Sunday, April 3, 2011

Mindless eating

I'm reading a fascinating book right now, called "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think." After having lost ten pounds over two months, I went off the reservation when I went to visit my family last week. I gained two pounds back in five days, although I was pretty careful with what I ate and didn't eat, there was so much more food around that what I usually have in my own environment that I know I ate more than I would have otherwise.

Smart Guy gifted me with this book, which he is also reading, and I'm absolutely astounded with what I am discovering about food and dieting. This cartoon illustrates the story of Brian Wansink's (the author of the book) research on why we eat more or less than we think we do. One of the studies he conducted involved college students who were seated at a table of four diners, but two of the 18-ounce bowls (which they agreed not to touch) were rigged with a hidden tube that kept the bowls filling back up. Although they didn't reach the original full mark, I'll let Wansink tell you what happened (p. 30):
People eating out of the normal soup bowls ate about 9 ounces of soup. This is just a little less than the size of a nondiluted Campbell's soup can (10.5 ounces). They thought they had eaten about 123 calories of soup, but, in fact, they had eaten 155. People eating out of the bottomless soup bowls ate and ate and ate. Most were still eating when we stopped them, 20 minutes after they began. The typical person ate around 15 ounces, but others ate more than a quart -- more than a quart! When one of these people was asked to comment on the soup, his reply was, "It's pretty good, and it's pretty filling." Sure it is. He had eaten almost three times as much as the guy sitting next to him.
The interesting thing to me is that most people didn't comment about feeling especially full, since they thought they had only consumed about a half bowl of soup. They had 62 people conduct this experiment, and every single one consistently underestimated the calories and the amount they had eaten. What he points out is that the visual cues we use to tell us when we are full are every bit as important to satiation as the actual amount we consume.

I'm in the middle of the book right now, but the main premise that I am excited about putting into practice is to find those mindless calories that I can stop consuming every day, thereby not needing to continue to diet to keep those favorite jeans fitting just right. He says that 100-200 calories every day can be cut out of one's daily diet without even noticing, using his techniques. This adds up to about ten pounds by the end of a year, but if I increase by the same number of calories every day, then I'll have gained that amount in a year's time. Slow but steady, either direction.

It took me those two months of measuring and calculating to find out how many calories I was actually eating. Now I know what 1800 calories looks like in the kinds of food I usually consume. I will continue to skip avocados and cheese, snack crackers and other kinds of comfort food that were way too available all day long in Texas with my family.

Now that I've lost most of the weight I originally wanted to lose, I think I'll try this method of weight maintenance and eventual loss to see if it works. I'll also continue to monitor my progress with the scales, since I finally broke the barrier that kept me from stepping on them and don't want to backslide. The link in the first paragraph takes you to information about the book, the author, and the entire premise behind why we eat more than we think we do.
:-)

24 comments:

  1. This is interesting, as I just started a new "program," designed just for this purpose: to become fully aware of how much I really do eat during the day and to become very calorie conscious during this time. Just three days into the "program," and what an eye-opener! It's apparent where I need to make changes and then turn those changes into new, healthier "habits." Thanks for the post!

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  2. Thanks for this info. I will go immediately and check it out.

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  3. I've heard about this book. Thanks for the information. I'm sure we can all learn something from it.

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  4. No comment...I just finished eating one scoop of butter pecan ice cream in a waffle cone...mindlessly of course. I'll be looking for this book in the morning when I come down off my high from the butter fat! ;D

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  5. We have a reasonable eating regimen at home, but here in New Mexico we're not using it for some reason, even though we're cooking all our own meals. I'm glad you're posting this stuff.

    Since I got back from Louisiana I haven't gotten back into my exercise program. I'm looking forward to getting started again on Thursday, our first day back.

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  6. I am done 15 pounds since Jan 10th but I have to keep track of everything I eat. I know I have done a lot of mindless eating over the years so I am going to get this book Jan, thank you.....:-)Hugs

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  7. The biggest pitfall is when we are away from home either eating out or at someone else's home. This sounds like a very interesting book, I'll have to look for it.

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  8. Interesting. But, that is why we tend to keep eating from a bag of potato chips. If we choose to eat this type of junk food, we should at least pour a few chips into a small bowl and eat only that. Avoid mindless eating from the bag.

