Losing Weight Without Thinking About It

Who has never heard that eating in a smaller plate makes us eat less, while still being satisfied by the smaller serving? This type of tips tricks our brain into eating less without being conscious of it. By cumulating several of these tips, it is possible to lose up to 20 lb in a year! So here are some other tips to change your environment to promote weight loss!

Superstores

Who wouldn’t like to save a few bucks by shopping for groceries in superstores such as Costco or Giant Tiger? The fact is that the super low prices of these products not only incite us to buy more, but the large sizes also make us eat up to 20 or 30 % more! To address this situation, transfer the product you bought in the original packaging, and put the remaining quantity in a pantry or in the basement, away from prying eyes. If you buy an enormous quantity of individual-sized packs, keep only 4 or 5 in the pantry.

Proximity

You’re eyeing the tempting bowl of candy you keep on your desk? Simply hiding it in a drawer of your desk will make you eat 71 % less, which is about 77 calories per day, or the equivalent of 5 pounds a year! Even better, store it a few meters away from your desk. Simply having to get up will make you think twice about whether or not you should eat this candy (or chocolate). You come home through the kitchen door and can’t help nibbling at anything that’s handy? Use another door to come in, such as the living room door for example, and only step in the kitchen when it’s meal time!

Service

Once it’s time to eat, decide what you are going to eat and put everything on a plate (first course/main meal/drinks/dessert). This makes us realize what we are going to eat. If, on the other hand, there are several plates on the table while we eat and we take servings in different plates as we go along our meal, we will eat more! Incredible, isn’t it? Often, our eyes are better than we think at assessing the quantity of food we need!

Containers

Even if two glasses can contain the same quantity, choose long, thin glasses rather than small, large ones. You brain underestimates the quantity of liquid contained in small, large glasses; you will therefore drink more calories if you use them. Inversely, if you have a hard time drinking enough water, use them! Avoid oversized serving dishes and spoons, because you will also have a tendency to give more generous servings if you use larger dishes and utensils.

Variety

The more colors in your plate, the more you will eat! Indeed, between a bowl of 7 colors of M&M^® and one with 10, people tend to eat twice as much of the most colored ones! Use this tactic to your advantage by having a multitude of vegetables of various colors so that you can eat more of them! The same goes for fruit!

And you, what are your tips for eating less?

By Caroline Proulx

References

Wansick, B. (2006). Conditionnés pour trop manger. (1re Ed., pp. 9-239). Barcelone, Espagne: Thierry Soucar.

Losing Weight Without Thinking About It is a post from Nautilus Plus. The Nautilus Plus blog aims to help people in their journey to fitness through articles on training, nutrition, motivation, exercise and healthy recipes.
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