Stop Over Eating by Thinking about Eating
December 13, 2010 by HealthVotes
Filed under Health News
A recent study which was done on a very small scale has come up with an exciting method of losing weight. If you keep thinking about eating a particular food for some time, when you will be presented with that food, you will not want to eat it any more. There were fifty one participants in this small science experiment; they were divided into 3 groups. One group was told to think about eating a lot of a particular type of chocolate, the other groups was asked to just think on eating that chocolate and the other group was not told anything. Later they were given the same chocolate, and surprisingly enough, the group which thought about eating a lot of those chocolates ended up eating the least.
Thinking about Eating Stops Eating
Source – grahams__flickr
One of the major reasons why diets fail is that those who are dieting find it hard to forget the things that they are resisting to eat. Here, in this research, carried out at Carnegie Mellon University is taking the opposite route. It is asking people to imagine about the foods that they want to eat, chocolates and cheese for example, and when you are really given that same food, you don’t want to eat it any more. Thinking about eating it trains your mind into thinking that you have already eaten it, and it sort of becomes repetitive, as if you are re-eating the same thing.
I gave it a try, I tried into thinking that I am eating chocolates. It all went good, the feel, and the taste of it and when I was presented with it, I actually ate quite a lot. Why? I think it is my strong craving that failed me in this test. I tried with cheese next, and I found out that if you hate eating something, you hate imagining it too.
Wow, this study is SO contrary to what I would think would happen. If I am fixated on a particular food and have to wait all day to eat it, I end up eating way more then I should. I would still tell my clients who are looking to lose weight just to have a bite of whatever they are craving and that should take care of their obsession with it. :-)
hi Susan,
yes, exactly my thoughts, but then the researchers has already pointed out that in case of strong cravings, it might not work. So, you have to think of something you might not want to eat as much in the first place… which makes me think that why i would worry about eating something that i don’t want to eat anyway…
Hi! This is an interesting concept. I try to eat consciously but this is new spin on that. It’s worth a try. I’ll try with chocolate too since I’m a chocoholic. Although do I also get the calories from the food since in my mind I already ate a bunch of that food? :)
Loving blessings!