How to stick to a diet or workout plan, according to science

November 5, 2017 - Written by Menno Henselmans - Miscellaneous

This is a guest article by Bayesian PT Course student John Fawkes. It aligns well with the psychology and compliance topic from the
course. Its nearly 7000 words long and quite academic, but if youre interested in behavioral psychology, this will float your boat. If
youre just interested in the take-home messages, theres a summary at the end.
Menno

The fitness industry has a dirty secret: for all the time we spend talking about the best exercises,
the best diets to follow, and the best ways to plan your workout progressions and macrocycles,
were not really addressing most peoples fundamental problem. Because what we all know,
whether we say it or not, is that most people dont need a better program nearly as much as they
need to be better at sticking to the program they have.

As it happens, tens of thousands of research papers have been published about how to get
people to stick to their diet, consistently get more exercise, and develop greater self-
control. There are a myriad of proven approaches to improving program compliance: avoiding
temptation, smart use of incentives, learning to enjoy healthy food more, and even just straight-
up tricking your brain into thinking youre full.

First, a note: this article is written to be program-agnostic. I wont get into questions about which
diet is easiest to follow, or whether Crossfit is more or less motivating than traditional gym
programs. This article will focus solely on techniques, strategies and mental shifts that can be
used to improve your adherence to any diet, workout routine, or health program.

With that said, heres what science has to say about how to stick to your fitness program.

Ego depletion: Willpower as a (possibly) limited resource

Right now, the leading theory about willpower or self-control is something called ego
depletion. According to this theory- which is disputed, but Ill get to that in a bit- willpower is
somewhat akin to the stamina bar in a video game. You deplete it when you perform difficult
tasks, and can replenish it by resting or consuming food and beverages.

According to Roy Baumeister, the originator of this theory, A program of laboratory studies
suggests that self-control depends on a limited resource, akin to energy or strength. Acts of self-
control and, more generally, of choice and volition deplete this resource, thereby impairing the
selfs ability to function. These effects appear after seemingly minor exertions because the self
tries to conserve its remaining resources after any depletion. Rest and positive affect help
restore the selfs resources.1
This theory has been born out by numerous other studies. However, all of these studies use
more or less the same methodology: the experimental group performs a difficult task to deplete
their self-control, then performs another challenging task in which their self-control is
measured. The control group only performs the second task.

In one of Dr. Baumeisters early experiments, subjects who had to resist the temptation of eating
chocolate subsequently performed worse on a puzzle-solving task. It is notable that most
experiments induce ego depletion via a different type of task than the one being used to measure
self-control. This strongly supports the notion that self-control is a single capacity that is used for
all types of tasks- that is, you use the same resource to resist eating junk food that you use to
concentrate on working.

Other studies have suggested that the mechanism behind ego depletion may be glucose
depletion in the brain.2 Experimental evidence suggests that restoring glucose levels- either via
consuming glucose or simply resting for a while- also restores self-control.

This of course begs a question: what about ketogenic dieters? Does being in ketosis, and keto-
adapted, raise or lower your willpower? This question does not seem to have been studied yet.

It may be irrelevant though, because theres one big problem with these studies: its hard to see
how the brain could really be using all that much glucose. Your brain uses about 20-25 calories
an hour when youre at rest. Even if youre exerting yourself mentally, the ego depletion tasks
used in these studies should only burn about 5-20 calories at the absolute most. Granted,
maybe some specific brain cells are getting glucose depleted, even if the brain as a whole
isnt.maybe. Even then, a few minutes of rest should be enough for those cells to be
resupplied with glycogen from the liver; drinking extra sugar shouldnt be necessary given the
small number of calories involved.

Other studies may shed some light on the glucose question. Several studies have found that
either consuming artificial sweeteners, or rinsing the mouth with sugar and then spitting it out,
have the same effect.3 A separate meta-analysis using a statistical technique called p-curve
analysis found that the effect sizes reported for studies examining the link between glucose and
willpower is likely being influenced by publication and reporting bias, and that even when
statistically significant results are found, their evidentiary value is weak.4

At least one other study has found that inducing a positive mood via watching a comedy video or
receiving a gift can counteract the effects of ego depletion.5 This, combined with the study
showing that merely tasting sugar without swallowing it can replenish willpower, suggests that
the mechanism of action involved may be enjoyment rather than glucose replenishment.