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  9. I'd never thought about visual clues and the amount we eat. Interesting! It's like exercise and activity...much of it is controlled in our head.

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  10. I belong to Weight Watchers and really like their program. If one sticks to it the pounds will come off gradually. They encourage eating fruits and vegetables. I am always amazed to hear women at W.W. say they very seldom eat vegetables.

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  11. I certainly need to get on a schedule and notice what I eat. For example I just ate dinner and it is 10:30 pm – but then I usually don’t eat breakfast until 10 am as I am not hungry, then I have a fruit around 2:00 pm. I am not gaining – but I am not losing!

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  12. we eat for some pretty stupid reasons, the biggest being that it is just there...good job on the weight loss...working on that right now myself...

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  13. Sounds very interesting. I've taken to using smaller plates, but boy it is really hard to watch every little thing - although it really is the only way to take it off.

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  14. Congrats on losing the weight. It's a tough task and requires a lot of diligence to keep it off. Sounds like the info in this book will be a big help.

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  15. That experiment reminds me of advice I'd heard of somewhere that recommended using smaller plates and bowls when serving food. You kind of trick yourself into thinking you're getting a larger portion and find it's enough. We definitely eat with our eyes!

    How did you manage to find the discipline to calculate the calory content of everything you ate every day? I tried once and gave up after a couple of days 'cause it was incredibly annoying! :s Bravo for you!!!

    I'm definitely going to have to look into this book. I think I've gained back most of the weight I lost while in Belgium and New Zealand where I did all that hiking... and it wasn't nearly enough of a weight loss to begin with! ;o(

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  16. Sneaky! I do know that you can have almost 50 fleet farm cheese puffs for about 140 calories. Yum.

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  17. That sounds like another interesting diet book. Since trying the grapefruit diet in college and moving on through a dozen other diets over the years, they all seem to be missing one element--my willpower. I'm trying to start my diets in the supermarket and eat half as much as I would like. A friend has an approach that works for her; she keeps a food diary of everything she eats and the amount in ounces.

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  18. We had visitors from Japan who were amazed at the large portion sizes of food served in restaurants here. It is not uncommon for my wife and I to agree on a meal, order one and split it.

    I have heard that restaurants sometimes experiment with plate sizes to make it appear there is more food than actually is there.

    Of course there are lots of psychological issues that go into people's eating habits. I have a sister-in-law who, every time I see her, is going on a diet starting "tomorrow". As you can guess, tomorrow continually gets postponed.

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  19. Hadn't heard about this book. It seems today I'm collecting titles of books to buy and here's another for my list. Thanks for the info! Given your hiking excursions, losing weight should be...well, a piece of cake for you!
    Trish

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  20. I'm quite good at keeping my weight static but hopeless at losing it because when I do it's hard to know when to stop. After all, you can't diet all the time and once you've got to the weight you want to be, then what do you do? Eat more? or keep losing. Now you're in danger of getting anorexic. Too much obsession with food is also a dangerous thing. I know how much I need to eat to keep healthy and if that means putting on a few more pounds, that's o.k. After all, if I get sick, then I will need a little extra to lose until I am well again.
    We're all different and that's the way it should be.
    I'll be interested to know how you do when you just want to maintain your weight and not lose anymore.
    I, for my part, need to lose 10lbs.

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  21. I eat everything that is put in front of me, because it is put in front of me every day by a very nice man and I don't want to do anything to mess that up for myself. However, I cut down to a single beer a night and lost fifteen pounds in a year.

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  22. I imagine there would be different degrees of success depending on how supportive those around you are. But no doubt there's much to be gleaned regardless of who eats alongside us. Thanks for telling us about the book and website.

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  23. I need to lose my gut out front. After surgery twice, the docs said I would never have a flat stomach again. But I have added fat to the stomach and can't seem to get rid of it. I used to just stop eating bread and other carbohydrates and I would lose it. Not now. I seem to have put this on at the wrong time in my life.

    I am suppose to eat 6 small meals a day. Prescribed by the doctor years ago. I neglected that and need to get back to it.

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  24. Good for you, Djan...I try to practice mindfulness in most things in my life...and it's amazing how much we DON'T pay attention. Savoring the food, making better choices nutritionally, and slowing down to eat have helped me a lot. I eat at the table, never in front of tv, these days, because I was flabbergasted at how mindless I get shovelling food in when my attention is elsewhere.

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