5 Ways Slow Eating Can Increase Weight Loss

A man named Joey Chestnut (nicknamed “Jaws”) is the number one speed eater in the world. According to Major League Eating, he once ate a record 74 hotdogs (with the buns) in 10 minutes at the national Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest on Coney Island. Over the years, he’s also made short work of pizza, pastrami, Philly cheesesteaks and Boysenberry pie. That’s all in a day’s work for Chestnut. He makes a lot of money speed-eating. But for the rest of us, wolfing down our food like a competitive eater just wins us pounds. Slow eating practices may be the answer.

In fact, a three yearlong study published in the Journal of Epidemiology found that fast eaters have a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome than those who practice slow eating. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of health problems, including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and excess abdominal fat that can be a forerunner to type 2 diabetes.

On the other hand, taking your time eating has major benefits. In a recent study published in the International Journal of Obesity, researchers looked at the eating habits of 60,000 people. They found that taking your time can decrease your risk of obesity. Even better, they discovered that the study subjects who put the brakes on their eating speed over the course of the study lost weight.

How to Practice Mindful Eating

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Here’s are some other scientific reasons why you should join the slow eating movement:

1. You’ll eat fewer calories.

According to Harvard Health, the gut and nervous system communicate via hormone signals. They explain that it can take “about 20 minutes for the brain to register satiety (fullness)”. If you eat too fast, you may end up overeating before your gut can tell your brain that it’s had enough.

The secret to slowing down your eating is to chew more. Researchers at the University of Rhode Island found that women who were told to eat quickly consumed 646 calories in nine minutes. When these same women were instructed to stop between bites and chew 15 to 20 times per bite, they reduced their calorie intake to just 579 calories in 29 minutes.

The number of chews per meal may be significant. A 2011 study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that optimum number of chews to significantly reduce calorie intake was 40. Chewing more may also be able to help you curb your appetite for some of your favorite foods. A study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, found that slower chewing could even reduce the intake of yummy pizza by as much as 14.8%.

2. You’ll feel full and satisfied.

Slowing your pace can help you enjoy your food more, feeding what scientists call “hedonic hunger.” According to Live Science, this is the need to experience pleasure in eating. Humans are programmed to take pleasure in our food. It’s a throwback to a time when there wasn’t so much food readily available. When a tasty food presented itself—like a bush full of sweet and highly palatable berries—our tickled taste buds told us to eat more and more even if we weren’t starving or even hungry. Those were feast or famine times and starvation was always around the corner—desiring sweet things gave us a survival advantage.

Slow eating can help you pay more attention to the flavors, textures and enjoyment of a meal. According to a study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, it’s also more likely to make you feel physical full than gobbling it in record time.

3. You won’t binge.

Mindful eating has been shown in several studies to help people not only lose weight but also control binge eating. According to Harvard Health, a government-sponsored study was done at Indiana State and Duke Universities. In this study, binge eaters practiced mindfulness techniques while eating. They found that the participants experienced increased enjoyment while eating and decreased struggle in controlling their consumption.

Harvard Health mentions several recommendations for mindful and slow eating, such as eating with your non-dominant hand, eating with chopsticks, setting a timer for 20 minutes, taking small bites and asking yourself if you’re really hungry prior to eating.

Mindful Eating: Questions to Ask Yourself Pre-Meal

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4. You’ll burn more calories.

Hey, chewing is exercise! A 2014 study in the journal Obesity found that chewing your food “until no lumps remain” increases the number of calories you burn. They found that participants burned about 10 extra calories per every 300-calorie meal when they ate slowly. You could potentially burn 1,000 calories or more a month, the researchers suggest.

5. You’re less likely to gain weight.

Slow eating can keep you from struggling with losing that “last five pounds” over and over again. In a study published in the journal Appetite, researchers at Fukuoka University in Japan tracked over 500 people for eight years and compared their weight change. Those who ate more quickly gained more weight (almost five pounds) than those who ate slowly.

Nutrisystem can help you gain control of your eating habits with delicious, portion-controlled meals. Learn more about our programs >

6 Science-Backed Reasons to Log Your Food Today

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The post 5 Ways Slow Eating Can Increase Weight Loss appeared first on The Leaf.

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GW is 8 pounds away. How can I make sure that this is the very last time?

