Two months of weight loss maintenance….

Today is the 2 month anniversary of meeting my weight loss goal, and all continues to go smoothly. I continue to weigh myself daily, and adjust that day’s intake accordingly. I’m hoping that as more time goes by, this constant attention won’t be as necessary. But for now, it seems to be working.

While looking for weight control inspiration, I have enjoyed reading the work of one of our Ig Nobel laureates, Brian Wansink. Brian won, of course, for his research on the “bottomless soup bowl” [1]. If people eat tomato soup from a bowl that is constantly refilled through an unseen plastic tube, they consume 73% more soup than people eating from regular bowls. I can relate to this. As someone who was taught as a child to clean my plate, I dare not venture into buffets or salad bars. If it is there, it must be eaten.

 Here is the apparatus used for the “bottomless bowl” experiments. Tricky, isn’t it?

Another of Wansink’s studies that I like computed the number of food-related decisions people make in a single day [2]. Although his participants estimated that they make about 14 decisions per day, they actually made more than 200!

When we combine Wansink’s findings with research on self control, a real problem emerges. Not only do we have limited self control, but we use some of it up every time we face temptation. Avoiding temptation over 200 times a day doesn’t sound like fun. To make matters even worse, each time we exercise our willpower, we use up glucose [3]. When glucose levels are low, like long after a meal, when we drink alcohol, or when we are (uh oh) dieting, maintaining self control is more difficult.

So how do we cope? For starters, I really like the idea of reducing the number of food decisions. Even though I am maintaining, I use a lot of the prepackaged Jenny Craig food along with Mr. F., who still has 2 or 3 pounds to lose to reach his goal. There is very little thinking involved–open box, pop in microwave, and eat. The portion controlled approach also works for me–I am generally very unaware of how much I’m eating. So maintaining my weight loss has very little to do with willpower, and a lot to do with controlling my environment.

1.  Wansink, B., Painter, J.E., & North, J. (2005). Bottomless bowls: Why visual cues of portion size may influence intake. Obesity Research, 13, 93-100.

2. Wansink, B., & Sobel, J. (2007). Mindless eating: The 200 daily food decisions we overlook. Environment & Behavior, 39, 106-123.

3. Gailliot, M.T., Baumeister, R.F., DeWall, C.N., Maner, J.K., Plant, E.A., Tice, D.M. et al. (2007). Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 325-336.