| When you're happy with your weight and have | | | | had nothing to do with it! |
| never dieted, you rely on your body to tell you | | | | This is a feeling which all dieters recognise. After |
| when to eat and (crucially) when to stop | | | | succumbing to a biscuit you think: "Oh sod it, I |
| But when you diet, this simple process goes very | | | | may as well eat the cheese cake as well, and |
| wrong. My clients often say: "As soon as I decide | | | | start the diet again tomorrow!" |
| to go on a diet, I get this desperate urge to eat!" | | | | The scary film experiment |
| And, whilst they are "good" for a while and stick | | | | By denying themselves the food they really want, |
| to the diet, if they ever break the diet and start | | | | dieters also make food much more important and |
| eating, then they REALLY eat, wolfing down their | | | | give it a significance that it does not have for |
| food like young Labrador retrievers. | | | | non-dieters. For instance, dieters are more likely |
| The ice cream experiment | | | | than non-dieters to eat in order to suppress bad |
| Psychologists have looked at how dieting affects | | | | feelings. |
| the amount we eat, by doing an experiment with | | | | In a study carried out in London, female |
| dieting and non dieting students. The students | | | | volunteers were divided into three groups: the |
| were invited to eat as much ice cream as they | | | | first were put on a strict diet, the second |
| liked after being given one of three different "pre | | | | undertook a rigorous exercise programme and |
| loads": one milk shake, two milk shakes or nothing | | | | the third neither dieted nor exercised. After five |
| at all. | | | | weeks, the researchers got the women to watch |
| As you would expect, the non-dieters ate less ice | | | | a stressful film, and measured the women's food |
| cream after they'd had one milk shake than when | | | | intake while they watched it. Bowls of food such |
| they'd had none, and even less ice cream if they | | | | as sweets and nuts were left beside the women |
| had been given two milk shakes first. But the | | | | and they were told to eat as much as they liked. |
| dieters actually ate the most ice cream when | | | | Even though none of the women were hungry, |
| they'd had the two-milk-shake, super-sized "pre | | | | those in the diet group ate far more than the |
| load"! According to the psychologists, the effect | | | | women in the two other groups. |
| of the milk shake pre-load was to undermine the | | | | This probably won't be a surprise to anyone who |
| dieters' resolve. After the excessive consumption | | | | has ever been on a diet. They may result in short |
| of milk shake, the dieters decided that since the | | | | term weight loss but they cause so many |
| diet had been blown out of the water anyway, | | | | problems that the vast majority of people end up |
| they may as well make the most of the situation | | | | fatter in the long run. However, the effects can |
| and have lots of ice cream! Hunger and fullness | | | | be reversed! |