Improving self-control preserves weight loss results

In a recent study, researchers conducted a randomized clinical trial for a newly-developed weight-loss intervention called “Regulation of Cues” (ROC) that targets response to food and satiety.They found that ROC-based interventions may help those with high food responsiveness maintain weight loss.“ROC trains internal cues to manage overeating rather than external management strategies, such as self-monitoring food intake,” study co-author Dr. Kerri Boutelle, professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, told Medical News Today. The researchers also noted that participants who scored higher on food responsiveness lost more weight when in ROC and ROC+ groups than in the BWL group. When asked what food cues are, Dr. Boutelle said that they include sensory stimuli such as billboards and the sound of the ice cream man bell alongside associative memories linked to experiences of food, like “visiting grandma’s house.” The researchers wrote that ROC’s focus on learning to tolerate food cues might require less cognitive effort over time than avoiding them, as in BWL, which may explain the ROC’s sustained weight-loss effects.