HUNGER CURE

Research reveals the 4 reasons we overeat-and the personalized plan that makes weight loss effortless. Kate lost 100 lbs!

- by LISA MAXBAUER

If you and your best friend have tried the same diet and experienced different (or disappointing) results, there's a reason, or actually four of them. Scientists have drilled down into why the one-size-fits-all approach to weight loss doesn't work. And they've uncovered four obesity trigger “types” that benefit from unique targeted interventions. Here, proven ways to overcome your hidden weight-related hurdles.

Buffets are great for offering a variety of meal choices. But imagine a buffet of weight-loss tools, and choosing the right options means increasing your success. That's the idea behind PROM, the Precision Recovery Obesity Model. It says weight loss is caused by multiple factors and should be treated in multiple ways based on each unique person. And Mayo Clinic researchers identified four main reasons we overindulge and gain weight, based on how our bodies behave at a cellular and hormonal level. (More on these four types later...)

In a real-world comparison, a team led by Andres J. Acosta, M.D., Ph.D., found that people who received support based on their type, using interventions including medication, lost 77% more weight in a year than those who didn't. And the number of people who shed more than 10% of their body weight jumped by 132%.

This knowledge is especially powerful now that much of our food supply is engineered to change our eating patterns in unnatural ways that make cravings feel out of control. World-renowned nutrition researcher and Princeton neuroscientist Nicole Avena, Ph.D., calls it hedonic eating. “This eating is driven by pleasure, habit and emotional cues rather than true hunger.”

Find your types

Keep reading to learn the four types (many of us fall into two or more), along with Avena's advice on how to outsmart the pitfalls that are packing on pesky pounds.

Hungry brain