Those hoping to lose weight this year might be tempted to try to a diet challenge in the hopes of kick-starting their weight loss. But while we might think these kinds of short-term, restrictive diets will help give our waistlines a nudge, psychology and physiology shows us why this strategy can be so hard to stick to – and why it probably won’t result in long-term weight loss. Research estimates thatas few as 20% of peoplewho lose weight through dieting manage to keep the weight off long-term.
For decades, psychologists have been trying to understand why it is that diets so often fail. One potential reason for this is that diets often involve strict food rules – such as avoiding the foods you enjoy. The problem with this strategy is that the foods people tend to crave most – such as chocolate, ice cream and crisps –activate the brain’s reward system.
This creates positive feelings. When we cut these foods out of our diet, we lose the pleasure they bring. This can then trigger food cravings – a complex psychological process where we experience an intense desire to eat a particular food, even when we’renot hungry.
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Food cravings are oftendependent on moodand may be particularly bad when wefeel stressed. They can also be especially intense in theafternoon and eveningwhen we feel more tired and have less willpower to resist these cravings. Food cravings candrive overeating, especially when trying to diet.
One review even showed that when people deliberately excluded certain foods from their diet, they experienced anincrease in cravingsfor the foods they were avoiding. Although the review’s authors conclude that this response can be unlearned, it explains why even short-term restrictive diets tend not to work. Crash diets can trigger stronger food cravings, which can make it harder to stick to your goals – and may even lead toweight gaininstead.
Repeated dieting failures can alsoharm self-efficacy(our belief in our own ability to succeed), a psychological resource important for makinglasting behaviour changes. Nutritionists also agree that short-term restrictive diets aren’t great for long-term weight loss success. Our appetite (how hungry we feel) and satiety (how long we feel full) are controlled by complex physiological signalling pathways that play a significant role in weight loss.
When we follow very low-calorie diets, our bodies react byincreasing appetite, reducing satietyand even reducing energy expenditure (how many calories we burn). The body also compensates for drastic calorie reductions by sendingstronger hunger signalsto the brain. This can drive overeating.
These physiological responses mean diets that are too restrictive can make weight loss harder – and may even lead toweight regain. From an evolutionary perspective, these responses helped our ancestors tosurvive food scarcity– but today, it explains why severe calorie restriction so often leads to weight regain. In fact, research shows that people tend to regain about50%-70%of the weight they lose after dieting.
Another possible explanation for this phenomenon is that you’re not just losing fat when the scale drops – you lose muscle too. This matters because muscle is a key contributor toresting energy expenditure, which is part of your metabolism. Research has also shown that a loss of muscle mass isassociated with weight regain.
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