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Self-control is a limited resource, and what this means for your diet
Replies
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My experience and observation of weight loss-
It is easier to be successful long term when you work with your preferences and habits rather than trying to completely change your lifestyle.
You decide to go on the radish diet. The rest of your world does not change the minute you decide to lose weight. You may try to eat only radishes even though you love sweets or pizza. You get up at 4 AM to exercise for 2 hours. Your family still bakes cookies rather than radishes and wants to watch tv rather than go to the gym. Your co-workers bring in food that doesn't fit the radish diet. The friends who like to eat out or drink still want to do that. . You resent people and feel like they are sabotaging you. If you go into super-restrictive-change-everything diet mode you will lose some weight but it is hard work all day, every day. You will wear down, drop the radish diet, eat whole pizzas and eventually regain. You didn't really learn how to live and eat like a smaller version of you in your world.
You might instead make smaller changes like sticking to a reasonable calorie goal, moderate exercise, walking more places, getting enough protein, putting more vegetables on your plate, drinking coffee without sugar or cream, decide you can have a burger with a salad instead of fries or 2 cookies instead of 12. You might make several of these small changes at once but not feel stressed about it. It will be easier to sustain.
Self control is easier/greater when you are mostly doing what you already want and like to do.
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See this video discusses the same experiment.If you have
My takeaway is that you only get so much self-control for the day, and once you use it up, it is easy to fall back into old bad habits. When you try to change a bunch of things in your life, it is easy to get discouraged easily and give up because you run out of self-control quickly.
On the other hand, if you pick one thing to change and just focus on that, you won’t deplete your self-control as quickly, and it will be easier to maintain this change. Once this change becomes a habit and it no longer takes self-control, add another change.
Agree or disagree? Has this been your experience with weight loss? Did you change things gradually, or make a whole bunch of changes overnight?
Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2MDNvKXdLEM
I did watch the video. My take away was not to jump to conclusions based on a single study.3 -
Change is very hard for me. I'm a creature of extreme routine, to the point that I have been called robotic. Alteration of the routine is not something that I handle really well, and will virtually never do on my own.
Losing weight for me, changing that, I changed everything at once and then decided the old me was dead and there was an alternate, new me who never lived that life before. For me it's like skydiving. Once you're out of the plane, you can't get back in. You have no choice but to stay on that ride until it ends.
Well, that's how I view my new life. Completely different from the old, and the only way it changes is if I die.3 -
Self control is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. Certainly there are limits, but you'll notice a HUGE disparity in levels of self control between individuals that seems to coincide suspiciously with how frequently they apply self-control in their lives.
Just my 2c.3 -
On the video, there is the assumption that everybody likes chocolate chip cookies. I will personally fail the experiment because I don’t like cookies of any kind, especially chocolate chip, and even more if they are just baked. The smell is nauseating to me and eating them will give me a stomach ache. On the other hand, I love radishes.
On the second experiment, I will also fail because I think that the little white bear was adorable and it would be very difficult to take him/her out of my mind but it would not exhaust me mentally.
In my opinion, the bottom line is that we can’t make general assumptions about self-control or temptations because we are all different and what for some people may be hard to resist for others is not a big deal.
Now I want radishes…
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I totally agree with the idea of self-control fatigue. My work is mentally exhausting, and when I am tired and hungry at the end of the day I tend to make poor food choices, avoid exercise, etc. I am trying to limit the amount of time spent making decisions about food and trying to make decisions on nutrition when I am not hungry.
I have started doing intermittent fasting (I have a 4-8 hour eating window depending on my schedule). I skip breakfast and instead have 2-3 glasses of water and coffee and then fast in the AM when my willpower is at its highest. I am not as hungry in the morning as I would have expected. Then I eat a packed lunch so that I don't have to make decisions at a cafeteria when I am really hungry (I tend to buy bigger portions or more unhealthy food if I choose when I am hungry). Then I eat a dinner that I have prepped in advance or that is super quick to cook as soon as I get home from work. I tend to do meal prep after I eat dinner and I make a meal with about 4 portions and eat them over the next 2-3 days.
