Gym Motivation Tips: Progress Fuels Progress

You may be worried that once you achieve the body you want, your motivation to hit the gym will decrease. Nope, not at all -- quite the opposite, actually. Research conducted at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick found that slimmer rats (science’s favorite test subjects) were naturally more motivated to work out than their larger peers (the rat workout being a quick run on the wheel). Adding to this insight, it was found that the more weight the rat lost, the more motivated they were to work off additional poundage. Lead researcher Terry Belke then applied these findings to actual humans, saying: “as our body weight goes down, our motivation to run goes up and presumably the rewarding aspects of running tend to also go up.” He concluded: “the strongest and most powerful determinant of our motivation to run is body weight.”