6 Ways To Avoid Mindless Eating And Excess Calories

If you're not hungry, why are you eating?

Hm.

We can find ourselves in situations where we are eating for no reason -- what has been coined "mindless" eating by experts, including Brian Wansink, PhD, a Cornell University researcher who has conducted numerous studies on the subject.

But eating without thinking can lead to consuming unneeded calories and weight gain, said Keri Gans, a registered dietitian based in New York, and author of "The Small Change Diet: 10 Steps to a Thinner, Healthier You" (Gallery Books; 2011).

"If you're just grabbing and eating, you're going to end up most likely consuming more calories than you need," Gans told HuffPost. "And by consuming more calories than you need, you'll most likely find you're gaining weight because you're not paying attention to what you are eating."

Gans suggests that when you feel like eating a snack, keep in mind the five Ds: delay, determine, distract, distance and decide. Waiting before eating reminds you to be mindful about your snack. And actually thinking about whether you are hungry or not forces you to consider what exactly you are putting in your body, Gans said. If you're not hungry, distracting yourself with something else or distancing yourself from the food could help you to avoid the temptation of eating.

Some other tips Gans gives her clients? Pack a healthy snack ahead of time so you don't run for the vending machine come afternoon, and eat away from your desk or the TV so that you're mindful of how much you're eating.

Here are some other tips revealed by research that could help you win the battle against mindless eating and excess calories:

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• Use A Bigger Fork

  A study published in the <em>Journal of Consumer Research</em> shows that restaurant-goers who <a href="http://www.jcr-admin.org/files/pressPDFs/071311193612_mishra.pdf" target="_hplink">eat with really big forks</a> (20 percent bigger than a normal fork you'd find at a restaurant) eat less food and leave more on their plates than people who eat with really small forks. A possible explanation for this finding is that when people use small forks to eat, they feel like they are not making any big <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2011/07/15/using-a-big-fork-may-help-you-eat-less/?xid=huffpo-direct" target="_hplink">progress in eating their meal</a> and quelling their hunger pangs, <em>TIME</em> reported. In addition, the restaurant-goers who ate with the smaller forks and were given bigger portions of food at much more food than if they just had the smaller forks or if they just had the bigger portions.

• Eat From A Smaller Bowl

  Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology shows that people eat 31 percent more ice cream when they eat out of a 34-ounce bowl, rather than 17-ounce one, ScienceDaily reported. Researchers explained that's because people eat about 92 percent of what they serve themselves -- so if you <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060803082602.htm" target="_hplink">serve yourself more, you'll eat more</a>.

• Get Some Sleep

  Columbia University researchers found that <a href="http://www.thirdage.com/news/sleep-deprivation-may-increase-hunger_3-26-2011" target="_hplink">sleep deprivation can also lead to more calories consumed</a>. They found that women who only got 4 hours sleep the night before ate 329 more calories in a nine-hour period compared with if they weren't sleep deprived, while men ate 263 more calories when <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-michael-j-breus/sleep-more-lose-weight_b_857080.html" target="_hplink">sleep-deprived</a>. "It has an impact on cognitive restraint," study researcher Marie-Pierre St. Onge told ThirdAge. "High-fat food is tempting, and maybe on <a href="http://www.thirdage.com/news/sleep-deprivation-may-increase-hunger_3-26-2011" target="_hplink">short sleep you can't restrain yourself</a> as well, while on full sleep you can resist more easily."

• Mind Your Environment

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/02/mindless-eating-environment-location_n_945712.html" target="_hplink">WHERE you eat your food</a> could also factor in to how much you eat and whether you're eating food even though you're not hungry, according to research from the University of Southern California. Researchers had movie-goers say whether they were regular popcorn-eaters or not, and then they had them eat either stale popcorn or freshly popped popcorn. The regular popcorn-eaters ate just as much stale popcorn as fresh popcorn, while people who didn't consider themselves regular popcorn-eaters ate significantly less stale popcorn than fresh since it didn't taste as good. "The results show just how <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/02/mindless-eating-environment-location_n_945712.html" target="_hplink">powerful our environment can be</a> in triggering unhealthy behavior," study researcher David Neal said in a statement. "Sometimes willpower and good intentions are not enough, and we need to trick our brains by controlling the environment instead."