Finally, one study has suggested that willpower is only a limited resource if you believe it is. This
study found that students who viewed willpower as a non-limited resource procrastinated less
and got better grades than students who viewed it as a limited resource.6

So you just need to change your beliefs about willpower, right? Well, not so fast. This study
examined students pre-existing beliefs without manipulating them in any way, so it didnt prove
causation. It could well be that the students who viewed willpower as unlimited took that view
precisely because they have better self-control, and not that they have better self-control
because of their beliefs about how willpower works.

These studies may also be affected by the college student problem. College students may have
more or less self-control, or different beliefs about self-control, compared to either older people
or people who never go to college.

Given the use of college students as subjects, studies on this subject could also be thrown off by
their timing. If the study takes place as finals are approaching, students may well be ego
depleted already, and participating in the study because they desperately need the extra
credit. On the other hand, if the study takes place right after spring break, the subjects might be
in an ego-replenished state after a fun week of doing keg stands and flashing complete
strangers.

But there are bigger issues at play here. Several meta-analyses have cast doubt on the validity
of ego depletion. According to a 2015 study, We find very little evidence that the depletion
effect is a real phenomenon, at least when assessed with the methods most frequently used in
the laboratory. 7

An article on slate.com sums up the problems with ego depletion research so far. Meta-
analyses that support the theory include only published studies, introducing a large degree of
publication bias. Meta-analyses that include unpublished studies find little or no effect. In one
replication study, only 2 out of 24 research teams running the exact same experiment found a
significant positive result.

Different studies on ego depletion also use conflicting and sometimes unfounded measures for
ego depletion; one study assumed that ego-depleted subjects would give more money to charity,
while another assumed they would spend less time helping a stranger.

In short, the sum total of evidence suggests that willpower either doesnt get depleted, or doesnt
deplete very much. That doesnt mean that willpower never gives out- clearly it does. It simply
means that doesnt necessarily have to get weaker with exertion. Your willpower can be as
strong in the afternoon as it is in the morning.
That brings up another set of questions: to what extent can willpower be improved with practice,
and how can you improve it? And do some people just have inherently better self-control than
others?

Self-control: Not starting is better than stopping

A common platitude states that willpower is like a muscle: it gets stronger when you use
it. Leaving aside the fact that this isnt quite how muscles work- they get stronger when
recovering from exercise- the evidence for the trainability of self-control is mixed.

In one study, subjects who underwent a self-control training session prior to performing an ego
depletion task showed no greater self-control than subjects who had not taken part in the training
session.8 This suggests that self-control cant be significantly improved in a single training
session, but what about improvement with long-term practice?

The evidence is mixed. One study found that two weeks doing any of three different self-control
exercises lead to improved self-regulatory ability.9 Another study found that six weeks of self-
control training did not improve participants self-control.10 A third study found that self-control
training did produce measurable improvements in exercise performance, even when the training
exercises utilized non-physical tasks.11

Why the discrepancy in the results? Other than sheer chance and the aforementioned
publication bias, one meta-analysis found that it depended on the type of self-control task the
subjects had to complete. Significant training improvements were found for go/no-go tasks, but
not for stop-signal tasks.12 Another study on children 7-12 years old found that stop-signal tasks
were more difficult than go/no-go tasks.13

In plain English: people got better at not giving into temptation in the first place, but they didnt
show much improvement at stopping a bad habit once they had started. Not only is it easier to
not start eating a donut than to stop eating one halfway through, but people also have more
capacity to improve their dont eat the donut skill.

There is a big question as to whether the self-control tasks used in these studies truly have any
carryover into real-world challenges. With that in mind, one last study bears
mention. Researchers McKee and Ntoumanis trained 55 obese subjects in six self-regulatory
skills: Delayed gratification, thought control, goal setting, self-monitoring, mindfulness, and
coping. They found that this training produced significant body fat loss, as well as improvements
in self-efficacy and body image, as measured during a follow-up four weeks after the end of the
intervention.14

This study is notable because it measured its effect via an outcome with real-world importance-
fat loss. It differed from other studies in that subjects were trained in six different skills rather
than just one. This method of working on several skills at once may produce superior results
because small improvements in several areas are better than a big improvement in one area- or
because the odds are that if you work on six different methods of self-control, at least one is
likely to work for you.

