay with you, and the person that you become and the person and how you behave stays with you. And that's a lot more than just, you know, what the scale says. an emotional reason that's another one so believing that if you feel something that it must be true so

i feel disgusting today so therefore i must look disgusting when in reality just because we feel a certain way doesn't mean anything it just means that's how we feel today and that can happen because of many different reasons all right you could have got a bad night's sleep could be going through something with your partner um there's many you know you might be going through your time of the month there's there's so many different reasons as to why you feel a certain way but that doesn't make it reality. Labelling is another one. So attaching a fixed and negative label to yourself based on a behavior.

So, you know, I over it on the weekend, therefore I'm a pig. You know, I'm a pig because I over it. I'm a pig because I eat more than I usually would. You know, labelling yourself. I've no willpower. Labelling yourself, I'm lazy. I didn't go to the gym today. I'm lazy.

When in reality, you know, this is a normal, a normal behavior to happen. You're not always going to do. to be able to train. You're not always going to eat the meals that you've decided that you're going to eat. Food is an abundance, and sometimes we do overeat, and that's okay.

You're allowed to overeat. And it doesn't say anything about your moral value as a person because you overeat. Mental filtering is another one, so you minimize the good, maximize the bad, and ignore positive progresses

and obsess about flaws or setback. So think about it like this, right? So I went to the gym all week. I meal prepped all my, meals I got all my steps in I've been doing really really well oh but I haven't lost any weight on the scales this week I'm such a failure so you're minimising all the good things that you've done this week you know I trained I got my steps in I ate well I was in a good mood all week because I did these behaviors I feel

better feel more energetic I feel happier in my skin I feel more confident I feel more energized when I come home from work and I get to play with the kids or you know I'm in a better mood with the partner I'm I'm more patient around my family members. I don't snap as easily. You know, I'm not getting, you know, dips of tiredness throughout the day. But now you're just looking at this one metric of success and, and deeming whether you're a success or a failure and you're minimizing all the good things that you've been doing. So like these are all kind of thoughts and feelings that end up, in the long run, get us, they get us to quit. Okay, our brain gets us to quit

because it's that inner critic, it's that frustration, it's shame, shame around food, shame around the decisions that you didn't make. You know, fear of disappointment. I'm not going to start because if I start and I don't succeed, you know, if I don't lose the weight that I said I would, then what does that say about me? Self-dow, excessive negativity. All these things play a role in how long you're going to pursue this goal that you have. And it can be really, really difficult to stick at it when you have this constant of constant negative chatter in your brain telling you to quit, telling you to stop, telling you that you're not good enough, making the journey harder than it needs to be. And that's why when we talk about self compassion, self compassion isn't this kind of woo-woo thing where it's like, oh, if I'm nice, if I'm nice to myself, then I won't work hard. You know, if I'm too easy on myself, then I won't achieve that thing. it's a fallacy it's a false sense of control

that you have you know if being a dickhead to yourself had worked it would have worked by now but it hasn't you're still in the same situation because of the thoughts that you have been letting fester and you know the role of your coach or the role of your community is to

because we all have these blind spots I'm saying this now but I have these cognitive thoughts all the time as well these cognitive distortions all the time as well maybe in different areas of my life but I do have them and we all have them we all have blind spots

and that's why it's the role of your coach or the role of your community to stop you from quitting on yourself when your mind starts twisting these thoughts which it will trust me it will and there's this great quote where it's unknown

I don't know who said it but it's a distorted mind seems a distorted mind sees danger where there is none failure where there is progress and unworthiness where there is humanity clarity begins when we question the noise and that's what we need to do

we need to question the noise of you know am I really a failure or have I just not achieved what I wanted yet you know am I really lazy or just am I having a couple of hard weeks where you know I need to listen to my body and rest you know do I really have no willpower or am I just using food to

meet unmet needs whether you know that's grief whether that's loss, whether that's loneliness, disconnection, you know, burnout, you know, maybe I've been working all week and I haven't had a minute to myself and the only little bit of joy that I'm going to get out of this day is this pizza that I'm going to order.

You know, and how does that make you a bad person? You know, so we have to understand that it's these thoughts about ourselves that are going to prevent us from achieving the goal that we want to achieve. and the temptation to quit will always be greatest right before we're about to succeed. You know, what is that, that thing? It's like, you're going to have a breakdown before you have a breakthrough.

And that's why we need to make sure that we keep you on track and keep your thoughts on track when pursuing weight loss or when pursuing health and fitness. So, yeah, you might have went to the gym this week and you might have changed your eating behaviours and you might not have seen any changes on the scale. And that does not make you a failure. All right. So you need to challenge them beliefs. Like, are you really failing?

