Weight Balance: Chemistry or Choices?
Weight balance is a matter of chemicals and not choices we make. It is complicated. Of course, poor choices can only make things worse. Believe it or not, weight loss isn’t just about eating fewer calories or having more willpower, and it’s a far more complex interchange of biology, genetics, food choices, and the environment.
WRONG!
Decades of research has shown that weight maintenance is more complex than “eat less, move more”. In fact, a range of biological, psychological, and environmental factors all play a major role.
From an evolutionary perspective, our bodies were designed to store fat for times of famine. This may have been helping thousands of years ago when we had to hunt and gather our food. Still, today, when there’s often more than enough food to go around, the body’s drive to squirrel away fat for lean times is working against us. So it's not surprising that our bodies have such a complex system to control food intake, driven by hormones as well as neurochemicals. In this pursuit for survival, the body is assisted by stubborn hormones such as leptin and ghrelin, which ensure that you won’t starve to death but can also undermine willpower. Hormone levels change when weight changes. For people trying to lose weight and or maintain it, increased hunger after weight loss is a major challenge. Hormones from the body signal to the brain, affecting food intake. The body's system for regulating food intake is coordinated by the hypothalamus, which is located under the midline of the brain, behind the eyes.
How does the brain regulate appetite and weight?
The brain is the master regulator of food intake. Let’s take a simplistic look at neuroanatomy and neurochemistry which help maintain energy balance, hence weight. This will help understand the complexity of the weight balance system. The hypothalamus is a command center for several vital functions. Within the hypothalamus are nerve cells that, when activated, produce the sensation of hunger. They make two proteins that cause hunger: neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agouti-related peptide (AGRP). Quite close to these nerve cells is another set of nerves that powerfully inhibit hunger by producing two different proteins: cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) and melanocyte-stimulating hormone (αMSH). These two sets of nerve cells initiate and send signals to other areas of the hypothalamus. So, whether you feel inclined to eat or not depends on the balance of the activity between these two sets of neurons.
But what determines which set of neurons dominates at any given time?
The activity is controlled by hormones circulating in the blood, produced by various parts of the body that regulate energy (food) intake and storage. These include the gut (receives and digests the food), the fat (stores the energy), and the pancreas (makes hormones that are involved in energy storage, such as insulin). Let's take a closer look at how each of these hormones works.
Ghrelin is made in the stomach. It stimulates hunger by acting in the hypothalamus to increase the hunger-causing nerve cells' activity and reduce the activity of hunger-inhibiting cells. When you haven’t eaten for a few hours, ghrelin levels rise to let your brain know that it’s time to eat again. Ghrelin levels also increase when you lose weight, prompting you to eat more and simultaneously slowing your metabolism—the rate at which your body uses calories. As the stomach empties, the release of ghrelin rises, and as soon as the stomach is filled, it decreases.
Insulin-like peptide 5 (ILP-5) is mainly produced in the colon and stimulates hunger.
Cholecystokinin (CCK) is produced in the upper small bowel in response to food and gives a feeling of fullness.
Peptide YY, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), oxyntomodulin, and uroguanylin are released from the last part of the small bowel in response to food in the gut. They make us feel full.
Leptin is the most potent appetite-suppressing hormone and is made in fat cells. The more fat cells we have, the more leptin the body produces. Like a gas gauge in a car, it tells your brain when you have enough fuel onboard. When you lose weight, a low leptin level signals your brain that you are going on empty and need to fill up.
Amylin, insulin, and pancreatic polypeptide are made in the pancreas. These hormones promote satiety.
The hypothalamus also receives signals from pleasure pathways that use dopamine, endocannabinoids, and serotonin as messengers, influencing eating behavior.
Once full, the stomach reduces the desire to eat by lowering ghrelin production and sending a message to the hypothalamus. Ghrelin levels reach a low around 30 to 60 minutes after eating.
Levels of hormones that make us feel full – CCK, PYY, GLP-1, amylin, and insulin – increase after a meal to reach a peak about 30 to 60 minutes later.
All the hormones then gradually return to their fasting levels three to four hours after a meal.
