When it comes to weight loss, the words you choose when you give up something tasty can be of great value to keep you from the temptation to break the diet.
A small experiment, involving 30 women, had been conducted by the American scientists Vanessa M. Patrick and Henrik Hagtvedt. The participants were divided into three groups and were offered a different strategy for non-caloric food. The first group had to say “I don’t” when refusing delicacies, the second group was supposed to say “I can’t”. And the third one was to simply say “no”. The experiment lasted for 10 days, and after that period it became clear that the women from the first group more often managed to resist the temptation to overeat. The researcher explained that the strategy “I do not” contributed to the growth of self-awareness, control and exercise of autonomy, creating positive change in the long-term behavior of the women participating in the experiment. At the same time, the strategy “I can not” signalled the failure of achieving something greatly desired and caused discomfort.
The conclusion is that the strategy of “I will not” is fairly simple, and what is really important… it works – it does promote weight loss! The results of the study were published in the Consumer Research journal.