Like, is this really true? You know, what are you not looking at? You know, what are we missing? And would this hold up under examination? And usually it wouldn't. But when we let these thoughts ruminate in our head and we don't look at other different metrics of success, like you feeling healthier,

or you having more energy, or you becoming more aware of your habits, or you surrounding yourself in a positive community that you weren't doing before, or you're improving your mindset, or you're challenging your beliefs, or you're challenging yourself, and you're doing things that you wouldn't have done before,

you're getting out of your comfort zone, you're getting into the gym, which used to scare you. So, like, these are all things that show that you are succeeding and you are moving forward if you only give yourself a fair fight in this, you know, in this conversation that you're having with yourself. And remember, we have a negativity bias. We have a negative, negativity bias brain.

And that worked really well for us, You know, back in the old days when we were getting chased by tigers and lions and, you know, we needed to look for danger. We needed to be rooted in fear. We needed to protect ourselves. But that negativity bias doesn't do us much good when, you know, the goal is weight loss or the goal is to get into the gym or the goal is to get fit. And, you know, we're telling ourselves all these terrible things to try and keep us safe. That's what our brain is doing. It's trying to protect us. but you know you have to override them thoughts because you don't need protection you need grow in in this moment of your life um so that's what cognitive of restructuring is or reframing it's it's a technique that helps people change the way that they think and it can help people feel differently about things that worry them or frustrate them and that can obviously then affect your behaviour because if you feel better you start to if you feel better about something if you're thinking about something in a different way that kind of ignites you

energy for you to to take action then and there's this great quote that I love that says the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes so it's not that we change anything other than how we see what we're doing so an example of this would be like someone who says that I have nothing in my life you know I have nothing I have no kids I've no partner I've no house you know I've no skills I've no operations I've no operations I've no operations I've no opportunities right now. I don't know anyone. I've no network of people. I have nothing. Well, then equally you have nothing to lose. You're starting at the very bottom. The only place to go from there is up. You know, you don't have to worry about embarrassing yourself. Nobody knows who you are anyway.

You can take risks because it isn't the risk. There is no risk because you have nothing anyway. So you have nothing to lose. You have only things to gain. that is you reframing and then giving you the energy to start to pursue what you want to pursue and so that's what you have to think about when you have these disordered thoughts these distorted thoughts that are keeping you down keeping you out of the game keeping you out of action keeping you from um achieving real substantial success in your life whatever domain that looks like whether that's fitness self-development business whatever it is it's like going from i have nothing that I have nothing to lose.

And you can do this with so many different areas of your life. Like, I'll give you a couple of examples. So I used to be really negative about my own body image. And I used to always talk about how much I hated my legs. My legs were too skinny. I hated wearing shorts, all that stuff. And, you know, that is a negative mindset. It's a negative body image.

And I don't believe in, like, toxic positivity or just saying, oh, I love my body. it is well no like there are parts of my body that I don't like and it's it's okay to say that and it's it's not about you know faking it or anything like that but it's also about understanding that well while I don't while I'm not overly obsessed with how my legs look all right you know I can still appreciate that I have two working legs that have carried me through life that have helped me to do so many great things that I love like I love running I love how running makes me feel you know last year I ran a marining through the Arctic Circle and it was one of the best feelings in the

the world one of the best things that i've accomplished one thing that i really struggled to do and i got through it and i would have never had that feeling of accomplishment without my legs you know so i can focus on functionality i can focus on appreciating uh my legs for what they can do for me even if i'm not completely content with how aesthetically how aesthetically they look um and that's you know that's finding that middle ground that balanced view uh finding the gray in in this black or white tinkin or another disorder thought that I would use to have was like all women are toxic because, you know, I was in a relationship that was toxic and didn't work in the end. And, you know, having that mindset that all women are toxic, you know, that kind of, because you're having that mindset that the sort of distorted thought, it actually prevents you from moving on with your life. And what was really going on was like, you know, you're deeply hurt by a relationship.

and your brain is trying to protect you from future pain. So it creates this rule where like if one person hurt me, then they all will. So therefore I'm just going to stay away from women. But this is fear speaking, not true. So do you see how my brain is trying to protect me? It's the exact same thing with weight loss. It's like, oh, everyone in the gym judges me. So therefore I won't go to the gym because one person judged me.

When in reality, not everyone will judge you and a lot of people will want to bring you up and will want to help you. but this is your fear speaking not the true and until you change that thought you're never going to be able to get into the gym and change what you want to change and it was the exact same thing with me because I went through a relationship that didn't work

and it was difficult for me to move on my brain was just trying to keep me safe by saying that well you know all women are toxic because that relationship wasn't healthy when if we reframe the thought we could say like, okay, I was hurt by someone that I cared about, the pain was real, but that one experience doesn't define every woman or every relationship, and I can grieve what happened without closing myself off to the possibility of something better.

