The 5 Foods We Can’t Stop Eating—And Why Cutting Them Out Won’t Help You Lose Weight

Ever feel like certain foods are just impossible to resist?

Science backs that up.

A Penn State University study asked 186 women with overweight or obesity to rank the foods they found hardest to stop eating.

The top five?

🥇 Ice cream
🥈 Chips
🥉 Chocolate
🏅 Cookies
🏅 Pizza

So, What’s the Best Way to Handle These “Problem” Foods?

The researchers followed participants for 12 months in a weight loss program and tracked their strategies for managing these foods.

The surprising results?

Completely avoiding these foods wasn’t as effective. In fact, those who tried to cut them out entirely didn’t lose more weight.

Instead, the participants who focused on portion control rather than total restriction lost nearly double the weight—an average of 15.8 pounds versus 8.3 pounds.

The Takeaway?

🚫 You don’t have to quit your favorite foods to lose weight.

🍪 Being intentional with portions works better than extreme restriction.

🎯 If certain foods feel “out of control,” setting boundaries can help—but banning them isn’t necessary.

Source:

Roe LS, Rolls BJ. Which strategies to manage problem foods were related to weight loss in a randomized clinical trial? Appetite. 2020 Aug 1;151:104687. PMID: 32234531