Illustration: Clayton Junior
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To develop a successful get-fit plan, you must override your
brain's impulses.
Think about how you've set weight loss goals in the past. Did you
vow to hit the gym more, run a marathon, or start a weekly walking
group with your friends, only to flake on your plans after a few
weeks? "Many fitness and weight loss resolutions are intentions
like balloons released into the air—they fade out of sight very
quickly," says Walter Mischel, PhD, a professor of psychology at
Columbia University and author of
The Marshmallow Test: Mastering
Self-Control. To see your way to success, Mischel says you first
have to understand how the brain works.
The brain's "hot" part is the limbic system, which is
reflexive, primitive, and immediate (useful in caveman days or to
dodge a bullet), but it's also the "Gimme! Gimme!"
part—the one that has you hitting the snooze button when
you're supposed to get ready for the gym or agreeing to happy
hour when you're scheduled for Zumba. To keep us from acting on
all our desires, the brain is balanced with a rational and reflective
"cool" system, located primarily in the prefrontal cortex,
which developed later in the evolutionary process. When temptation
strikes, the hot system activates and can lead to poor impulse
control, says Mischel. But you can tap into your cool side to
outsmart your knee-jerk response by coming up with if-then scenarios.
If you've heard and tried this approach before with little
success, it's probably because your statements weren't
specific enough. If you regularly skip the gym, tell yourself, "If I
get off work at 6 p.m., I will put on my workout clothes and run one
mile." Or, "If I'm going up only four flights, I'll take the
stairs." Unlike a vague plan, which can easily be overruled by your
hot system, a specific strategy can quickly bring your cool rational
system into play—making you more likely to do the right thing.
Several studies have shown that among groups with the same goals,
participants who form if-then plans end up being more successful.
— Sarah Z. Wexler
In Data We Trust
We pulled stats from a sample of the 75 million users of
MyFitnessPal,
one of the most popular weight-loss tools worldwide, to find out
which strategies are most successful.
30+ People who have lost 30-plus pounds are twice as likely to
plan their meals and snacks ahead of time than those who have lost 5
pounds or less.
3x That's how much more weight people lose when they share
their food diary with friends (compared with those who keep their
eating habits private).
6+ 33 percent of people who have lost more than 40 pounds
exercise at least six times per week.