How weight loss affects our hormones
From a big-picture perspective, we humans are hard-wired to survive and propagate the species. So it makes sense that a decrease in food intake (calorie deficit) would signal our brain to conserve energy and increase the drive to eat to stop us from wasting away to death. Even though you may desperately want to shed excess fat, your brain has other plans—hanging on to as much fat as it thinks you require for survival. To this end, it works like a thermostat, constantly monitoring hormones such as leptin that provide feedback on body fat levels. When you eat less and lose weight, your brain jumps in, working to restore equilibrium by sending out hunger signals and—to make matters worse—slowing your metabolism. Following weight loss, leptin levels decrease profoundly. Other hormonal changes include increases in circulating ghrelin, GIP, and pancreatic polypeptide and reductions in PYY and CCK. Almost all of these changes favor regaining lost weight by increasing hunger, reducing satiety, and improving the capacity to store fat. These hormonal changes seem to be present for at least one year after weight loss, leading to a persistent increase in hunger.
The brain’s reward system only adds to the challenge by encouraging you to seek out high-fat, high-calorie food. This strategy was used to aid survival when food was scarce but works to our detriment today. While our biology hasn’t changed much, our food supply has, especially over the past 50 or so years—a very rapid change in the context of the nearly 200,000 years of human evolution.
What about your genes?
We are not destined to be sick. Genes load the gun, but the environment is a trigger. Our bodies are programmed to store fat and to maintain those fat supplies for times of scarcity. Yet some people seem to put on weight faster than others. The reason could be genetic. To date, scientists have uncovered 445 different genes that have been linked to some aspects of obesity. For example, certain people are born with a genetic mutation that results in congenital leptin deficiency, which causes severe obesity as early as infancy. People with this condition are average weight at birth, but because they don’t produce sufficient leptin, they are always hungry and quickly add weight. Other genes appear to contribute to excess weight by promoting one of the following:
slow metabolism and low calorie-burning rate
a propensity to be physically inactive
a reduced ability to burn calories from fat
a tendency to develop excess fat cells and store high levels of body fat.
The power of genetic influences on weight varies substantially from person to person and could account for anywhere from 16% to 40% of the variation in body mass index, according to studies of twins. In general, if both of your parents or other close blood relatives are significantly overweight, you’re much more likely to develop obesity than a person without a family history of being overweight. If you have a strong family history of obesity, especially severe obesity, genes are likely involved.
However, biology is not destiny. Even people with the so-called fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene—the first gene discovered that contributes to common types of obesity—are much less likely to be overweight if they engage in a high level of physical activity. Dietary changes can also benefit people with a number of other obesity-related genes. And in some cases, improvements in gut bacteria may even help.
Bottom line: you cannot change your genes, but you can control your environment—and it is the environment we live in that has driven the dramatic increase in obesity since the 1970s.
Should you be counting calories?
Most people have been taught that losing weight is a matter of simple math. Cut calories — specifically 3,500 calories, and you'll lose a pound. But as it turns out, experts are learning that this decades-old strategy is actually pretty misguided. This idea of a calorie in and a calorie out when it comes to weight loss is not only antiquated, it's just wrong. The truth is that even careful calorie calculations don't always yield uniform results. Now, experts realize strict calorie counting isn’t the best strategy. Over the long term, your weight is controlled more by biology than willpower. You can temporarily cut calories and lose weight, but your body pushes back with rising hunger and slowing metabolism.
How your body burns calories depends on a number of factors, including the type of food you eat, your body's metabolism, and even the type of organisms living in your gut. You can eat the exact same number of calories as someone else, yet have very different outcomes when it comes to your weight.
When you rely solely on counting calories, you never learn to listen to your body’s inner hunger and satiety signals, which can be powerful tools in helping to keep unwanted pounds off for good. Drop the calories notion. That’s not to say calories don’t matter at all, but you don’t need to obsess about them. It's time to take a different approach, putting the emphasis on improving diet quality and making sustainable lifestyle improvements to achieve a healthy weight. It can be more helpful to have a general idea of how many calories you should limit yourself to in a day—and which foods are more likely to help you stay within that range. Think of it as calorie awareness, as opposed to calorie counting.
