I was watching a show yesterday on the psychology of dieting. Individuals were brought into a lab and told that they were there to taste test some new foods. They were first given a very large, high-calorie shake which should have filled them up. Then three plates of cookies were placed in front of them and they were told to try one of each. They could try more if they wanted, but they only needed to try one. The individuals that were supposedly dieting ate a lot more cookies than those that weren't. The reasoning given was what the psychologist on the show called the "What the hell" effect and what we call on our websites the "What the heck" effect. Basically, you've already messed up your goals, so why not mess them up big time and just write this day off as a failure. You'll start again tomorrow with a clean slate. After the dieters had already consumed a shake that broke their dieting goals and the cookies were placed in front of them, there was no motivation to stay on a diet. The non-dieters, who ate less cookies, simply said, "I didn't need any more cookies." Another reason a dieter might have binged was that they knew they were going back on the diet the next day and this was their one chance to fill up.

However, I think that there is something the diet psychologists didn't take into consideration or at least mention in the program. There is a good chance that the type of person who eats until they are satisfied or the individual that binges causes them to need a diet or not and the reason that they binged on cookies is due to their personality and not the fact that they were dieting. Dieting may simply be another indicator of the type of personality they have. This has caused me to wonder if the users on our websites are not all of a similar personality. Are we attracting the users that binge and so require goal setting help? It would just be interesting to see the same individuals in the same program prior to their diets.

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