The Couch Potato Psychology of ‘My Diet Is Better Than Yours’

ABC’s newest weight loss reality show pairs ordinary people with five celebrity trainers, each of whom advocate a vastly different approach to diet and training. Contestants choose the trainer they believe will bring them the most success as they compete for the $50,000 prize and opportunity to be featured in People magazine as the winning team. If they are not happy with their results, contestants have a one-time chance to switch to another program of their choice. With this, the show aims to empower contestants to make a long-term, sustainable change in their lives — and to show America once and for all ‘which diet works best.’

Countless variables will influence which plan results in the greatest weight loss at the end of the 14 week contest: the protocols of plan itself, personal effort, physiological differences, who survives the toxic levels of trainer enthusiasm, etc. In my view, though, the most important factor to consider when vetting diets is how well each addresses the emotions and habits that drive our daily decisions and long-term lifestyles. So, here’s my arm-chair take on how last week’s initial batch faired:

SuperFood Swap Diet by Dawn Jackson Blatner

Premise: Substituting the sinful ingredients of your favorite foods to create healthier versions.

Contestant: Jasmin, 37, stay-at-home mom; high cholesterol and pre-diabetic

The strength of this diet is that it does not try to break bad habits, but rather, uses them as starting points for healthier living. In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg breaks habits into three parts: cue, routine, and reward. Turning to quick and easy comfort foods like macaroni and cheese is as much of a habit as brushing our teeth or turning the key when we get into the car. The “cue” is the thing that prompts the behavior (e.g. it’s dinner time, the family is hungry, we’re in a rush or stressed, etc.) The routine is preparing something quick and easy that will satisfy the whole family, and the reward is the emotional benefit that reinforces the decision to make that food again and again (e.g. pleasure of eating, appreciation of the family, joy of making others happy). When Jackson finds a way to make something like mac and cheese diet-friendly, she is essentially modifying the routine but leaving the cues and rewards in tact. In doing so, she bypasses the struggle of breaking bad habits and instead uses them as ready-made vessels for a healthier lifestyle.

At least, in theory.

If the modified routine fails to deliver the same rewards, it’s unlikely to be adopted in the long run. In other words, if cauliflower macaroni and cheese is nowhere near as enjoyable or as easy as the real thing, it will not provide the same joy, relief, or sense of appreciation that a blue box of Kraft so reliably does. Since these emotional rewards are necessary to reinforce the behavior, without them, the new routine will not become an automatic or consistent habit long term. This means the pressure is on Jackson to create some magic in the kitchen and ensure deliciousness in every dish.

cLean Momma Plan by Carolyn Barnes

Premise: burning more calories throughout the day by ‘taskercising’ (e.g. merging chores with exercise)

Contestant: Latasha, 35, tv reporter who is seems apprehensive of dieting generally but also seems (perhaps rightly) hesitant about her celebrity trainer

This plan also seeks to modify existing habits, but while the SuperFood Swap takes something people love and makes it healthier, Barnes’s approach takes something people already dislike — chores — and makes them more difficult, painful, and embarrassing by infusing them with exercise. For this reason, I see a major flaw in the program’s ability to sustain motivation long-term. Certainly, if there’s no pain, there’s no gain when it comes to fitness, but there is something different about motivating yourself to leave for the gym on a given day and motivating yourself to exert extra effort with each and every thing you do, all day, every day — from cleaning the floors to playing with your children, going shopping or saying your prayers at night. The actions Barnes proposes are not natural parts of the tasks themselves, so performing them requires conscious intervention. It requires that people stop and consciously convince themselves to do something habitual in a different, more exhausting, less effective and often counterproductive way. When we go to the gym, we go to sweat, and we expect exertion to be part of it. When we go to the grocery store, we aim to buy food, and we hope to get what we need as quickly and easily as possible. Performing lunges as we make our way through the pasta aisle does not get us out of the store faster. In fact, it slows us down. If the sense of accomplishment from performing said public lunges is great enough to reinforce the behavior, perhaps women everywhere will soon be shedding pounds on their way to the produce aisle. I suspect, however, the drains on attention and willpower and the dissonance between the emotional motivators of exercise versus those of chores will prove too great to yield significant and lasting results.

