Ten tricks to “eat less” (without feeling hungry)

Portions don't say everything about a meal nor even a certain food. The index that measures the quantity of power released by a food are the calories (kcal). A 100 gram plate of pasta contains many more calories than a plate of spinach of the same weight, but the equation is not yet complete.
We do not eat single “pure” foods (unless they are raw, such as fruit), but recipes composed of many ingredients and meals with various dishes.
The pairings
in the dishes and the way of cooking
the dishes affect the final calories absorbed and used within our body. Meal times do too.

This is why sometimes even simple “tricks” that are easy to apply can help introduce fewer calories without feeling the pangs of hunger too much. They seem like simple expedients, but they are useful (within a regular diet) to avoid overdoing them. They are not a “diet” and, although absolutely harmless, they should be adopted when you have no health problems.

1) Start meals by drinking a glass of water: fills the stomach and eliminates the urgency of the sense of hunger.

2) Don't squeeze yourself into too tight trousers, but wear a dress with one belt or jacket with bottones: can serve as a tool to slow you down while you are bingeing and let you evaluate how you feel during the meal. As soon as you start to feel “tight”, you can decide to eat less.

3) Add vegetables to your meals is an easy way to reduce calories, since fiber fills you up quickly. Vegetables also lower a meal's glycemic index, which measures how quickly blood sugar levels rise. A low glycemic load diet helps reduce general inflammation and this protects against many chronic degenerative diseases. It has been shown that a dish of wholemeal al dente pasta with vegetables and fish has a much lower glycemic load than plain pasta with oil, perhaps overcooked and with a lot of cheese on top. Sudden blood sugar fluctuations are bad for everyone (we talked about it HERE, ed
).

4) Carbohydrates are not to be demonised, but it is better to prefer wholemeal ones rich in fibre. To eat less, “reverse the perspective”: for breakfast, for example, instead of starting with a base of muesli, fill the cup with yogurt and then spread just one small amount of granola at the end, on top of the fruit, like topping.

5) One way to slow down your meal and make you fuller is munch foods that require a minimum of jaw “work”, such as oranges, edamame, pistachios, shellfish.

6) Before diving into the main courses, enjoy some soup or soup. While it may seem counterproductive to add anything else to your meal, studies show that starting a dinner with soup can help reduce your overall calorie intake by as much as 20%. The best choice is a broth with vegetables, as written in point 3) about vegetables.

7) If your weakness is buffets, don't prepare them at home and already make the right portions for each dish. Outside the home, make a complete tour of the buffet table before serving yourself: in a study of Cornell University Published on PLoS ONEresearchers observed that over 75% of diners put the first food seen and the first three foods made up two-thirds of the meal, whether they were chosen among the healthy foods or not. So, choose well at the end of the round.

8) Some expedients concern the environment. Never eat from food containers: when you sit on the sofa with a packet of crisps in your hand you don't realize how many you are actually eating. The researchers of Cornell University they found that people ate 50% more chips when they didn't see the portions. Divide the contents into small portions and serve.

9) Also the color of your dish can affect how much you eat. Another study says so Cornell University. The researchers found that when a plate and the food served had similar colors, people at the buffet helped themselves 22% more than when the colors created a high contrast (such as tomato pasta on a white plate).

10) Finally, space for romance and/or relaxation. Dim the lights and listen to music for a more enjoyable meal. By taking more time you will increase the fun and reduce the portions. Remember to chew slowly, put your fork down between bites and drink an extra sip of water.

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