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Human HyperFormance Newsletters>
Think yourself thinner
December 19, 2007
Studies have shown that you can increase the strength in your muscles merely by imagining that you are exercising them. Now there’s a study that shows you can lose weight by using the power of the mind. Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer and student Alia Crum took 84 maids who worked at 7 matched hotels and measured their basic fitness levels, which showed them to be in the relatively poor health of basically sedentary individuals. The women did not exercise regularly, with one third saying they got no exercise at all. Then Langer and Crum told half of them that their work provided them with exercise sufficient to meet the recommendation of a half hour of exercise a day, and rated specific housecleaning activities by calories burned per hour. This information was posted in the maids’ lounge to remind them. The uninformed maids at the matched hotels did not get this information. A month later, the average informed maid had lost 2 pounds, systolic blood pressure had dropped 10 points, and the other measures had significantly improved. The finding was reported in the February issue of Psychological Science.
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