Category: Weight Loss

Healthy foods can paradoxically lead to weight gain.

People eat more of foods labelled “healthy” as they consider them less filling, a new study finds.

The research suggests that those aiming for weight loss should be wary of inbuilt beliefs about healthy foods.

Over a series of studies, scientists found that people automatically see more healthy foods as less filling than they actually are.

When the same food is portrayed as healthy (as opposed to unhealthy), people:

• order larger portions of the ‘healthy’ food.
• eat more of the food labelled as ‘healthy’.
• report more hunger after eating ‘healthy’ foods.

This was even true of people who said they did not believe that healthy foods were less filling.

Ironically, the labelling of food as healthy could actually be contributing to the obesity crisis.

However, the scientists found a way to reverse this.

By highlighting how nourishing healthy foods are, people’s bias was lessened.

Hopefully this article is doing the same thing — whether or not it will lead to weight loss, you will have to find out!

The study was published in The Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, (Suher et al., 2015).

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Three minutes playing this classic game was enough to reduce common cravings.

As little as three minutes of Tetris can reduce cravings for food, sex and sleep by one-fifth, a new study finds.

Participants in the study played the old block-shifting game at random times during the day.

Professor Jackie Andrade, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Playing Tetris decreased craving strength for drugs, food, and activities from 70% to 56%.

This is the first demonstration that cognitive interference can be used outside the lab to reduce cravings for substances and activities other than eating.

For the study, 31 people were prompted to report their cravings 7 times during the day.

Half the group, though, played Tetris, then reported their cravings again.

Professor Andrade explained why games like Tetris may work:

“We think the Tetris effect happens because craving involves imagining the experience of consuming a particular substance or indulging in a particular activity.

Playing a visually interesting game like Tetris occupies the mental processes that support that imagery; it is hard to imagine something vividly and play Tetris at the same time.”

For the research, people reported experiencing cravings 30% of the time.

Cravings were for things like coffee, cigarettes, sex and socialising.

The most popular cravings were for food and non-alcoholic drinks.

Professor Jon May, another of the study’s authors, said:

“The impact of Tetris on craving was consistent across the week and on all craving types.

People played the game 40 times on average but the effect did not seem to wear off.

This finding is potentially important because an intervention that worked solely because it was novel and unusual would have diminishing benefits over time as participants became familiar with it.

As a support tool, Tetris could help people manage their cravings in their daily lives and over extended time periods.”

The study was published in the journal Addictive Behaviours (Skorka-Brown et al., 2015).

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Two factors which may be central to obesity identified by new study.

People who keep food visible around the house — especially outside the kitchen — are more likely to be obese, a new study finds.

This suggests the home environment is a vital place to start when trying to a lose weight.

Professor Charles Emery, a psychologist at Ohio State and leader of the new study, said:

“I do think the home environment is a really important place to focus on since that’s where most people spend a majority of their time.

For interventions, we should be thinking about the home as a place to start helping people establish what we know to be healthier habits and behaviors.”

The study also found that low self-esteem related to weight was linked to obesity.

Self-esteem is not normally targeted by adult weight-loss programs, Professor Emery explained:

“Most weight-loss interventions for children and people with eating disorders include a focus on self-esteem, but it’s not standard for adult weight-loss programs.

Self-esteem is important because when adults don’t feel good about themselves, there may be less incentive for implementing behavioral changes in the home environment.”

The results come from a study of 100 people, half of whom were obese.

They were interviewed in their homes about their food consumption and where they stored food.

Two weeks later they were followed up to examine what food they’d bought.

Professor Emery explained the results:

“The amount of food in the homes was similar, but in the homes of obese individuals, food was distributed in more locations outside the kitchen.

That speaks to the environment being arranged in a way that may make it harder to avoid eating food.

That has not been clearly documented before.”

Obese participants in the study said they were more worried about having access to food whenever they needed it.

They also said they found it hard to avoid eating when they were stressed, whether or not they were hungry.

Professor Emery said:

“This may reflect a greater preoccupation with food, and that is also important.

If food is something you’re thinking about a lot, it potentially becomes a source of stress.

And yet it’s something hard not to think about.

You can’t just stop eating, but ideally you can change the way you eat and, to some degree, change the way you’re thinking about eating.”

The study is published in the International Journal of Obesity (Emery et al., 2015).

• Read on: 8 Weight-Loss Tips That Might Surprise You  

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The ideal time between weigh-ins for those watching their weight.

The more frequently dieters weigh themselves, the more weight they lose, according to a new study.

Dieters who weighed themselves daily tended to do best while those who weighed themselves less than about once a week tended to gain weight.

The results come from a study of 40 overweight people who collectively weighed themselves a total of 2,838 times over a year.

The researchers found that:

“Weight increased linearly with the number of days between consecutive weight measurements: the more days between weight measurements, the larger the weight gain.

