Can I use placebo to lose weight?
Are you sick and tired of trying out new fad diets that never even deliver the results you desire? All you end up with is chocolate cravings and hunger pangs. It is time to stop following all these crazy routines for weight loss and to start acknowledging the solutions within you- in your brain.
Let's read further as experts answer the commonly asked question, “Can I use Placebo to lose weight?”
Placebo Facts
Placebo is an inert substance used to empower your mind to show what it is destined to do. Mind taking over your body and healing it and becoming the way you want it to be is what makes up a placebo effect. It is based on having a belief so powerful and big, that it results in changing not just our neurology but also cell biology. After all, every single cell or part of our body is controlled by instructions from our brain. The brain has the ultimate power to rule our bodies.
How it affects weight loss
A new study has found out that just thinking that you are following a low-calorie diet can help in losing weight. Sounds unreal? But that's what science has discovered! In a research experiment published by Frontiers in Psychiatry, it was determined that the placebo effect generated by an imaginary low-calorie diet was enough for the participants to lose weight.
The study devised results from experimenting on 14 overweight adults of both genders and randomly divided them into two groups. Both the groups were given the same energy balanced diet and were required to complete a low-intensity workout for 8 weeks. The experimental group or the placebo group were told they were being given a low-calorie diet while the control group knew they were following a balanced diet. When the experiment finished, it was asserted that the participants who were given the placebo demonstrated significant reductions in their body mass, BMI, and fat mass percentage. These weight measures however remained the same in control group participants who knew they were given a normal diet.
In another experiment, a group of hotel housekeepers were each told that their professional work is good exercise and can actually help them lose weight. The experiment was again conducted with a control group who was not told this. It was observed that the experimental group lost weight as compared to the control group even though both showed the same behaviors or actions demanded by their nature of work.
We have known about this brain trickery before but never used it for our benefits. A study shows that eating with large utensils makes you full faster. It is also believed that eating slowly can do that too. Both these acts are anything but a placebo but these techniques prove that the human brain can be tricked into not just changing one behavior but many, to help you move towards your goals. This is mind over matter!
Thinking it will work, may be the key to making it work
All these experiments on placebos for losing weight make it obvious that when you believe in a strategy and work on it with full faith, the results are always positive. Your mind helps you find ways to get your desired results. The expectation of success while following a certain routine works more than the actual routine you might follow. This is how powerful the placebo effect is and can be molded to help you achieve your weight goals. Humans tend to believe they have a default level of performance. What they need to believe is that the possibilities are endless when it comes to what you can achieve once you set your mind on it. That is all you need to do.
Set your mind on it and focus. And see how the entire biochemistry within you conspires to help you achieve it.