• Hide The Junk Food

  Research from Cornell University shows that we are three times more likely to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/29/see-first-eat-visible-food_n_984004.html" target="_hplink">eat the first thing that we see</a>, compared with the fifth thing we see. In that study, researchers took photographs of 100 kitchen cupboards and asked the owners to keep records of what they ate. Researchers also tried moving the food around in the cupboards to see if that impacted their food choices -- and found that it did. The research shows that "we end up being masters of our own demise, to some extent," study researcher Professor Brian Wansink, Ph.D., author of "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think," told HuffPost.

• Eat Using Your Non-Dominant Hand

  Research published in the <em>Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin</em> shows that <a href="http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/20/overeating-which-hand-are-you-using/" target="_hplink">eating with your non-dominant hand</a> can help you to decrease the amount of food you consume, CNN reported. The finding was part of the same movie-theater/popcorn study, where it was discovered that environment plays a part in mindless eating. Like in that experiment, researchers gave study participants either fresh or stale popcorn. They found that people who used their non-dominant hands and ate the stale popcorn ate 30 percent less than if they used their dominant hands, CNN reported.

• How to Avoid Mindless Eating

  Food Think with Wansink: Economy-size snacks can cause you to eat more

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Comments

[Nelson Montana]

10:26 AM on 10/13/2011

A bigger fork. Yeah, that'll do it.

[joannevlavender]

11:11 PM on 10/08/2011

It's a good this these pundits weren't around at the turn of the century (or at formal dinners today), when there are several forks at each place setting. There is a seafood fork, salad fork, dinner fork (and a slightly smaller one for lunch), dessert fork, pickle fork, salad serving fork (with a spoon), just to name a few.

[caprawalie]

10:44 PM on 10/07/2011

The only way to avoid mindless eating is using your mind and the belief that it is nobody else's mind...they should mind their own business and not use their minds while eating

[Buck Winthrop]

07:18 PM on 10/07/2011

I think it is very healthy mentally to treat yourself once in a while. It makes the other 90% of your eating right to be that much easier..

[SonyaInTx]

08:42 AM on 10/07/2011

You won't get tempted, if you don't buy the junk food to put in the pantry.

Also, eat oatmeal. It clears out the cholesterol.

[snoopjohnny]

02:17 PM on 10/07/2011

My low-carb friends say I should have something else for breakfast (plain oatmeal, no sugar w/berries). I hadn't heard about the cholesterol, but that's great for me...if it's true. Other than that, when I crave ice cream, tortillas or other stuff, I eat several pieces of good salami.....my diet allows it and I've lost 22 lbs. And oh, yeah....I don't shop hungry...much.

[gypsynomad]

08:22 AM on 10/07/2011

What stops me from mindless / stupid eating ?
Any trip to the supermarket would do it ,with display of foods, and enormous sized folks shoving foods in their mouth is a sure turn off, some folks visits just for that. Also ever since I met Meg Wolff, HP author and started following her , has helped me a great deal, each day I am learning more from her and Meg is a rare author comes and gives personal advise. Can`t beat that..

[babybelle]

07:32 AM on 10/07/2011

3 good meals a day. No snacks.
Works for me and keeps me at 102 pounds.

[tomteboda]

05:57 AM on 10/07/2011

The trick that works for me best is this:

Exerting self-control for 30 minutes in the grocery store is much easier than exerting self-control the remaining 10050 minutes in a week.

I avoid purchasing foods that I am likely to overconsume, and if I do strongly desire one I generally purchase only a single- or double-serving of the item.