[…]

…daily self-weighing was generally associated with weight loss while breaks longer than one week and, especially, longer than one month were associated with weight gain.” (Helander et al., 2014)

For people looking to maintain their current weight, the authors advise:

“…during weight loss maintenance, it can be difficult to reverse the trajectory of even minor weight gains.

Therefore, individuals seeking weight maintenance may be encouraged to conduct self-weighing at least weekly.”

The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, cannot tell us that weighing yourself more causes weight loss.

It may be that more committed dieters tend to weight themselves more.

The authors also say:

“For some individuals, frequent self-weighing may be associated with negative outcomes such as increased body dissatisfaction or decreased self-esteem when progressing too slowly towards or failing in weight loss goals.

Nevertheless, self-weighing frequency and body satisfaction were not found to correlate in a weight loss trial, whereas increased self-weighing frequency was once again associated with greater weight loss.”

Dr. Brian Wansink, one of the study’s authors said:

“The bottom line is: If you want to lose weight, it’s best to weigh yourself every day.

But if you weigh yourself only once a week, do it on Wednesday because that will give you the most accurate reading.”

Image credit: Jeanette Goodrich

Learning about the nutritional value of food is not enough to achieve weight loss.

Learning to pay attention to your emotions is a more powerful weight-loss strategy than greater nutritional knowledge, a new study finds.

With obesity rates rising, many policy-makers argue that nutritional education will help people make better decisions.

The new research, though, points to the greater benefits of learning to understand and respond to your own inner states over and above nutritional education.

In one study, published in the Journal of Marketing Research, a group of people were given a nutritional knowledge course and they were taught to recognise basic emotions in both themselves and other people (Kidwell et al., 2014).

A comparison group was given just the nutritional knowledge course.

Part of the emotion training involved being presented with food products and asked to notice how this changed their own emotions, and those of other people.

At the end of the training session participants were asked to choose a snack.

Those who had had the emotion training were more likely to choose the healthier option.

The reason the emotion training is so useful is that people generally find it hard to be objective and observe their emotions dispassionately.

In another similar study reported in the same paper, people were followed over a three month period to see who lost weight.

Those who had had the emotion training lost most weight in comparison to a control group, and in comparison to those who had received the nutritional knowledge course.

Part of the reason the emotion training works is it breaks down an automatic link in people’s minds between foods being unhealthy and foods being tasty.

Without this automatic link, and by recognising the emotions associated with certain foods, it’s easier to make more healthy choices.

The study’s authors said:

“Consumers are often mindless.

We not only demonstrate that emotional ability is trainable and that food choices can be enhanced, but also that emotional ability training improves food choices beyond a nutrition knowledge training program.”

They conclude:

“With a better understanding of how they feel and how to use emotions to make better decisions, people will not only eat better, they will also likely be happier and healthier because they relate better to others and are more concerned with their overall well-being.”

Image credit: Jeanette Goodrich

81% of people believed comfort foods improve a low mood, but are they correct?

Contrary to what most people believe, comfort food does not improve a low mood, a new study finds.

The research, published in the journal Health Psychology, found that people who ate nothing recovered from a bad mood just as quickly as those who ate their preferred comfort food (Wagner et al., 2014).

The results come from a study in which people were asked to list the type of foods they ate to recover from a bad mood — chocolate was the most popular.

They then watched an 18-minute video that was guaranteed to make them anxious, afraid and depressed.

After watching the depressing video, (across three different studies) people were given either:

1. Their preferred comfort food.
2. A neutral food (a granola bar).
3. No food.

Then their mood was measured.

Here is how the researchers describe their results, which were pretty clear-cut:

“Comfort foods led to significant improvements in mood, but no more than other foods or no food.

Although people believe that comfort foods provide them with mood benefits, comfort foods do not provide comfort beyond that of other foods (or no food).”

The fact that all groups felt better after a time is likely due to the psychological immune system, our natural ability to recover from bad moods.

So, people were giving the credit to the comfort food for something their minds were doing automatically.

The researchers conclude:

“We found no justification for people to choose comfort foods when they are distressed.

Removing an excuse for eating a high-calorie or high-fat food may help people develop and maintain healthier eating habits, and may lead them to focus on other, food-free methods of improving their mood.

You don’t need comfort food to feel better; the mind will do the trick all on its own if you give it time.”

Image credit: Emilãine Vieira

What you should eat for the ‘most important meal of the day’.

New research shows that eating a good breakfast — particularly one rich in protein — boosts a critical neurotransmitter, which may lower food cravings later in the day.

The research comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that many teens skip breakfast and adolescent obesity has quadrupled in the last 30 years.

Dr. Heather Leidy, an assistant professor of nutrition and exercise physiology who led the study, said:

“Our research showed that people experience a dramatic decline in cravings for sweet foods when they eat breakfast.

However, breakfasts that are high in protein also reduced cravings for savory — or high-fat — foods.

On the other hand, if breakfast is skipped, these cravings continue to rise throughout the day.”

The study looked at how different breakfasts affected the levels of the critical neurotransmitter, dopamine (Hoertel et al., 2014).

