Trained to lose weight

REPORTER: Rodney Lohse

BROADCAST DATE: November 25, 2005

The latest research suggests controlling the urges that determine how much we eat, as well as what we eat, could help people lose weight.

It is well-known that as a nation, we are getting fatter. But at the same time, Australians have more information about healthy nutrition information and diets than ever.

It seems most of us just can't say no to food, even when we are not hungry.

Leah Brennan is working on a PhD in psychology at RMIT University in Melbourne. She decided to see if it was possible to stop people eating for reasons other than being hungry.

"We might eat out of boredom, maybe when we're tired or angry," Leah said.

An old scientist by the name of Pavlov first came up with the theory Leah used. When he gave a dog food, he rang a bell and of course the dog salivated at the food.

Eventually, Pavlov stopped giving the dog food and just rang the bell. Even without the food, the dog salivated because it had been conditioned.

Just like the dog, most of us can be conditioned to react in the same way. There are things in our environment that act as triggers for us to eat.

"Comfort eating" is an example: the reason we reach for sweets when we are sad. Leah decided to see if it was possible to reverse such eating triggers in a world-first study on a group of teenagers.

"The first step was to get them to become aware," Leah explained "So it might have been recognising they do eat when they're bored and finding something else for them to do instead."

Joe, 15, used to be shy, timid and a bit overweight. He was easily made nervous, and being nervous was a trigger that would make him eat.

"Unhealthy stuff really," Joe explained. "Chips, soft drinks, chocolates, whatever was in front of me."

Rebecca, too, would eat at the wrong times. Boredom and tiredness were her triggers.

"I found out I wasn't eating enough," Rebecca said. "I was eating, but it wasn't all good food and I wasn't eating breakfast."

Along with a host of other teenagers Joe and Rebecca received information about healthy eating and exercise. They were then counselled to help them understand their triggers to eating. There was no dieting, and no forced exercise.

Leah found that most of the teenagers showed some improvement.

"Some made fantastic improvements," she said.

Interestingly, the control group who received no information or help actually became worse. Joe said he still became depressed or bored, but he knew to stay away from the kitchen.

As a result, Joe lost about 10kg. Rebecca, too, lost about 7kg. Leah said she planned to run a further trial next year, then hopefully start training psychologists to use this type of therapy to help more people.

"At this stage we'll have a site in Melbourne then one in Adelaide, and looking at others around the nation," Leah said.

Posted from http://seven.com.au/todaytonight/story/?id=25734