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Fake The Fat Off
Exercise alone won’t melt off the fat. These 16 tips will help you improve your eating habits.
By Linda Formichelli
Remember that bully in junior high? The one who would make as if to hand you something—such as the underwear that he filched from you while you were changing for gym—then gleefully yell, "Psych!" as he yanked it away? Well, now you can get out your aggressions by using that same trick to melt off unwanted flab. We spoke with experts and men-on-the-street to get the scoop on how you can psych yourself into eating less. .
Size Does Matter
Brian Wansink, Ph.D., and his colleagues at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, conducted a study at weight-loss camps and with veteran bartenders to find out whether people tend to pour more beverage into tall glasses or short ones. The surprising findings: Visual illusions cause us to pour an average of 34 percent more into short, wide glasses than tall, narrow ones. So quaff your drinks from tall glasses and you’ll probably take in fewer calories.
For Shame!
When Idó Kadman, 31, of New York City, is finished eating his meal at a restaurant, he crumples up his napkin and puts it on the plate. "That way, even if the bus boy doesn’t take it right away, there’s no way in hell I would keep eating, out of sheer shame," he says.
Divide and Conquer
Use a divided plate for your food—the kind you typically see at a picnic or barbecue, suggests Jennifer Grana, RD, a dietician for HealthPLACE, the health, wellness, and prevention division of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. "Instead of putting your meat in the largest section, as most of us are trained to do, put your fruits and veggies in the largest part and your meat or main dish in the smallest," she says.
Opt Out of Oil
You eschew butter for olive oil because it’s healthier. But believe it or not, you may be packing in more calories with the oil. In a study by Wansink and his colleagues, hidden cameras at Italian restaurants showed that people who put olive oil on a piece of bread soaked up 26 percent more than if they were using butter. The good news: Oil users ate 23 percent less bread over the course of a meal than if they used butter. That makes sense if you’re faced with a bottomless basket of bread, but "If you’re eating just one or two pieces of bread, you’re better off using butter," says Wansink.
Get Souped Up
Starting your meal with a clear soup can help curb your appetite before the main course. In fact, in a study by John Foreyt, Ph.D., an obesity expert at Baylor College of Medicine, and his associates, people who ate soup before their meals lost more weight and maintained their weight losses slightly better than the group of people who did not slurp soup.
Ditch the Dishes
Instead of keeping serving dishes on the table, where they taunt you into eating more, keep them in the kitchen. If you decide you do indeed want another helping of mashed taters, you have to get up and get them. "When you finish a meal, it takes a while before the brain receives the message from the stomach that it is full and doesn’t need any more," says Terri Levine, Author of Create Your Ideal Body (Comprehensive Coaching U, 2003) and Founder of CreateYourIdealBody.com. "Meanwhile, if you have access to food and your brain has not received this message yet, you will continue to fill your plate and overeat. "
Out of Sight
Out of sight, out of mind … In one study, Wansink and his colleagues placed bowls of Hershey Kisses either on secretaries’ desks or six feet away. The secretaries ate more than twice as many chocolate kisses (nine versus four) when these kisses were placed on their desk than when they were out of reach. The moral of the story: Stash your work snacks across the office and you won’t be as tempted to chow down on them.
Fill Up On Fiber
Fiber helps keep you feeling full so you won’t be tempted by that giant black-and-white cookie in the bakery window. "Add beans, add corn, add grated carrot, add whole grains," suggests Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, a nutrition consultant and a former spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "You can sneak fiber into soup, stew, chili and meatloaf."
Dining Deceptions
A 6-week controlled cafeteria study by Wansink and his colleagues found that descriptive menu-item labels make people rate the foods as tasting better and as being more caloric. The bad news is that "If there’s no description, people tend to underrate the number of calories and overeat," says Wansink. If you’re unsure about what’s in a restaurant dish, don’t guess by the menu description (or lack thereof); ask your server.
Free Your Mind, Neo
Noshing while watching SportsCenter or reading the latest thriller is a recipe for flab. Ditch the book and turn off the TV; instead, concentrate on what you’re eating. In a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women who focused on the taste of their food ate much less than those who listened to a detective story while eating.
Go with the Flow
When a snack attack hits, try H2O instead. "When I was trying to reduce my sugar intake from excessive snacking at night, I would drink twice as much water as usual—sometimes flavored bottled water along with plain water," says Dustin DuPilka, 32, of Wappingers Falls, NY. "It’s not a satisfying alternative to a bowl of ice cream, but it does fill you up enough to suppress your snacking reflex when you’re bored."
The Club Store Curse
Wansink calls it "The Wholesale Club Store Curse": When you buy in bulk you tend to store the food in a visible place, which causes you to gobble down more of it. In a study of 219 adults, researchers found that stockpiled products are more frequently used when they are visible and seen as versatile. "Put the package in your basement or repackage it into smaller portions," Wansink advises.
Mindful Meals
Thinking about where your food came from (and no, the answer is not "McDonalds") can help you eat less and gain a higher appreciation for your meals. This is the strategy Drew Nygard, 43, of San Francisco, uses. "When eating mindfully each person should contemplate fully each food they are putting in their bodies," he says. "Understand where it comes from, picture the earth, the sky and rain, the farmer, the seedling, the harvest process, the preparation and distribution. This takes about 30 to 45 seconds a forkful."
Shuffle Your Seating
Break ot of your overeating habit by making a change. "Like Pavlov’s dogs, we associate events with eating," says Joanne "Dr. Jo." Lichten, Ph.D., RD, author of Dr. Jo’s No Big Deal Diet which will be published by Nutrifit Publishing in 2004. "If you have a habit of eating while watching TV, start sitting in a different spot, or rearrange the furniture completely. It’ll make it easier to break the connection."
Boogie Down—slowly
Bach is better for you than The Boss. To find out why we eat more to rockin’ tunes than to soothing ones, scientists at Fairfield University in Connecticut piped fast and slow music into the school’s cafeteria on different days. Researchers then counted the bites taken by unsuspecting diners. The results: People take an average of 4.4 bites per minute to fast music, and only 3.8 bites per minute when music is slow. So toss the techno and listen to soft classical or jazz during meals.
Sit. Good boy!
Eat only when your buttocks are in contact with a chair. "You eat while you cook, you eat off the kids’ plates, you eat while you’re cleaning up—it’s a good way to put on pounds," says Zelman. "A sit down meal is more conscious and focused."
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