Motivation is one of the keys to a successful diet

(www.neomundo.com.ar) when the aim is to lose weight, one of the keys may be in the mind. The motivation to follow a diet could make an important contribution to lose those extra pounds.

To those conclusions came an investigation conducted by the University of Kentucky and the University of North Carolina (United States). Specialists ensure that nutritionists should implement programmes of motivation after the eighth week of diet, when the will start to test.

Obesity and overweight are serious problems at the global level. In Argentina, the last national nutrition and health survey found that 50% of people are overweight and 30% obesity. The picture is also very serious in Mexico, which ranks second in the ranking of the countries most affected by obesity.

Motivation for success

to find out how to achieve greater success in diets to lose weight, the researchers studied two types of motivation: the autonomous, that is that each person brings, and the controlled, that responds to external stimuli. Each volunteer answered a questionnaire designed to analyze what kind of motivation so guided in the 16 weeks of diet.

At the beginning of the regime all the volunteers felt an increase in their autonomous- and controlled motivation, but at the fourth week of diet the issue changed. Participants who managed to lose 5% of their weight continued feeling motivated, but which did not reach this achievement quickly lost their motivation.

In addition, the scientists stressed that volunteers who maintained a strong autonomous motivation in the fourth week could be more likely to continue with the diet, even compared with participants with a high level of controlled motivation. For that reason, they concluded that autonomous motivation might help lose weight.

“The period of time between the fourth and eighth week could be an important window for weight control programs promote autonomous motivation.” “Our findings suggest that build this motivation could be an effective mechanism to encourage adherence to a diet and achieve weight loss,” said the authors.

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