The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

If you're struggling to lose weight, it might actually be due to a chemical imbalance in your brain.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have shown that some obese individuals might have differences in the reward areas of the brain, compared to non-obese individuals.¹ The ability to resist the urge to eat needs to be stronger than the expected feeling of reward when we do eat. Some people seem to have an impairment in the brain area associated with reward sensitivity, and therefore their willpower is overwhelmed by the need to get that food reward.

[I wish this paper were open access as I'd love to know whether the researchers think one could break the conditioned response!]


¹Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Baler RD. Reward, dopamine and the control of food intake: implications for obesity. Trends Cogn Sci. 15:37-46 (2011).