Not all calories are created equal
Experts are also now learning that not all calories are created equal when it comes to weight loss. Some foods can keep you far more satisfied than others, helping you eat less overall. Three main factors affect how your body processes calories:
Gut microbiome
Your gut is home to more than 100 trillion microbial cells. That’s ten times the number of human cells in your body. These microbes are incredibly diverse, with 1,150 different species that can potentially live in your gut. They have all sorts of essential jobs, such as regulating immune and digestive health and even influencing your mood. Now, research is finding links between the types of bacteria you harbor and your body weight. Different microbes have different effects on weight. Some may help you stay slim by stimulating the production of hormones that keep you feeling full, such as leptin. Others may promote weight gain by increasing the fermentation of carbohydrates, encouraging the body to absorb more of its calories. Still, other microbes may prompt the body to store more significant amounts of fat. In general, the greater the diversity of microbes, the better, since the “good” ones can help counteract the “bad.” People who are naturally thin have different types of organisms living inside them than those who are overweight. Taking the gut microbiota out of people who are lean and placing it in people who have overweight or obesity can result in weight shifts. This may occur because some types of organisms in the gut are able to break down and use more calories from certain foods than other types of organisms.
The foods you eat and your environment determine your unique gut bacterial profile. A diet containing many fiber-filled plant foods appears to protect against obesity-causing bacteria. In contrast, the typical Western diet—rife with sugar, fat, and animal products—has been linked to microbes that promote weight gain. Amazingly, it doesn’t take long to alter the composition of your gut bacteria. In one Harvard study, researchers found that changes in diet could affect a person’s gut microbes in as little as one day.
Set point
Each body has a "set point" that governs weight. The "set point" theory supports the notion that the brain acts to keep your weight within a specific range. A good comparison is to think of a thermostat - despite efforts or opening windows, the room will return to its designated temperature. This set point reflects several factors, including your genes, your environment, and your behaviors. Your hypothalamus, which also regulates things like your body temperature, stands guard to keep your body weight from dipping below that set point—which is not really an advantage if you're trying to lose weight. This is why you might find your weight plateauing even if you are diligently dieting and exercising, and also why many people who lose a large amount of weight regain it.
Researchers studying the show The Biggest Loser, which helps contestants lose large amounts of weight through a stringent plan of diet and exercise, found that after weight loss, contestants' bodies would fight back in an attempt to regain weight. The resting metabolic rate for contestants, which measures the number of calories the body uses just running its everyday functions, plummeted after their dramatic weight loss. This means it became very challenging to avoid regaining some weight because of metabolic adaptation.
Food
Your food choices influence your calorie intake, and not just because of their specific calorie content. One 2019 study published in Cell Metabolism found that eating processed foods seems to spur people to eat more calories compared with eating unprocessed foods. In the study, 20 people (10 men and 10 women) were split into two groups. They all were offered meals with the same number of calories, as well as similar amounts of sugar, sodium, fat, fiber, and micronutrients. But there was one key difference: one group was given unprocessed foods, and the other got ultra-processed options. After two weeks, the groups switched and ate the other type of diet for the following two weeks. People who ate ultra-processed food gained weight. Each group was given meals with the same number of calories and instructed to eat as much as they wanted, but when participants ate the processed foods, they ate 500 calories more each day on average. The same people's calorie intake decreased when they ate unprocessed foods.
Processed food
Processed food is any food that has been altered from its natural form. While not all processed foods are unhealthy, ultra-processed foods have been changed the most from their natural form & are the least healthy. Added fats, added sugar, salt and refined grains injure brain cells to raise the setpoint. It overstimulates rewards from calorie-dense foods with low nutritional value.
Few minimally processed food are:
Canned beans
Bagged salads
Roasted nuts
Frozen vegetables
Few ultra-processed foods are:
Deserts and chips
Frozen entrees
Sugar-sweetened beverages
Fast food
Deli meats
Whole Food
Whole foods are foods closest to their natural form: fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, & seeds. They contain high amounts of complex carbohydrates and are high in fiber. They contain mostly monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. They have low-calorie density, high in nutritional values, and don’t change the set point.