Resisting vs avoiding temptation

This leads us to another question: are people with high self-control really better at avoiding
temptation, or do they feel less temptation in the first place?

A series of three studies in Germany found that individuals who scored high in (personality) trait
self-control actually performed worse at tasks which tested their willpower via several different
methods. The researchers conclude that people with high trait self-control engage in less
frequent impulse inhibition in their daily routines. In other words, theyre not better at resisting
temptation, but they experience temptation less often.15 Unfortunately, the researchers did not
answer the question of whether such individuals simply dont feel tempted by the things that
tempt others, or whether they structure their daily routines so as to avoid temptation.
On the other hand, another study by American and Dutch researchers- this time specifically on
dieting- found that successful dieters are no less tempted by unhealthy foods than anyone else,
but are more likely to attempt to resist the urge to break their diets.16 Why the difference from
those other studies? It could be that junk food is so ubiquitous that it cant be completely
avoided, forcing dieters to get good at resisting temptation. It could also be that the German
studies defined trait-self control in a way that bears little relation to real-life discipline.

So how do you feel less tempted to break your diet, or skip workouts? A recent series of studies
by several teams of Canadian researchers suggest that it depends on where your motivation
comes from. They found that people who are motivated by the feeling that they have to reach a
goal engage in more effortful self-control, while people who want to reach their goal experience
fewer goal-disrupting temptations and thus dont need to exert as much self-control.17 It seems
the old cliche that you just have to want it badly enough has some truth to it after all.

As defined by the study, want-to and have-to motivation roughly correspond with intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation, which is another

Motivation: The utility of extrinsic incentives and cognitive dissonance

Youre probably somewhat familiar with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and odds are youve
heard the following: intrinsic motivation comes from within, while extrinsic motivation comes from
without. Intrinsic motivation is better because it is self-sustaining. Extrinsic motivation can
produce short-term results, but its bad because it undermines intrinsic motivation, so it backfires
in the long run.

Thats the pop-psych view of motivation. And it is accuratein some cases. But as is often the
case, the reality is a bit more complex. One literature review found that undermining effects
were well-supported in economic research, but not in health research.18 The authors attribute
this partly to the fact that most health studies use subjects who initially have low levels of
motivation for health-related behavior; they found that extrinsic incentives are more likely to
reduce intrinsic motivation when intrinsic motivation is high to begin with.

A 2016 experiment found that obese women on a behavioral weight loss program lost
significantly more weight when the program was paired with small financial
incentives. Moreover, members of the experimental group showed significantly higher
extrinsic and intrinsic motivation compared to women who were not given financial
incentives. However, weight regain during the post-study period was not significantly different
between the two groups.19

These two studies suggest that extrinsic incentives are likely to be more helpful for novice
trainees, particularly obese ones, but less effective- possible counterproductive- for intermediate
and advanced trainees. However, its important to remember that most studies use financial
incentives, and non-financial incentives may have different effects. Its possible that if the offered
incentive is something directly related to fitness- such as new gym gear or cooking tools- it might
very well support intrinsic motivation by inducing cognitive dissonance. Unfortunately this hasnt
been tested in a lab setting yet, but it is a ripe area for future study.

Another study did find that cognitive dissonance could be used to enhance intrinsic
motivation. Husted and Ogden found that reminding bariatric surgery patients how much they
had invested in weight loss by getting bariatric surgery caused them to report significantly less
enjoyment of high-calorie foods and less desire to eat said foods. More importantly, they lost
6.77 kg in the three months after this intervention, compared to just .91 kg for a control
group.20 Reminding people of the effort theyve already made to get into shape appears to be
very effective.

