News Flash: Food Guilt Can Make You Weigh MORE

You just ate some cake. How does that make you feel: awful, or joyful? Experiencing food-related guilt may sabotage your weight-loss efforts, according to the results of a new study published online in the journal Appetite.

The details: Researchers wanted to figure out if guilt motivates a person to stick with their weight-loss efforts—or if guilty feelings undermine their resolve and compel them to give in to the bag of chips calling their name. So they devised a study that involved asking about 300 study participants if eating chocolate cake would make them feel celebratory or guilt-ridden (thus, the question above). Those who said that consuming cake would provoke guilt were less successful in losing pounds, while participants who viewed eating the cake as enjoyable were more successful.

Bottom line: Feeling bad about yourself because you ate something indulgent doesn’t motivate you to double-down and try harder to shed flab. Instead, it weakens your willpower so you more easily give in to temptation. It's much more productive to view treats as celebratory and, by that token, not completely off-limits—even if you're trying to lose weight. Now that's something to celebrate.

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