8 Strategies To Slim Down

If you’ve been trying to lose weight, you’ve probably read a lot of articles on the web that says, watch what you eat. That’s true and I suggest you stick to that. But what about the amount of food you take?  Sadly, more often than not, you probably find yourself eating more than you have to.

Well, there are easy tricks that you can do to control your food intake. By simply changing your plates, silverware and even the centerpiece on your dining table, you will be able to watch what you eat and moderate the amount of food you eat.

Women’s Health lists down 8 strategies on how to fool yourself into eating a lot less by simply downsizing your table setting.

1. Plates

Keep them saucer-size (about 6 inches in diameter).  According to a study in Cornell University, people who ate hamburgers off of saucers believed they were eating an average of 18 percent more calories than they really were, while those who ate off of bigger dishes had no such delusion.

2. Bowls

Research shows that the bigger the bowl, the more you’ll stuff into it. So stick with small ones, or use a teacup or a mug for foods you tend to gulp down, like cereal and ice cream.

3. Glasses

Replace short, wide glasses with tall tumblers. A study in the Journal of Consumer Research showed that adults pour about 19 percent more liquid into short, wide glasses.  That’s because the brain thinks that short glasses don’t appear quite as full.

4. Spoons

Stick with teaspoons, even when filling up your plate. Another Cornell study found that people who used three-ounce serving spoons shoveled out nearly 15 percent more food than those who scooped using smaller two-ounce spoons.

5. Serving Dishes

Studies have shown that people ate as much as 56 percent more when they served themselves from a one-gallon bowl than they did from a half-gallon one. Another study in the International Journal of Obesity found that women ate 71 percent more out of transparent containers than they did out of dishes they couldn’t see through. So switch your glass bowls into ceramic ones.

6. Candles

Brian Wansink, Ph. D., director of Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab said that people linger over their food more when the lighting is dim, which leads to overeating. So, it’s best to skip them or blow them out right after the salad course.

7. Centerpieces

Instead of flowers, place a bowl of green apples, bananas, or after-dinner mints. Studies at the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago found that obese and overweight people who whiffed one of those scents before each meal lost an average of 60 pounds over six months.

8. Walls

Blue is thought to be a natural appetite suppressant. “Blue lights make food look less appealing, while warmer colors, especially yellow, have the opposite effect,” says Val Jones, M. D., president and CEO of Better Health.

Image by Sifu Renka.

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