Of course this means my pantry has a lot of food with all the consistency and flavor of cardboard! Alas!

[sabelmouse]

06:19 AM on 10/07/2011

and never go shopping hungry, right. i want things i'd never dream of eating when i shop hungry.

[pslcitizen]

03:10 AM on 10/07/2011

Duct tape? If you can't get food in your mouth, then that might help...lol.

[aznurse]

02:28 AM on 10/07/2011

I do pretty good during the day, but come nighttime "YIPES"

[tizzmine]

10:30 PM on 10/06/2011

HELLO....YES YOU OUT THERE....i have been helping people for over 40 years....
it is NOT MINDLESS EATING.......IT IS STUPID.....THATS THE PROBLEM
A O L could care less about people ...why because BIG PHARMA buys there space for ads
if IF YOU WANT TO WIN "THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE"
eat five times a day 3 meals with 2 snacks in between meals
if if your blood sugar is balanced then NO HUNGER....if all your nutrients are there NO CRAVINGS......it is that simple........try the web at the great fitness fraud dot com.....

[ecurbwl]

10:08 PM on 10/06/2011

Using a bigger fork ??? Or a smaller plate ??? What BS. Some people would need a pitchfork to curtail their eating. I believe there are eating addictions, brought on by the chemicals, colors, prossessing, additives, sugars or those combinations in our foods. I also believe foods are purposely made to be addictive thus, to guarantee future sales of that product, fast food or beverages. Just look at how many people are overweight, have dieted, have failed at diets and cannot stop eating certain foods or foods in general and continue to gain weight for the long term. I don't believe willpower has anything to do with avoiding food. I believe it's a food addiction. An addiction to alcohol, drugs or sex can usually be controlled because it is not essential to living. Food IS essential to living and makes it extremely difficult to stop this addiction.

[petcraft]

10:13 PM on 10/07/2011

Personally, I would opt for the 'smaller' plate & average sized fork.

[neverknowwhattoputhere]

05:20 AM on 10/08/2011

I think there are some really good tools in here to help people develop better eating habits... clearly the focus is on being mindful of what you are eating and clearly allot of people struggle with that

Mindless eating is not even about eating the wrong kinds of food it can be about not paying attention to what you are eating (because eg you are watching tv) and eating a much bigger portion then you need to .. if you eat breakfast and dinner in front of the tv each day (and soo many people would!) that would soon catch up with you. Eating with chopsticks or your non dominant hand forces you to focus on what you put into your mouth and because of the tool or your lack of co-ordination your going to eat alot slower... and if you eat with a smaller plate you will naturally serve a smaller serving size so even if you mindlessly chow that down you still have to make a conscious decision at the end about whether you are actually still hungry and want another serve.

[ecurbwl]

12:41 PM on 10/09/2011

I agree with you but, you missed one important aspect. Most people who are overweight, continue to eat or eat a meal even after they are full or eat even when they are not hungry but because of addiction to chemicals, colors and additives in foods. High fructose corn syrup, salt and certain food flavor enhancers are highly addictive and is in most foods.

[lovesean3]

09:06 PM on 10/06/2011

If you have to go through such ridiculous tricks as using your less dominant hand to avoid eating, then I think you have a bigger issue that requires a bigger effort.

[marcia hootman]

09:01 PM on 10/06/2011

I'm very happy this site now exists. When I turned 50 I began researching the subject of anti-aging. My circuitous route led me to write my recent book, You Can Shoot 70 at 70, Age Defying Breakthroughs for the Senior Golfer. I got tired of hearing golfers over 50 say, "I just can't hit them like I used to." My research showed that they weren't staying fit as they used to, they were buying into the 'over 50' belief. So my writing is about lifestyle habits and how to maintain the balance, strength and flexibility needed for a good golf swing. It's really about how I learned to live my life instead of letting the years take their toll on my body, spirit and mind.

[heldt666]

06:51 PM on 10/06/2011

How do you reason with someone who is mindless?