Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

Neuroscience in Your Life: 
Cognitive Processing in Anorexic Patients
FIGURE 3
In this study, participants—either patients with anorexia or healthy individuals—
viewed images of diff erent foods when hungry or full to examine their cognitive processing. 
Comparison of fMRI scans of patients with anorexia (left column a) and healthy participants 
(right column b) showed signifi cant diff erences in their reactions to the food stimuli. The 
fi gures show that people with anorexia generate little additional brain activity when hungry 
(green) as compared to when full (red), whereas those without anorexia show additional 
(green) activity when hungry as compared to when full (red). The diff erences suggest that 
patients with anorexia diff er from nonanorexics in terms of their attention to food stimuli, 
which in turn may be related to restrictions in the eating behavior of the anorexics. 
(Source: Santel et al., 2006, Figure 4.)
(a)
(b)
BECOMING AN 
INFORMED CONSUMER 
of Psychology
Dieting and Losing Weight Successfully
 Module 
30 
Human Needs and Motivation: Eat, Drink, and Be Daring 
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324 Chapter 
10 
Motivation and Emotion
• Cut out television . One reason for the epidemic of obesity is the number of hours 
people in the United States spend viewing television. Not only does watching 
television preclude other activities that burn calories (even walking around the 
house is helpful), people often gorge on junk food while watching TV (Hu et al., 2003).
• Exercise . Exercise at least 30 consecutive minutes three times each week. When 
you exercise, you use up fat stored in your body as fuel for muscles, which is 
measured in calories. As you use up this fat, you will probably lose weight. 
Almost any activity helps burn calories (see Figure 4).
• Decrease the infl uence of external social stimuli on your eating behavior . Serve yourself 
smaller portions of food, and leave the table before you see what is being served 
for dessert. Don’t even buy snack foods such as nachos and potato chips; if 
they’re not readily available in the kitchen cupboard, you’re not apt to eat them. 
Wrap refrigerated foods in aluminum foil so that you cannot see the contents and 
be tempted every time you open the refrigerator.
• Avoid fad diets . No matter how popular they are at a particular time, extreme 
diets, including liquid diets, usually don’t work in the long run and can be 
dangerous to your health.
• Avoid taking any of the numerous diet pills advertised on television that promise quick 
and easy results.
• Maintain good eating habits . When you have reached your desired weight, main-
tain the new habits you learned while dieting to avoid gaining back the weight 
you have lost.
• Set reasonable goals . Know how much weight you want to lose before you start to 
diet. Don’t try to lose too much weight too quickly, or you may doom yourself to 
failure. Even small changes in behavior—such as walking 15 minutes a day or 
eating a few less bites at each meal—can prevent weight gain (Kirk et al., 2003).