Eating Too Fast and Fat Loss: Was Mom Right All Along?

Society seems to be built on speed and momentum. When you are running errands or working at ninety miles an hour who has time to eat? Unfortunately, speed eating can be a contributor to weight gain. One simple tip that can help you lose weight is to simply eat slowly. That can't be right? Is it? Eating slowly has a lot of health benefits that may not be seen on the surface. Eating fast can be a necessity in the pace that most people keep, but keep this in mind.

Eating slowly actually aids in digestion. Are you one of those people who always has heart burn? Remember, digestion starts in the mouth. Chewing thoroughly and properly will give the body plenty of time to break down the food as we eat. Slowing down can save you some nasty heartburn and won't make you feel bloated at the end of the meal. That bloated feeling is due to your body not registering you are full until you are done with everything on your plate.

You do not always have to clean everything on your plate. That may have been a childhood rule for some of you. Eating slower allows your body time to register there is food in your stomach. Your body will know when its full and give you that signal. It takes time to register that. By eating slower, you know when you are full and it will reduce the amount of calories that you pull into your body. If you do not take at least twenty minutes to eat, your body will not have time to register the food.

Here is a good tip, enjoy your food. One problem that most people suffer from diets and eating healthy is not getting to eat as much. If you take the time to enjoy the food you have, you are not left craving more. If you are at your dessert for the week, don't wolf it down, enjoy it. Eating can be about tasting as much as it is about getting nutrition to your body and remember the cooks in the family, they have spent a lot of time preparing something. Why gobble it in moments?

Knowing and doing are unfortunately two different things. Training yourself to eat slowly is a big deal. Try using a fork and knife to eat with. This will make you eat slower because you have to do more to get each bite. The fork is not a shovel, it is an eating utensil. Talking between bites is another great way to force you to slow down.

These practices may seem hard to get down at first. It is not a race. Don't eat as fast as you can. Slow down and enjoy yourself and your company. It may appear rude to sit there while other people finish but it truly isn't. Talk to people, eat slowly and enjoy life. Eating slowly will not only help with weight loss, but it has a lot of other benefits. All it takes is a little bit of discipline to break the habit, even if you have been doing it for years.