One meta-analysis of motivational studies (not all of them health-related) found that while
tangible incentives often reduce intrinsic motivation, verbal praise tends to increase it.21 This may
be a cognitive dissonance effect- praise feels good but has no tangible value. On the other
hand, it could very well be mediated by changes in the recipients self image. That is, being
praised for doing X causes the recipient to view themselves as someone who does X.
Self-efficacy is of secondary importance
One oft-suggested approach to fat loss is to improve patients self-efficacy- that is, their
confidence in their own ability to reach their goals. High self-efficacy is correlated with good
health, fitness, and success in pretty much all areas of life. Of course, correlation is one thing,
but does self-efficacy directly cause people to get into better shape?

A clinical trial by Burke et al found that including self-efficacy training in a behavioral weight loss
program increased the amount of weight lost during the treatment period. More importantly, the
group that received self-efficacy training did not experience significant weight regain after the
treatment period, while the group that didnt receive self-efficacy training did regain weight during
the 6-month follow-up period.22
A 2012 meta-analysis of behavioral change studies identified 19 behavioral change techniques
(BCTs) that were associated with positive changes in physical activity, 2 BCTs associated with
improvements in both physical activity and self-efficacy, and 2 BCTs associated with self-efficacy
but not physical activity. In all, out of the 61 comparisons they identified in which obese adults
experienced improved self-efficacy towards engaging in physical activity, only in 42 of those did
the subjects actually engage in more physical activity. 23 (Note: most of the studies reviewed
included used more than one BCT simultaneously)

All in all, the study found that most behavioral weight loss techniques increased physical activity
without having a discernible effect on self-efficacy, and the authors concluded that mechanisms
other than self-efficacy may be more important for promoting weight loss, at least in obese
adults.

Why such a weak relationship between believing in yourself and being successful? Two other
studies suggest two possible answers. A 2013 study published in the Journal of Health
Communications found that weight loss messaging that targeted subjects self-efficacy did
indeed increase subjects feelings of self-efficacy, but not their beliefs in the importance of body
weight management. Messaging that did not target self-efficacy did not increase subjects self-
efficacy, but did increase their beliefs in the importance of body weight management.24 Self-
efficacy could mean a few things; researchers usually assume it will mean believing I can lose
weight, but it could also mean I can live just fine without losing weight.

A separate study by Annesi and Gorjala assessed the impact of a program that emphasized
nutrition, exercise and self-regulatory skills, but not self-efficacy. They found that the program
significantly increased participants sense of self-efficacy, and that 26% of the change in BMI
experienced by participants was explained by changes in self-efficacy. They found the
relationship between self-regulation and self-efficacy to be partly mediated by mood- that is,
subjects believed in themselves more when they were in a good mood.25
From Annesi and Gorjala (25) Shows the relationships between the treatment program, self-
regulation, mood, self-efficacy, and BMI reduction.

As you may recall, the Mkee and Ntoumanis study (14) also found that a program that taught
self-regulatory behaviors also had a secondary effect of improving self-efficacy. It seems, then,
that self-efficacy is important, but secondary. The chain of effects here seems to be engage in
better health behaviors > get into better shape > feel happy > feel more confident in your abilities
> engage in even better health behaviors > get into even better shape. Being confident and
believing in yourself is great, but it comes from actually getting good at what youre doing.

One last thing to take note of is that virtual all studies on self-efficacy and fitness are performed
on obese individuals. So what about those of us who are in pretty good shape already? For the
most part, people who are in good shape already have high perceived self-efficacy regarding diet
and exercise. Its also worth considering that once youre serious about fitness, excessive
confidence could actually lead to overtraining or overly aggressive dieting. While this warrants
more research, theres currently no reason to believe that a self-efficacy approach is any more
effective for non-obese individuals than obese individuals.

Keep stress to a minimum

Its well-known that high levels of psychological stress lead to impaired decision-making. As
Menno has previously explained, stress can also cause excess abdominal fat storage via
elevated cortisol levels. So what does the literature say about stress management as an
approach to fat loss?

Two recent studies demonstrated the effectiveness of stress management training in obese
Greek26 and African American27women. The Greek study noted higher restrained eating
compared to a control group, while the American study found that stress management training
produced a decrease in salivary cortisol levels. The subjects in the American study were taught
behavioral weight management techniques simultaneous with the stress management
training. The Greek subjects were not, but since they were recruited from an outpatient weight
loss clinic, one can speculate that they most likely were receiving weight loss advice from their
doctors at the time of the study.

