7 Simple Ways To Eat Less Without Even Noticing!

Everything you put into your body is important especially food, but even healthy food can stop you from losing weight if you eat to much of it.

For the past two months I have been at a "caloric deficit" due to the fact that I am in cutting season. I loved bulking so much because I could eat as much food as I wanted and have no shame in my game. Unfortunately during a cut I can no longer indulge in all the foods I love.

I would never recommend extreme calorie restriction (most people aren't good at it anyway), but there are some tricks you can use to slightly reduce the amount of food you eat without feeling deprived.

Your brain is easily fooled by shifts and perspective. It's responsive to external cues like an empty plate, than internal cues like a full stomach. Understanding these influences can show you how to sway them in your favor.

While I was in Houston I came across a book called "Mindless Eating:Why We Eat More Than We Think." The author Brian Wansink suggests for us to use the "mindless margin," a daily 100-200 calorie buffer zone where your brain doesn't notice a difference in how much you've eaten. Usually we eat more than we should because of the mindless margin (I'm especially guilty of that), but you can use the same principles to lightly influence your behavior and mindlessly eat less. Over time this calorie difference can help you drop weight. It's slow, but steady and most importantly, it's painless!

7 Simple Ways To eat Less Without Even Noticing It

1. Use Smaller Plates

A full plate sends the signal that you're eating a full meal and a partially full plate looks like a skimpy meal, regardless of the actual quantity of food.

Using smaller plates and filling them up is a proven way to eat less without noticing. This is definitely something I have been incorporating into my cut. i did notice that when I ate on a smaller plate a felt a teenie bit fuller than usual and every time I served myself on a larger plate I was not satisfied.

2. Serve Yourself 20% Less

The mindless margin is about 20% of any given meal. In other words, you can eat 80% of the food you’d normally eat and probably not notice. You could also eat 20% more—not a bad idea if you’re scooping vegetables lol . If you have those smaller plates mentioned above, serving yourself a little less should be just as satisfying.

3. Eat Protein For Breakfast

People love to hype breakfast eating as a miracle weight loss cure, but only breakfasts high in protein have been proven to suppress appetite and reduce subsequent eating throughout the day. I learned this factor when reading "The Four Hour Body" by Tim Ferris. Ferris suggests a 30 by 30 rule that I have been implementing everyday. His rule states that you eat at least 30 Grams of protein within 30 minutes of you waking up. I have noticed major improvement in my cut, my body fat percentage has decreased dramatically and I would love to say this has something to do with it.

4. Eat Three Meals A Day

I am the worst when it come to this next tip. I seriously think my body requires me to eat every 2 hours. One because I am hypoglycemic and another because I'm always starving. Like me, I bet you thought eating many small meals was better than eating three bigger ones throughout the day, but the data tells us otherwise. Though skipping meals can make controlling your appetite more difficult, eating more than three meals a day has not been shown to have any benefit, and may even be worse for appetite control.

Eat when you’re supposed to and you shouldn’t need any extra food.

5. Keep snacks out of sight or out of the building

Study after study have shown that people eat a lot more when is food visible rather than put away where it can’t be seen, even if they know it is there. Research has also demonstrated that the harder food is to get to, even if the extra effort is just removing a lid or walking to the cabinet, the less likely you are to eat it. The extra work forces you to question the value of your action, and this gives you the opportunity to talk yourself out of a decision you may regret later.

When I read about this tip I honestly laughed. (Nothing can stop me from getting my sneaky treats) But I tried it and I was super surprised! I had my husband hide some of my favorite snacks and needless to say I only ate one when he agreed that it fit my macros.

To avoid extra snacking keep tempting foods out of sight, or better yet, out of the house. On the flip side, keep healthy foods prominently displayed and easy to reach.

6. Chew Thoroughly

Since I’ve been paying more attention to eating speed, I was shocked to see that most people don’t chew. If you’re one of those guys who chews the minimum number of times before swallowing or shoveling in another fork full, chances are you’re eating substantially more at every meal than your thoroughly chewing peers.

Slow down, chew each bite (counting your chews can help develop the habit) and watch as you fill up faster on fewer calories.

7. Don’t Eat From The Package

Your stomach can’t count. When you can’t see how much you’re eating you’re more than a little likely to lose track and consume double or even triple the amount you’d eat if you took the time to serve yourself a proper portion. Use a plate, or a bowl, or even a napkin, just make sure you get a good visual of everything you’re going to eat before taking your first bite.

Check out the books that I mentioned:

Mindless Eating:Why We Eat More Than We Think By Brian Wansink: http://amzn.to/2CDnGBq

4 Hour Body By Tim Ferris: http://amzn.to/2HFawb9