Can music reduce food cravings?

“Music can change the world”

—Beethoven

This week in our Facebook community, our challenge was to create a feel-good playlist. 

We’ve all felt the motivational power of music when it comes to exercising, but did you know that listening to music can actually help you reduce food cravings?

Studies have shown that music (presumably music you like!) stimulates the release of dopamine.  Dopamine is the ‘reward’ neurotransmitter – the pleasure we get from a hit of dopamine motivates us to repeat that action.  Exercise also triggers a dopamine release, so when you’re moving to music, you’re getting a double whammy. 

Think about how you feel when exercising to loud music, jiving in the club or doing the housework to your banging tunes.  You feel good right?

And it’s more than that…

You feel like life is good…

You feel, dare I say…

Fulfilled.

But how does that affect food cravings?

Well, eating food also triggers a dopamine release – it’s a normal part of our survival response.  I mean our primal ancestors needed a bit more motivation to hunt and gather than we need to stroll to the fridge these days. 

A hit of dopamine motivates you to ‘go hunting.’

But this food-induced release of dopamine can be addictive, particularly when it’s out of synch with the minimal effort required to achieve the reward – something that is evident when you consider that ingesting cocaine also increases your supplies of dopamine!

The point is… those constant food cravings are simply a normal part of our innate primal survival system.  If we work against them and try to apply “willpower”, we’re just creating a permanent state of internal conflict – your willpower against your primal survival instincts. 

Yup, it ain’t gunna end well!

Far better instead to understand what is going on and work WITH your body and survival brain. 

Instead of wandering to the fridge (or picking up your phone for that matter – another potentially unhealthy dopamine triggering device), you can find healthier ways to satisfy your brain’s need for a fulfilling dopamine reward.

And music and exercise are two great examples!

This simple approach of listening to more music helps you to satisfy those cravings with something other than food. And when you’re not turning to food every 5 minutes, it helps you to remove some of that inner conflict between your intentions and your actions (and ALL the guilt and frustration shizzle that comes along with that).

It’s a small step, but it can have a huge impact. 

Put it together with other small, simple steps and bit by bit, the landscape of your life can start completely transforming.  And that’s what we’re all about at Eat Sleep Play Repeat.

So create your feel-good playlist right now – get those speakers pumping – and dance around the room like nobody is watching!

Because you’re having fun, you’re feeling good, you’re getting fitter, the dopamine is flowing and you’re feeling fulfilled!

And when you’re feeling fulFILLED, you don’t feel the need to fill yourself with food.

All my love, Suze