School of Weight Loss

Have you been the victim of starting a weight loss program with your spouse just to see it go sour? Many marriages can become shaky when one spouse loses weight faster than the other. In most cases it will be the male who actually loses weight fast.

Although most couples will think this is because guys are different in physical ways, research from Brookhaven National Laboratory found that it may have nothing to do with that; it may have to do with the way that the different sexes think about food.

The researchers in this study did a very elaborate process that started with having people fast for 17 hours. They then presented them with food, but would not allow them to eat it. They then instructed them to think about something other than the food. All of this was going on while they were being subjected to a CAT scan because they wanted to see what areas of the brain were affected by hunger.

What happens in the brain is that an individual is presented with a multiple of senses that create urgency in the brain to eat. Hunger and appetitive are actually processed in several different areas of the brain which is linked to emotional aspects of the brain. As an example, the brain records in the orbital frontal cortex our self-control. In the amygdale it records our strongest emotions.

They think that when we crave a certain food all of the areas of the brain that are affected start to scream for food. At this point the study participants were asked to think about something other than the food which they did but which they found difficult to do.  What they found that although both groups could lower the desire for food it was more difficult for women to stop thinking about it all together.

This meant that the women continued to have emotional cravings even after they had suppressed the need to eat. The doctor that conducted the study is not sure why there is such difference, but suspects that this is due to hormones. He also found through doing the PET scan that if the amygdala isn’t working correctly it can be extremely difficult to stop from feeling the cravings since it is the most primitive part of the brain.

The research implies that women have something wrong with the amygdala and it could be a response from hormones. Men on the other hand are able to turn off the amygdala with a lot of effort.

When men and women in a marriage start working out at the same time and are attempting to compete dieting they have already set themselves up for failure. Their brains work differently so when a man can stop worrying about food and move on, a woman may have to have the item in question before they can move on. At least this is what the study implies.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future.

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A question that many people wonder about when they are undergoing healthy weight loss challenges is, “Does self-control really supersede temptation?” This is a long debated question by many people who deal with weight loss and weight training.

There have been studies done around the area of will power, and most say that healthy weight loss isn’t a matter of whether a person has the will power to withstand eating nutritionally; it is more about the choices that people make in what they eat.

So the question still remains, “Does a person’s self-control give into temptation or does self-control make it possible to not give in?” This is rather like the chicken and the egg question. This question has finally been proven through a study done by three psychologists that was reported in Psychological Science Journal. What the three psychologists found was that if given a choice, most people will take what is healthier than what is not, if they have a strong reason for doing it.

Their study looked at temptation through the eyes of counteractive control theory which says that desire is deflated when temptation is available, but there is also an ability to pursue more important goals. In the case of the girls in the study, their goal of being healthy was stronger than their desire to eat chocolate; hence the choice of healthier power bars over the chocolate.

What the psychologists found interesting was that even when they gave students in another study a chance to blow off a boring course by choosing a fun leisure activity, the students stuck with the course. It seemed that they were more interested in completing the course that was required for their degree.

This phenomenon has the psychologists baffled because in one sense, this could mean that dieters need to have food available to them, so they do not eat it. However, it could mean that they just need to have a desire that is greater than the need for the sweet, or the binge.

Obviously, this is a study that needs to be looked into more because people are different. Perhaps they are on to something, and it just needs to have more information brought forward. Everyone has a desire that is unfulfilled, and it could just be that the desire for weight loss isn’t as great as the need to binge on foods that aren’t available.

Dealing With Temptation
There are many ways that people deal with temptation. Some people have learned that if they get into situations where food becomes an issue they can make the situation more fun. As an example, if you have family members that push you to eat, find other ways to be with them. Start a garden or go out once a week with them to a movie.

Also look for supportive friends who want to change their lives. You can both exercise together or eat nutritional foods together instead of hanging out with friends who don’t want you to change. You will find that this strategy has you feeling better and looking great.

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