I have found that intermittent fasting and meal prepping a few meals in advance has cut down on the amount of time I spend thinking about what to eat and how much....and cuts down on the amount of willpower required. I feel much less focused on food. I also like having larger meals which works well for IF. I also don't need to calorie count with IF if I am eating healthy food and divide it into reasonable portions in advance. I plugged the last few days into MFP out of curiosity and I have been eating 1500 cal - and it doesn't feel like I am dieting. I've lost about 15lb so far and it has been the simplest/most effortless weight loss that I have ever done.1 -
I think it's an interesting video. The controls were poorly thought out so all I could really take away is that there is such a thing as mental fatigue ( which I know is true from experience) and that mental fatigue affects self control. In the experiments there may have been other things at play...eating cookies gives you instant energy so the group that ate cookies and then worked longer probably did because of added energy, not because they had expended less thought about eating. Too, the point that the group not allowed to eat cookies where some may be disgruntled and therefore unmotivated to really try the tasks could have contributed to their shorter times...and not mental fatigue already made in this thread I agree with. Seemed to be a lot of assumptions going on. On the white bear experiment...same thing..I would have been like s c r e w you thought police and been daydreaming about polar bears while simultaneously writing an essay. There is no way of knowing what the groups were thinking.
I think self control and mental energy are more complex than what these experiments have assumed. I also didn't agree that self control is linked to persistence in the face of failure like the video is saying. Isn't there a quote about doing the same thing but expecting different results being the definition of madness? Yeah, well persistence in the face of failure sounds an awful lot like that. Self control...well every second you are in control of yourself is a success...so I don't see self control as an exercise in experiencing failure.2 -
Steve Kamb? Komb? from Nerd Fitness did this article/blog/whatever about 6-7 years ago.
It's been hugely implemental for myself and for others I speak with on being kind do themselves on making small changes.
It takes time to get good at anything. And discipline isn't unending- and not something people just *have*- so I think it's a good jumping off point for people.0 -
If you want an entirely different take which leaves the idea of self-control out of the equation, check out Abraham Hicks. Not for everyone but can be life-changing.0
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If a lot of changes are needed, then I would agree that making the changes at a pace that is comfortable is best.
This was not my experience, but I didn't make a lot of changes as I was not obese, was already very active and was only overeating by a little (gained weight very slowly).3 -
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richardgavel wrote: »
A Witch! Burn her!3 -
@richardgavel and @CSARdiver
Sorry guys, I know that I am weird but I never had a sweet tooth, even as a child; I prefer savory foods. You money, cookies, cakes and all sweets/deserts are safe with me, just don't leave your french fries on my kitchen counter.4 -
@richardgavel and @CSARdiver
Sorry guys, I know that I am weird but I never had a sweet tooth, even as a child; I prefer savory foods. You money, cookies, cakes and all sweets/deserts are safe with me, just don't leave your french fries on my kitchen counter.
There may still be fights over the fries. I make no promises.0 -
This video was difficult to watch lol. But I agree. If self control and motivation were easily available - we'd likely have less over weight people.
The key to my success was habits. Fake it until you make it. I like to make all the changes I need at once and tweak as time goes on. I went on vacation recently. Out of country. With the time change I wasn't able to workout until the last day due to my body feeling terrible. Coming back and jumping back into my routine was harrrdddd. Took me a few days before I could fully commit again.
Habits/routine = my key to success3 -
I agree that self-control can get tiresome, but more than that, it is the constant "denial" of what you want that makes it so. So, I believe the best use of your self-control is to change your habits, rather than constantly try to deny yourself of things. For us, this has been hard. But it's worked. I can't even looked at anything fried anymore. A french fry, anything breaded... it all looks completely unappetizing even though 10 years ago they were my favorite treats! The same goes with steak. Every 6 weeks, we now treat ourselves to a nice nice steak, and then end up saying "You know, a nice piece of seared Yellowfin Tuna is better". It didn't happen automatically, it took a lot of work. But, these days it requires a lot less self control because most of the foods that we wanted to avoid are now, finally, on our "don't like" list.2
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Kelly McGonigal The Willpower Instinct is a book that relates to this topic and even mentions those studies. I just read it in June.0
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On the other hand, if you pick one thing to change and just focus on that, you won’t deplete your self-control as quickly, and it will be easier to maintain this change. Once this change becomes a habit and it no longer takes self-control, ...
I like this concept. I tend towards all or nothing at many things. Either I'm all in and everything goes perfectly, or a small slip up and I'm done for the day.
It wasn't enough to run marathons, no I had to start iron man triathlon training and forget the shorter swim distances until I'm trained and ready. That was a disaster.
So back to the point, YES, one habit at a time. Ok maybe 2, right now I've quit Facebook until Labor Day and I'm starting daily abdominal work. So far so good.0 -
My changes came from a very stressful life event. I started jogging because I was furious about what happened. I knew I wasn't going to be a pleasant person if I didn't start doing something to burn off steam.
Then I started changing my food choices that week. Started logging about a month after that.
If I want to have a sweet treat I find a way to work it into my log. I don't tell myself no. I just don't go overboard.1
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