The Dieting Experience
Changing the conversation about weight loss and dieting
Dr. Laurie Patlin Suttenberg, DSW, LCSW-QS, DCSW
A Look at Willpower in Podcasts
How to Strengthen Your Willpower
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I had great hopes for the How to Strengthen Your Willpower podcast. I was deliberate in searching the credentials of anyone putting out a podcast about willpower. There’s quite a lot out there, and, as I spoke about in my Introduction to the Experience, I believe we must exercise caution when seeking insights, answers and solutions in the area of weight loss. So, I happened upon this 2016 podcast, and I was immediately interested. Tim Bono is a professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, my alma mater. (He has three degrees from this distinguished university. He beats me by one.) After listening to his 12 minute commentary, I most regrettably give it a thumbs down. Sorry, Wash U. My alumni check is still in the mail.
Tim Bono, like Roy Baumeister, who I spoke about in my post The Stigma of Willpower, uses the term “muscle” when describing willpower. As if it is so simple and clear, he states that just as we can strengthen our muscles through exercise, the same is true for willpower. The more we exercise willpower, the more willpower we will have. It just seems clear to me that if we conceptualize willpower in this way, then it is hard to comprehend the struggle that so many have in their relationship with food and why the obesity rate continues to steadily increase. Given this thinking, the only explanation for the struggle so many face with their weight and dieting would be in the form of some kind of human deficit. I don’t like this, I don’t believe this, and I think any deficit model is a harmful one, and one that only reinforces stigma. See The Stigma of Willpower for a discussion about that.
Bono also purports that if we can develop willpower in one area of our lives, it will spill over to others. Nice try, Bono. So, if we can muster the willpower to floss our teeth twice a day, we will have more internal armor in avoiding the candy machines at work. If only! Question for you, Bono. I think we can all assume that Pavarotti, Orson Welles, William Taft, and Mama Cass had tremendous willpower to learn the crafts that enabled them to become great successes in opera, acting, government, and music. No spill over with them, Bono. Fat they were and fat they stayed at the height of their fame. Did they need to floss more to have the willpower to overcome their weight problems?
Despite my above criticisms, I do find validity and applicability in Bono’s statements about willpower limits and the depletion of willpower. He says that in any given period of time, willpower is finite. To strengthen willpower, according to Bono, we need to use it, but as we do so, it depletes. In my mind, this brings us to the core of why the struggle with willpower as it pertains to food and diet is so distinct from the willpower we use or require in other areas of life. We may have a final exam in school, or a project deadline at work, that requires tremendous willpower and focus to stay on target and avoid distractions to get the task done. We may need great willpower to stick to our goal of getting to the gym four times a week. We can add to this list many other tasks that we do, should do, or must do that require willpower, or “self-regulatory strength”, Bono’s term. With the understanding that willpower is finite and will deplete, we can accommodate, as every one of these tasks are finite as well. But, for so many, dieting is not finite. If someone follows a diet regime all day and then, due to willpower depletion, snacks at 10 PM before bed, that person has “cheated” and may gain weight, despite having demonstrated considerable willpower all day. When it comes to dieting and losing weight, there is little to no room for willpower depletion. Perhaps this is the core of the problem. Perhaps...
As I’ve said so many times throughout this project, the challenges and issues related to food and dieting are so multi-leveled, it is impossible to have one Aha moment. But, just through this one lens of willpower depletion - if we trust Bono on this, and I’m telling you, folks, he comes from one fine university (no bragging intended, though, hey, I went there, too) - we should think about dieting and weight loss quite differently than we currently do.
is there such a thing as a willpower "muscle"?
is willpower related to food and dieting the same as willpower in other areas of life?
what do bono's comments on willpower depletion mean to dieters?
The Willpower Instinct
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I was familiar with the work of Dr. Kelly McGonigal, a Stanford University health psychologist, lecturer, and author, and therefore was very interested in this 2012 podcast in which she is interviewed by Dr. Timothy A Pychyl, Associate Professor of Psychology and director of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. I suggest skipping the first five minutes of this podcast and then settle in for about forty-five minutes of enjoyable and interesting listening as Pychyl questions McGonigal about her book, The Willpower Instinct.
I like this podcast. McGonigal has also thought about won’t power, which I talk about in my Introduction to the Experience. She adds want power to her discussion on willpower and won’t power, and she differentiates between the three using neuroscience as her lens. She says that “I won’t power” is the ability to consciously pause and stop oneself from giving in to behaviors that are inconsistent with our long term goals. McGonigal says that “I will power” derives from courage, energy and motivation and results in behaviors that are consistent with goals. She claims that “I want power” comes from the frontal region of the brain, which house our core values and life vision.
This certainly sounds complex.
McGonigal tells us that the brain has two ways to want. One is through immediate gratification, which is situated mid brain, and allows the alleviation or avoidance of pain, stress, and anxiety. We can view emotional eating through this lens of immediate gratification. See Lily’s Story for a depiction of emotional eating. The other way of wanting derives from the frontal part of the brain that sits between “I will” and “I won’t” power. This part of the brain keeps track of long term goals. McGonigal tells us “We wouldn’t have willpower challenges if we did not have conflicts between our immediate wants and our long term goals.” She then normalizes the conflict between immediate gratification and long term goals by saying they are both legitimate needs.
Finally. Here is an explanation without the stigma that derives from the perception of weakness of choice. Instead, we are given an understanding of the human experience through the lens of psychological science. Thank you, Kelly McGonigal. With this in mind, we can view dieters as people having an unending battle between potentially conflicting needs, neither of which is the enemy. And, perhaps most importantly, we can finally recognize and acknowledge that the challenges dieters face are in no way an indication of personal weakness. There is no room for shame in what is universal.
McGonigal believes that the willpower instinct is in all of us. She believes this is located in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, and it provides us with an innate ability to “pause and plan”. What is noteworthy are McGonigal’s statements about how the willpower instinct is triggered in all of us. She says we must be in a certain mindset first, and the critical first step in achieving this mindset is that the body and brain must be fueled and rested. Energy needs must be taken care of and meals should not be skipped. Another potentially Aha moment here, when we consider the many highly restrictive and fad diets that are out there. I highlight many of these in my Introduction to the Experience.
As a psychotherapist, I love Kelly McGonigal’s focus on self-compassion. When it comes to dieting and weight loss, criticism and negativity from the self and others is not motivating. It is punishing, cruel and undermining. I give this podcast two thumbs up. Enjoy!
how do McGonigal's concepts of "I will", "I won't", and "I want" power change our thinking about dieting?
how does the experience of dieting change when viewed through the lens of neuroscience?
what are our personal take aways from this podcast?