Think Yourself Thin?

An enterprising approach to weight loss has been studied by researchers at Birmingham, UK. They describe their approach in the journal Physiology & Behavior; it consisted of 3 separate experiments. Young healthy adults were used as subjects for these.

In the first study, 14 healthy male students with a normal body mass index (BMI) were involved in two afternoon sessions. On the first day they were asked to rate their appetite and mood 2 hours after their lunch. They were then divided into two groups. The first group had to record in detail what they had had for lunch; the other group was asked to detail their lunch on the previous day. Then both groups repeated their ratings of appetite and mood. Finally they were presented with 3 bowls of popcorn to taste and eat as much as they wanted. On the second day, the groups switched their recall tasks, but otherwise the procedure was the same. The results? There was no differences in appetite ratings either before or after recall of their lunches (today’s or yesterdays), but the amount of popcorn eaten was less when the subjects recalled today’s lunch.

The second study looked at ‘dietary disinhibition’ scores - these are scores rating the tendency to overeat in different situations. There were 73 healthy women students as subjects. The procedure was similar to the first experiment. The results showed that women with a low disinhibition score – i.e. did not have a tendency to overeating - reduced their snack intake after recalling today’s lunch.

The third study involved 47 healthy female students who ate a standard lunch of 400 calories. They then undertook the snack experiment, being offered 3 different kinds of cookies instead of popcorn – one hour after lunch on day one3 hours after lunch on day 2. Half of them were asked to recall their lunch, the other half to recall their drive to the testing center. In the women who had a low disinhibition score, there was reduced cookie intake in those recalling their lunch 3 hours after that lunch; there was no reduction with the 1-hour recalls, or in those with high disinhibition.

These were somewhat complicated procedures, but the results, taken together, seem fairly clear-cut. Thinking of a recent meal can probably help some people (not those who tend to overeat) fight off a major snack-attack. But tit’s unlikely to help fat people become thin.