Colette Bouchez On Health, Beauty, Style , Attitude for Fabulous Women Over 40!: Food Fight: Don't Rely on Will Power To Lose Weight

Friday, September 19, 2008

Food Fight: Don't Rely on Will Power To Lose Weight

For decades we blamed a lack of will power on our diet failures. Now some experts say your will has little do with your waistline. By Colette Bouchez

If you’re always blaming that mystical “ lack of will power” for failing off your weight loss wagon, there's something you should know: The very newest weight loss theories say will power has nothing to do with it!

Indeed, while it was long believed that having a “weak will” was the number one reason that folks just couldn’t say “ no” to that plate of cupcakes or bowl of chips, today a growing number of experts believe that the mystical concept of will power is just that - a mystical concept that doesn't really exist. At least not in regard to food temptations.

“People like to think of will power as some magical force over which they have no control – but in reality there is no such thing,“ says Gerard Musante, PhD, founder and director of Structure House, an in-patient weight loss program in Durham, North Carolina.

Moreover, Musante says crediting some mystical “force ” with the ability to control your life only serves to make you less, and not more in control of your appetite. And more likely to fail at your weight loss plan.

Psychologist and weight control expert Dr. Warren Huberman agrees.

“Once you buy into the idea that something else is controlling you, then on some level you also acknowledge that what you eat is not within in your control – and that line of thinking puts you on the fast track to weight loss failure,” says Huberman, who frequently counsels patients at the NYU –Langone Medical Program for Surgical Weight Loss.

So if it’s not a weak will, then what exactly is behind that uncontrollable urge to eat the entire gallon of ice cream - when we really should be satisfied with just a Dixie cup?

Many believe “temptation” can take a somewhat surreptitious route.

Indeed, experts say the first path is paved with learned behaviors, coupled with conscious choices. In short, those of us who are able to resist that plate of Sarah Lee brownies – or harder still, eat just one and walk away – have acquired the skills to do so, and are making the choice to act on those skills.

What about the rest of us, who simply can’t walk away? Well, it seems we’re acting on a learned behavior as well, and some decision-making is also involved. The only difference is, most of us don’t see it quite that way. Instead, we blame our inability to say "no" to food on a lack of will power.

“What’s key here is to recognize that within each of us lies the power to make these correct food choices –it’s not about will power, nothing is controlling us, it is about choice,” says Huberman.

And what about those moments when we just reach for that extra slice of pizza without even thinking? Sometimes, says Huberman, it’s just a plain old bad habit calling the shots.

“It can actually be a conditioned response to reach for that last slice of pizza, even when you really don’t want it – old food habits die hard,” he says.

The Biology of Temptation

Psycho-social dramas aside, there is yet another force tempting and teasing our appetite – and it has nothing what so ever to do with what we think or feel about food.

Quite simply it is our biology at work – and the primitive but never ending evolutionary urge to keep our bellies full.

Indeed, studies show that like the need for sleep, the need to eat is hardwired into our brains and cued up by the sensation of hunger. And while we can put off the signals – and the need to eat - temporarily, sooner or later biology always wins.

If the only thing around when it does is a plate of Dove chocolates, then Dove chocolates are goin’ down the hatch. And while that may make you feel weak-willed, the truth is, you’re just plain hungry - and unprepared to deal with it.

“Part of controlling what you eat is making conscious decisions about how you’re going to handle hunger when it hits – that’s what’s going to keep you on your healthy eating path, not your will power,” says Huberman.

The Devil Made Me Eat It !

While not every weight loss expert agrees on what’s driving our food temptations, most say the power to choose what we eat is very much within our control.

That said, just in case you’re still hearing the distant voices of the chocolate fairies calling your name, here’s a few tips from the experts on how to handle the temptation.

1. Try to eat at regular intervals, and eat the same time every day. This will keep your appetite from raging out of control when nothing is sight but a box of donuts.

2. Never go to a "food event" - like a wedding or party - hungry. If you do, your biology will most assuredly lead you down the wrong path. ( It's the one with all the cake.)

3. If you’re going to be around decadent, high cal foods – whether it be the local PTA cake sale or your mother’s house for dinner – decide ahead of time how many items you will sample, then stick to it. For example, allow yourself 4 “tastes” or “ 3” full portions – and don’t go over.

4. Eat “mindfully”. If you think about every piece of food you put in your mouth you’ll naturally put in less.

5.In the immortal words of weight loss guru and Our Lady of Weight loss author Janice Taylor, if you have gorged yourself on a forbidden food, don’t beat yourself up for a lack of will power. Instead, forgive yourself and simply “ Move On.”