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People who diet lose more weight when they treat themselves, study shows
Despite popular belief, A new study has suggested that people on a diet tend to lose more weight when they treat themselves.
Most of the time, people who want to get healthier are told they need to strip back everything and remove all temptation. Its the basis of most fad diets, many of which keep people in the vicious cycle of failing a di et and starting another one.�
New mindset and new science
Researchers from the Center for Weight, Eating, and Lifestyle Sciences (WELL) set out to better understand how self-compassion and weight loss can walk hand in hand.
Data was collected from 140 case subjects who were attempting to lose weight from a group-based lifestyle modification program. A couple of times a day, participants were asked to fill out a survey relating to their mood and whether they had a dietary lapse.
They were asked how that made them feel, and how self-compassion they had following the failure. Such lapses were noted as eating more than initially intended, eating foods that hadnt planned to, and eating at a time not previously designated.�
Many people worry that self-compassion will cause complacency and lead them to settle for inadequacy, but this study is a great example of how self-compassion can help people be more successful in meeting their goals, Charlotte Hagerman, Ph.D., said in a press release.
She added: The road to achieving difficult goals especially weight loss is paved with setbacks. Practicing self-compassion helps people cope with self-defeating thoughts and feelings in response to setbacks so that they are less debilitated by them. In turn, they can more quickly resume pursuing their goals.
Be kinder to yourself on a diet
The team, based out of Drexel Universitys College of Arts and Sciences, also found that people blame themselves when they have a lapse in their diet.
In reality, we live in a food environment that has set everyone up to fail, Hagerman argued . Practicing self-compassion rather than self-criticism is a key strategy for fostering resilience during the difficult process of weight loss, said Hagerman. The next time you feel the urge to criticize yourself for your eating behavior, instead try speaking to yourself with the kindness that you would speak to a friend or loved one.
While some would say giving yourself leniency is making excuses, the team said that its more about giving yourself the power to continue on.
It can be easy for the message of self-compassion to get muddied, such that people practice total self-forgiveness and dismiss the goals they set for themselves, Hagerman said. But weve shown that self-compassion and accountability can work together.
