Fact: Most diets don’t work.
A听survey done by The Council on Size and Weight Discrimination found that 95 percent of folks who went on a diet in one to five years. This might be because success (and weight loss) depends soley on our own self-control. Or it might be the result of previous habits that hard-wire dieters and athletes to crave junk food鈥攔egardless of willpower.听听听
New findings suggest the latter is to blame. A听 in Frontiers of Psychology showed that feeding rats a diet of junk food reduced their appetite for healthier nourishment. Researchers speculated that the same thing could happen in humans, hard-wiring our brains to crave junk in a behavioral, reward-seeking sense. 鈥淚t’s like you’ve just had ice cream for lunch, yet you still go and eat more when you hear the ice cream van come by,鈥� said Margaret Morris, Ph.D., of UNSW in a press release.
It sounds almost Pavlovian鈥攁nd it is. But the research has a flip-side, too. If we’re teaching our brains to want junk, can’t we instead train them to crave healthy food?听
Here’s how it works. When you鈥檙e training for a race, it can be tempting to reward yourself after a hard training day with a high-calorie snack. This creates an association between the training and the reward that鈥檚 hard to shake鈥攁nd before you know it, you鈥檙e off racing weight.听
鈥淚f somebody is stressed, they might have a brownie,鈥� says , director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at the USDA HNRCA and professor at Tufts University. 鈥淭hen the next time they鈥檙e stressed they have another brownie, and sure enough, every time they鈥檙e stressed they think about brownies. Our brain is naturally designed to make associations between A and B.鈥�
The trick then is to train our brains to consider healthy food鈥攏ot junk鈥攁s our reward.听Roberts recently in Nutrition & Diabetes that, despite being very small, has been getting a lot press. The study was the fourth in a series focusing on the potential of the 鈥渋Diet鈥� (not affiliated with a certain tech giant), a lifestyle approach to weight loss that replaces junk food with high-fiber, high-protein meals that tastes similar to what the dieters used to eat, effectively tricking and re-wiring the reward-seeking part of the brain and conditioning people to prefer healthier foods.
The study showed听that attacking hunger through behavioral therapy鈥攔ather than will power鈥攈ad a larger effect on dieters and athletes. By re-wiring and building healthy habits, people can keep the weight off.
Thirteen overweight participants鈥攅ight on the iDiet and five in a control group that wasn鈥檛鈥攗nderwent MRI brain scans at the beginning and end of a six-month period. During each scan, researchers showed participants pictures of both traditional comfort foods like fried chicken and chocolate, and then healthier, low-calorie foods like salad and grilled chicken.听
At the end-period scan, the researchers found that the reward and addiction centers of the participants鈥� brains had changed. When shown the healthier foods, the iDieters鈥� neurons fired away in their reward centers; when shown the unhealthy foods, their neural responsiveness was more muted. The researchers concluded that using the iDiet over six months essentially re-wired the participants鈥� brains to prefer the lower-calories foods.
鈥淚t was judged to be a pretty big effect,鈥� says Roberts. 鈥淚 was expecting this. We previously published that we had these significant changes in reports of cravings that the dieters gave us, but to see it at a brain level was totally cool.鈥�
In essence, what Roberts proved was that attacking hunger through behavioral therapy鈥攏ot willpower鈥攚ill have a much more positive effect for dieters and athletes, and through re-wiring and building these healthy habits, people can keep the weight off or stay in performance shape.
So how does the iDiet work? .
鈥淚f somebody craves an ice cream sundae, what I鈥檇 do is I鈥檇 say fine, but here鈥檚 how I want you to have it: I want you to buy sugar-free ice cream and mix it with a high-fiber cereal,鈥� Roberts says. It tastes good, but won鈥檛 spike your blood sugar (which triggers hunger) and it鈥檚 full of fiber that slows digestion and fills you up.听
Yes, food swaps have been around for a long time to cut calories, but now we know that they can work with our brains to build better eating habits. Swapping out a sundae for one of Roberts鈥� recipes will fill your craving or reward needs. If you鈥檙e an athlete that鈥檚 trying to stay in performance shape, simple swaps could help you build better eating habits. For example, swap the sports drink鈥攚hich can in it 鈥攆or water or water and a sodium powder. Your brain will get used to it, and your waistline will thank you.
鈥淔ood cravings are really associations between a taste and a rush of calories that you get from that food,鈥� Roberts says. 鈥淵ou still get the taste to enjoy, but you don鈥檛 get that dopamine frenzy. The ridiculous thing is, it鈥檚 not that hard. It鈥檚 surprisingly easy.鈥