Wild Diet by Abel James

Premise: Eliminating processed carbs and filling up on plants, pastured proteins, and healthy fats

Contestant: Kurt, 47, gained over 100 lbs over the last decade following a car crash

From a nutritional and training standpoint, I am biased toward the Wild Diet, having followed a similar plan for the past 4 years and seen my health and physique continuously improve. That said, for most Americans — including Kurt — this plan marks a strong departure from common eating habits. In a culture of refined carbs, breads and sweets are social staples and can be difficult to avoid when dining out or with others. For many people, there is a lot of emotion and nostalgia associated with these foods, making it difficult to abstain from them long-term and to fully adopt the plan as an ongoing lifestyle.

Wellness Smackdown Plan by Jovanka Ciares

Premise: A vegan diet aimed at reducing inflammation and detoxifying the body. The first week is smoothies only and snacking is prohibited.

Contestant: Taj, 37, educator who began gaining weight in college

Like the Wild Diet, this plan also bares the challenges of being contrary to common Western culture but in my view lacks many of the former plan’s strengths. Whereas Kurt expressed his satisfaction with the food in his plan, Taj remarked at the amount of willpower she had displayed in sticking to hers. While all diets require a degree of willpower, if every meal demands a great deal of it, there’s a greater likelihood the plan will not succeed long-term. Willpower can be developed but is never infinite, and to paraphrase champion bodybuilder, powerlifter, and nutritional scientist Dr. Lane Norton, we don’t get to choose where our willpower comes from.

But as we saw from the cookie incident, a failure of will was not this plan’s downfall. Instead, it seemed the training regimen did not deliver the rewards Taj was looking for. The movements and rituals did not provide the sense of exertion and accomplishment that Taj reasonably expected from an exercise program, and the results at the weigh-in failed to provide a sense of progress. With no emotional rewards to reinforce the routine, Taj cited sabotage as she gave Ciares the axe.

No Diet by Jay Cardiello

Premise: Understanding and addressing underlying emotional drivers and habits to improve self awareness and daily food choices

Contestant: Jeff, 35, claims to work 85–100 hours per week on 2 hours of sleep per night; tested in the diabetic blood sugar range upon his first show weigh-in

From camping outside of Jeff’s home to changing the color of bedspreads and plates, Cardiello’s alternative approach to weight management can often seem peculiar. Nevertheless, his strategic focus on understanding and addressing emotional drivers, environmental cues, and related habits is a psychologically sound place to start. The eulogy visualization exercise tapped into the deep emotions driving Jeff’s desire to make a change and reinforced the importance of taking action now. While I am not certain that blue plates will in fact aid in portion control, or that lavender bedding will reduce sleep deprivation, I think it’s important to recognize that our environments contain cues that set our habits into motion, and these habits heavily influence our lifestyles and daily decisions. In future episodes, I hope to see a deeper dive into personally relevant cues, including those that arise from within — as our emotional states even more powerfully drive us to the peanut butter jar than, say, the color red. Acknowledging the importance of adequate sleep in weight loss, I’d also like to see a deeper dive into the emotions that drive Jeff to work such a grueling schedule, since this seemed to be a major factor in why he was averaging just 2 hours of sleep per night. That’s something you can’t cover up with a lavender bedspread, and I’m looking forward to seeing just how deep Cardiello is willing to dig to get to the real root of Jeff’s struggle.

Tune in to ABC on Thursday nights at 9/8 Central to see which diet results in the greatest weight loss by the finale. Just remember: a successful diet isn’t only about losing weight — it’s about sustainable, lasting change.

Haley Morgan Tamilia is a Project Manager at Olson Zaltman and a 3x Top Five NPC bikini competitor.