Between psychology and biology… why is it difficult to stick to a strict diet?
Those who wish to lose weight tend to adopt a strict diet in the hope of speeding up the weight loss process.
However, psychology and physiology show that it is difficult to adhere to this strategy, according to the ” Science Alert ” website.
Research estimates indicate that only 20% of those who lose weight through dieting succeed in maintaining their new weight in the long term.
Strict dietary rules
For decades, psychologists have sought to understand why diets so often fail. They have theorized that one possible reason is that diets often involve strict dietary rules, such as avoiding foods we enjoy.
The problem with this strategy is that foods that people tend to crave intensely, such as chocolate, ice cream, and potato chips, activate the reward center in the brain, generating positive feelings.
When we eliminate these foods from our diet, we lose the enjoyment they provide. This triggers cravings, a complex psychological process in which we experience an intense desire to eat a particular food, even when we are not hungry.
A system that stimulates intense food cravings
Food cravings are often influenced by mood and may intensify when feeling stressed. These cravings may also be more pronounced in the afternoon and evening, when we tend to be more tired and less able to resist them.
Cravings can also lead to overeating, especially when trying to diet. One study showed that people who deliberately eliminated certain foods from their diet experienced increased cravings for those same foods.
Although the study authors concluded that this response can be eliminated, it explains why crash diets, even short-term ones, are often unsuccessful. Crash diets can trigger intense cravings, making it difficult to stick to goals and potentially leading to weight gain.
Failed diets weaken self-confidence
Repeated failure of diets also weakens self-confidence, which is an important psychological resource for making lasting behavioral changes.
Nutrition experts also agree that short-term, strict diets are not ideal for long-term weight loss success.
Complex physiological signaling pathways control appetite (how hungry we feel) and satiety (how long we feel full), pathways that play an important role in weight loss.
When following very low-calorie diets, the body reacts by increasing appetite, reducing the feeling of fullness, and even reducing energy expenditure (the number of calories we burn).
The body also compensates for the sharp drop in calories by sending stronger hunger signals to the brain, which can lead to overeating.
Responses that restore lost weight
These physiological responses mean that highly restrictive diets can make weight loss more difficult and may even lead to weight regain. Research shows that people tend to regain between 50 and 70 percent of the weight they lost after dieting.
Another possible explanation for this phenomenon is that you don’t just lose fat when you lose weight; you also lose muscle. This is significant because muscle is a major contributor to energy expenditure at rest, which is part of metabolism. Research has also shown that muscle loss is associated with weight regain.
Since rapid weight loss diets create a significant energy deficit and may contain lower amounts of protein, this increases the risk of muscle mass loss and also increases the likelihood of regaining the weight lost while dieting.