Sticking to a diet is key for losing weight. So it stands to reason that letting would-be dieters choose a weight loss program that seems relatively¹ tasty and palatable² would help them lose weight.

坚持节食是减肥的关键，所以，“让想要节食的人选择一种相对来说‘美味可口’的减肥计划会帮助他们减肥”这种说法就显得合情合理了。

Right?

是这样吗？

Possibly not. When a group of researchers recently tested it out, they found the opposite was true: Obese³ clinic patients at a Veterans Affairs medical center in North Carolina who were allowed to choose a diet plan lost less weight than obese patients who were assigned a diet to follow.

大概不是。当一组研究人员最近对此进行测验时发现，结果恰恰相反。北卡罗来纳州退伍军人医疗中心收治的肥胖门诊病人中，那些被允许选择饮食的比被安排好饮食的肥胖病人减掉的体重要少。

"Providing a choice of diets to patients does not enhance and may actually hinder weight loss," wrote Dr. William S. Yancy of Duke University and the Durham VA Medical Center and coauthors in a study released in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

威廉·S·杨斯博士写道：“让病人自己选择饮食并没有提高减肥效果，而且可能恰恰阻碍了减肥。”他就职于美国杜克大学和达拉谟退伍军人医疗中心，也是一项在《内科医学年鉴》发表的研究合著者。

The researchers speculated that people who chose a diet that included more foods they liked may have been more likely to overeat, or that dieters might have experienced something like a "personal trainer effect," in which they were more likely to follow the regimen if someone else directed them to do so.

据研究人员推测，那些选择了含有很多自己喜欢食物的节食者更有可能吃多。又或者是研究对象可能体验过“私人教练效应”，也就是在别人的指导下，他们更有可能遵循养生法。