A systematic review of 14 studies in which mindfulness meditation was used as the primary
intervention for weight loss found that mindfulness meditation was effective at decreasing
emotional eating and binge eating in people who are prone to those issues. It found mixed
evidence for effects on weight.28

Bear in mind that mindfulness was the primary intervention in the studies examined by this
review, whereas in the other two studies it was applied secondarily to weight loss behavioral
change training. The lesson here seems to be that stress reduction/management can be very
helpful, provided that a) you know that stress is a major issue contributing to poor diet or lack of
exercise, b) you work on behavioral change at the same time, and c) youre following a good
fitness program in the first place.

A different meta-analysis on the effects of stress on physical exercise found that stress generally
impairs efforts to be physically active. Most people get less exercise when theyre
stressed. However, they noted that ten out of fifty-five reviewed studies found evidence that their
subjects exercised more when stressed out. The authors of the meta-analysis note that this
seems to confirm that some individuals use exercise to cope with stress.29 That offers one further
avenue for dealing with stress: employing a bit of psychological jujitsu, you can use stress as a
positive motivator by finding healthy foods or forms of exercise that you find to be enjoyable or
relaxing. Rather than exercising in spite of stress, you can exercise because of it.

People are the product of their environments

Sociologists, social psychologists and urban planners have long known that our behaviors and
attitudes are heavily influenced by the people in our lives and the places we live and
work. Numerous studies bear out the effect of our environment on health behaviors.

One American research team found that among adolescents in New Haven, Connecticut, (if
youre not familiar with New Haven, lets just say its a town you drive through with your windows
up and your doors locked) neighborhood characteristics had a major impact on health
behaviors. Students who lived within a 5-minute walk of a grocery store ate healthier food and
had lower BMIs on average, while students who lived within a 5-minute walk of one or more fast
food outlets had higher BMIs and ate more junk food. Strong social ties were associated with
lower BMI, while higher property crime rates in the neighborhood were associated with higher
BMI. Having easy access to parks, playgrounds and gyms was associated not only with getting
more exercise, but also with healthier eating behaviors.30 One drawback to the study: it did not
control for socioeconomic status.

An experiment on Dutch high school students found that students who were told to eat more fruit
actually ate significantly less fruit than the control group. However, students who were told that
other students eat a lot of fruit ate significantly more fruit than both the control group and the
group who were told to eat fruit. Interestingly, the group who were told that other students eat
fruit did not express greater intentions of eating fruit; they conformed to perceived social norms
without having any conscious intention of doing so.31
Thats cool, but what about adults? A study of thousands of participants in online weight
management communities found that, of users who had at least one friend in the network, 96%
remained active in the program for long periods of time- over half a year on average. They found
a direct correlation between the number of friends a person had in the weight loss community
and how much weight they lost. In fact, social connectivity within the weight loss community was
the biggest predictor of weight loss- more so than either initial BM or adherence to self-
monitoring habits.32

Okay, but how about non-obese adults? Another study of users (of all body types) of a mobile
exercise gamification app found, once again, that the more friends they had using the app, the
more they exercised.33 Users reported being motivated by social recognition, or as the authors
put it, Working out for likes.
Two more studies demonstrate the effectiveness of modifying ones environment. A survey of
1660 English primary care patients asked people what barriers made change difficult for them.
Barriers were classified as either internal- such as being busy or lazy- or external, such as not
having access to a gym. Participants who identified external barriers were more likely than those
who focused on internal barriers to start exercising more.34 Another study comparing the results
of two weight loss programs found that a program emphasizing environmental modification and
habit change produced similar initial results compared to one focusing on self-image and ones
relationship with food. However, the program that focused on habits and environmental factors
proved far more effective at prevent rebound weight gain.35

The sum total of the data indicates that you will be healthier if you live in a physical environment
where healthy behavior is convenient and unhealthy behavior is not, and a social environment in
which healthy behavior is both encouraged and socially rewarded. It also refutes the common
belief that citing external reasons for failure is just making excuses. In fact, blaming external
factors for your failures is great, as long as you then fix those factors.