So, not all food is created equal. The brain likes foods that are healthy, that are in their natural form.
Rethink Obesity®
What should you do?
Focus on diet quality
When planning your meals, focus on choosing unprocessed foods, including lean meats, whole grains, and lots of fruits and vegetables in their natural form. Identify your comfort foods, and keep them out of your house. Processed food can drive your body to consume more.
Exercise regularly
Power your metabolism with exercise. Physical activity is a wellness tool. Aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week. Moderate exercise is done at a level where you can talk, but not sing. Moderate exercise is not a casual walk, but it's more like walking up a large hill.
While any movement is better than nothing, work toward achieving a more vigorous level of exercise when you can. The type of physical activity (eg aerobic vs resistance; high intensity vs low intensity) does not seem to affect overall weight loss, but as more intensive activity produces similar weight loss with a reduced time commitment, they might be preferable to some.
Splitting a continuous bout of exercise into shorter bouts of equivalent total duration spread over the course of a day does not alter its potential to provide health benefits. For people engaged in sedentary work, we recommend getting up and walking for 10 minutes every hour on the hour. This will help them walk at least 2 hours by end of the day, which offers a great health benefit.
Although both food quality and exercise are important in weight management, food is more important in the process of losing weight while exercise is more important in the process of maintaining weight.
Sleep well
Poor sleep quality can lead to weight gain, as can a sleep schedule that is out of sync with the body's natural daily pattern, known as circadian rhythm. Your body wants to sleep at night and be awake during the day. "The Nurses' Health Study, which followed nurses for 20 years, found that those who worked the night shift gained more weight over time. The body gets perturbed when you disrupt its natural rhythm. The same is true if you are getting poor-quality sleep or not enough. A lack of sleep affects your weight in much the same way as hormonal shifts, making you want to eat more. So, addressing sleep problems should be a priority.
Manage stress
Stress is part of our lives. Stress, like poor sleep, can lead to weight gain. Controlling stress can help you keep excess pounds at bay. Stress drives us to eat comfort food to soothe negative feelings & chemically dial down our stress response. Stress hormones lead to an accumulation of belly fat - which releases chemicals that cause inflammation & insulin resistance, leading to further weight. Stress triggers can be external (related to a job, relationships, or major life changes) or internal (challenges to health or mental wellbeing). We can't always change the situation that causes stress. By recognizing triggers, we can become better at responding to stress. Managing stress is an integral part of living a healthy life. Stress management techniques that build resilience to stress can lower our level of stress hormones & improve how we regulate our appetite & weight. A few techniques for handling stress are:
Cultivating gratitude
Building Optimism
Investing in relationships
Finding meaning and purpose
Seeing the Cup Half Full
A healthy meal is self-nurturing, which tends to body signals and needs. It’s clear, that having an unhealthy weight isn’t a matter of personal failing. Our goal is to help simplify the complex process of weight balance and give you self-help tools to attain and maintain health and wellbeing.
References:
About Us
Dr. Amar Singh, MD, and Dr. Poonam Singh, MD, are board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Obesity Medicine. They specialize in preventing, treating, and reversing chronic diseases using an evidence-based holistic approach. They are specifically interested in weight management, hormone re-balancing, and longevity. The American College of Physicians has recognized them as Fellows, FACP, for their excellence and contributions to medicine and the broader community. They enjoy teaching, volunteering, and advocating for their patients. Their mission is to share simple, effective, and proven strategies that lead to meaningful, sustainable, and long-lasting well-being.
Walking Through Grief
Have you ever lost someone you love and wanted one more conversation and chance to make up for the time when you thought they would be here forever? If so, you know you can go collecting days your whole life, and none will outweigh the one you wish you had back.
Grief is a very personal journey that must be taken, often tricky and without clear direction. The experience of grieving cannot be ordered or categorized, hurried or controlled, pushed aside or ignored indefinitely. It is as inevitable as breathing, as change, as love. It may be postponed but not denied. Grief is labyrinthine and enigmatic; its implications are emotional, physical, social and interpersonal, economic, spiritual, and existential. Grief is like the ocean; it comes in waves, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes, the water is calm, and sometimes, it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.