I've been losing and gaining the same 25 all of my adult life. My goal is in sight now, about a month away and I want this to be the last time that I'm in this position. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of twice a year gorging on huge portions, my race times slowing and feeling like an absolute human dumpster fire. I'm sick of the twice a year epilogue to this where I have to weigh and obsess and begin to see the exercise that I love as punishment for eating.

Up until now, my favoured way of weight loss has been keto- which has been unsustainable for my lifestyle. CICO has allowed me to lose the 16 pounds so far without feeling deprived and allowing for convenience eating. I think I have a better grasp on portion sizes now and generally good habits that I want to continue.

Can anyone advise me on what a good plan of action would be from this point? My bf suggested maybe eating for a 1 pound loss a week as opposed to a 2, as then I'll have a longer window to ease myself into maintenance even if reaching goal takes a bit longer.

I just don't want to be here again. I know I have food problems and I need to talk it out with someone- but any advice you can give me will be hugely appreciated.

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Wednesday, 23 October 2019? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

Welcome to r/Loseit!

So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.

Why you’re overweight

Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.

Before You Start

The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.

Tracking

Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.

Creating Your Deficit

How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.

The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.

Exercise

Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel awesome and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.

Crawl, Walk, Run

It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.

Acceptance

You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.

Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

Additional resources

Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

• Quick Start Guide - Build your foundation!
• Loseit Compendium - Frame it out!
• FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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What a 30 pound difference makes, suoer happy with my progress

254 lb vs 220 lb: https://drive.google.com/file/d/171I2Jx_Th1T7B49sADN3uQ0x5QYm42x9/view?usp=drivesdk

I know its not much yet, but im happy. My goal is 150 lb so i still have lots of work to do! Im just feeling good now because I'm starting to see my figure, with all this hecking fat, i had no idea what my figure was besides round. This is just pushing me even more to keep shedding pounds!

Im surprised at my stamina increase, i havent even lost much, and standing has been less painful. This is amazing, my entire life i have been struggling and no diet ever worked for me, and ive never lost more than five pounds before gaining double.

My advice for anyone struggling, is just stop the fancy diets. Now. I didnt cut out any food, all i did is count calories and macros. 1500-1600 calories a day, no restrictions other than that. If you restrict yourself, once the diet is over, and start eating food you deprived yourself of, you will gain it all back. With calorie counting, you'll never have to worry about that, only maintaining balance. Also, there's a point where your weight wont budge. Thats when you bump up the calories for a few days, then bump back down. Metabolism will get to work again, and you'll keep listing weight as before. Also, water is very important. I am notorious for not drinking water, I'd go days without it simply because i forget, but I've made an effort to drink water and it's definitely helping lots, i notice a difference. It reduces bloating, and of course it's cleansing.

This is a really good way of losing weight for me as someone who cant find the time to exercise daily. Due to medical issues that get in the way, sometimes i physically cant exercise for weeks, but that doesnt halt my weight loss. That's why i love this, because it doesn't feel like a diet most times. Though when it does, i just remember, hard work pays off, and its worth it. Sure, cravings are a thing, but holding off and not giving into them is a great feeling and just motivates more. It's okay to give in though! Not the end of the world.

Exercise tip: Have fun with it. I incorporate a lot of silly things into exercising since i need lots of mental stimulants to keep me from forgetting what im doing. This includes... turning on Spongebob while doing cardio.. Blasting music and such. Just a tip for people with racing minds. If i don't do this, I'll literally forget im exercising and just stop midway and become confused. So this seems silly, but yes i frequently put on Spongebob or music to so i can focus. Singing helps too. Anything that can be done at the same time as exercising.

Well, those are my somewhat useful yet strange tips! I really hope someone finds this helpful.

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Challenged myself to weigh everything today before logging

Holy moly, I've been eating a ton of Wishful Thinking calories. My "half tablespoon" of butter and "three cups" of air popped popcorn is actually 15 g (a tablespoon is 14g) of butter and 66 g popcorn (according to myfitnesspal, three cups of air popped popcorn is 90 calories while 66 grams is 252 calories) . 100 g of salmon is like...no salmon.

I'm 5'2. My margin between weight loss, weight gain, and infinite plateau is small enough that 400 calories of wishful thinking can definitely nuke my progress (not to mention my motivation). That's like a fourth of my BMR.

