The Heavy Toll of Dieting

Dieting weighs down your mind

This Sunday, The New York Times came out with the heavy mental toll dieting takes on the mind. It makes so much sense- dieting not only takes over the body but the mind as well and it’s heavy stuff. Sendhil Mullainathan the author of this article explains our brains have only so much bandwidth to reason, practice control,  solve problems and absorb and maintain new information. Our bandwidth is taken up by restraint and thoughts of – cookie- no cookie- could have would have should have…hunger…denial…guilt…self sabotage. That’s a heavy load to carry.

Ironically , diets with step by step guidelines are easier for the brain to follow. Unfortunately these diets don’t work in the long term either.