Why Eating Slower Helps You Lose Weight

When it comes to weight loss, there are endless little strategies you can use daily to help you stay on track. Eating slowly is one of those strategies. Many people have a strong habit of “wolfing down” their meals, practically inhaling them. If you have this habit too, there are two very good reasons why you may want to make a concentrated effort to slow down:

1 – You’ll Actually Taste and Enjoy Your Food

Eating quickly means that each bite of food spends much less time in your mouth, which means you scarcely taste it before sending it down the hatch. Eating slowly allows you to really enjoy each bite, tasting the range of flavors from salty, to sweet, to bitter, to sour, to savory. Really focusing on these flavors helps you to enjoy the meal fully, which means you will feel much more satisfied when it’s over. Have you ever eaten a meal or snack and then felt kind of disappointed that it was over? That happens when you aren’t paying attention to your food, or you eat the food too quickly to really enjoy it.

See: Enjoying Your Food: 3 Ways to Feel Satisfied While Dieting

2 – You’ll Eat Less When You Eat Slowly

When you gulp your food down quickly, you can shovel in a LOT of calories before your stomach has time to signal your brain that it’s had enough. When you take your time and chew each bite fully before swallowing, and you pause between each bite, taking 20 minutes or more to eat a small meal, your stomach has plenty of time to let your brain know it’s full.

Even when you eat slowly, there is a temptation to keep eating beyond the point of physical satisfaction. Your stomach will be saying, “Thank you, that was delicious. You can stop eating now.” But your eyes and your mind will be saying, “Man, that food looks and smells so good, maybe another helping won’t hurt…”

If you want to avoid overeating, you have to be willing to pay attention to your body and listen to what it’s telling you. Your reward for this commitment will be a slimmer, healthier, happier body. Is it worth it?

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