Through 100,000 years of evolution, humans have developed traits which aid or prevent us from losing weight. Many of these traits we aren’t even aware of! Luckily, science allows us to discover some of these, so we can supplement them to our weight loss routine. These things include: convincing your mind to eat less food, and putting ourselves in an environment where we can lose weight faster.
Environmental Change Softer is Better
Researchers, who set up their own fast food joint, discovered that softer music and lighting resulted in people eating less. They did this experiment by altering the lighting and music of their restaurant, and measuring the before & after weight of the customer’s plates to see how much they’ve eaten.
The people eating under softer lighting and music ate 18% percent less food, despite ordering the same amount. What’s amazing is that they didn’t eat less, because they thought the food was worse. In fact, the customers under the soft lighting and music rated their food better than those in the other condition, that is, they were more satisfied, even though they ate less.
This makes sense from an evolutionary stand point, because louder music and lighting means higher stress. Stress means that danger was prevalent and we had to eat as much as possible as fast as possible, whilst under softer conditions, we can eat slower and enjoy our food more.
Convincing Your Mind to Exercise
The biggest problem that most people have regarding exercise is finding the motivation to do it consistently. A myth in losing fat is that by following the right guides, we can reach our desired weight in just a few months. People who believe in quick fixes when it comes to losing weight will never succeed. It might be possible if they work extremely hard and eat extremely healthy for those few months, but good luck keeping that up for years.
The most successful people are the ones who follow their regimen over several years. They constantly workout and are always conscious of eating healthy. You can’t just get those good looking abs in just several months, despite so many programs telling you otherwise. Even a year is too short. You need to consistently work them across the span of 2-3 years, and possibly more. If you think that’s too long, then you have to start now, because believing in those quick fixes will only lead to demotivation and failure.
Anyways, here’s a very simple method to being consistent with exercising: stop going from 0 – 100 in one go. It’s very difficult to go from sitting on the couch to going to the gym. Instead, go from 0 – 50 – 100, or 0 – 30 – 60 – 100. How do you do that? Rather than sitting on your couch, get up and do 10 pushups right away. Just by doing that, you are more likely to go to the gym. Consider even doing a small workout at home before going to the gym.
Not feeling like doing pushups? No problem, take it a step back. Go on youtube and watch some fitness videos or instructional videos on how to train. This should get your mind focused on exercise. Afterwards, do your pushups or mini workout and then head to the gym.
Losing weight is difficult and staying at your new weight is even more difficult. Be sure to avoid the Fat Trap.
Beware The Fat Trap
Losing weight is difficult and requires a great deal of devotion, but unfortunately, losing the pounds is just the easy part. As our bodies lose weight, our bodies undergo some hormonal changes to counteract the weight loss. This is known as “The Fat Trap” and it’s covered more in detail here. In short, our bodies just want to keep all it’s pounds, so losing weight and staying at that weight is a losing battle for most.
Joseph Proietto who has been helping people lose weight at his clinic found that even very motivated individuals who manage to lose a lot of weight can’t seem to stay at that low weight. Over the course of months or even years, the weight creeps back up for most people.
Proietto and his colleagues carried out a study where they found that ‘ghrelin,’ also known as ‘the hunger hormone,’ was 20% higher in individuals who lost weight (30 pounds average). The bad news is there’s no way to counteract these hormonal changes, however, being aware of the fat trap means 2 things:
- You will stop considering any crazy ideas about losing weight fast like every ad tells you so.
- You won’t lose motivation when you gain back some of the weight you lost, because this is perfectly normal and to be expected.
Overcoming the fat trap is a gradual process and one that requires starting right now. If you lose 5 pounds, it’s normal to gain 2-4 of those back, but as long as you’re making progress and you’re being consistent, then you’re doing it right.
Losing weight isn’t a goal, it’s a lifestyle. Those who carry this attitude will be much more likely to succeed than those who don’t.
Your Immune System Could Use a Boost
Your immune system can become weaker as you lose weight, so it’s crucial to have a healthy immune system. The immune system is important for weight loss, because being sick can stop you from going to the gym and getting the exercise you need.
An active lifestyle, along with a diet high in fruits/veggies and whole grains can improve your immune system, but did you know that just staring at photographs of sick people can have similar effects?
Research shows that by looking at sick people, our interleukin-6 levels (IL6) becomes elevated. IL6 is a substance produced by our white blood cells which aids in fighting against infections and burns.
The study was conducted at University of British Columbia, where participants were shown a series of photographs. One group was shown photographs denoting sickness, whilst the other group was shown photographs of guns. This was to control stress being a factor i.e. to show that stress wasn’t the only cause of IL6 levels being elevated. Sure enough, even though looking at guns resulted in an increase of IL6 levels (by 6%), looking at sickness resulted in a 23% increase.
So whilst there are people trying to eat the right foods to improve their immune system, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to add looking at photographs of sick people into their routine.
Convince Your Mind To Eat Healthy
A study by BEN Center found that just the presence of healthy food will make you more likely to eat healthier. In their experiment, they had apple sauce and fruit cocktail on school canteen lunch lines on one day and had green beans and bananas on another day. They found that the healthy foods inspired kids to eat more healthily and hypothesized that it was due to the ‘priming effect,’ where exposure to one thing influences the next.
What does this all mean? Hide your junk food in the cabinet. Keep healthy foods in view. Just having a bowl of fruit on the table can make your eating choices healthier. Even little habits like these is a great influence to losing weight especially when you’re going to be doing it over several years.
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