Weight Loss & Diet Plans

New Weight Loss Strategy: Postponing a Snack

The Chips Test continued...

The three strategies:

• Eat the chips now if you wish.
• Do not eat the chips.
• Don't eat them now, but you can eat them later.

The postponing group ate the least amount of chips, whether they were assigned to that group or chose it, Mead found.

They ate the least amount of chips over the week that followed, too, she says. Those in the postpone group had chips about 2.4 times in the next week. Those in the group told to eat freely had them nearly four times. Those in the group told not to eat chips had them 4.5 times.

"This one-minute manipulation lasted seven days," Mead says.

Postponing: Why It May Work

The postponing gives the mind a cooling-off period, Mead says. It may also take you out of conflict mode, torn between feeling guilty and feeling deprived.

However, she believes the postponement must be nonspecific. Not "I'll have that candy at 3 p.m.," but "I'll have the candy later if I want it."

Postponing Strategy: Second Opinion

The key may be postponing without telling yourself when, says Brian Wansink, PhD, John S. Dyson professor of marketing at Cornell University. He is a long-time researcher on eating behavior.

He wasn't involved in the Mead study, but he tested the postpone strategy some years ago.

He told people to postpone to a specific time, and he gave up on that research, he tells WebMD. "It worked OK for people who weren't that eager to have a food," he says. But it didn't seem to combat strong cravings.

Some participants, he remembers, were then watching the clock and thinking of nothing else but the food they craved.

Mead's strategy of postponing to some undefined time in the future, he says, might work well for those who want to watch their weight and avoid certain foods. During postponement, he says, they may actually substitute a healthier food.

Wansink reports receiving research funding from Bel Group (Babybel cheeses), Corn Refiners Association, and Birds Eye Foods.

This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.