Imagery helps reduce appetite

New research suggests that imagery can decrease ones appetite. This study was published in the Dec. 10 issue of Science. OK, so perhaps you thought that imaging food can only increase your appetite but it seems that is not always the case.

To imagine certain foods; a Twix, an ice cream sundae etc... will indeed increase your desire to eat it but imagining the actual act of eating the food decreases your appetite. The way lead researcher Carey Morewedge came to this conclusion was through a series of studies.

There were three groups. Each group was asked to create a mental image. The first group was asked to mentally imagine themselves loading 30 coins into a washer, the second group was asked to imagine loading 30 coins into a washer and eating 3 m&m's. The third group was asked to imagine loading 30 coins and eating 30 m&m's. After the study they allowed the participants to eat as many m&m's as they pleased. The results showed that those that imagined eating a large amount of m&m's ate less!

To make sure that it was no coincidence they switched up the amount of m&m's that the groups imagined eating and still the results remained the same.

This research does not mean that you can think yourself skinny but it does offer another weight loss tool to help in conjunction with healthy living habits. For example, if you know you are going to a party where there is going to be a certain food that you just can't get enough of give this mental imagery a go.