» Think About Successful Weight Loss

Two recent news stories add further weight to the importance of getting in the right frame of mind for successful weight loss:

A recent study from Brookhaven National Laboratory, reported by Time Magazine, found that men were more successful in weight loss than women because of their greater ability to repress their emotional cravings for food. The study involved volunteers fasting for seventeen hours, then being presented with the sight, smell and even taste of a favorite food, but not allowed to actually eat it.

Instead they were told to think about something completely different for 40 minutes while certain parts of their brain, that have a role to play in eating, were monitored.

Could you not think of your favorite food for 40 minutes?

Mental torture or what? Imagine fasting for a whole day before being bombarded with sensations of a favorite food (chocolate in my case), then hearing those immortal words: ‘Don’t think about  chocolate for the next 40 minutes’. And to cap it all, the chocolate is left there in full view and you’re not allowed to close your eyes except for normal blinking!

I’m surprised the researchers survived to write up their findings.

It seems that all the volunteers were able to lower their sensations of hunger, but the women struggled to repress their emotional cravings for the food, while the men were better able to do this. Here’s a method that can help anyone get their mind onside for successful weight loss.

The second piece of research was carried out by Dr Sarah Armstrong, director of the Healthy Lifestyles Program at Duke Children’s Hospital , and reported in Time Magazine. Dr Armstrong took a group of obese teen girls through a 6 month weight loss program, dividing them into 3 groups.

The only difference in the program followed by each of the groups wasn’t about food at all.

One group read a novel about an overweight teen who learned about healthy eating and lifestyle. Another group read a novel without this heroine, and the third group read nothing at all. At the end of the study, girls in the first group had lost more weight than those in either of the other two. Seems they had identified with their overweight heroine without realizing it.

Read more about how your mind can influence weight loss here

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported that the proportion of overweight and obese 6-11 yr olds appeared to have plateaued at about 32% between 1999 and 2006. So if you’ve got 3 or more kids between age 6 and 11, statistically speaking one of them will be obese. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Obesity across all age groups costs billions in health care costs and lost productivity. Experts predict that overweight and obese people will form the majority of the population in the UK in 10 -15 years.

Excess weight brings with it so many negative factors related to physical and emotional well-being, but so often dieting and exercise alone aren’t enough. Here’s a method that makes sure your mind is fully supporting your weight loss strategy.

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