How do you navigate between all or nothing thinking and forming sustainable habits?

I get that certain foods are more calorie dense than others. It just seems like all of them are too calorie dense when you want to eat as much as you'd want. So do I weigh everything from now on? I feel like an idiot that I've been gaining weight eating "healthy snacks" because I've been a total cow about weighing the amount of popcorn I eat.

I am not new to dieting. I am perfectly aware of how much a cup is. Why do we self sabotage like this? Has anyone else had this sort of experience?

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I’m new! Could use some tips/ motivation

Hello! I’m not new to weight loss journeys but I am new to this community. I’m trying something new to help me hold myself accountable and I figured a community would help.

5’3” F SW:165 GW: 120-129 CW: 137

So I fluctuate A LOT and I don’t know if it’s a genetic thing or a lifestyle thing but I have a huge range where I actually like my body and it’s between 120 and 135. But I always wanna aim for the lower end because the closer I get to the higher end, I feel like I might spiral into my old habits and undo the 2/3 years of work I just did.

I’m on a mostly whole food plant based diet with no oil which makes it really hard to eat out anywhere most of the time but lately I find myself craving all the vegan junk food I used to eat when I was heavier. Also, as vegan food has gotten pretty popular, it’s hard to resist trying all the new products that come out. I lost a lot of weight switching to this diet at first without even trying because the food I could eat was basically all healthy. I didn’t really have to learn to resist processed food but now I do.

I also binge eat when I’m stressed out or bored or depressed (which is often 😅) and find it hard to not overeat even healthy stuff (because a calorie is a calorie after all) like fruit or nuts.

Another problem I’m having is alcohol. I’m 26 and my friends like to get together and drink and chat even just one on one, not necessarily partying. I find it hard to resist drinking a bottle of wine on a Saturday night even just sitting in my living room by myself watching a movie. I wouldn’t say I have a drinking problem but I enjoy drinking 2-3 times a week. I stopped drinking beer completely and that’s helped a LOT. but I still love my wine and cocktails.

I recently started exercising for the first time in a long time (4 months) but I’m having a hard time not becoming bored. I do yoga or HIIT body weight workouts. The last hiit workout I did was only about 25 minutes and I was dying. I couldn’t even finish it and had to keep pausing to catch my breath. How do you start working out again after a long break and find a way to enjoy it when you’ve become to out of shape? It’s very discouraging to not be able to finish a video I was able to do easily only a few months ago.

Any advice, encouragement, tips etc. appreciated!

(Note: I am vegan for the animals so please no anti vegan talk/ advice! :) it will fall on deaf ears )

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The things they don’t warn you about before losing weight

I started really focusing on weight loss and getting healthier on Valentine’s Day this year. February 14th. Roughly 8 months ago. At that point, I was at my highest weight ever, completely infertile after having six miscarriages and going through fertility treatment, and just sick of feeling trapped in my own skin. I saw my doctor to make sure she was involved with everything I planned on doing and would be able to monitor me throughout my weight loss to make sure I didn’t do anything wrong or dumb and got started. I worked my way up to working out six days a week for an hour at a time. I cut my portions in half, cut sugar out almost entirely and cut my carbs severely. I maintain an intake of 1600-2000 calories per day and make sure to burn 800-1000 per day in my workout. With PCOS and Empty Sella Turcica working against me, I have to be pretty strict. In those eight months, I’ve managed to lose 78 pounds which feels absolutely amazing. I’ve had to buy a new wardrobe, adjust my seat in the car, I can fit on rollercoasters I never dreamed of, I no longer dread my photo being taken. My fertility isn’t 100% dead anymore. It’s wonderful. However there has been a downside. I find myself completely overly emotional where I have never been before. I cry at the drop of a hat. The smallest most insignificant thing will set me up. For example, I heard a song that is the theme song to my favorite tv show. Said TV show is ending after this year. Que me sobbing on the couch for half an hour feeling like the world’s biggest weirdo. I’ve also seemed to have shrunk. I had read that most people tend to grow when they lose weight. Not me. I’ve lost nearly two inches. Since I was six feet tall to begin with. I shouldn’t really complain, but I’m still going to. Because, as I mentioned, I’m crazy emotional. Has anyone else experienced anything like these things? I can’t possibly be alone here.

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