Don't Think Before You Eat: Rationalizing May Ruin Your Diet

It turns out that thinking thin may actually ruin your diet. Researchers have discovered that thinking before you eat can actually undermine dieting goals. Why? It turns out that we tend to come up with reasons why we deserve that extra piece of pumpkin pie rather than sticking to our original diet.

"People seem to be very creative in coming up with such reasons," said Jessie De Witt Huberts, one of the researchers, in a news release. "They can justify having the cake on account that it has been a hard day, or that they will exercise tomorrow, that it is a special occasion, or that it is impolite to refuse. This is when justification processes become a slippery slope--as the reasons are often applied ad hoc, they no longer form strict rules that regulate when you stick to your diet and when you can cut yourself some slack."

In fact, this type of justification can even come from outside sources. It turns out that rationalization occurs when we perform well on a task or do good for others. In several studies, people who received positive feedback on a task were more likely to choose an unhealthy versus a healthy option. This, in turn, shows how easily we fall prey to justification.

"What was particularly interesting is how easily convinced participants were by the justifications," said De Witt Huberts in a news release. "Sometimes they merely had to express the intention to help someone, think about doing something altruistic, rather than actually doing it, to justify subsequent hedonic consumption."

As Thanksgiving and the holidays approach, it's important to be aware of these types of justifications. After all, you can easily pack on the pounds if you make indulgences a habit. Although it's fine to indulge at times, these special occasions must truly be exceptions.

The findings are published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review.