If Dieting Doesn’t Work, What Does?

Earlier this week, the news broke—and subsequently broke the internet—that your body and metabolism may have more of an effect on your weight maintenance than just willpower. (See, those cravings are real.)

Essentially, after following the season 8 contestants of The Biggest Loser over the course of six years, scientist Kevin Hall discovered that all but one contestant had gained all of the weight back despite major healthy efforts. Plus, each contestant was burning about 500 fewer calories a day (!) than other people their age and size.

But a new op-ed released today by neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt in The New York Times gave new hope to those who want to get to healthier weight. If dieting isn’t the answer, what is? Mindful eating, or “paying attention to signals of hunger and fullness, without judgment, to relearn how to eat only as much as the brain’s weight-regulation system commands,” she says.

For more on how (and why) mindful eating actually works, check out the full article here.