How to Eat Less
You should never eat less than what your body needs. The right question is: how not to overeat? Several common practices, though seemingly sensible, are ultimately ineffective:
1. Portion control. Don’t ever turn dieting into a test of your willpower. In a contest between discipline and indulgence, indulgence always wins.
2. Smaller plates. It’s like saying an alcoholic could be cured by drinking only from shot glasses.
3. Drink excessive water. This is one of the biggest myths. Water empties out of the digestive tract too quickly to influence satiety. From personal experience, drinking water when hungry can exacerbate the sensation of hunger.
4. Mindful eating. It’s one of those things that cannot be falsified.
5. Eat slowly. Eating too fast is the symptom, not the cause.
Here are 5 straightforward science-based strategies:
- Eat food that stays longer and reaches deeper in your digestive tract
The body has a complicated system to decide whether it needs food, a system scientists do not yet fully understand. This process involves far more than just the fullness of the stomach. Food interacts with various parts of the digestive tract, triggering a range of biochemical reactions. It appears that when food remains in a less digested state within the intestine, the brain interprets this as a signal that the body does not need more nourishment. This is, at least in part, the current explanation for how medications like Ozempic function.
Which foods take longer to digest? Among the three macronutrients, protein and fat are significantly more complicated to digest than carbohydrates. They remain in the stomach longer and travel deeper into the intestine before being fully broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream. Another category of long-lasting food is fiber. The body cannot digest fiber, so it passes through the stomach and small intestine intact. Some fibers are eventually broken down by bacteria in the large intestine.
To prolong the feeling of fullness, increase the proportion of protein, healthy fat, and fiber in your diet. To take this a step further, during a meal, eat vegetables first and carbohydrates last.
2. Prepare healthy snacks
The key to the successful execution of any plan is anticipating and preparing for challenges. The worst overeating happens when you are caught off guard with pangs of hunger.
What are good snacks to prevent overeating? It’s the same food that keeps you full longer: high in protein, rich in fiber, containing healthy fats, and low in sugar. They should also be readily available. Ideal snacks include unsalted nuts, plain yogurt, cheese, and fresh fruit. That is why those foods belong to the same category in The Positive Eating Plan.
3. Track how much you have eaten, quantitatively and objectively
Research consistently shows that people tend to significantly underestimate their food intake, so no eyeballing. The key here is to be objective and quantitative. You don’t need to track calories. A simpler and more straightforward metric is the weight of the food consumed.
4. Know and avoid the foods that are easy to overeat
Objective tracking of food intake is essential because the body can easily be deceived into consuming more than necessary. The food industry has invested heavily in the science of making food irresistibly palatable. These engineered foods are easily recognizable — they’re the ones you find difficult to stop eating. They vary in form but are generally high in sugar, salt, and fat. A straightforward guideline to follow is this: don’t eat out of a bag.
5. Don’t drink your calories. Eat your water
The number one rule of weight control is this: do not drink your calories. A 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola contains 140 calories, requiring roughly 30 minutes of brisk walking to burn off. If you crave something sweet, opt for ice cream. Ice cream offers three advantages over soda:
1. It requires more effort to consume, so it’s harder to overeat.
2. It raises blood glucose levels more gradually, as the fat content slows sugar absorption.
3. It actually signals to the body it’s getting full.
The best alternative to stay hydrated throughout the day is plain water. If it’s hard for you to drink a lot of water, an effective method is to consume foods with high water content, such as fresh produce.
By the way, carbonated water is not a flawless substitute for sugary sodas. Although it contains no calories and may even provide beneficial trace minerals, the dissolved carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid. This acidic environment is not good for your teeth.
