Take It Slow And Lose Some Weight
Lockdowns and stay-at-home rules have made it harder to stay on top of our fitness goals. As a result, you probably have found yourself gaining some weight. It is a bit harder to meet your daily walking goal when people are prohibited or discouraged from going out.
With that in mind, you may find yourself just staying indoors and spending an hour or more just binge-watching movies while munching on unhealthy snacks trying to find comfort. If regular exercise or going out is not an option, there is another way to at least maintain a healthy body: disciplined eating!
We will now discuss how slow eating can help you control or lose weight altogether.
Slow Down... Eating Is Not A Race!
Do you ever realize that your food seems to disappear from your plate faster than it should? You may be eating too fast. It won’t be long before you reach into the serving bowl for another portion. Studies have shown that fast eaters tend to weigh more than slow eaters.
A New Zealand study, with a sample size of 2500 participants, found that fast eaters have higher body-mass indexes. This means that there is a correlation between eating too quickly and being overweight. We surely don’t want that!
There is more to slowing down your munching than just grinding up your food. A ton of chemical and hormonal processes actually happen under the hood to keep your weight down. Let us take a look at a few of them and why taking your time when eating translates to weight loss.
Hormone Synergy
Hormones control your body, and this holds true for your appetite. After a meal, your stomach produces the ghrelin hormone, which makes you feel full and reduces appetite.
It takes about 20 minutes from when you start eating for your brain to send out signals of fullness. Eating slowly allows enough time to trigger the signal from your brain to tell you that you are full. When you feel full, this translates into eating less as well.
Reduce Your Calorie Intake
Eating speeds vary from person to person. Another study, however, established that both groups were able to reduce their calorie intake by slowing down during meals. This correlates with the increasing problem of obesity in America.
“Most Americans eat too fast, and, as a result, they take in too many calories before they realize they’ve eaten enough.”
It goes to show how a small variation in eating discipline can make a whole lot of difference.
Chew Your Food Before You Swallow
Take your time! When you eat slowly, you get to chew your food more thoroughly, thus breaking down your food and allowing proper digestion.
Some diets pivot towards slow chewing to help the gut quickly break down the food you eat and deliver important nutrients to your body. Slow-chewing also gives you the added benefit of savoring the flavors incorporated in your food.
It is recommended to chew your food for 30 seconds before swallowing to enjoy the effects stated above. So may it be in eating or life, just remember to take your time and savor it. Your body will thank you for it.