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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, January 19, 2005

SHAPE UP
'Automatic' weight loss? It's for real

By Charles Stuart Platkin

What if I told you it didn't have to be so hard to lose weight permanently? What if you could lose that weight — well — automatically?

Skeptical? Why wouldn't you be?

After all, magical claims of instant, effortless weight loss have proliferated for decades without delivering.

However, successful dieters share a common "secret" — they aren't constantly thinking about eating and exercise. They've figured out ways to make their behaviors and choices second nature.

It's based on the concept of "automaticity" — the subconscious ways we perform daily behaviors. Activities such as setting your alarm clock at night, putting on shoes before leaving the house and remembering how to drive to work do not require much thought. The idea is to apply the same principle to your diet.

Too much effort

"Attempting to consciously perform a novel task or alter a behavior requires effort and utilization of almost all of the control network portion of the brain, whereas when you've learned a behavior and it's automatic, you can reduce the brainpower you use by as much as 85 percent," says Walter Schneider, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.

In terms of dieting, the amount of information and control required can be simply too much for the average person to sustain. This becomes especially important when our control systems are weakened — like when we are sleep-deprived or stressed. It's an opening for our previous, more comfortable, negative eating habits to resurface.

"When there are distractions competing for your attention, the mental workload can be overwhelming," Schneider says.

Repeat, repeat again

"It takes a couple hundred executions of a new behavior to make it automatic," says Schneider. For instance, if you want to start automatically ordering a vegetable egg-white omelet for breakfast at the diner instead of buttered toast, greasy eggs and sausage, you would need to do it a few hundred mornings before it became unconscious.

According to Amy A. Gorin, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University Medical School, a major predictor of successful weight maintenance is dietary consistency.

"Those who maintain the same diet regimen across the week and year are more likely to maintain their weight loss over the following year than those who diet more strictly on weekdays and/or during nonholiday periods," Gorin says.

Easier over time

Automated behavior is essential for permanent weight control, but a study of the National Weight Control Registry (individuals who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for five years or more) reported in the journal Obesity Research found that after losing weight and maintaining it for more than a few years, weight maintenance gets easier.

Avoid the flashing neon sign

As soon as we decide to diet, we come up with lists of foods we can't eat. We might as well put up a neon sign flashing, "EAT — EAT — EAT."

Any time you try telling yourself not to do something — that's exactly what you'll find yourself doing,"explains Daniel Wegner, professor of psychology at Harvard University. "People think they should have 'will power' to go against their nature, but the human mind is just not constructed that way," says Wegner. Actually, there's a good reason why we can't just shut out the desire for food: We need it for survival. Our bodies just have a hard time distinguishing healthy from unhealthy (sugary, fatty) foods.

Don't be a diet hero

In the beginning, set yourself up to succeed by arranging your environment so that you can execute your new behavior. "You need to rearrange your world so that it can operate as if it's on autopilot," suggests Wegner.

Avoid cues that tempt you — for instance, if you can't resist the fries when you take your kids to McDonald's, go to Subway instead. Sounds simple, but most people need to think about it first.

Create a 'mental butler'

Let your subconscious do the work for you. Set up detailed associations, reminders and triggers to help develop your new behaviors.

For example, when your alarm goes off, associate that with putting on your shoes and going out for a walk. Or when you see 12:30 p.m. on the clock at work, automatically order a very specific, healthy lunch from an already designated "healthy"restaurant.

Replace it

Schneider suggests replacing a few of your old eating behaviors with new, more healthful ones. It's much easier to replace an old behavior than to rid yourself of a negative behavior on its own.

Take a peek at your eating behaviors and zero in on foods you're willing to substitute with "Calorie Bargains" — foods low in calories that still taste great.

For instance, if you typically eat high-calorie cereal every morning, shop around for a few that are lower in calories but still make you happy — then stock your pantry with only these lower-calorie cereals.

In order to alleviate stressing all day about weight loss, devise a plan for dealing with your "Eating Alarm Times" — the one or two hours when you consume the majority of your high-calorie and high-fat foods. (Midmorning munchies? Prime-time TV snacking? Late-night noshing?)

Again, look for Calorie Bargains to substitute at those times when you tend to overeat.

Send in "real-life"dieting tips to info@thedietdetective.com.

If published, receive a free copy of "The Automatic Diet."

Charles Stuart Platkin is a nutrition and public health advocate. E-mail the address above.