The Instagram effect, or why food porn is good for you

If youre a college student, you might find this hard to believe, but back in my day people didnt
take pictures of everything they ate and post them on the internet. In fact, Im pretty sure that
back then food porn referred to actual porn involving food.

But now its not a meal unless you have your camera out, and 32-year-old geezers like me are
asking: is all this instant-gramming and chat-snapping healthy? As it turns out, that depends.

Yep, pretty much like that.

A series of studies which tested the impact of photographing food before eating it found that for
pleasurable or indulgent foods, snapping a photo before did increase subjects enjoyment of the
food and their evaluations of its taste. For healthy foods that are less inherently pleasurable, this
effect was observed only when social norms around healthy eating were made salient, i.e. when
subjects were reminded that other people eat a healthy diet.36

Viewing food porn is also pleasurable- as if you didnt know that. A pair of studies published in
2013 found that viewing photographs of food has an effect similar to actually eating
food. Crucially, the pleasure from viewing food photos did not induce subjects to want to eat the
food in the photos. Quite the opposite- viewing the photos induced satiety, decreasing the desire
for and enjoyment of foods of the type shown in the photos.37
It turns out millenials may be onto something. The Instagram effect is both very real and very
useful. Taking photos of your food is an easy way to increase enjoyment, so start taking photos
of your healthy meals, but not your cheat meals. As for viewing food porn, the evidence is rather
counterintuitive: its pleasurable, but since it reduces desire for the food youre looking at, you
should only browse Instagram photos of unhealthy foods. Well, for entertainment at least- dont
let this stop you from looking up healthy recipes online.

There is one piece of bad new: a separate 2017 study from the John Fawkes Journal of
Broscience and Social Criticism found that Instagramming everything you eat is still totally
obnoxious. (citation needed)

Practice remembered enjoyment

If you remember that you enjoyed something the last time you did it, youre more likely to do it
again. Im not going to cite a study for that; youll just have to trust me. As it turns out, you can
make enjoyable experiences more memorable simply by dwelling on them for a few moments
right after they happen.

A study by Robinson et al demonstrated that remembered enjoyment of food could be increased

by instructing subjects to rehearse what they enjoyed about the food immediately after eating
it. A follow-up study then showed that this increase in remembered enjoyment significantly
increased the amount of that same food that subjects consumed when it was offered as part of a
buffet lunch the next day.38

This has clear implications for dietary compliance; by taking a moment after eating a healthy
meal to think about what you liked about it, youre more likely to eat healthy food in the
future. This would presumably combine well with the Instagram effect- photographing your food
before eating it makes it more enjoyable, then thinking about the meal for a few moments
afterward makes the enjoyment more memorable, and that remembered enjoyment can be
heightened further by reviewing the photo.

One can imagine other applications of this technique. Perhaps you could practice remembered
enjoyment after physical activity to make yourself more likely to exercise in the future. Perhaps
after a cheat meal, you could pause to reflect on what you didntlike about it. For the time being
however, both of those ideas remain unstudied and purely theoretical.

Use smaller plates to eat less? Maybe

One common piece of diet wisdom holds that people should eat off of smaller plates, because
size-contrast illusions cause use to underestimate how much we eat when the plate is big, and
overestimate- or at least accurately estimate- caloric intake when eating off a small
plate. However, the evidence for this is mixed.

DiSantis et al found that this was indeed the case when elementary school-aged children were
allowed to serve themselves using either child or adult-sized plates. They both ate and wasted
significantly more food when using the adult-sized plates.39 On the other hand, in a study in
which college students were asked to estimate the volume of a portion of spaghetti, the size of
the plate that the food was presented on made no difference.40
What made the difference? The obvious answer is that the first study used children and the
second used adults. Yet adults are perfectly capable of mindless eating. An equally plausible
explanation is that the children in the first study were not instructed to pay attention to what they
ate, while the adults in the second study were specifically tasked with estimating how much food
they were looking at. Its possible that larger plates only make people eat more when theyre not
paying attention.

