By: Nikki Nies
While the words portion control, calorie counting and “mindfulness” are regularly thrown around as necessarily components of weight loss. Unfortunately, there’s often times a discrepancy in the information provided to the public and what information the public retains and understands when temptation confronts them. In addition, when environmental bias cues bias one’s feeling of satiation, the task can become even more challenging.
Rule of thumb strategies, technically known as “heuristics,” create for ourselves — such as not spending more than $15 on an item of baby clothing, or more than $50 on a pair of shoes — can help simplify the daily choices we make. Behavioral economists believe that adopting good heuristics can help one develop sound habits. In terms of nutrition, these habits can be healthier.
For instance, most people know that eating an apple is better than eating a slice of cake and that eating a slice of cake is better than eating two slices of cake. With many restaurants, movie theatres and grocery stores now providing nutrition fact labels to consumers, it does not appear that consumers need more nutrition information, but perhaps, better heuristics to help develop bias towards eating less unhealthy foods.
Such rules could offset irrational tendencies, as found by studies led by Brian Wansink. In a pilot study consisting of 1000 participants from a weight loss website were randomly assigned three small behavior changes over a three month period. The results found the weight loss ranged from a 1.93-pound monthly weight loss (e.g., use ten-inch plates for dinner) to a 0.83-pound monthly weight gain (eat oatmeal for breakfast), the average heuristic resulted in an average weight loss—1.16 pounds per month per person. The most effective heuristic was found to entail little decision making, such as the use of smaller plates and/or eating in the kitchen versus in front of the TV.
Less restrictive interventions are also found to be more effective to implement long term, such as the consumption of hot breakfasts instead of more restrictive heuristics, such as specifying one eats oatmeal for breakfast. Additionally, by weighing the effectiveness of an intervention by compliance and estimated weight loss may increase compliance and make overall healthier food choices.
The use of heuristics can be a great way to integrate small, modifiable changes to one’s lifestyle, while increasing likelihood of long term implementation that gives clients the autonomy to adapt changes to preferences and lifestyle. What heuristic strategies have you found to be most successful? What do you hope to incorporate into your life?
Photo Credit: Diabeter
Sources: http://www.learnvest.com/2014/05/money-habits/#ixzz3NL95JtVm
http://www.learnvest.com/2013/07/4-ways-to-trick-your-brain-into-banishing-bad-money-habits/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23994507
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2012.01098.x/abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22577307
Click to access Healthy_Hueristics-AER_2009.pdf
http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/content/mindless-eating-and-healthy-heuristics-irrational
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