theNoosphere.com

Cognitive scientists from Indiana University and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin compared the dieting behavior of women following two radically different diet plans and found that the more complicated people thought their diet plan was, the sooner they were likely to drop it.

(They used women, but I would doubt that gender makes much of a difference here)

Sticking to diets is about more than willpower -- complexity matters

I have made significant improvements in my level of fitness by making minor, easy to embrace changes. I've never 'dieted' and never will, as I think it's an unnatural way to live and is doomed to failure as it ignores human nature. The kinds of changes I've made? At lunch, I only eat vegetables and/or chicken. That change alone has allowed me to shed a lot of lbs (25-30 since a year ago). For my evening meal, I generally eat fish and fresh vegetables. Sometimes that simply equates to salmon or tuna (pre-prepared in foil bags) and fresh broccoli. I've also went from routinely doing the fast food thing (mostly out of convenience) to almost never indulging.

I am doing the P90X program and am pretty impressed with the results - although their diet plan is very complicated and for that reason I've ignored that aspect of the program.

Simple changes = big results over time. And I can live with a few little sacrifices. The only I haven't even considered altering is my beer ration. I just am not willing to give up something I love that much

Boone, your experience with the P90X diet complexity seems to be an example of what the article is referring to-complexity works against the likelihood of sticking with the diet. Your other changes are more major than you might be giving them credit for-I myself changed my dietary habits fairly dramatically in the past few years because of the fact that as I age I am more susceptible to cardiovascular diseases and thus have changed what I eat based on nutrition. Your change to high vegetable content and using fish and chicken rather then red meat as main protein sources is quite different than what I believe the average American diet is like. Your exercise regimen is, no doubt, a major plus as well. The best successes I've had in trying to cut back or attempt to lose weight have come from simply decreasing portions rather than major changes in what I ate. It's simple-therefore easy to stay with.

I've done pretty well with simple and easily adaptable dietary changes, losing around twenty pounds in the last two months or so. I've tried extreme changes, hoping to lose more weight faster, invariably failing to lose much weight at all and then snapping back to the other extreme.

My body has now adjusted to the point where I don't crave the foods that used to get me in trouble, the fried foods, the fast foods, the chips, fatty meats, etc. This has been a significant step in my quest to become healthier. (And like Boone, the beer consumption has stayed pretty steady--it's a passion.)