A literature review by Libotte et al found that the effect of plate size on energy intake was highly
inconsistent and depended on the environment, type of food, type of serving container, and
whether the meal was self-served or served by someone else. A follow-on experiment by the
same team found that when serving themselves at a buffet, plate size did not have a significant
impact on calorie consumption. However, people with larger plates ate more vegetables,
particularly vegetables served as side dishes.41 A very interesting result indeed, but its
contingent on the meal including vegetable side dishes- remember that the college student study
used spaghetti.
The sum total of experimental evidence suggests that using smaller plates causes people to eat
less only when they are serving themselves and not paying attention to how much they eat. It
does not seem to make a difference when youre not serving out your own food, so dont be a
dick and demand that your waiter serve your food on a small dish.

However, the ways in which plate size interact with other factors severely limit the usefulness of
this approach. If youre mindful of what and how much youre eating- which you should be most
or all of the time- plate size seems to make no difference. And if youre eating healthy food with
lots of vegetables, which again you should be 90% of the time, using smaller plates actually
seems to be counterproductive, as its the veggies that lose out. This is particularly true when
the vegetables are a side dish, meaning theyre separable from the calorically dense
components of the meal.

In short, using small plates may be helpful for total beginners to dieting who havent yet built the
habits of eating vegetables with every meal and being mindful of what they eat. For people who
are at least somewhat successful at eating healthy food, its probably good advice for cheat
meals, but counterproductive the rest of the time.

Key takeaways and action steps

Alright that was a lot to cover. You can take a deep breath and relax- Im done quoting science
at you. Based on the sum total of the research to date, here are some things you can do to
improve compliance with your diet and your fitness program:

Practice mindfulness, particularly when eating. Take the time to savor every bite. If youre not
counting calories, at least take a close look at your food before eating and try to get an accurate
estimate of how much food it is.
Take photos of your food before eating, particularly healthy food.
When you get a craving for junk food, you may be able to satisfy that craving by merely looking
at pictures of the food you crave. This may not work for everyone- take a week or two to
experiment with it.
Look for ways to modify your environment to make healthy behaviors more convenient, and
unhealthy behaviors less convenient. Live somewhere walkable, with a gym and grocery store
nearby. Dont keep cheat foods at home. Keep your kitchen clean.
After eating a meal that fits your diet, take a few moments to think over how much you enjoyed it
and what you liked about it. Do the same after working out- think about how good you feel for
having done your workout.
When you feel stressed out, relieve stress by doing a few minutes of bodyweight exercise and
eating a healthy, low-calorie snack- not by breaking your diet.
Join and/or spend more time in a social environment where healthy behaviors and encouraged
and praised. Use a mobile fitness app that has social features. Get as many of your friends as
possible to join it with you.
If you have a cheat meal, eat off a small plate if possible. When eating healthy food with
vegetables, favor larger plates. However, once youve gotten good at eating mindfully, this plate
stuff probably doesnt matter.
Dont struggle against temptation if you can ignore it, and dont ignore it if you can avoid it
altogether.
Do everything you can to eliminate sources of stress in your life. If you feel that stress is a major
problem for you, take a stress management class.
Use psychological momentum to your advantage. Its easier to not start eating junk food than to
stop once youve started. If its hard to motivate yourself to work out, just make yourself go to the
gym and step into the weight room- once youre in motion, its easier to keep going and do your
workout.
If you are a total novice and very unmotivated overall, use small tangible incentives to motivate
yourself, such as giving a friend $5 every time you cheat on your diet, or buying yourself new
gym pants if you do all your workouts for a month. If youre intermediate to advanced, focus more
on getting intangible incentives like praise from your social group.
Dont try to feel more confident or boost your self-esteem. Just follow the program, get strong,
lose fat and gain muscle, and confidence will follow.
Start viewing your willpower as an unlimited resource that doesnt deplete with use. Its a brick
wall, not a gas tank.

Thats a lot of things for you to do, and nobody should ever try to do all of that at once. Instead,
pick 2-3 things from that list that seem most relevant to you and spend 2-3 weeks working on
them until they become habitual. Once youve done that, pick a couple more items from the list.

And thats how mere mortals like you and I can use the power of science to make program
adherence a piece of (low-carb) cake.