Are Mixed Health Messages Hindering Your Fitness Goals?

These days, we are constantly bombarded with adverts, articles and advice all trying to help us improve our ways. Whether it’s to lose weight, quit smoking or stop drinking two bottles of wine every Friday, there is tons of information out there trying to help you be the best version of you. No matter what the intentions are, however, it seems efforts are wasted if health professionals aren’t following a specific formula to help people quit their vices’.

According to a report published in the journal Health Psychology Review, the way messages of self-improvement are framed can have a major effect on how an individual will react. It seems that messages are more successful when they are of similar polarities. Simply speaking, two actions or two inactions have proven to be more successful than a mix of positive and negative guidelines.

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For example, if you want to lose weight and your PT tells you to increase your exercise while decreasing your calorie intake, you are less likely to oblige. Conversely, if you’re asked to increase your exercise and your protein intake, it “goes together better in that both are increases in recommended action and may be remembered and executed more effectively,” says co-author Dolores Albarracin, a professor of phycology at the University of Illinois.

“If you tell people to engage in two behaviors and the behaviors are a mix of actions and inactions, it’s likely that recipients will adhere less. It’s easier to frame the recommendations along the same axis of action or inaction. You don’t want to work against yourself or at cross-purposes with your message,” Albarracin continues.

It’s important to bear in mind that this particular study focuses on health care organizations, healthcare marketing and other organizations trying to change employee behavior. However, just because the research is designed for those offering the advice, there is no reason why you can’t use this in your day to day life. After all, there’s no harm in trying.

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