5 Saints Who Can Help You Lose Weight (And How to Ask Them)

One of the most common questions I get from women who are new to my program is this: can I really ask the saints for help with something as ordinary as losing weight?

Yes. Absolutely yes.

The saints are not reserved for the dramatic moments — the health crisis, the grief, the impossible decision. They are our companions in the whole of life, including the ordinary, daily, unglamorous work of caring for the bodies God gave us. And some of them are extraordinarily well-suited to exactly this journey.

Here are five saints I work with regularly in my Catholic weight loss program — and how to bring them into yours.

1. St. Joan of Arc — For Courage and Starting Over

Joan of Arc is the patron saint of my entire program, and her words hang over everything I teach: I am not afraid. I was born to do this. She is the saint for the moment when you want to quit — when the scale hasn’t moved and the motivation is gone and Week 4 feels like a wall.

How to ask her: “St. Joan, pray for the courage that keeps going on the hard days — not because I feel brave, but because I know what I was made for.”

2. St. Monica — For Hope and Perseverance

Monica prayed for her son Augustine for seventeen years before he converted. Seventeen years of faithful, hopeful, persistent intercession with no visible result — and then one of the greatest conversions in Church history. She is the patron of those who are waiting for results that have not arrived yet.

How to ask her: “St. Monica, pray for my hope when the results are slow. Help me stay faithful to the habits even when I cannot yet see what they are building.”

3. St. Thérèse of Lisieux — For the Small Daily Habits

Thérèse’s Little Way — offering small things with great love — is the most practical spirituality I know for building lasting health habits. Tracking your food is a small thing. Drinking your water is a small thing. Taking a 15-minute walk is a small thing. Thérèse would tell you that small things, done with great love, are the whole of the holy life. They are also the whole of sustainable weight loss.

How to ask her: “St. Thérèse, pray for my faithfulness in the small daily habits — not the dramatic gestures, but the ordinary, consistent, quietly offered choices that build something real.”

4. St. Augustine — For Temperance and Breaking Old Patterns

Augustine struggled famously with appetite — not just the physical kind — for years before his conversion. His prayer "Lord, make me chaste, but not yet" is one of the most honest things any saint has ever said. He knows what it is to want to change and find the old patterns stronger than the new intention. He is the patron of the woman who has tried before and found herself back where she started.

How to ask him: “St. Augustine, you know what it is to want what is good and reach for what is not. Pray for my temperance — the patient, daily practice of choosing the better thing, one moment at a time.”

5. St. Gianna Beretta Molla — For Loving Your Body as a Gift

Gianna was a physician, a wife, a mother, and a woman who understood the body as sacred — so sacred that she gave her own life rather than compromise her unborn child’s. She is the patron of the woman who is learning to treat her body not as a problem to be solved but as a gift to be honored.

How to ask her: “St. Gianna, pray for my love of this body — not the vain kind, but the genuine, grateful, stewardship kind that feeds it well and moves it faithfully because it belongs to God.”

How the Saints Work in My Program

In my 12-week Catholic weight loss program Weight Loss with the Saints, you meet five saints every week — 60 saints total — each one connected to the virtue you are practicing and the habit you are building. You read their stories, pray their prayers, and let their courage become yours.

The saints are not mascots. They are companions. And on the hard days, they are the ones who remind you: I am not afraid. I was born to do this.

→ Meet all 60 saints in Weight Loss with the Saints at coachmaura.com