New Weight Loss Strategy: Postponing a Snack
February 3, 2012
Got a craving for chocolate ice cream, greasy chips, or something else that you're trying not to eat?
Postpone it.
People who postpone a snack they crave actually desire it less and are able to delay eating it, says researcher Nicole Mead, PhD, an assistant professor at Catolica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics in Portugal.
What's more, they then eat less of that food over the next week, she has found.
One key? Postponing has to be to some vague time in the future.
"When you postpone to some indefinite time in the future, the desire for the food actually decreases," Mead says. She presented her findings at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in San Diego.
When a craving hits, people often think they have two choices, Mead says: giving in or resisting.
"If you give up, you are usually feeling guilty," she says. If you resist, you often feel deprived and ''you might overindulge later on."
"We propose a third option: To say to yourself, 'I can have it later.'"
It takes you out of that ''yes-no,'' ''should I or shouldn't I?'' conflict, she says.

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Posted by Ken at 12:00 AM