Unprecedented: brain concentration helps with weight loss
This is news that should cause a sensation. Easy to set up and execute, it can be the salvation of many people who feel bad about themselves and their pounds. What is it? Simply from an experience as old as the world that is based onthe conditioning of the brain.
We know the plasticity of it as well as the ease with which it adapts to all new situations and experiences. The techniques of meditation, sophrology, mindfulness or other respiratory gymnastics help to develop some of its faculties such as the acquisition of the “here and now” and concentration. It is this last capacity that is retained in this unprecedented study “made in USA”.
An original experience
And it is as often, straight from the United States, from New York more precisely, that this study(1) is conducted. Dr. Richard Weil’s team performs an unusual experiment at Mount Sinai St Luke’s Hospital. Fifty-five people “played along”.
In a state of obesity, and in the event of losing a little weight, they allowed the American scientific team to update a “natural appetite suppressant”, inexpensive, easy to access… In fact, it’s about using brain concentration.
To make this experience a reality, these people had to first give a score to four gourmet foods according to the desire they had, to eat them.
In the second phase of the experiment, the volunteers had to quantify how precisely these four foods invaded their minds. Were they thinking about it? Did these foods make them salivate? So many questions they had to answer.
To finalize the study, the scientists asked overweight individuals to perform a “ritual” established by them, in order to divert their attention from the dishes in front of them.
Simple actions that provide immediate results
Just repeat afew simple gestures for thirty seconds while staring at a white wall. But not just any gestures! During the experiment, Dr. Weil, in charge of the study, asked people to tap their foreheads or ears with one of their index fingers or the ground with their toes.
This repetition of easy gestures has the sole purpose of creating a mental diversion in order to give the brain the directive to think about something other than food, as pleasant as it is, and this during the thirty seconds that the exercise lasts. Nothing playful or fun about it.
The utmost seriousness is required because, for Dr. Weil, these mini-workouts could easily be integrated into prevention programs for overweight. Each individual would be autonomous as to the use of this ritual.
What is the operating principle of such a process?
It is by using another study that the cerebral functioning of such conditioning has been updated. The Arte channel gives us an overview of this process(2)tag. Like a psychotherapy recommended in smoking cessation, it is a specific region of the brain that is involved in self-regulation and the control of inhibitions that will react to these stimuli.
Hypnosis techniques are becoming more and more familiar to their userstag. Some even try their hand at autosuggestion. It is in this line that this latest discovery is positioned, in which it costs nothing to believe in it. The illustrious Pascal already used this theory in his “Thoughts” when he said, on the existence of God, “if you win, you win everything; if you lose, you lose nothing. Bet therefore that he is, without hesitation”. Wise decision!
Stephen Paul is the lead author and founder of My Health Sponsor. Holder of a diploma in health and well-being coaching with more than 200 articles in the field of health, he makes it a point of honor to offer advice based on reliable information, based on scientific research, and verified by health professionals.