WEEKLY COACHING TIP #192                                                                                             

HOW YOUR BRAIN AFFECTS YOUR EATING

This is the second part of the WCT on Weight Reduction. Last week in Why Slimming Products Help Sell Chocolate Bars we looked at how advertisers manipulate us whilst we are in a trance state i.e. watching tele, sending out seemingly contradictory messages about slimming then showing people eating very fattening and unhealthy foods immediately after!  Today I wanted to look at why we feel the need to eat more food even though we are overweight and perhaps unhealthy.

There was a study at Princeton University, which asked various people to take part in an experiment, the ‘guinea pigs’ didn’t know what the experiment was about at this stage, they just were told to fill in a questionnaire.  When they completed the questionnaire, half of them were told that they did not fit the bill for the experiment whilst the others were told that they did and therefore would go on to help the researchers.  This was just done randomly, to discover how people reacted.  Then they left both groups in 2 separate rooms with biscuits. The researchers found that the ones who had been told they were no longer needed ate twice as many biscuits as the ones who believed they were going to go on to help the researchers.

The reason for this is that way back in the caveman days, you had to be part of a group in order to survive.  If you weren’t, you were much less likely to be able to find your own food and therefore starvation was a real possibility.  If you happened to be rejected by the ‘group’, then you hunted on your own and when you did find some food you ate as much as you could as you never knew where the next meal was going to come from, not being part of that group anymore. 

So you can see why in the experiment those who felt they were rejected from the group ate twice as many biscuits. A very old part of the brain is coming into play here. 

We are still carrying that conditioning around with us. So now you have that knowledge the trick is to ‘de-condition’ it.  That’s where my programme on Holistic Weight Reduction comes in.

You can probably see how it also fits in with people who are shy or don’t socialise too easily, they often don’t feel part of a group and can end up staying at home and eating or drinking to compensate.

Regarding body shape, in another study in the UK, school children in their early teens were found to be unbothered about their health and weight and the effects of certain foods such as chips and chocolate on their bodies.  However, when questioned about their body image, this was a different matter altogether.  They were more concerned about how they looked and were perceived by their peer group than how healthy they were. This was more likely to influence them to lose weight than anything else.

You can probably see that this thinking doesn’t much change for a lot of people as they get older, it’s just a case of another quick fix, go out and buy that slimming product and everything will all be alright, well at least for a few weeks, until the pattern begins again.

People diet for many reasons.  Many people, particularly women, even thin ones, diet because they have unrealistic expectations of the perfect body and they totally ignore the fact that they may be harming their health long term.  The media has so much to answer for.  However, so do we, we have to begin taking responsibility for our lives instead of being brainwashed.  Nowadays, trying to understand your body type and have a stable healthy weight has become a maze of confusion.

There is a popular theory that we all have a set point for our weight that the body tries to adhere to and if we keep messing with it by dieting, it believes it is going into famine. There is some research that says …”after a period of restrictive dieting, the body may even become more efficient in storing energy in the form of fat from the food that is consumed. Moreover, as people become obese it is likely that the set point gradually adjusts to a new higher level. Unfortunately, it’s still as difficult to reduce weight as before, and now from a newly established higher set point weight. These circumstances partly explain why individuals often end up heavier than before the period of dieting.”

This is the cycle I wish to help people break. Apart from the sheer nonsense they are fed by the media, it can be dangerous to your health physically and psychologically. Breaking the diet/weight gain cycle is not a quick fix, it means looking at many aspects of our lifestyle and eating habits.  It means addressing psychological and emotional issues and being really educated on what foods are doing what in our bodies.

If you or anyone you know is interested in breaking this yo-yo dieting once and for all, please send an email to me and I will let you know when I will be giving my first talk on this programme.

So take your health into your own hands, start with acceptance of yourself and decide to get healthy and fit!  Remember a journey of a single mile starts with a single step.