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Today I'd like to offer you a very short but powerful list of practical, quick to implement, evidence-based tips to stop overeating:
- Avoid Distracted Eating: A recent meta-analysis of 24 studies on distracted eating revealed that distraction during a meal not only increased immediate intake of calories and food but also intake later that day. In other words, the negative impact of allowing yourself to become distracted while eating one meal during the day may have a lasting impact on the rest! To counter this, consider turning off all screens while you eat, sitting down at a table, and putting your fork down between bites.
- Take a Picture of Your Food: In line with the above, people who utilized active techniques such as taking pictures of their food to help remember what they'd eaten don't necessarily eat less at the designated picture meal but do decrease their intake later in the day. It may be that taking food pictures prevents us from fooling ourselves into thinking we've eaten less than we actually have, and this awareness stays with us and influences our choices throughout the day.
- Don't Eat on the Go: In a study published in the Journal of Health Psychology, researchers found that participants who ate on the go consumed five times more chocolate than even those who were distracted by watching television or talking to others while they ate. If you're going to eat, center yourself, relax, and enjoy the food. Multitasking eating activity is a bad idea!
- Keep Snacks Out of Sight and Beyond Arm's Reach: A study published in the International Journal of Obesity examined the impact of proximity on how many chocolate candies office workers would eat. The findings? People ate 2.2 more candies when they were visible, and 1.8 more chocolates when they were within arm's reach. Keep snacks out of sight in a desk drawer and/or cupboard on the other side of the room.
- Keep a Food Journal: A meta-analysis of 22 different self-monitoring studies published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found a significant association between the simple awareness of what foods were consumed and weight loss. So while we always encourage healthy eating, it appears that even without a change of diet one can lose weight if by simply writing down the food as it is eaten.
Please see here for more practical tips and tricks to stop overeating, binge eating, or just plain going beyond your own best judgement.
References
Ogden J, Oikonomou E, Alemany G. (2017). "Distraction, restrained eating and disinhibition: An experimental study of food intake and the impact of 'eating on the go'." Journal of Health Psychology, 2017 Jan;22(1):39-50. Jul 10.
Robinson, E., Aveyard, P., Daley, A., Jolly, K., Lewis, A., Lycett, D., Higgs, S. (2013). "Eating attentively: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of food intake memory and awareness on eating." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 97(4): 728–742.
Petre, A. (2019).
"13 Science-Backed Tips to Stop Mindless Eating." Blog post. [Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/13-tips-to-stop-mindless-eating ]
Wasink, B., Painter, J.E., and Lee, Y. K. (2006). "The office candy dish: proximity's influence on estimated and actual consumption." International Journal of Obesity Volume 30, p. 871–875.
Burke, L.E., Wang, J. Sevick, M. (2011). "Self-Monitoring in Weight Loss: A Systematic Review of the Literature." Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2011 Jan; 111(1): 92–102
Kubala, J. (2018). 23 Simple Things You Can Do to Stop Overeating. Blog Post. [Retrieved from: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-to-stop-overeating ]
