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The art and science of slowing down
You've no doubt heard the importance of eating slowly if you want to lose weight and keep it off. New research provides clues as to why this may be so.When you have a really good feed, the food acts in your gut to trigger the release of 'satiety' or 'stop eating' hormones into your bloodstream.
These gut-derived hormones - such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and peptide YY (PYY) - then act in your brain to switch off the signals that push you to eat, and this is what helps you to naturally end your meal.
Intriguingly, compared to wolfing down a meal in five minutes, eating the same meal over half an hour stimulates a significantly stronger increase in the circulating concentrations of the satiety hormones GLP-1 and PYY.
This difference persists for up to three- and-a-half hours after the meal and may contribute to a feeling of greater satisfaction from the same number of kilojoules, and - if you're listening to your body and only eating as much as you need to feel satisfied - it may contribute to greater weight loss.
Three tips for slowing down when you eat
- Eat what you love. Ever noticed that when you eat your favorite foods, you tend to want to take your time and savor the moment? I notice this every time I eat a Swiss chocolate truffle, but the same is also true of other foods. When I eat a rudimentary salad that I've quickly thrown together, I tend to want to 'get it over and done with'. But when I add a To-Die-For salad dressing, I enjoy my salad immensely and it's easy to slow down and appreciate it. Make your food just the way you like it, and slowing down in the December madness will be much easier.
- Clear the clutter. Is your dining table covered with papers and gadgets, unfinished projects and general junk you don't know where else to put? Are the TV or radio constantly blaring, even when you eat? Clear the clutter and turn off distractions and you'll see how much more pleasure and enjoyment you'll get from your food. Yesterday my son and I cleared everything off our dining table, and it suddenly became so much easier to eat slowly and to hear my body talking to me.
- Put your fork down between mouthfuls. Maree, whose success story features in my new book, lost 12 kilos in 12 months and has maintained a healthy size 12 for over 8 months. Maree says that putting her fork down between mouthfuls was instrumental in breaking the habit of gobbling food and ending up feeling over satisfied. If you find it hard to stop eating before you've passed your comfort limit, it's worth a shot to see if this works for you, too.
Over to you
Here's something you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.Before you eat, take a moment to think about how you can make this experience as pleasant as possible.
When you derive maximum pleasure from your food, eating in a relaxed and mindful way will come more easily to you, and this will go a long way to helping you survive the festive season with your waistline intact.
Have a wonderful month, and I'll be back in January with my monthly newsletters for the launch of my new book.
If you'd like to take advantage of my December offers on Acceleration Pedometers at 2008 prices or free postage, click here.
Sincerely,
Amanda
Dr Amanda
Connect with your body
www.DrAmandaOnline.com
What our readers say...
"Dear Amanda, I recently read your book a second time. The first time I read it, I was impressed but it took me another year before I was ready to seriously have a go. I am now on my third month of keeping a success diary. I have lost 4 kg, 3 in the first month and 1 in the second. I always have eaten a relatively healthy diet but I have had to learn to leave food on my plate. We grow a lot of our own food and I am a dedicated cook, so it was hard to get used to the idea that throwing food away was actually less wasteful than eating it when I have had enough. That was a big challenge, but I think I can do it now. Keeping the success diary has made me more aware of when I am up to 3+ and I can stop before I get to 4+. I was a bit disappointed to only lose 1 kg in March but encouraged by all the stories in your book and in your newsletter that losing weight slowly is the way to lose it for ever. I wonder if the slow down in weight loss is evidence of the Famine reaction setting in? In the past I would have been so discouraged at this point that I would have given up the diet. But this isn’t really a diet that I can give up, but a whole different way of thinking about eating. The really big difference to my weight loss attempts this time is that I got the exercise component. I never found ‘going for a walk’ very meaningful, so now I park the car 2kms away from the shops or wherever I am going and walk 2kms there and 2kms back, which feels more meaningful to me. I think in the past I didn’t walk for long enough to experience the benefits of walking and gave up on it because it was time consuming and pointless. Now I have lost weight and sleep better and feel more energetic. I am addicted to my pedometer and try to do 12, 000 steps 4 times a week and 10,000 the other days. I really think this is why I have been able to lose weight this time, more meaningful than my eating patterns. Thank you for your work and I look forward to reading the new book when it is finished. Sally"