7 Strategies to Satisfy Hunger and Lose Weight

[xxthat girlxx]

I took this from HP's gchat (yeah, I mooch off of him...so what?!?). It's for men but I still found it very interesting.

Original Article (http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/7_strategies_to_satisfy_hunger_and_lose_weight/)


Recently, Cornell University researchers asked a group of people a simple question: "How do you know when you're through eating dinner?"

The answer might seem obvious. After all, doesn't everyone push the plate away when they feel full? Well, no. The leanest people do, according to the scientists, but people who are overweight rely more on what are known as "external cues." For example, guys packing a few extra pounds tend to stop eating when . . .

Their plates are clean.
Everyone else in their group is finished.
The TV show they're watching is over.
Unfortunately, these cues have nothing to do with how they feel physically. "People's brains are often out of touch with their bodies," says C. Peter Herman, Ph.D., a University of Toronto expert on appetite control. "And when eating becomes mindless, overeating becomes routine."

The key player in all of this appears to be a region of your brain called the left posterior amygdala, or LPA. This area monitors the volume of food in your stomach during a meal. Fill your gut to a comfortable level, and the LPA tells your brain to drop the fork. Trouble is, it delivers that information at dial-up speed in a DSL world. "Many men consume calories faster than their bodies can say, 'Stop!'" explains Herman. "So they look to external cues to guide their consumption."

The bottom line is this: To shrink your gut, you need to start listening to it. We've scoured the science and tapped the top experts to help you learn how to do just that. Use these seven simple strategies, and you'll fill up without filling out.

[xxthat girlxx]

1) Sit Down to Snack

Turns out, the trappings of a formal meal make you think you're eating more than you actually are—and that may boost satiety levels. A 2006 Canadian study found that when people ate lunch while sitting at a set table, they consumed a third less at a later snack than those who ate their midday meals while standing at a counter.

Think of it as the Zen of eating: "If you treat every dining experience with greater respect, you'll be less likely to use your fork as a shovel," says sports nutritionist and behavioral psychotherapist Lisa Dorfman, M.S., R.D. "And that includes snacks as well as your three squares."

2) Turn Off the Tube

University of Massachusetts researchers found that people who watched TV during a meal consumed 288 more calories on average than those who didn't. The reason: What you're seeing on television distracts you, which keeps your brain from recognizing that you're full.

3) Slow Down and Savor

"Pay close attention to those first three bites, which people usually wolf down due to excitement," says Jeffrey Greeson, Ph.D., a health psychologist at Duke Integrative Medicine. In fact, mimic a food critic: "Examine the food's texture, savor the flavors in your mouth, and then pay attention and feel the swallow," he says. "Psychologically, this form of meditative eating boosts satiety and promotes a sense of satisfaction for the entire meal."

While you're at it, try spicing up relatively bland fare, such as scrambled eggs, with hot sauce or smoked paprika. "Hot, flavorful foods help trigger your brain to realize you're eating," says Dorfman.

4) Take a Bite, Take a Breath

University of Rhode Island researchers discovered that consciously slowing down between bites decreases a person's calorie intake by 10 percent. "Breathing helps you gauge how hungry you are, since it directs your mind toward your body," says Greeson. "It's also quite practical, since you can do it throughout a meal and not draw attention to yourself in a social situation."

5) Don't Share Your Food

Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo observed that men who ate with a group of buddies downed 60 percent more calories than when they ate with a spouse or girlfriend. That's because people often match their intake of food to that of their dining partners.

Of course, you shouldn't have to sit home on guys' night out. Choose one reasonable entrée for yourself, and skip the communal foods—bread, nachos, wings, and pizza, for example—which encourage you to take your eating cues from pals.

6) Keep a Food Journal

It's an effective way to remind yourself how much you're eating over the course of a day. But it doesn't need to be complicated: University of Pittsburgh scientists found that dieters who simply wrote down the size of each meal (S, M, L, XL) were just as successful at losing weight as those who tracked specific foods and calorie counts.

One useful addition: Detail the motivation behind your eating habits. "Were you really hungry or just blowing off steam before bedtime? Recognizing that you weren't feeling true hunger reinforces the idea of listening to your body," says Dorfman.

7) Don't Trust the "Healthy" Menu

You're likely to underestimate your meal's calorie count by about 35 percent, according to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research. The best approach is to check the restaurant's nutrition guide before you order. A University of Mississippi study found that people consumed 54 percent fewer calories when they used this simple strategy.

[hqp921]

I'm going to start call you Minnie The Moocher!

- HP

[MoN]

I especially love the last one... "Dont trust the Healthy Menu"! lolz, it is so true, it may say healthy but that doesnt mean its loaded on caloric intake! And especially if you load it up w/ extra butter, gravy, sauce etc....

[rick moranis fan]

Self control?

[xxthat girlxx]

Self control?

Exactly. I think it is very clear that many don't have it.

[hqp921]

Self control is effective, but the world around you makes it difficult for you.

