Losing weight for healthy living is difficult, but that's not new. What's interesting is the role our brain plays in regulating our weight-any weight-and why that makes it so difficult to lose weight when we want to. Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt explains in this TED talk, and discusses how eating mindfully can help.
The talk is a little long, about 12 minutes, but it really is worth a watch if you're struggling with your own diet or weight loss goals. Ultimately, she describes the intersection of human nature and our modern, drive-through world-where the brain is hard-wired to accept food and build energy reserves when food is available, but resist efforts to burn those reserve, largely because food scarcity has been a problem for much longer in human history than food abundance. She goes on to explain how the brain will, usually after a short period, determine what the body's "set point" weight is, kind of an unconscious "ideal weight" that has nothing to do with our health, but everything to do with food availability and lifestyle. She even explains how thinner people will burn fewer calories, thanks to the brain's interference, which makes it even harder to shed pounds.
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