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22nd March 2009
Got Extra Fat?
Could Your Personality Be To Blame!
Zeb Williams
You've heard the line before: "I just can't lose weight because my metabolism is naturally slow!" Or how about this one:
"I wish I could lose weight, but my thyroid is sluggish!"
Well, if you've worn both of those phrases out (or know of someone who has!) then have we got a new excuse . . . er . .
catchphrase . . . reason why you're stuck at that plateau in your program is (are you ready for this?): Your personality.
If you think I'm being a tad cynical about all of this, you're wrong. Because I'm being completely serious -- and now
there's a study to back up this statement.
I'm not quite sure what prompted researchers to think along these lines -- so we'll just call it some form of innate creativity.
But they decided to ask three questions which triggered this study. Very simply the questions were: Do personality differences
exist between those who are lean and those who are overweight?
Among obese individuals are there fundamental personality differences in those who look for weight loss methods and those who
don't search for them?
And finally, are there fundamental personality differences between obese people who lost weight using behavior therapy and
those who did not?
The study used 503 individuals of which 264 were by definition lean, that is they had a body mass index of between 18 and 24.9.
Fifty six of these people were considered obese with a body mass index that registered greater than 35 and the remaining 183,
while considered obese, possessed a body mass of greater than 30 but less than 35.
Each participant answered a series of questions posed by the researchers. These sought to discover the "seven dimensions of
personality." These seven standardized predictors include novelty seeking, reward dependence, harm avoidance, persistence,
self-directedness, self-transcendence and cooperativeness.
The results vividly illustrated differences in those who were lean and those who were overweight, especially in the areas of
persistence and self-directedness. Perhaps this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
Specifically, the study discovered that those who were overweight scored lower in the areas of persistence and self-directedness.
English translation: They were more likely to give up, to be modest, as well as to be inactive and actually have certain habits
that were at odds with their long term goals.
But there was one surprise in the personality evaluation. And that was that those who were obese also scored higher when it came
to the novelty seeking category. Let's face it; it's not usually a trait you usually associate with an overweight person.
But wait! Don't jump to conclusions until you read about how these researchers define the term "novelty seeking." Novelty seeking,
for many of us, has come to mean: exploratory, curious and enthusiastic. But these researchers expanded the definition to include
such descriptive words as impulsiveness, easily bored, disorderly, and even making attempts to avoid monotony.
How many of us eat from boredom? Because a cup of ice cream is set in front of us, or even to make the monotony of another night
of mind-numbing television viewing.
Now let's look at what separates the obese who are successful in a weight-loss program and those who are not. We get some
interesting results here as well.
The individuals who were successful in a weight-loss program had higher reward dependence and a greater level of cooperation
personality. This means they are dedicated and dependent. But, then this makes sense, when you join a program the odds are
good that you're going to be the type of person who needs other people to cooperate in the program for which you've signed up.
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