- Big plates at restaurants = big portion. Old thinking was, "you gotta finish your plate."...
- Peer pressure. At a party, you might just eat because you don't want to mingle. You end up eating more or more crap. Or both.

There are plenty of other "real life" examples too.

I've found it's effective to order a side salad (w/o cheese and bacon or fatty dressing...) to "fill up on" before your meal (your meal isn't fried, is it? Or have melted cheese? Gravy? Both?!). Same goes for if you're headed out to a party or drinking (liquor is a lot of empty calories...). Eat something small before you head out to curb your appetite.

HP

[Superwomanchick]

I eat when i'm bored, i'm really lucky I seem to have a high metabolism because I work at innout therefore I eat fast food at least 5 times a week, starbucks once a day, and i'll sit and watch tv and eat tons of ice cream. My insides are probably shrieking at me haha.

Oh and I absolutely hate how taco bell is advertising that drive through diet thing like it's healthy, notice in the corner it says results not typical. Seems like a lot of places try and trick you into eating there by making it seem like it's healthy when it's not.

[calarina]

The most important rule when eating to lose weight, is:

Stop eating when you're full.

Just because we were all taught to finish our food, when we were kids, doesn't mean to over-stuff yourself just to fulfill that instinct. We're told that as kids because that's when we're growing and need all those nutrients to develop. As we become adults, we still need proper nutrition, but not at the expense of your BMI.

Another important thing to keep in mind, is:

Snacks...not mini-meals

Eating multiple small meals per day is like exercise for your metabolism. Rather than sitting down and gorging on 3 large meals, eat those 3 regular meals until you're full, then snack on the leftovers or other healthy-ish snacks when you're hungry. So what if you're not hungry for lunch, you've been snacking!

These are two rules that I live by, and believe. I was taught to finish my plate too, when I was young, but now I'm 25 and if I do that, I know I'll run into problems. I don't workout, I actually sit around like a couch potato. I used to have a high metabolism, but with age it's slowing down, however I'm 5'6" and still considered underweight at 115lbs.

Being thin doesn't have to make you pull your hair out, it just takes conscious food decisions. :)

[rick moranis fan]

Eating multiple small meals per day is like exercise for your metabolism. Rather than sitting down and gorging on 3 large meals, eat those 3 regular meals until you're full, then snack on the leftovers or other healthy-ish snacks when you're hungry. So what if you're not hungry for lunch, you've been snacking!

IIRC a lot of dietitians say you should eat six meals a day. i.e. breakfast (oatmeal with bananas or some fruit mixed in and glass of milk), mid-morning snack (unsalted peanuts or something and a yogurt), lunch (sandwich on whole wheat bread with applesauce or something), mid-lunch snack (an apple/grapefruit/some kind of fruit), dinner (chicken with brown rice & mixed veggies), post-dinner snack (celery sticks with peanut butter).

Obviously everything consists of something healthy, and the point is that you DON'T rely on three large meals a day and you spread it out over the course of the entire day. That helps with the whole "oh man I can't wait until lunch because I'm starving!" type thing where you will tend to overeat.

I did it for a while and I found it to be pretty tough because you're either eating the same damn thing every day, or you have to be a bit more creative of finding more healthy snacks/meals. It worked pretty good though because I really was never hungry since I was almost eating for the entire day, but I'm like Superwomanchick where I can eat whatever I want whenever I want and not gain a single pound.

It's fun because when the fatties pick on me at work for being so thin, I just rub it in their faces. We do birthday cake every month for birthdays, and the fatties never eat any because they ARE ON A DIET YOU KNOW!! Then when I say I don't want any they break out the jokes about how I "need" it, so I'll say back, "well what I meant to say is that that piece is way too small. I need a bigger piece. Like one a 1/4 of the whole cake." Then I'll sit there and eat it while moaning and saying how amazingly delicious it is. :D

[xxthat girlxx]

I'm with you Bob. Small meals over the course of the day and it is really hard to continue to find new/exciting things to keep this working.

[rick moranis fan]

It is tough, but then again any diet is.

Check out the bodybuilding.com forums for nutritional information. Don't take it all to heart since some of them are just meatheads, but the stickies have pretty good information about what type of foods you should look for.

Stick with it Sarah. :)

[calarina]

I did it for a while and I found it to be pretty tough because you're either eating the same damn thing every day, or you have to be a bit more creative of finding more healthy snacks/meals. It worked pretty good though because I really was never hungry since I was almost eating for the entire day, but I'm like Superwomanchick where I can eat whatever I want whenever I want and not gain a single pound.

I usually have little snacky foods around me, or with me, at all times. If I'm sitting at my computer (which is a large portion of my day), I'll have a bowl or plate of something bite-size that I can pick up and eat easily while gaming. I suppose my lifestyle makes it a necessity to have easy-to-eat stuff sitting around, cuz if I didn't, I would forget I'm hungry and end up not eating enough!

Easy snacky things to keep around are grapes, crackers, dried fruit, nuts, carrots, anything bite-size really. I can't say I snack healthy all the time, but I attribute snacking to staying the same size regardless of my unhealthy lifestyle.