The brain remains in obese mode and when we are on a diet the hormones that regulate hunger receive more powerful signals: for this reason, once the restrictions are over, we eat more and regain weight
The data comes from an animal study, but it is likely that they can at least partially explain the feared
yo-yo effect
after diets: on Cell Metabolism a group of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research showed that in the brains of mice on a diet, brain circuits change, particularly in an area of the hippocampus that controls hunger.
The brain drives the sense of hunger
With the diet, the signals arriving at these neurons become stronger; so, when you go back to eating normally, the sense of hunger he comes back more arrogant than ever and pushes to eat more quickly recovering the lost weight. It is a neuronal plasticity and a change in the nerve signals that lead to one prolonged and increased hunger, say the authors. The brain greatly influences the chances of success of a diet and explains, for example, why almost everyone is persuaded to try i drastic regimes.
Diet plans that are not flexible or varied, regardless of the often negative effect on the body, are in fact a stress reliever for the brain, which has to make numerous decisions at all times: eliminating the possibility of choice at the root, following crash diets seems easy. Only so at the beginning, because then the forbidden foods become more and more gluttonous and irresistible just thinking about them; above all then the strict rules, difficult to respect, lead to a sense of failure if you give in to temptation or, on the contrary, develop an obsession with avoiding foods that are not allowed at all costs.
Emotional eating
If you fail to manage and channel the inevitable psychological pressure from diet, these mechanisms lead to an increase in appetite which, however, if we are on a strict diet, we do everything to ignore or suppress. As a result, the risk increases of not being able to respond well to the stimulus of hunger and becoming unable to listen to the signals of the body: thus increases the probability of letting oneself go to the so-called emotional eating, with which an emotional need is satisfied more than a real need for food, and being more vulnerable to environmental stimuli that lead to eating more than the body asks for.
With rigid diets, then, the danger of
compulsive binge eating
: in those on a strict diet, for example, the reward areas of the brain light up much more than normal when faced with junk food. All these reasons, very cerebral, favor the yo-yo effect and the recovery of the lost kilos.
Crash diets? The brain knows they don’t last
Moreover, the tendency to
always postpone the start of the diet
, because the brain prefers a small and immediate reward to a much greater but distant advantage, which also requires effort: a tasty food now appears more desirable than a normal cholesterol value in six months. In addition, we always tend to put off anything that exposes us to the risk of failure or seems too difficult, such as a diet; not to mention that many do not have clear rules to follow or are not really motivated.
To combat the tendency to procrastinate, it is necessary to establish
realistic, measurable goals and reachablemaking a small step at a time and thus preventing the fear response from turning on in the brain, which is inevitable when he feels he cannot do it, which then blocks any initiative. Often it is enough to really start, because what seems impossible can turn out to be less stressful and more feasible if you just start: Act it makes you feel more optimistic and in control of yourself, increasing the chances of successfully following a diet.
July 4, 2023 (change July 4, 2023 | 08:37)
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