“Problem” foods

In a study at Penn State University, researchers asked 186 women—who they classified with “overweight” or “obesity”—to rank the “foods you can’t resist and find hard to stop eating.”

The foods that most frequently topped the participants’ lists:

1. Ice cream

2. Chips

3. Chocolate

4. Cookies

5. Pizza

The scientists then had participants follow a 12-month weight loss program and monitored their strategies for managing these “problem” foods.

The result: Overall, the total avoidance of problematic foods—what you often see on “extreme” diets or “quick-fix” weight loss plans—wasn’t an effective strategy.

So what did help? Limiting the portion sizes of problem foods—instead of giving them up altogether—was strongly related to weight loss.

In fact, participants who used this strategy the most lost, on average, nearly double the weight as those who used it the least (15.8 pounds versus 8.3 pounds).

To be sure, if some foods make you feel out of control, you may want to put some boundaries around them. That doesn’t mean you can never eat them.

It just means you’re aware they back be a problem, and you’re going to be intentional about how and when you eat them. (A coach can help you with this.)

PMID: 32234531

Roe LS, Rolls BJ. Which strategies to manage problem foods were related to weight loss in a randomized clinical trial? Appetite. 2020 Aug 1;151:104687.