Why 'black and white' thinking makes you eat more

Many dieters who lose a lot of body weight will be back where they started or even heavier. Some dieters, however, manage to keep off some or all the weight. In a study of Susan Byrne and colleagues, aimed to learn more about successful and failing dieters, the most powerful psychological predictor of weight regain was a dichotomous thinking style. This thinking style is also called 'black and white' or 'all or nothing' thinking. Dieters think they have to eat perfectly or do nothing at all.

Dose insensitivity

Not only dieters, but many consumers label foods as either 'good for health' or 'bad for health', without any options in between and regardless of the amount eaten. In a survey of Paul Rozin and colleagues, 40% of the respondents agreed with the statement 'Although there are some exceptions, most foods are either good or bad for health'. They call this tendency to believe that something in large amounts is also harmful in small amounts 'dose insensitivity'.

People overgeneralize even to the level of gaining weight from eating foods. In a study of Michael Oakes and Carole Slotterback, participants were presented with food and their caloric content. One of their fascinating findings? One bag of potato chips (152 calories) was judged to promote more weight gain than a large raisin bran muffin (460 calories).

Venco Zwart-witjes Liquorice - good or bad?

The advantage of this thinking style is that it makes life simple and reduces the number of choices you have to make. You chose a 'good food' and you can eat how much you want, without worrying about gaining weight. Perhaps this tendency is not surprising as consumers are bombarded with advertising and claims focusing on benefits of consuming one food or meal. Perhaps even some over simplistic nutrition education campaigns can partly be blamed ('beware of fat').

This 'black and white' mind-set can make you overeat. No matter how large the portion size, you are likely to underestimate your calories and as a result overindulge. Dieters thinking 'black and white' also talk negative to themselves. Once they break a diet rule, pessimistic thoughts come up, such as: 'Now I have blown it; I ate three chocolates, I might as well finish the entire box' or 'this is not a dieting day anymore...'.  Consequently, they do not stop eating and ignore physical feelings of fullness ('what the hell effect').

Do you agree with the statement: 'I don't want to give up the foods I like'?

I do, and I am not alone in this. In a survey of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 82% of the respondents agreed with this statement. It is hard to abandon foods from your life that you really love. Tell yourself 'you can't eat that!', and the more tempting it becomes. It may help to identify such thinking patterns and replace them with a more realistic view on eating. For example, enjoy a little snack, just don't go overboard.

The Oprah Paradox: why people with excellent self-discipline also have a hard time controlling their body weight

Willpower has typically been looked at as a trait that one has or has not. For decades, self-esteem was the concept that needed to be promoted while self-control was viewed as old-fashioned. But willpower is back in fashion as research has shown that it is a key positive factor predicting happiness and well-being.

I just finished reading the book 'Willpower' of Roy Baumeister and John Tierney (In Dutch: Wilskracht: De herontdekking van de grootste kracht van de mens). Roy Baumeister is a leading scientist in the field of willpower and self regulation and became widely known for the process of 'ego depletion'. Having too many choices will exhausten your self-control as we draw on the same source of willpower for various tasks, not just related tasks. That means that willpower is like a muscle which needs to be fuelled by sleep and food (glucose).

Wilskracht - Baumeister & Tierney

In chapter 10, Baumeister and Tierney discuss what they label the 'Oprah Paradox'. Oprah Winfrey must have had excellent self-discipline and willpower to achieve the success that she did. Nevertheless, even she has a hard time to consistently control her weight. The authors discuss this paradox by listing some reasons why dieters fail. In order not to eat, a dieter needs willpower. Willpower runs on glucose. So, to fuel willpower, a dieter needs to eat. In other words, dieters deprive themselves from what they need the most. Another big threat is that dieters often fall for the so-called 'what the hell effect'. A small slip in their diet will make them blow off the dieting rules entirely. Dieting is obviously not the solution. The authors argue for small manageble changes. Over time, these small changes will become habits and having good habits saves willpower.

Overall, this is a book absolutely worth reading as it clearly shows how important willpower is. In an entertaining way the authors offer advice on how to strengthen self-control and use willpower wisely. One of them is: never say never when it comes to dealing with tempting foods. It is better to tell yourself to eat a small portion later than forbid yourself to eat them at all. This postponement method allows the impulse to fade away and in this way encourages self-control.

My Top 3 of free apps that support you in sticking to your goals

We all know that it is very hard to stick to your goals. Here you find my Top 3 of free apps that help you stick to your New Year's resolutions.