You know, so I might have lost, you know, someone who didn't work for me, but I gained clarity for the next relationship. So now you see where we're changing that thought into something positive that's creating energy now for me to get excited about, you know, finding someone new. Um, or another disorder thought that I used to have was like, you know, when my mom passed away from cancer, I used to always say that I lost the only one, I lost the only person who would ever love me unconditionally. And to with degree that is true because I think your, your, your mom is probably, or your parent is probably the only one that will love you unconditionally. All other love is kind of conditional. Um, but that is okay. Like that is okay. And you know, this is kind of emotional reason. And so just because, you know, I feel alone or I feel. Like I lost someone, you know, it must mean that I'm unlovable or unworthy of unconditional love now. Or it's kind of overgeneralizing. So taking one tragedy even though it's true like loss and applying that to that rule to my entire future.

That I'll never have love again because my mum died. And filtering is another one. So it's ignoring or dismissing other possibilities or other forms of love that I have now or that. that can come, you know, whether that's through my friends, through my siblings, true potential partners, you know, so that is just your grief screaming that no one will ever love you again. And the idea then is to try and reframe them to sort of thoughts that you're having. So like, my mum's love was rare and it's probably irreplaceable, well, it is irreplaceable. And losing her left a hole that no one else can feel.

But that doesn't mean that I'm unlovable now. and her love also helped shape the person that I am and that the love that I have in me so other people might love me differently but that love can still be real and it can still be deep and it can still be meaningful and when I have kids I can express that kind of unconditional love

that I was shown in my childhood and that's something to look forward to so when you have these distorted thoughts like no one's ever going to love me unconditionally again and you know although there could be a degree in truth in that it's not a helpful thought and it doesn't look kindly on the future so you can change that thought and you can you can look at the future with optimism but you have to challenge them thoughts that's really really important another distorted thought might be like I have no self-control because you know

you over it you went out and you over it or you went home and you raided the press or whatever it is. And again, these are all these kind of disordered thinking. So it's the all or nothing mindset, believe that one instance of overeat means that you have no self-control ever, which isn't true. It's labelling defining yourself by one behaviour, I overate, so therefore I have no control, I'm out of control. That's labelling, emotional reasoning. So feeling shame or guilt and assuming that feels, that feeling is equal to the fact. So just because you feel a certain way, doesn't mean that that is the reality of the situation. And then overgeneralization as well,

like using one incidence to make sweeping claims about your identity or your abilities. When in reality, you have control and a lot of areas of your life, you get up every morning and you go to work even when you're tired, even when the alarm goes off and you want to press news. You still get up and you go to work.

So you do have control. So, you know, if we were to, you know, put this into court and put the evidence up, we would see that, well, just because you're saying this thing doesn't mean that this thing is true. So we need to try to reframe that thoughts to give you the energy and the power to take action. So like, ovary and doesn't mean I've lost control. It means I may be feeling disconnected, stressed, tired, emotionally hungry. So instead of blaming myself, I can get curious and get compassionate about what's going on here

and understand the food isn't the enemy and neither am I. So get curious about why these behaviours are happening. What can I learn from this situation of overeating? You know, am I using food to meet an unmet need? Am I tired? Am I stressed? Did I prepare that day? Did I skip meals throughout the day?

Because, you know, people just kept on asking me to do tasks after task and I didn't take a moment for myself. You know, did I feed the kids and get everyone else ready and I forgot to eat myself? And I was running off like two chips. So then, yeah, of course I was going to overeat that day. You know, and also you have to ask yourself, like, one moment. Does that one moment define your entire journey? What about all the times that you did decide to eat the home-cooked meal

or choose the high-protein meal or choose the fruit or choose the veg or choose the fibre? What about all them other times that you're not giving yourself credit for? So every time you reflect, you grow closer to understanding yourself and your behaviours. So you have to take the lesson, not the loss. And you can't do that if you're constantly just submerged in these negative thoughts. So sometimes you can't change the situation. You can't change the fact that you're over it. You can't change the fact that your relationship is over.

You can't change the fact that your mum is dead. You can't change the fact that, you know, you're in a situation that you do not like. But you can change your perception, which will make all the difference. That is the power of reframing thoughts. And that is why, you know, I always say that, you know, transformation happens from the next thing. happens from the neck up, not the neck down, because we have to look at your mindset as well as

things like, you know, calories and macros and step goals and training programs. While them things are important, you know, it is your mind that is going to get you through this process. And, you know, it's a very lonely place to be at war with yourself. And you only get one life. and you only have one brain and you might as well make it a place a nice place to live in

and you'll never do that until you start challenging these thoughts so I really recommend journaling for this it's really helpful even listening to podcasts like this

where you're challenging your own thoughts and listening to how these play out it's really powerful but give yourself a bit of grace give yourself a bit of compassion

and I promise of you you will get further than you ever taught you could.