Personality influences on dieting
There are numerous biological factors that influence weight loss. Whether they are due to the size of your body, metabolism, muscle to fat ratio, occupation or genetics, scientists are only now beginning to study the role of personality. With only 10% of dieters keeping their weight off for a year other factors like personality must have an influence!
Dr Cloninger, a psychiatrist believes that personality may be the strongest predictor of your ability to lose and keep weight off. He thinks that having traits that influence how you moderate behaviours that cause over eating-such as being motivated, problem solving or optimism. Whilst there are other factors such as societal and cultural, personality traits look to be more important than previously thought.
In 2007, Hitomi Saito of Doshisha University in Japan, did personality tests on dieters in a study at the start of their diet and at 6 months. Three traits had strong correlations with weight loss-neuroticism, ego and agreeableness. It seems that the more neurotic you are the more likely you are to be concerned about your health and what the impacts of overweight are for you. Scoring high on ego, indicates an eye for detail, so staying on exercise plans or being able to calorie count. If you are agreeable you may respond more easily to social eating and external ques like advertising. In a follow study in 2009, further psychological tests, this time of obese patients found that optimism is a negative trait. Obese people score high in this and one explanation is that they believe that ‘everything’ will turn out O.K.
Cloninger studied another group in St Louis in 2006 and found a need for novelty and adventure as possible traits that can influence weight loss. Novelty seeking individuals were more impulsive and being quick tempered, than lean ones. This trait correlates with a high BMI and would lead the high scoring novelty patient to give into their cravings and appetite. Adventurers as a high scoring trait also could be a negative as this person challenges the rules and regulation that a diet and exercise plan require.
All is not lost however. It has been shown that being high on a negative correlated trait doesn’t mean you can’t lose weight.
If you are someone who seeks adventure try new exercise approaches or different healthy recipes. Or if impulsive try and be more self-aware by ‘being in the moment’. By balancing out the dominate trait with a trait that can counter it may reduce its negative influence. This strategy may have an impact on your successful weight loss and give you the ability to maintain long term weight loss.
The author-Ian Turner, has worked in health for 25 yrs. He has worked in clinical and managerial positions in the NHS and gained a MSc in Strategic Health from Exeter University in England. He is widely published and a keen athlete, mountaineer and gym goer. Additionally he is a qualified NLP practitioner, CBT trained counsellor, Psych-dynamic trained therapist and Ericksonian hypnotherapist.
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