Texas Lap Band Surgeons Talk With You

I recently ran across a fascinating psychological study.  People were asked to estimate the number of calories in a meal.  They were shown two pictures: one with a diet coke as the drink (label prominently displayed) the other with a glass of water as the beverage.  Should have the same calories, right?  But that’s not what the test subjects said.  An overwhelming majority rated the meal with the diet soda as having fewer calories than the other, identical, meal.  There is similar data drawn from peoples’ eating patterns when they choose “diet” food.  A vast majority of people will end up consuming more calories when they eat diet food because they eat more of it.  It seems the brain tricks us into thinking that just because it has fewer calories than the “regular” version, that it has few or no calories, and so we end up eating more overall.

Why is this interesting?  Because unless we really think about and analyze what we eat, it’s easy to mis-interpret, mis-remember and even mis-inform ourselves.  That’s one of the many reasons why I think journaling is so important.  If you faithfully record every bite you take during the day, the tricks your mind wants to play on you will fall flat.  You will be able to tally – accurately- what you have eaten and see how many calories you have left in your daily “budget”.  You won’t be able to say, “well I can go ahead with a big Mexican meal because I had low-fat cookies for a snack.”  You’ll be able to see that empty “lite” calories can add up almost as fast as their “full throttle” brethren.  And you can adjust  your behavior as needed.