James Hutchison, senior trainer at the studio and in his final year of a Psychology degree has sent me this great article on why dieting won't work - have a read and leave us your comments...
The obesity epidemic is fast becoming a crisis in the United Kingdom. The term clinically obese is defined as, “a body mass index of 30 kg/m² or greater,” 1. In fact the NHS released statistics in 2009 that claimed 24% of adults in England were clinically obese, an increase of 15% since 1993 2.
This same report shows there is a 14% increase in raised waist circumference in adults across the same time scale. More alarming figures were released this summer by top market researchers Mintel showing that almost a quarter of women in the UK are wearing size 18 clothes or over 3, that equates to approximately 6.2 million people. So with obesity problems like this it is no surprise that the diet industry is big business. There are no official statistics for the amount of money spent on the UK diet industry, but estimates in the US quote figures of between $40-$100 billion 4. So for the industry to be making this kind of revenue they expect one thing, your failure.
If every person who put themselves on the (place generic diet brand here) diet actually kept the weight off, then there would be no need to sell the memberships, promote the books or champion the powders and potions that bring this miraculous weight loss.
Speaking as someone who has worked in the Health and Fitness industry for over ten years I can honestly say the clients of mine who have successfully lost weight and kept it off are those who do two things; first of all they work hard in raising their exercise levels, not only in the gym or in personal training sessions, but overall in their lifestyle. This could be exercising outside of the gym by taking up a sport, or just walking more often or cycling with the kids. Secondly, and most importantly they adopt a sensible balanced diet, which provides adequate nutrition and calorie intake to sustain their daily activities, but a regime that they can stick to without falling off the wagon every week due to treat deprived binges.
So, if the solution is so simple, why do so many dieters fail? I am going to answer this question from a psychological perspective rather than in the more traditional nutritional (regulate your blood sugar) sense. It would be common sense to assume that if a persons attitude towards a behaviour, lets say their attitude towards eating healthier, was positive, then they are likely to participate in that behaviour. However, it was shown years ago that the correlation between attitude and behaviour was as low as 0.30 5 (1 being a perfect correlation).
Over the years their have been many academic studies into attitude and behaviour change, one of the most significant was proposed by Ajzen & Fishbein; the theory of planned behaviour 6. This model has shown (with empirical evidence) that a person’s actions can be predicted accurately using knowledge of their attitudes towards the behaviour, subjective norms about the behaviour and perceived behavioural control. What this means when related to a person wishing to diet is their behaviour can be predicted more accurately by knowing their attitude towards dieting, what they believe other people will think of them if they do or do not diet, do they believe they can succeed if they diet and most importantly do they show intention to change.
Another theory has grown out of this model, mainly focusing on peoples intention to change. Gollwitzer has proposed the idea of Implementation Intentions 7, and has good empirical support to back it up, such as Sheeren & Orbell (2000) 8. The concept of Implementation Intentions can be summed up as plans to participate in a behaviour that a person will need to perform to achieve a goal. The implementation intentions will specify when, where and how the behaviours will be achieved, this will not just provide the person to time to evaluate their goals and think practically how to achieve them but also provides an emotional and psychological contract that they have signed.
So, my advice to those who are thinking of dieting is to look at the situation from a psychological perspective. Make sure before you go ahead with the latest fad diet in a glossy magazine that you choose an eating regime you believe you can stick to. Then take time to write down when you are going to start, where it is going to happen (such as more home cooked meals, avoiding certain restaurants, spending more time at the gym), and most importantly, how you are going to achieve this.
It is important to prepare meal plans and give yourself 3 or 4 small goals each week, such as drink more water, cut out chocolate, reduce salt intake etc. It is also so important to have this Implementation Intention on paper, if it is sitting as a word document on your lap top you are not going to see it. Print it out, put it up on the fridge or somewhere where you and those around you will see it regularly, and make sure you add your signature to it. If you do these small but significant tasks, it will greatly increase your chances of achieving your goals and avoiding the gut wrenching guilt of previous failures. Good luck!
For more information about the psychological perspective of weight loss and exercise goals, I will be holding a seminar at the studio in the near future. So please join the mailing list on the website www.aayou.co.uk to be kept up to date.
For more information on how to choose a nutrition plan that suits you, please browse the website or contact the studio on 0208 3489706 to book a consultation with one of our nutrition experts.
References
1: Smolin, L., & Grosvenor, M. (2003). Nutrition Science and Applications (4th Ed.) USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
2: Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet: England, February 2009. Retrieved 18 August, 2010 from http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/health-and-lifestyles/obesity/statistics-on-obesity-physical-activity-and-diet:england-february-2009
3: Mintel Press release on UK dress sizes: England, August 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2010, from http://www.mintel.com/press-centre/press-releases/587/size-matters-a-quarter-of-uk-women-now-size-18-or-above
4: The diet business: Banking on failure: England, February 2003. Retrieved 18 August, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2725943.stm
5: Wicker, A.W. (1969). Attitudes versus actions. Cited in; Hogg, M,A. & Vaughan, G,M. (2005/2008). Social Psychology (5th ed.). Harlow: Prentice Hall
6: Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behaviour: cited in; Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W., & Jonas, K. (2008). Introduction to Social Psychology a European Perspective (4th ed). UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
7. Gollwitzer, P.M. (1999). Implementation Intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. Cited in; Hewstone, M., Stroebe, W., & Jonas, K. (2008). Introduction to Social Psychology a European Perspective (4th ed). UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
8. Sheeran, P., & Orbell, S. (2000). Using implementation Intentions to increase attendance for cervical cancer screening. Health Psychology, 19, 283-289.
