The Last Diet You’ll Ever Go On

Scientific research confirms what many of us already know, that our impulse control, or lack thereof, affects our ability to lose weight and keep it off. How we set ourselves up for failure is to respond, “So all I have to do is control my impulses to overeat.” Not so fast. When that oversimplified approach fails, we beat ourselves up, resulting in even less energy to make good choices next time.

Instead, we need to understand that the degree to which we can exert effort to change behaviors (say, to eat sensible portions instead of overfilling our plates) is governed by the current state of our brains – which is a result of both genetics and the social environments we have lived in. It is also the result of the immediate situations we face. We know that stress seems to lower our self control, but numerous studies have also shown that making decisions – even decisions as seemingly innocuous as completing your wedding registry or ordering a new computer! – lowers one’s impulse control (a.k.a. “willpower,” “self control,” and “the way you stop after one doughnut”). Pretty much anything that requires mental energy is tapping into the same reserves that willpower needs.

In a cruel twist for anyone trying to lose weight, glucose will restore willpower in the moment. When you reach for the brownies after a hard day of work, with a long To Do list still waiting for you at home, you’re not a failure. Your body is doing what it knows to do to make sure you have mental energy.

The good news is that our brains also have an amazing feature called plasticity . Scientists used to think that the brains we were born with were the ones that we had for life. In recent years, however, we’ve learned that’s not true – our brains can grow new neurons! We have the ability to begin to think differently.

The question, then, is how to cultivate higher behavioral impulse control, and the answer is to practice precommitment .

Precommitment is defined by researchers as “the voluntary restriction of access to temptations.” Precommitment means taking steps before an event occurs to ensure that you will stay on track to meet your goals. Images of the brain have shown that precommitment changes the way the brain responds to the need for willpower, increasing its ability to delay gratification, especially in individuals who tend to be more impulsive.

In addition to limiting factors that might derail your weight loss goals, another key component of precommitment is self-care – knowing what you need to feel well and actively incorporating it in your life. This will help keep your emotional and mental bank account full, allowing you to make withdrawals later when you need strength for impulse control.

There are numerous ways to incorporate precommitment.

If you’re like many of us, at least one of the above tips feels like an indictment.
“I could never convince my kids to help with kitchen chores!”
“How am I supposed to find time to meet up with friends? I brush my teeth in the shower and eat standing up!”

Fortunately, making changes isn’t a one-chance deal. Plasticity is achieved over time. If you didn’t reach your goals this week, you have another opportunity to practice pre-commitment by figuring out why it didn’t work and how to make it work next week. You can also change your goals if you continue to miss them, which can be a sign that they aren’t realistic, or at least not realistic for now. Your goal is to cultivate habits you can enjoy over a lifetime.

What many weight loss plans are missing – and what keeps us hopping from one fad diet to another – is that we are not machines, where you plug in a specific formula and an ideal weight pops out. We are humans, with rich lives and living brains, which respond to the choices we make over time.

That’s the secret. That’s the last diet you will ever go on.