If your resolution for the New Year is to lose weight, you might want to think twice before you announce your plans to your family and friends. Doctors are taking a closer look at effective diet plans, and some are recommending that their patients keep their weight loss intentions to themselves.<\/p>\n
Dr. John Walz, who specializes in weight loss, tells CNN that a big part of why he tells his patients to not let others in on their plans is because, by human nature, we tend to spend our time with like-minded people. Obese people generally associate with other obese people, so when one person decides to lose weight they are met with discouragement and judgment from their peers.<\/p>\n
“Deliberately or not, the family, the friends, the other people who are part of that individual’s culture will resist the change,” Dr. Walz says. “(They) will try to change them back to what the culture tolerates.”<\/p>\n
Another argument for weight loss secrecy is more personal. Dr. Peter Gollwitzer, a professor of psychology at New York University, studies the correlation between telling people what your goals are and actually achieving them. In his research paper “When Intentions Go Public,” Gollwitzer says that the praise we receive for setting goals satisfies us to the point where we don’t feel the need to actually achieve them.<\/p>\n
The solution, Dr. Gollwitzer says, is simple: “You can keep your mouth shut,” or “Form different kinds of intention – not only say what you want to do but also when, where and how you want to do it.”<\/p>\n
The idea of losing weight on your own goes against what many popular weight loss companies, such as Weight Watchers, preach. They claim that the support of losing weight with a group is what makes their program so successful.<\/p>\n
Setting goals for change, whether it’s for weight loss or something else entirely, is a very personal experience. In reality, what works for one person might not work for someone else. For some people, a group mentality might be exactly what they need to lose a few extra pounds, while others might be more successful if they do it on their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If your resolution for the New Year is to lose weight, you might want to think twice before you announce your plans to your family and friends. Doctors are taking a closer look at effective diet plans, and some are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n