This is Dr. Susan Thompson. She’s a cognitive neuroscientist who has turned her hand to helping people to lose weight and maintain it at a lower level, using psychology to combat overeating. She is the founder of “Bright Line Eating”.

We’ll say up front: it’s not without some controversy, and we’ll address that as we go, but we do believe the ideas are worth examining, and then we can apply them or not as befits our personal lives.

What does she want us to know?

Bright Line Eating’s general goal

Dr. Thompson’s mission statement is to help people be “happy, thin, and free”.

You will note that this presupposes thinness as desirable, and presumes it to be healthy, which frankly, it’s not for everyone. Indeed, for people over a certain age, having a BMI that’s slightly into the “overweight” category is a protective factor against mortality (which is partly a flaw of the BMI system, but is an interesting observation nonetheless):

When BMI Doesn’t Quite Measure Up

Nevertheless, Dr. Thompson makes the case for the three items (happy, thin, free) coming together, which means that any miserable or unhealthy thinness is not what the approach is valuing, since it is important for “thin” to be bookended by “happy” and “free”.

What are these “bright lines”?

Bright Line Eating comes with 4 rules:

1. No flour (no, not even wholegrain flour; enjoy whole grains themselves yes, but flour, no)
2. No sugar (and as a tag-along to this, no alcohol) (sugars naturally found in whole foods, e.g. the sugar in an apple if eating an apple, is ok, but other kinds are not, e.g. foods with apple juice concentrate as a sweetener; no “natural raw cane sugar” etc is not allowed either; despite the name, it certainly doesn’t grow on the plant like that)
3. No snacking, just three meals per day(not even eating the ingredients while cooking—which also means no taste-testing while cooking)
4. Weigh all your food (have fun in restaurants—but more seriously, the idea here is to plan each day’s 3 meals to deliver a healthy macronutrient balance and a capped calorie total).

You may be thinking: “that sounds dismal, and not at all bright and cheerful, and certainly not happy and free”

The name comes from the idea that these rules are lines that one does not cross. They are “bright” lines because they should be observed with a bright and cheery demeanour, for they are the rules that, Dr. Thompson says, will make you “happy, thin, and free”.

You will note that this is completely in opposition to the expert opinion we hosted last week:

What Flexible Dieting Really Means

Dr. Thompson’s position on “freedom” is that Bright Line Eating is “very structured and takes a liberating stand against moderation”

Which may sound a bit of an oxymoron—is she really saying that we are going to be made free from freedom?

But there is some logic to it, and it’s about the freedom from having to make many food-related decisions at times when we’re likely to make bad ones:

Where does the psychology come in?

Dr. Thompson’s position is that willpower is a finite, expendable resource, and therefore we should use it judiciously.

So, much like Steve Jobs famously wore the same clothes every day because he had enough decisions to make later in the day that he didn’t want unnecessary extra decisions to make… Bright Line Eating proposes that we make certain clear decisions up front about our eating, so then we don’t have to make so many decisions (and potentially the wrong decisions) later when hungry.

You may be wondering: ”doesn’t sticking to what we decided still require willpower?”

And… Potentially. But the key here is shutting down self-negotiation.

Without clear lines drawn in advance, one must decide, “shall I have this cake or not?”, perhaps reflecting on the pros and cons, the context of the situation, the kind of day we’re having, how hungry we are, what else there is available to eat, what else we have eaten already, etc etc.

In short, there are lots of opportunities to rationalize the decision to eat the cake.

With clear lines drawn in advance, one must decide, “shall I have this cake or not?” and the answer is “no”.

So while sticking to that pre-decided “no” still may require some willpower, it no longer comes with a slew of tempting opportunities to rationalize a “yes”.

Which means a much greater success rate, both in adherence and outcomes. Here’s an 8-week interventional study and 2-year follow-up:

Bright Line Eating | Research Publications

Counterpoint: pick your own “bright lines”

Dr. Thompson is very keen on her 4 rules that have worked for her and many people, but she recognizes that they may not be a perfect fit for everyone.

So, it is possible to pick and choose our own “bright lines”; it is after all a dietary approach, not a religion. Here’s her response to someone who adopted the first 3 rules, but not the 4th:

Bright Lines as Guidelines for Weight Loss

The most important thing for Bright Line Eating, therefore, is perhaps the action of making clear decisions in advance and sticking to them, rather than seat-of-the-pantsing our diet, and with it, our health.

Want to know more from Dr. Thompson?

You might like her book, which we reviewed a while ago:

Bright Line Eating – by Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson

Enjoy!