How to Stop Overeating at Mealtimes
Successfully avoiding overeating during meals requires more than just willpower. Overeating results from a variety of causes ranging from emotional and psychological to the chemical and physiological. If it were easy to stop overeating, obesity wouldn't be such a widespread problem. Eating creates a feeling of "fullness" by triggering your body's vagus nerve, which directs your stomach to expand and sends peptides to your brain. Ideally, this brain signal registers these feelings of fullness and stops you from further eating.
Instructions
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Snack strategically. According to an August 2000 study published in the journal "The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society," eating small snacks of carbohydrates and fat helps curtail overeating during mealtime. Snacks like low-fat cheese and whole wheat crackers or some fruit and cottage cheese offer small amounts of both fats and carbohydrates. These healthy, balanced snacks in between meals curb ravenous hunger, preventing you from overeating at your next meal.
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Reduce your portion sizes. A June 2007 study published in the journal "Obesity" found that when they increased subjects' food portions by 50 percent over 11 days, the individuals unknowingly consumed nearly 500 more calories per day. Overeating is easier when the extra food is sitting in on your plate. Put your food on a smaller plate or allocate the correct portion into a separate container before the meal even begins. At restaurants, order the "lunch" portion or request that half your order go directly into a doggy bag before the waiter even serves your table.
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Eat slowly. An October 2009 report in the "Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism" found that people who ate their meal over a period of 30 minutes felt more full than those who ate everything within five minutes. Eating large quantities quickly doesn't give your body time to properly acknowledge the food. Begin with the healthiest items on your plate, such as the fruits and veggies, before diving into the carbohydrates. Consuming the healthiest items first promotes feelings of fullness, and can reduce the amount of less healthy items you eat later in the meal.
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References
- PubMed.gov: Role of Dietary Carbohydrate and Frequent Eating in Body-Weight Control
- Stonehill College: Nutrition
- Brookhaven National Laboratory News: Study Offers New Clues to Brain-Stomach Interaction in Overeating
- Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism: Eating Slowly Increases the Postprandial Response of the Anorexigenic Gut Hormones, Peptide YY and Glucagon-Like Peptide-1
- PubMed.gov: The Effect of Large Portion Sizes on Energy Intake Is Sustained for 11 Days
- Photo Credit almonds image by Joann Cooper from Fotolia.com
