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Why you spend more while dieting

The worst time to shop? After passing on that piece of cake, according to a recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Two groups of people were asked to write down any thoughts they had in six minutes; one was told not to think about a specific image (in this case, a white bear). Afterward, individuals in both groups went shopping with the same amount of money. Those who had been required to exercise self-control spent nearly three times as much as those allowed to think freely. The lesson: "Your willpower is limited," says study author Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota. "It's hard to exercise control in more than one major way at a time."