5 Mindful Ways to Eat Fewer Calories

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

(CC) slightly everything/Flickr

It was a beautiful summer evening. My date and I had found an Asian restaurant on a quiet street in that large unfamiliar city. We had only known each other for a few hours, but we seemed to already share that comfortable happy feeling. I replayed that scene from an old Woody Allen movie in my head about trying to kiss her before dinner, but thought better of it.

The restaurant was empty of diners except for the two of us, not that we minded, and we sat down at a side table. Everything felt pretty good except for the very bright light over the table. Without giving it much thought, I reached up and twisted the bulb just enough to solve that problem.

I didn’t feel very hungry that evening, and all along I thought it was because of the charms of my companion, but a recent study on how lower ambient restaurant lighting and softer music affect our calorie consumption sheds a different, albeit less romantic, light on the situation.

Cornell University researchers found that a combination of softer lighting and music correlated to restaurant diners eating fewer calories. Not only did they consume fewer calories, but they also reported enjoying their food more. I definitely remember enjoying myself that evening!

“These results suggest that a more relaxed environment increases satisfaction and decreases consumption,” said researcher Brian Wansink, Ph.D., director of Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab.

The study, published in the journal Psychological Reports, used a modified fast food restaurant environment in which there was a regular area and a dining room where the music and lighting were more subdued. The study group consisted of 62 hungry diners divided between the two areas.

Both groups ordered approximately the same amount of food, but the people who sat in the modified dining area spent more time eating, yet consumed less food, and in addition, they rated their meal better overall.

“There are… implications for consumers who want to eat less,” the researchers stated in the publication. “The way to ‘have your cake and eat it too’ may be to enjoy the atmosphere instead of the cake.” Even researchers can have a sense of humor.

5 Ways to Eat Less at the Table

1. Eat with a large fork. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research showed that people who used a large fork — they used a 20 percent bigger fork in the study — ate less food and left more on their plates than people who ate with really small forks. In addition, the deadly combination of eating with a smaller fork and having a bigger serving of food led to the diners eating much more food than if they just had the smaller forks or if they just had the bigger serving.
2. Eat from smaller bowls. A study from the Georgia Institute of Technology showed that people ate 31 percent more ice cream when they ate it out of a 34-ounce bowl compared to a 17-ounce bowl. It is also a good idea to let someone else fill your bowl; people tended to eat more if they took the food themselves.
3. Eat at the table without distractions. Where we eat our food can also influence how much we eat, and even whether we eat even if we are not hungry, according to research from the University of Southern California. If we are watching TV or in a movie theater, or sporting event, we will tend to eat more, even if the food is stale because of the environment! “The results show just how powerful our environment can be in triggering unhealthy behavior,” said study researcher David Neal. “Sometimes willpower and good intentions are not enough, and we need to trick our brains by controlling the environment instead.”
4. Eat using your non-dominant hand. Research published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin shows that eating using your non-dominant hand can lead to you eating less. The study found that people who used their non-dominant hands ate 30 percent less than if they used the other hand while eating. Eating with both hands is definitely not recommended.
5. Eat using chopsticks. I’ve found that using chopsticks will also lead to eating less as well as increase the time spent eating and, in my opinion, increase the enjoyment.

Perhaps one of the commonalities of all these behaviors is that doing these things will make us more mindful of the fact that we are eating and in how we eat. If you have never done any of these behaviors, try them and see whether or not it has a positive effect on your eating experience and decreases the amount of calories you consume.

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

5 Mindful Ways to Eat Fewer Calories is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

Source: http://calorielab.com/news/2012/09/05/eat-fewer-calories/

diet meals delivered hcg diet reviews original hcg diet weight loss programs for women a good diet