Should you keep that New Year’s resolution to forgo fried chicken and abstain from apple fritters? Or should you indulge, knowing you’ll eventually binge on your forbidden foods?
Sorry, but according to new BYU research, restraint is the answer.
In a three-year study published in 2009 women who didn’t consciously restrict what they ate were 2.5 times more likely to gain at least six pounds.
In an environment that has made food tastier, faster and more abundant than ever, “We have to actually push back, if you will, and work to not eat even though we would like to,” said Larry Tucker, lead author of the study and director of health promotion at Brigham Young University in Provo. “It’s very important to practice restrained eating, especially nowadays. Fifty years ago it wasn’t as important. It’s not as tempting to have a second bowl of beans.”
The findings may sound obvious, but there is debate in the research on the value of restrained eating. Some studies have shown that restricted eaters actually eat more. For example, a 2005 study from the University of Toronto found students who were deprived of chocolate for a week consumed more of it than students who weren’t deprived.
Janet Polivy, lead researcher of that study and others that question the value of restrained eating, said there is no one solution.
“I would say that people should learn to pay attention both to what they eat and what their bodies tell them about what they actually need to eat (i.e., don’t eat if you’re not hungry, and don’t let yourself get so hungry that you can’t pay attention to how you feel and what you’ve eaten),” she wrote in an e-mail.
Tucker said BYU’s health coaches teach clients to practice restraint, both in amount and type. People shouldn’t go hungry, he stressed. But they need to learn to eat more fruits, vegetables and grains, he said, noting that you don’t have to limit yourself eating those foods. “You can eat a pound of nonstarchy vegetables and only get a couple hundred calories.”
The amount of restraint needed depends on the person, so it’s difficult to say how much a person should refrain, Tucker noted. But he said overweight and obese individuals underestimate how much they eat by 40 percent and lean people do by up to 15 percent.
His tips include writing down what you eat, at least initially. And don’t surround yourself with cookies and pizza, just like a person trying to quit smoking wouldn’t keep a tempting pack of cigarettes around.
The BYU study included 192 Utah women in their 40s who measured their food and physical activity at the beginning and end of the three-year period. They also filled out a questionnaire that rated their eating behaviors.
It found women had to continue to decrease their caloric intake -over time — to combat a slowing metabolism, loss of lean body mass and a relaxing attitude about weight — to avoid gaining weight.
hmay@sltrib.com
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