1) When grocery shopping make a list and do not deviate. There are financial reasons you relentlessly encounter “Buy Two Get 1 Dollar Off” end cap promotions on cheap energy dense food. Also, stay away from those bagel bites “free” samples…research shows that around 40% of people who sample a food, purchase that food.
2) Refrain from stockpiling easy to eat prepared food items that are off your current plan…like chips and other carb and fat heavy snacky items. Studies show that when these foods are stockpiled and visible people just unknowingly eat more.
3) During meals…put your phone down. Mindless eating can influence both current and future consumption. Mindless eating tends to result in an increase in calories consumed while eating and even a decline in remembering what and how much you ate which can in turn influence later consumption!
The cool thing is that these three tips don’t even directly involve changing your food choices. Just taking back your food environment and slightly manipulating your purchasing behaviors for easy and potentially BIG wins!
*This one doesn't really need references. No one in their right mind would argue with this.
Why We Believe in Pre-Portioned Meals and You Should To!
It's no secret, portion sizes have been increasing for the last 50 years and we have become habituated to a new SUPER-SIZED normal. Evolutionarily, we all want the best deal. Our subconscious craves the cheapest most-delicious calorie-rich food…unfortunately, in our current environment that generally means nutrient-poor low-protein snack items or hyper-palatable fast food.
When we are surrounded by larger packages, larger servings, and more variety of these items…we eat more.
“Larger than necessary meals promote passive overconsumption, and research has demonstrated a positive association between the portion size served and the amount consumed, though no association between ratings of hunger and satiety and the portion size served was found.”
-Poelman et al., 2014 [1]
More calories without more fullness!
On the flip side, when people are provided with pre-portioned servings they seem to reduce their food intake without making up for it later.
What?!? Potentially less calories for the same fullness.
And the really REALLY cool aspect of switching to properly portion sized whole food based meals is that over time we may actually be able to rewire a NEW NEW normal!!
“Serving participants a smaller portion size of a food affected their perceptions of what constitutes a normal-sized serving and resulted in them choosing to eat less of that food in future.”
-Robinson and Kersbergen, 2018 [2]
#GIVEAFIT
REFERENCES
1. Poelman, M.P., et al., Behavioural strategies to control the amount of food selected and consumed. Appetite, 2014. 72: p. 156-65.
2. Robinson, E. and I. Kersbergen, Portion size and later food intake: evidence on the "normalizing" effect of reducing food portion sizes. Am J Clin Nutr, 2018. 107(4): p. 640-646.