Effortless diet and exercise: self-control promotes health behaviour by force of habit

Abstract

Background: Many people intend to eat healthy and exercise, but have trouble turning these intentions into behavior. Self-control is necessary to pursue long-term health goals that often clash with short-term hedonistic goals and other, instantly rewarding activities. We translated recent insights from self-control and habitual behavior research into eating behavior to the area of exercise. Methods: Based on previous work in which participants (N=87) kept a snacking diary for a week in addition to filling in questionnaires about self-control and strength of healthy and unhealthy snacking habits, a study was conducted in which participants (N=134) were recruited from a local gym. Via an online survey they were asked about their self-control level, strength of exercise habits, and their exercise behavior over the past months. Findings: Conceptually replicating a mediating relationship of habit strength between self-control and snacking behavior, mediation analysis revealed that a higher level of self-control predicted exercise habit strength, which in turn predicted exercise behavior (more minutes of exercise and a higher exercise frequency). Discussion: Recent research on self-control demonstrated that self-control success is not only a matter of effortful inhibition, but also of adaptive habits. The current study has extended this notion from eating to exercise behavior, covering two essential health behaviors. Findings confirm that self-control is an important predictor of diet and exercise, and that adaptive habits that people with higher self-control have explain this relationship. This has implications for interventions aimed at improving diet and/or exercise.