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

[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.