Latest / Doctor Drop It with Dr Barbara Hessel / This ONE Eating Habit Controls Hunger & Stops Mindless Overeating

Transcript

This ONE Eating Habit Controls Hunger & Stops Mindless Overeating · Doctor Drop It with Dr Barbara Hessel

0:00
SPEAKER_00: If you're trying to lose weight, there's one eating habit I would work on before I asked you to count calories, cut carbs, or completely change what's on your plate.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: Sounding almost too simple to make a meaningful difference, but I've seen women change how much they eat, how satisfied they feel after a meal, and how often they eat almost automatically just by practicing this one thing.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm Dr.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Barbara Hessel.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm board certified in obesity medicine and gynecology.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: And a big part of my work is helping women get better control of their hunger and appetite.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: So I want to show you the habit, why something this simple can have such a big effect, and then I'll give you a way to test it at your very next meal.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: So the habit most people never think about, and it's not really sexy or exciting, but most weight loss advice starts with the food.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Eat more protein, eat fewer carbs, track your calories, watch your portions, and all of those things can have a place.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: But there's another variable almost nobody pays attention to.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: Your body has a system for telling you that you've had enough.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: As food enters your digestive system, signals begin traveling between your gut and your brain that gradually increase feelings of satisfaction and fullness.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: But those signals aren't instantaneous.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: So if you eat very quickly, there can be a period where you've already consumed a substantial amount of food, but your brain hasn't fully caught up yet.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: You still feel like you can eat, so you keep going.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: And then you reach that familiar moment 10 or 15 minutes later when suddenly you're not just satisfied, but you're stuffed.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: And it's not even a comfortable feeling.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Now, you didn't necessarily ignore your fullness signal.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: You may have finished the meal before you could clearly feel it.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: And once you understand that, slowing down becomes much more interesting than it sounds because now you're not trying to force yourself to eat less.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: You're giving your body enough time to tell you when you've had enough.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: And there's actually some fascinating research showing what happens when people actually do that.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: Research gave a group of women the same pasta meal on two different days.
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SPEAKER_00: Both times they could eat until they felt comfortably full.
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SPEAKER_00: During one meal, they ate quickly.
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SPEAKER_00: During the other, they were asked to slow down and put down the utensils between bites.
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SPEAKER_00: When they ate quickly, they consumed 646 calories in about nine minutes.
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SPEAKER_00: When they ate slowly, they consumed 579 calories over 29 minutes.
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SPEAKER_00: They spent much longer eating, they consumed less food, and they stayed satisfied longer afterwards.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, think about what makes that interesting.
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SPEAKER_00: Nobody told them they had to eat 67 fewer calories.
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SPEAKER_00: They weren't staring at a portion limit or trying to white knuckle their way through hunger.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Now, that might not sound like a significant number of calories, but it adds up to losing half a pound per week.
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SPEAKER_00: And half a pound to one pound per week is considered a safe amount of weight loss.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: So the experience of eating changed, and that changed how much it took to feel satisfied.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: But this is where eating speed gets even more interesting because overeating doesn't always happen because you missed fullness.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the bigger question is why you started eating in the first place.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: So how much of your eating is actually hunger?
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Think about yesterday.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: How many times did you eat while doing something else?
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you ate breakfast while looking at your phone, lunch at your desk, something in the car, and dinner in front of the television, or a few bites while cleaning up the kitchen.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you finished something on your child's plate simply because it was sitting there.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: None of those situations automatically means that you overeat, but they all make it easier to eat without paying much attention to what your body is telling you.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: And that's where slowing down becomes more than a portion control trick.
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SPEAKER_00: It starts showing you why you're eating.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, once you create even a little space between bites, you begin noticing things you normally miss.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: You notice when the food stops tasting quite as good as it did at the beginning, when hunger has disappeared even though there's still food left, or when you reached for something because you were stressed, bored, or simply because everybody else was still eating.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Now that that information is incredibly useful because the urge to eat and physical hunger can feel like the same thing when you're moving quickly.
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SPEAKER_00: Slow the process down and they begin to separate.
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SPEAKER_00: Now you can notice I'm actually hungry.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: Or I'm not hungry anymore, I just want more.
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SPEAKER_00: Those are two very different situations.
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SPEAKER_00: And there's an easy way to see how much speed affects this.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Compare eating an apple with eating crackers.
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SPEAKER_00: An apple makes you bite, chew, swallow, and then take another bite.
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SPEAKER_00: Now a cracker practically disappears and chips are even easier.
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SPEAKER_00: You can have the next one in your mouth before you've really registered the first.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: And that's one reason foods requiring more chewing naturally tend to slow people down.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want you to hear that and think that the solution is to simply stop eating chips or cookies.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: And if you've spent years trying to control your eating without ever really understanding why your hunger shows up the way it does, subscribe to the channel.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: I break down why hunger behaves differently from woman to woman and what to do to lose the weight and keep it off.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, slowing down is useful when you catch yourself eating almost automatically.
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SPEAKER_00: But the real test is what happens when you don't catch it until you're already halfway through the bag.
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SPEAKER_00: So what if you do catch yourself halfway through it?
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SPEAKER_00: This is the moment I want you to pay attention to.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: You're watching television, there's a bag beside you, and suddenly you become aware that, oh, I've eaten much more than I intended.
