Yahoo Lifestyle The upside of weightloss: How a positive spin can help you slim down
New research suggests adopting a positive mindset can help aid weight loss. Photo: Getty
Want to lose weight? Stop stressing about what those French fries might do to your waistline and start focusing on the positive effects you'll get from a spinach salad.
That's the take-home message of a new paper from Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab that says you're better off looking on food's bright side if you're trying to slim down.
Researchers analysed 43 previously published studies about the effectiveness of health messages aimed at the public - things like anti-smoking PSAs and pamphlets at doctor's offices encouraging us to eat more veggies.
They found that negative health messages worked primarily with health professionals like doctors or dietitians. For everyone else, positive health messages were more powerful. For example, telling yourself that, "This pizza will go straight to my thighs," won't motivate you as well as a statement like, "This green smoothie will give me energy."
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Why? Researchers say that gloom-and-doom messages about diet and food can feel like finger-wagging, which is more annoying than inspiring. They can even backfire: "It's recently been discovered that 73% of overweight and obese people respond to fat shaming by eating more than they otherwise would," says Brian Wansink, lead researcher and author of Slim by Design.
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Health professionals, on the other hand, respond well to negative, fear-based messages because they already know all about dangers of certain behaviours like eating trans fat, says Wansink. They also have more at stake (or they're more "risk-averse," in scientific terms), since their professional lives can depend on them being healthy.
Want to try it on yourself? "Instead of saying, 'If I eat a cookie, I'll be fat,' you should say, 'If I eat fruit, I'll look better. I'll have a better complexion. I'll feel full. I'll feel proud of myself at the end of the day," Wansink suggests. Time to stop scaring yourself away from those fries, and welcome yourself the bright side.
