73. The Truth About Willpower: Why It’s Not the Key to Weight Loss

In this episode, we dive into one of the most common myths in the weight loss world: that willpower is the key to success. Dr. Stacy Heimburger explains why relying on willpower alone can actually set you up for burnout and frustration in the long run. Instead of white-knuckling your way to weight loss, discover how planning, mindset shifts, and habit-building are far more effective strategies. Tune in for actionable tips that will help you create sustainable habits and embrace progress over perfection. Say goodbye to the endless cycle of willpower battles and hello to lasting change!

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Transcript

Hey there. Doctor Stacy Heimberger, welcome back to the podcast. If you have ever tried to lose weight, which I assume you have if you're listening to me, but you have probably heard the phrase at some point, just use willpower. What's funny about this is I literally just saw this today in an article. They were going through some people who have lost weight and talking about how they did it, and they all had their, like, catchy little phrases. And one of them was like, willpower and water. And I was like, that's such garbage. It's the go to advice we get.

Just use willpower, but I'm telling you, willpower and thinking that that is the way to do this can actually sabotage your success in the long run. So I wanna talk to you about the science and truth behind willpower and why it is not the key to lasting weight loss. Again, you know simple changes and consistency are the key, but let's talk about why willpower is not the answer. That way the next time some naturally thin person says just use willpower, you can have some evidence to back it up after you smack them down. Okay. So the science of willpower. Here's where people get it wrong. Willpower is not something that is an unlimited resource.

Right? It is actually finite, so the more we use it, the more it gets depleted. It's like a muscle after a workout. Right? Like, you can sit there and hold that weight up for a certain amount of time, but at some point, your muscle is just gonna be too fatigued, and it's going to have to drop the weight, and that is exactly how willpower works. It's a little bit like decision fatigue. Right? So some of these things are not infinite resources. They're not unlimited. They are, in fact, finite. Willpower, muscle strength, and decision making are all in there.

So let me say, there's lots of times I hear, and I know I used to say this myself, I do great in the morning. I do great through lunch, but by the end of the day, I would much rather eat the cookie than not, and then it feels like it's calling to me from across the room and then I just give in. K? That is this idea of using willpower. So willpower got me through breakfast, it got me through lunch, maybe even got me through whatever snack was waiting in the doctor's lounge, but I have used it all up by the time I get to dinner, and then by the time there's dessert after dinner offered, I'm out. I used to laugh about this all the time. I used to go to the cafeteria, and I would get let's say I was gonna get, like, a hamburger or a chicken sandwich or something, and then they would ask me if I want fries, and I would say no. And then they would ask me again, are you sure? And I always said yes the second time. It was like my resistance to French fry willpower was a one question only.

So I could say no the first time, but the second time, it was not even an option. It was not available to me to say no. So this was one of the reasons I just started bringing my lunch. Makes it much easier. Right? But this is this concept of willpower works for a minute, but when we're really pressured or we're really stressed or we've used it up, it's gone. It's not going to work for us. So understanding that it is a limited resource can really change how we set up our days. I know we talked about our protocols and our food plans the last two weeks, And I would just wanna remind you, this is one of the reasons I say when we make our food plan, we need to look at it and say, is this something I can really do? Is this something that is going to work for me? Is this something I can stick with today? We need to make that decision in the beginning of the day and be honest with ourselves because if we are setting up a food plan for the day that feels really hard in the morning, we are not gonna follow it through.

We're not gonna be able to do it by the end of the day. And it's this combination of my willpower will be depleted, my stress will be up, and I will be looking for an out, and I'm probably hungry. Right? So we have to have these plans that we know will work. Otherwise, we're gonna be kind of burnt out at the end of the day, and we will give in to temptation. Then we'll feel guilty and then we'll feel bad and then we'll kick ourselves and then we will be more likely to give up altogether, and we do not want that. So willpower is not our answer. A solid plan is the answer. Then we add in a little growth mindset, of course, but having a good plan is way, way more powerful and way more likely lead us to long term success.

When we create a plan, we take the guesswork out. We're not relying on these last minute decisions, these in the moment food decisions that require willpower, require us to be in a really great mindset, require us to have really good food options available, and require us to have no peer pressure asking us to do something else. That's a lot of variables to make a good food decision in the moment. So we plan ahead of time. We prep ahead of time. We make our meal schedule. We make our plan. Right? We start macro.

We make our protocol. We start micro. We make our plan, and then we've got our emergencies and our safety nets ready to go for us. When we have done that ahead of time, we don't have to rely on willpower. Then when we have a setback, which will happen because we are not perfect, we have to learn from that. That's the key. I feel like I can just end the podcast now. That's it.

Go off and succeed. But I'm telling you, it sounds so simple because it is that simple. We are not going to white knuckle and tough love our weight loss. We're not gonna try and do it overnight. We are going to make small sustainable changes. We're going to be consistent, and it all starts with making a plan. And that where I see the plan going wrong is when we make really unrealistic plans with no accounting for are we hungry? Do we have something a sports event at the end of the day? Like, we have to make a realistic plan that fits our schedule. Then we have to have these safety nets in case something goes awry, and then we have to have a sort of m and m process where we go back and look if we make a mistake, if we get thrown off course, if we go off plan.

Why? What would I do different the next time? How could I have taken better care of myself ahead of time to prevent that from happening? So if I have made a very realistic plan for the day and I look at it, and the question to ask yourself to find out, is it realistic? On a scale of one to 10, how easy do I think it will be to follow this plan? If it is not an eight or higher, rework your plan, my friend. If you look at it and you're like, there's about a 50% chance I'm gonna be able to do that, add food, change food, do what you need to do, we wanna be, like, 10 out of 10, man. That's gonna be easy. I can follow that plan. No problem. I don't need willpower. I don't need to fight. K? So then I have my plan.

