14 DAY TRIAL // Until now, diets forbade the slimmer even to think about the foods and ingredients that were off the menu. A new study could revolutionize weight loss management by encouraging dieters to imagine themselves eating whatever it is they’re craving for, as a means to curb the cravings.
It would seem the approach diets have had so far in terms of curbing cravings has been inadequate, New Scientist reports, because it shouldn’t be restrictive. On the contrary, actually.
In other words, if you’re striving to lose weight and have cut, say, chocolate off your menu, the last thing you should not is not strive not to imagine yourself indulging in your favorite treat.
Instead, research says, you should try and picture yourself eating as much chocolate as you want, because, should you give in to temptation, you may actually eat less than you would had you abstained.
“We believe this is the first research to show the imagination can decrease the attraction of any initially attractive stimulus,” Joachim Vosgerau at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, says of the findings of the study.
“When you quit smoking you constantly get those urges, you’re trying to suppress the thoughts. According to our theory you should do the opposite and imagine doing it, drag by drag,” Vosgerau explains.
The same applies to food, as three groups of volunteers taking part in the study have more than proved. Each group was asked to imagine a different thing: that they were inserting 33 coins in a washing machine, that they were inserting 30 coins and eating 3 M&Ms, and that they were inserting 3 coins and eating 30 M&Ms.
After this exercise in the imagination, all participants in the 3 groups were handed bowls of M&Ms and told they could have as many as they wanted: as it turns out, those in the third group ate fewer than the others.
However, further research showed that this happens only when the person imagines himself or herself eating the food they’re craving – only picturing the food in their mind doesn’t work.
“This research may be a back-up to what we always try and get across, and that is to really focus on your food, giving it all your attention. By focusing on every mouthful you eat, we know people eat less,” ," UK-based dietician Gaynor Bussell says for the aforementioned e-zine.
With the holidays looming in and all those temptations right around the corner, it’s best if we start imagining right now to make sure we avoid packing on the dreaded “holiday weight.”