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SPEAKER_00: Most people immediately go to one of two directions.
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SPEAKER_00: They tell themselves, well, I already blew it, so I'll keep eating, or they try to force themselves to stop immediately.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: But there's a third option.
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SPEAKER_00: Keep eating if you want to.
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SPEAKER_00: Just slow it down.
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SPEAKER_00: Put the food down for a moment, take a breath, have another bite, and then pause again.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: The first goal isn't necessarily to stop eating, it's to become conscious of eating again.
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SPEAKER_00: Once that happens, you can actually notice what's going on.
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SPEAKER_00: Maybe you realize you're already full.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the food doesn't taste as good anymore.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're still enjoying it and decide that you want another bite, which is fine.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: But now you're choosing the next bite instead of arriving at the bottom of the bag without even remembering half of them.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Now we can even use the idea when someone feels like they're already in the middle of an overeating episode.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Don't make perfection the goal.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: Just slow the episode down enough to create one breath, one pause, one moment where you notice what you're feeling.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Because you can create that pause while the pattern is already happening.
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SPEAKER_00: You give yourself a chance to catch it earlier next time.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: At first, you might notice after 20 bites.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Eventually, you might notice after 10, then after three, and sometimes you begin noticing the urge before you start eating it all.
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SPEAKER_00: And that's a much more useful skill than relying on yourself to have perfect control every time food is around because life's not about being perfect.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: This is also why I like this habit more than a lot of rigid food rules.
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SPEAKER_00: It doesn't disappear the moment life gets messy.
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SPEAKER_00: This still works when life is messy.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: You're not always going to control what's served.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: You'll eat at a restaurant, travel, go to parties, have busy work days, or come home to a refrigerator that somehow contains only mustard, half an onion, and nothing resembling dinner.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: And that's real life.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: And one of the problems with very rigid eating plans is that the strategy often disappears the moment that the environment changes.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: But eating slowly doesn't.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Whatever's in front of you, you can still change your pace.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the reasons I like teaching this early.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: You're going to eat anyway, so instead of waiting for the perfect meal, you can practice while eating the meal that you actually have.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: And you don't need to turn your dinner into some elaborate mindfulness exercise.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: You don't need silence, 25 chews per bite, or to stare thoughtfully at a piece of broccoli.
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SPEAKER_00: We can make it ridiculously easy, like put your utensils down once in a while.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Take one breath between a few bites.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: Take a sip of water.
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SPEAKER_00: If you're eating with another person, notice who eats the slowest and try to match their pace for a few minutes.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Or simply add one minute to the meal, and that's enough to start.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: But here's one thing I want you paying attention to while you do it.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: Because the clock itself is not the skill that we're after, it's the moment the hunger starts to fade.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people can tell me exactly how many calories were in lunch and still can't tell me when they stopped being hungry.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: And that's actually backwards to how our bodies are actually functioning.
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SPEAKER_00: Your body is giving you the information throughout the meal.
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SPEAKER_00: The goal is to slow down enough to actually notice it.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: So instead of asking you to take my word for any of this, I want you to test it on yourself tonight.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: Here's what to do tonight.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Don't change what you plan to eat.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you choosing a smaller dinner because you watch the video.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Don't count calories, weigh anything, or try to have the healthiest meal of your life.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Just eat more slowly than you normally would.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: Start with one simple rule.
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SPEAKER_00: After you take a bite, put your fork down.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do it for the entire meal.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Try it for the first five minutes.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Take a bite, put the fork down, chew, swallow, take one breath, and then pick it back up.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: And while you're doing that, try to watch for one very specific moment, which is when do you first realize you could comfortably stop eating?
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SPEAKER_00: Not when you were stuffed, not when your plate's empty, but the first moment where your hunger is gone and you feel satisfied, then look at your plate and see what's left.
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SPEAKER_00: Now maybe nothing changes tonight.
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SPEAKER_00: Maybe you eat exactly the same amount, and that's fine.
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SPEAKER_00: The first goal is simply learning to notice the signal.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: Then try it again tomorrow.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: And if you really want to see what this habit can do, give it 30 days.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Not 30 perfect days, just 30 days where you practice eating a little slower, whenever you remember.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you add a minute to your meals, put the fork down more often, or eat one meal a day without your phone or television.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Then pay attention to what changes.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Do you get full sooner?
11:55
SPEAKER_00: Do you leave some food behind more often?
11:58
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice emotional eating earlier?
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Are there foods you suddenly realize that you don't enjoy nearly as much as when you actually slow down and taste them?
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SPEAKER_00: That's the experiment.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Because before you add another food rule to your life, it's worth finding out what happens when you simply give your hunger enough time to speak.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: If this video has you wondering why, some hunger feels physical, some feels almost impossible to satisfy, and some seems to show up the second you're stressed or tired.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Watch my video, Why You're Always Hungry on a Diet.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: The four hunger types explain next.
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SPEAKER_00: Because eating slowly can help you hear the signal.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: That video will help you understand what kind of signal you're actually hearing.
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SPEAKER_00: It's on the end screen now.