Dopamine is involved in how we process rewards, including cravings for food.

When you eat, a burst of dopamine is initiated, which gives you the feelings of reward.

Dr. Leidy explained how this relates to obesity:

“Dopamine levels are blunted in individuals who are overweight or obese, which means that it takes much more stimulation — or food — to elicit feelings of reward; we saw similar responses within breakfast-skippers.

To counteract the tendencies to overeat and to prevent weight gain that occurs as a result of overeating, we tried to identify dietary behaviors that provide these feelings of reward while reducing cravings for high-fat foods.

Eating breakfast, particularly a breakfast high in protein, seems to do that.”

This is particularly important, Dr. Leidy, given the rising levels of obesity:

“In the U.S., people are skipping breakfast more frequently, which is associated with food cravings, overeating and obesity.

“It used to be that nearly 100 percent of American adults, kids and teens were eating breakfast, but over the last 50 years, we have seen a decrease in eating frequency and an increase in obesity.”

Image credit: Laurence Vagner

Wow!!! This is surely one of the most counter-intuitive dieting tips ever.

Looking at endless pictures of foods can make them less enjoyable to eat, a recent study has found.

While a few photos might enhance the appetite, contrary to what you’d expect, people are actually put off the taste by looking at loads of pictures of food.

Professor Ryan Elder, who led the study, which is published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, said:

“In a way, you’re becoming tired of that taste without even eating the food.

It’s sensory boredom — you’ve kind of moved on. You don’t want that taste experience any more.”

What’s happening is that each time you look at another photograph of some food, you get less pleasure from it.

Like the first taste of chocolate mousse giving you a frisson, the first photograph whets your appetite.

But each subsequent picture — like each subsequent mouthful of mousse — is less and less exciting, until you get sick of it.

The Instagram diet

In the studies themselves, hundreds of people looked at and rated pictures of food (Larson et al., 2013).

One experiment had half the participants looking at pictures of salty foods like French fries and pretzels, while the other half looked at sweet foods like ice cream and chocolate.

Afterwards, they rated their pleasure from eating both salty and sweet foods.

People who’d been looking at salty foods gave lower pleasure ratings to the salty foods and people who’d been looking at sweet pictures gave lower ratings to the sweet foods.

The study found that the more pictures they looked at, the less pleasure people got from related foods.

Professor Elder explained:

“You do have to look at a decent number of pictures to get these effects.

It’s not like if you look at something two or three times you’ll get that satiated effect.

That’s good news for food-photo enthusiasts, because, let’s be honest, showing everyone the awesome food you’re eating really is cool.”

For those trying to enhance their pleasure, rather than reduce it, co-author, Jeff Larson, had this advice:

“If you want to enjoy your food consumption experience, avoid looking at too many pictures of food.

Even I felt a little sick to my stomach during the study after looking at all the sweet pictures we had.”

Image credit: Ryan Wiedmaier

“Five years after a diet, most people have regained the weight. Forty percent of them have gained even more.” Here’s why…

If you’ve ever been interested in controlling your weight, then you need to see this fascinating talk by neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt.

The full talk is at the bottom, but here’s a quick summary.

She begins with a personal confession:

“Three and a half years ago, I made one of the best decisions of my life.

As my New Year’s resolution, I gave up dieting, stopped worrying about my weight, and learned to eat mindfully.

Now I eat whenever I’m hungry, and I’ve lost 10 pounds.”

The talk doesn’t describe a miracle cure, but rather the hard science behind diets and why they don’t usually work.

Here are the main points Aamodt makes about dieting and the brain:

1. The brain has a set-point for the body’s weight and it’s very difficult to move out of this range (it’s around 10-15 pounds or 5-7kg).
2. If you lose too much weight, the brain goes into starvation mode, stores up fat and conserves energy.
3. Successful dieting cannot lower your weight set-point.
4. Unfortunately your weight set-point can go up over the years as your brain gets used to a higher norm.
5. People classified as ‘controlled eaters’ (in other words dieters) are more likely to overeat and go on food binges, leading to more weight gain.
6. Children who diet are more likely to end up overweight and develop eating disorders.

So, what’s the answer?

Mindful eating.

Aamodt continues:

“Give yourself permission to eat as much as you want, and then work on figuring out what makes your body feel good.

Sit down to regular meals without distractions.

Think about how your body feels when you start to eat and when you stop, and let your hunger decide when you should be done.

It took about a year for me to learn this, but it’s really been worth it.”

In other words: go from being a controlled eater to being an intuitive eater.

Mindful eating in this way won’t necessarily help you lose weight — unless you’re the kind of person that eats when you’re not hungry.

What it will do is help you enjoy food more and probably stop you gaining weight.

Apart from anything else, diets usually don’t work, so why torture yourself?

Here’s the clincher:

“Five years after a diet, most people have regained the weight.

Forty percent of them have gained even more.

If you think about this, the typical outcome of dieting is that you’re more likely to gain weight in the long run than to lose it.”

Here’s the full talk:

Image credit: TED