Thought Suppression and Overeating

Trying to suppress thoughts of a craved food can cause you to eat even more of it at the first opportunity. That’s what St. George’s University of London researchers concluded after observing 116 chocolate-tasting female undergraduates. The women had been divided into three groups. One group was told to think about anything but chocolate for five minutes, another group was told to think about only chocolate, and the third group was told to think about whatever they wanted. Later, when the women were asked to compare two brands of chocolate in a taste test, the group of thought suppressors took a few extra bites…just to be sure.

You can read more about the just-don’t-think-about-it study on NCBI’s web site.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Instead of trying to suppress thoughts of food you are craving, use this visualization trick.

Calm Food Cravings Naturally with Visualization

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University conducted an experiment involving three groups of undergraduate students. Each group was told to imagine doing a task. The tasks to be imagined were as follows:

• Group 1 – Insert 30 quarters into a laundry machine, and then eat 3 M&Ms.
• Group 2 – Insert 3 quarters into a laundry machine, and then eat 30 M&Ms.
• Group 3 – Insert 33 quarters into a laundry machine.

After completing their assigned visualizations, the participants were allowed to eat as much as they wanted from a bowl of real M&Ms. Those who had imagined eating 30 M&Ms ate an average of only 3 real M&Ms from the bowl, while participants from the other two groups ate an average of 5.

The researchers then conducted a follow-up experiment in which participants were asked to imagine either eating 3 or 30 M&Ms or transferring the same number of M&Ms from one bowl to another. The participants were then allowed to eat as many real M&Ms as they liked. Consistent with the first experiment, participants who had imagined eating 30 M&Ms subsequently ate fewer real M&Ms than those who had imagined eating only 3. Participants who imagined transferring 30 M&Ms from one bowl to another, however, subsequently ate more real M&Ms than those who had imagined moving only 3. While the M&M cravings of the first group were dampened, the cravings of the second group were intensified.

The study was published in the December 10 issue of Science. Time has an insightful review discussing this study in a broader context of food and drug addictions.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: To calm a food craving naturally, imagine eating large amounts of the craved food. Continue your visualization for several minutes, or until you feel the craving subside.