Then if something happens, if somebody brings something in that I can't resist or whatever, if there's something in the doctor's lounge, I'm like my scarcity mindset gets the best of me. I'm like, oh, they never have that. That's gonna be the best. That's the best king cake they make. I better have a piece. Then I need to do an analysis of what happened and what would I do different next time. This just happened. I wanna tell you, they brought us lunch into the hospital as they sometimes do, and there were brownies for dessert.

And I've done a lot of work on my temptations and sort of my trigger foods. Brownies, still, they're there. I love them. And in my mind, I was like, I'm gonna come back and get one of those brownies, and I'm gonna take it home. So I decided I'm gonna have that, but I'm gonna take it home. I'm not gonna eat it in the moment. I'm gonna take it and then, like, plan for it the next day. That was my real.

I do this a lot. When I'm really tempted in the moment, instead of using willpower to, like, white knuckle myself away from it, I just say, I'm gonna take it home and I'll plan for it tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'll write it on my plan so that I can eat it guilt free. So that was my plan with the brownie. This is also what happens. Nine times out of 10, I forgot about that brownie. I walked out of that office. I went and ate my lunch.

Things got busy. I totally forgot about the brownie. So I didn't have it. I didn't have to plan for it. So instead of willpower, like, put it on my plate and try not to eat it or whatever or have this internal fight for minutes and minutes on end, I was just like, I'll just get it for later. I'll come back in a little while, and then I'll wrap it up. I'll take it home. I'll plan for it tomorrow.

No problem. Then I didn't have it. There's your tip or trick. Instead of willpower, just say, I can have that. I'm just gonna plan for it tomorrow. I'll take it home, wrap it up. I'll take it tomorrow. I've done this more times than I can count, and I'm telling you, maybe one to two times out of 10, does the food actually make it home? And then, usually, I don't want it by then, and I think better of it.

It just, in the moment, felt really, like it really drew me. It really was calling to me. And if I was relying on willpower alone, I probably would have eaten it. Instead, I have a plan. I know that I can just plan for that food the next day. I'll just bring it home. I'll have it the next day. I would love for you guys to try this and tell me if it works next time you're really tempted by something.

I always think of it as, like, is my lazy gonna overtake my desire to eat that food? Because the lazy is, like, I forgot to bring it home, or by the time I get home, I just don't, like, care about it anymore. So if I can just delay it, does it still have the same power? And 100% of the time, it does not have the same power if I just delay when I'm going to have it. And this trick works for a number of reasons. Number one, I'm not depriving myself, so it doesn't feel like old diet trauma. It doesn't, like, freak my brain out and make me want it 10 times as bad. I'm not making it a bad food that would make me, like, bad and naughty if I ate it. So it doesn't give me like, there's no allure extra in that way because I'm saying it's fine to eat it. I'm just gonna eat it tomorrow when I plan for it.

So it takes that whole, like, sexy food drama out of it, out of sight, out of mind. The minute I decide I'll come back and get it to wrap up later, usually gonna forget about it. And just this idea of delayed gratification, like, it just works so much better. And then every time I'm successful and don't eat it and think like, well, that worked pretty well, and that was pretty easy, I'm encouraged to do it the next time. So this is a habit that I have built instead of relying on willpower to not eat the treat that's there. So I've made a food plan for the day, and then this temptation that would normally require willpower to say no, I've built this habit that it also involves planning to counteract it. I can have it later. I'll have it tomorrow.

I just need to plan for it, and then I usually don't. And on the rare occasion I do, not a big deal either. Like, I've planned for it, so I can make a plan accordingly. I will plan to have that brownie at this time yesterday. I will try and counteract the sugar spike by having this, like, whatever with it. Like, I'll have it with my meal instead of separate so it doesn't do, like, as much to my blood sugar. I could tolerate it better. Maybe it'll give me some energy.

I'll go for a walk after work. You know? Just make a plan. And then if I have a setback, like, if none of that works, then I can learn something from it. It's not the end of the world. It's not a failure. I'm not a bad person. I'm not broken. I just need to learn from it.

Maybe the lesson is don't wrap it up just then. Like, come back for it, whatever it is. I really hope this has been helpful. There are a lot of food temptations, especially for all of you guys that work in the hospital. Like, we are of a society that feeds people as, like, a sign of love, so there are going to be temptations. Willpower is a finite resource. It's not gonna be what saves you. A plan is gonna be what saves you.

And having a plan and then having a backup to that plan and having a safety net to that plan, these are all just ways to just set yourself up for success. If none of that's working, wrap it up and bring it home for tomorrow. I find this works. I have a couple of clients who, like, when family visits, they like to cook for them. It's the same idea of, like, just a laying for a second has some power of, like, thank you for making that. I'm not hungry right now, but I'm definitely gonna have that later. And then maybe they do or maybe they don't. But these in the moment food choices that depend on willpower and for us to be in a really good mental space when we're making that decision, those are kind of the pitfalls.

So the more we can avoid those, the more tips and tricks and plans we have to avoid those in the moment food decisions, the more successful we're gonna be. And if we make a mistake, we just learn from it and try again with the next food decision we have to make. Alright. So I would love for you to try this this week and let me know how it goes. I do think this is one of, like, my favorite superpowers to avoiding really tempting food that's not on my plan is this idea of just delaying in some way. So I hope it works for you. Let me know. Until next time. Bye.