1) The Eatery: Build on the honest real-time feedback of friends and strangers

My favorite one! Self-monitoring improves self-awareness of behaviour ('Am I really eating that much chocolate?'), but writing down everything you eat can also be quite boring and time-consuming. The Eatery promotes its free app with the slogan 'stop counting calories, start eating better'.

The idea is that you take a picture of everything that you plan to eat. Then you invite your friends to comment on the meals you are about to eat or just finished. Within a few minutes you will then receive a rating on a scale of 1 (very unhealthy) till 100 (extremely healthy). As you can see, my homemade oliebollen (Dutch treat) were not considered to be very healthy. I did not connect to Facebook, but still I received about 20 ratings per snapped food. So, by using crowdsourcing, other people evaluate the healthiness of your eating habits. 

This app is addictive and fun to do! However, I do not always agree with the crowd's healthiness ratings. I noticed that the crowd is also susceptible to biases such as health halos and the negative calorie illusion. Just put a salad next to your burger or state that it is fat-free, and the ratings go up substantially. And although you can indicate the portion size consumed, I have the impression that you do not include that information in your ratings of other people's food. But the idea is great and offers opportunities for interesting consumer studies.

2) Stickk: Make yourself accountable; pay when you do not reach your goals

Stickk is not an app, but a site that claims that your chances of success are higher when you put actual money on your goal. It is not obligatory, but you have the option to commit money to your goal and if you do not achieve it, Stickk will send the money to the person, charity or organisation that you indicated. The site is founded by Yale economists and based on two key principles of behavioural economics: (1) people do not always follow up what they intend to do and (2) incentives motivate people to do things. I did not commit money to my goal, so I guess that is the reason that it was not that motivating. I think I am going to commit myself again, but then with serious money....

3) My Weight App and MyNetDairy: track your weight loss progress
A recent study of Barbara Cunningham showed that people do not lose more weight when they track their diet using smart phones compared to the traditional pen and paper method. But still, if you have a smartphone, it is convenient to try an app.

These apps help you to track you weight day by day (My Weight App) and calories/exercise (MyNetDiary). I used the free versions, and they are easy to use. The progress bar of the My Weight app gives a view on how far you progressed with your weight loss.

Are you thinking too much or too little about food?

I came across a really good paper of Dan Ariely and Michael Norton about the fascinating research being done in human decision making: 'From thinking too little to thinking too much: a continuum of decision making'.

Basically, there are two approaches to thinking; on the one end of the extreme someone is thinking too much and too carefully. On the other end of the extreme someone is thinking too little; a thinking style based on intuition, heuristics and quick short cuts. Both thinking too little and too much can have negative consequences and lead to mistakes, they argue.


More ice-cream options is definitely better... 

Thinking too much makes decisions harder or leads to postponing them. They refer to the famous study of Iyengar and Lepper who showed that grocery shoppers who were offered free samples of 24 jam flavors were less likely to buy any jam at all than those shoppers who sampled only 6 flavors. This clearly shows that considering too many options made it too hard to choose one. Barry Schwartz calls this 'the paradox of choice. Why more is less' and argues that we are faced with far too many choices on a daily basis. Nevertheless, Iyengar and Lepper's study also showed that people given more options enjoy the process of choosing. That is what I recognize when looking at my daughters in an Italian gelateria. They love to take their time to make a decision, although they typically end up with the same familiar strawberry flavour.

Dieters tend to think a lot about eating, particular negative self-thoughts. Their long history of going on and off on diets and guilty thinking patterns makes them more likely to overeat when confronted with tempting foods. Clearly an example of thinking too much, with harmful consequences. That is because their thinking is too 'concretely' and too much about the struggles of the moment ('shall I take the apple or the chocolate cake?). This uses up a lot of self-control in contrast to thinking about long-term goals (such as being fit and healthy) which can enhance your self-control. This finding came out of a study of Fujita and Han in Psychological Science.

Relying on habits ('I have always done it in this way') can be harmful as well. For example, out of habit, people tend to eat the entire portion that is served to them, even when it is stale popcorn. A little bit more thought could be good in that case. In other words, you may miss out opportunities to eat healthier when you often make quick decisions out of habit.

In an interview, Norton concludes by saying: 'What we know now is that people sometimes think too much, and sometimes they think too little. But we still don't know the right amount to think for any given decision, which is a fascinating decision yet to be solved.'