If you’re trying to lose those unwanted pounds, you might want to know some tricks to eat less throughout the day. Sticking to a healthy diet isn’t fun and easy. Between consuming bland foods and depriving yourself, you may simply give up after the first few weeks. When you fool yourself into eating less, it’s much easier to achieve your weight loss goal. Below is the list of 10 sneaky tricks that will help you to eat less throughout the day.
1. Water
Drinking a full glass of water before eating is one of the best ways to trick yourself into eating less. The point is, the water fills the stomach and you feel full faster from your meal. In fact, the water is not the only drink that fills the stomach. Juice is another option. Just make sure you avoid soda, sweet teas and coffee. They are just empty calories your body doesn’t need at all. I recommend drinking water with lemon that helps with nausea as well.
2. Small plate
Believe it or not, but a small plate can really help you to eat less. Many people say that this easy trick doesn’t work, but I can say from my personal experience that it actually works. When your plate is big, you have a lot of space for food. When your plate or bowl is smaller, you don’t have free space to pile up food. Buy smaller plates, eat less and drop those unwanted pounds with almost no effort.
3. Non-dominant hand
Whether you are enjoying your meal or snacking, try switching to your non-dominant hand in order to eat less. The research conducted by psychologists of the University of Southern California showed that people who ate with their non-dominant hand consumed less food (popcorn was used in this experiment) than those who used their dominant hand.
4. Large fork
I know, I know, this sounds absolutely ridiculous, but the study published in the Journal of Consumer Research showed that eating with a larger fork can help to consume less food. You think you’re making more progress on your meal and eat more, but in fact you eat less.
5. Eating slowly
When you eat fast you eat more food and you may eventually gain weight. By eating slower, you will consume less food, and that will help you drop more pounds. Plus, eating slowly enhances the pleasure of the enjoyable dining experience. Enjoy your meal slowly, ladies!
6. Stop eating while watching TV
A lot of different studies show that when people are distracted, they typically eat more. If you like eating while watching your favorite shows, I guess this is a bad news for you. You should break this habit immediately if you don’t want to gain weight. Eating while playing on the computer or reading is another bad habit to break.
7. Sugar-free gum
To eat less, always carry sugar-free gum in your pocket or purse. The ingredients in the chewing gum can curb your cravings and help you snack less. And if your friend has a junk fest that includes potato chips, cookies and ice cream, and you are trying to stick to your diet, sugar-free gum will certainly help control your cravings.
8. Move healthy food up front
When we enter the store, most of us snap up the food items at the front since they are the first thing we see. This same behavior can also happen in your kitchen. Have you ever noticed that you take the first food item you see in your fridge than the fourth or fifth? If you want to eat less, place healthy foods such as fresh fruits and veggies front and center in your fridge and make sure you hide high-calorie foods in the back.
9. Make smart food swaps
Whether you are trying to eat healthy or lose weight, you need to learn how to make smart food swaps. While chocolate is chocolate and bacon is bacon, you can opt for dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and eat Canadian bacon instead of regular bacon. If you know what smart food swaps to make, you can easily trick your mind into thinking you are satisfied. Just make sure you control your portions and use the tricks I mentioned before.
10. Learn to eat mindfully
The key to eating less is to eat mindfully. Pay attention to how your body feels after eating. If you always feel an energy crash after eating, it’s a sure sigh you overeat. Learn to eat mindfully and really enjoy what you eat. Hopefully, these several tips on how to start eating mindfully will help you.
Healthy eating plan and exercise are two essential things for weight loss. However, these simple tricks will help put you much closer to your weight loss goal. How do you fool yourself into eating less throughout the day? Please, feel free to share your weight loss tips with us.