Weight Loss That Fail: Is Your Diet Not Working? You May Be Eating Food You Don't Enjoy

Your diet may be failing because you are incorporating food which you do not actually like to eat while trying to lose weight, according to new research from Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business. The study is called "Saying 'No' to Cake or 'Yes' to Kale: Approach and Avoidance Strategies in Pursuit of Health Goals."

"Our research shows that instead of creating rules to avoid one's favorite treats, dieters should focus on eating healthy foods that they enjoy," said the study's lead author Meredith David, Ph.D. as per a report in EurekAlert. David is an assistant professor of marketing at Baylor University.

Diet Plan Not Working? Research Shows How to Make Your Health Plan a Success https://t.co/4a4iUTAkbT

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Diet, Food and Self-Control

David and her colleagues looked into the self-control of 542 participants. When dieting, those with low self-control were prone to avoiding "foods they find tempting," according to a report from Nature World News. Avoiding food that they liked reportedly made the dieting more difficult for these people.

According to the report, the researchers found that those who had more successful diets were the participants who had "more motivating diet plans." These were the people who incorporated healthy food that they liked into their diet while staying away from unhealthy food they did not like.

Diet And Enjoyable Healthy Food

Australia Network News reported that in the study, those who had low self-control described undesirable food such as Brussel sprouts as healthy food to eat when on a diet. In contrast, those who had high self-control thought of food that they enjoyed eating, such as strawberries, as something to eat when dieting.

"Dieters who restrict themselves from consuming the foods they love most may be setting themselves up for failure. Instead, they may be better off by allowing occasional 'treats' and focusing attention on healthy foods that they enjoy and making it a point to include those tasty, but healthy foods in their diet," David was quoted as saying. David and her colleagues' study was published in the journal Psychology & Marketing.

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