Common advice for overweight and obese people is to change their lifestyles to lose weight. Diet failures are often attributed to laziness or lack of willpower. Several studies, however, suggest that it is personality traits that make it harder for some people to make permanent lifestyle changes to lose weight and keep it off.
Negative Feelings Helpful for Weight Loss
One study from Kansai Medical University Obesity Hospital did a psychological profile on 101 obese patients for a six month period. They found that personality has an effect on people's weight. They also found that having some negative feelings was helpful in the weight loss process. Patients who felt unhappy with themselves and their weight were more motivated to make the changes necessary to lose weight. Being overly optimistic, on the other hand, seemed to make it more difficult for patients to strive to reach their weight loss goals.
Novelty Seekers have Difficulty Losing Weight
Another study done by Dr. C. Robert Cloninger and the National Institutes of Health showed a psychological link between personality and weight loss. Cloninger found that overweight people tend to be novelty seekers. Dieters who have low persistence levels and a hard time directing themselves find it difficult to set and achieve weight loss goals.
Novelty seekers have a high risk for dependency, either on cigarettes, alcohol or food. People with this personality trait have trouble with their brain regulating dopamine. This chemical that triggers pleasure in the brain is needed for people to feel happy. When dopamine isn't properly regulated, people find ways to self medicate. They seek novel or rewarding experiences to increase the dopamine.
Help for Novelty Seekers Who Overeat
If personality is linked to obesity, then overweight people who are novelty seekers have a place to start on their path to weight loss. Novelty seekers need to adjust their diet to meet their personality in order to stay on track and reach their weight loss goals.
Novelty seekers can achieve weight loss by building newness into their lifestyle. This personality type isn't able to follow a strict diet plan that consists of the same foods day after day. The key to success is to constantly eat new and unusual foods. Keep trying new things and experimenting with new recipes. Add different spices to dishes to keep them interesting. Find new activities to spice up workouts and create an exciting reward plan for reaching short and long term weight loss goals.
The finding that personality is linked to obesity gives overweight individuals a new way of thinking when it comes to losing weight. Even novelty seekers and optimistic people can lose weight with the right lifestyle changes that address these particular issues.
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