I need a word, please.

[jeneralist]

When do we want to lose something?

There are many times we might want to get rid of something. We can talk about getting rid of junk, cleaning out our closets, getting past old ways of thought. "Losing" is not used for these examples. We lose football games, we lose $10 that fell out a hole in our pockets, we can even lose hope. "Losing" is bad.

Why, then, do we speak of losing weight?

I'm looking for a word or phrase that refers to intentionally lessening one's mass, that makes it sound like a good thing to do. "Shedding" a few pounds is close, but I know you can come up with something better.

Donating extra carbon to the global Goodwill?

Comments

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

Discard, drop, jettison, slough, eliminate, purge?

I don't know that there's a way to say "lose weight" without using a negative word, if you're committed to referring to the extra weight itself -- which, in fact, has to be let go, cast aside, melted away.

Re-gain a healthy weight, perhaps.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I like re-gaining health.

[jeneralist.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It needs to be actively cast aside, instead of passively lost. I mean, when else in life do you *try* to lose something? "Hmm, I'll leave my car keys here, under the comforter in the spare bedroom, and then I'll distract myself, and in the morning I'll have forgotten where I put them." There are times someone actively gets rid of something they don't want -- "lose" isn't the right word for something someone tries to do.

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

Well, for the record, "shed" and "drop" seem the most natural to me, conversation-wise. "You need to shed some weight."

[tracyandrook.livejournal.com]

It is a very good point, trying to lose something is like not thinking of an elephant.
If one actively does something that uses calories, one passively loses fat almost as a side effect. Besides surgical removal, (which I don't think you are recommending) one can't actively lose fat.
"Drop" was good, because one could either actively or passively drop something.
To me, excess weight oten feels like a thick sweater that I cannot take off. "Shed" is good.
If it were me, and I had all the time in the world, I would want to be maybe encouraging activity (=empowerment) as opposed to passivity (=letting it creep up)to get at the cause of the problem. What _can_ the client _do_, etc. "What do you currently do for exercise? What do you like to do? What do you wish you could do if you were in better shape?" But, it takes longer to draw the client out into a discussion.

[jeneralist.livejournal.com]

My darling P, of course, pointed out things that people *do* try to lose -- you actively try to lose someone following you; and, of course, there's losing one's virginity.