Imaginary diets - do they work?

[Rail Paul]

John Tierney speculates on whether you can imagine your way to weight loss. It's not as silly as it sounds, since it appears some people enjoy the imaginary food as much as the real (caloric) stuff...

 

But there is some real evidence for the benefits of imaginary eating from experiments at Carnegie Mellon University reported in the current issue of Science. When people imagined themselves eating M & M’s or pieces of cheese, they became less likely to gorge themselves on the real thing.

 

This form of mental dieting — I think, therefore I’m full — sounds bizarrely counterintuitive, because we’re all familiar with the opposite phenomenon: thoughts of food that make us more eager to eat it.

 

NY Times

[prasantrin]

Sure as hell doesn't work for me. Whenever I imagine myself eating something, I have to go out and get some. I'm guessing this diet works best for people who don't obsess about food.

 

(Not that I obsess about food, but I think I think about it a lot more than I should)

[Merlin]

It works. I do it all the time. I think about what I want to eat and search recipes in cookbooks and on the net...by the time I am done I have lost my appetite.

[Sneakeater]

I certainly think much of the food served me in NYC restaurants is imaginary in some sense of the word.