New year, new you. For many people, a new you really means a new diet, shorn of white carbs, fried foods and ice cream. (Losing weight is, by far, the most popular New Year’s resolution.) Alas, the new you has to struggle against the habits of the old you, which knows perfectly well how delicious French fries taste. Most diets fail because the old you wins.

Why is the new you so weak? A recent study in Psychological Science by Deborah Tang, Lesley Fellows and Alain Dagher at McGill University helps reveal the profound challenges faced by the typical dieter, struggling for a slimmer waistline. We were not designed to diet; the mind does not crave celery. We were designed to gorge.

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There are no easy fixes here, which is why losing weight is so hard. This is true at the individual level – the cravings of the old you are difficult to resist – and at the societal level, as the government seeks to persuade people to make healthier eating choices. In fact, this study helps explain why calorie labeling on menus doesn’t seem to work very well, at least in some early trials. Although the labels attempt to educate consumers about the true caloric content of foods, the brain is already tracking calories, which makes it hard for the fine-print on menus to compete. And even if we did notice the energetic heft of the smoothie it’s not clear how much we’d care. Simply put, we are wired to prefer those foods with the most fuel, even when that fuel makes us fat.

The old you wins again.

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