Nothing quite prepares you for the heartache of profound loss. It settles in like a gloomy thump — sometimes louder, sometimes softer — with a volume switch you can't entirely shut off. For me, that heartbreak arrived this past March when my mother died unexpectedly after routine surgery. Fifty days later, my dad passed away. Now, for the first time in my life, I'm experiencing real grief. As a physician, I know this emotional experience comes with the risk of physical side effects. Most of these side effects are the result of emotional distress responses. Whether you're grieving the loss of a loved one, like I am, or losing a job, a home, or a beloved pet, it's essential to understand how the process puts your health in jeopardy.
![With mom [Dr. Prabhavati Prasad] and dad [Dr. Birendra Kumar Singh]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ed314313016244d3e6317cd/1628900887835-Q1THABK8W8IJF5E76ITO/Dr+Amar+Singh+MD+and+Dr+Poonam+Singh+MD)
With mom [Dr. Prabhavati Prasad] and dad [Dr. Birendra Kumar Singh]
Stress and grief
Grieving takes a toll on the body in the form of stress, affecting the entire body and especially the immune system. Evidence suggests that immune cell function falls and inflammatory responses rise in people who are grieving. That may be why people often get sick more often and use more healthcare resources during this period.
Stress unleashes a flood of stress hormones that can worsen existing conditions (such as heart failure or diabetes) or lead to new ones (high blood pressure, reflux, or shingles). Stress can also cause insomnia and changes in appetite. Extreme stress, the kind experienced after losing a loved one, is associated with changes in heart muscle cells or coronary blood vessels (or both) that prevent the left ventricle from contracting effectively — a condition called stress-induced cardiomyopathy or broken-heart syndrome. The symptoms are similar to those of a heart attack: chest pain and shortness of breath.
Depression and grief
Intense feelings of sadness are typical when one is grieving. But some people become depressed. Up to 50% of widows and widowers have depression symptoms during the first few months after a spouse's death. By the one-year mark, the proportion is down to 10%. Depression symptoms include extreme hopelessness, insomnia, loss of appetite, suicidal thoughts, persistent feelings of worthlessness, and marked mental and physical sluggishness. People who are depressed often withdraw from social connections, and they usually stop taking care of themselves properly. They're not as interested in life. They fall on the job, miss doctor appointments, stop exercising, and stop eating correctly. All of these things put their health at risk.
The effect on mind and body
We may differ in how we ritualize grief, understand it, and behave as we work through it, but grief is the singular most unifying aspect of the human experience.
Grief is broadly classified into two types: acute and persistent. Most people experience acute grief, which occurs in the first six to twelve months after a loss and gradually resolves. Some, however, experience relentless grief that lasts longer than 12 months.
The death of someone you love can shake the core of your existence and affect both mind and body. During a period of grief, one can become preoccupied with thoughts, memories, and images of one's friend or loved one, have difficulty accepting the finality of the loss, and experience waves of sadness and yearning. Many people suddenly feel vulnerable since they lost a companion or friend they looked to for support. They also begin looking closer at their mortality, often for the first time.
Chronic stress is also common during acute grief. It can lead to various physical and emotional issues, such as depression, trouble sleeping, feelings of anger and bitterness, anxiety, loss of appetite, and general aches and pains. Some may try to resist grief, but it's important not to ignore these symptoms, as constant stress can put you at greater risk for a heart attack, stroke, and even death, especially in the first few months after losing someone.
Navigating grief: picking up pieces
You are allowed to feel messed up inside and out. It doesn’t mean you’re defective — it just means you’re human. It may seem impossible to think about maintaining good health when it's not easy to get through each day simply. But it's okay to go through the motions at first. That may mean walking for five minutes every day and gradually increasing the amount of time you walk. And even if you don't feel like eating, go ahead and eat three healthy meals per day anyway. Your body needs calories to function, even if you're not hungry. Eating too little may add to fatigue. The following are various tools one can use to walk through grief.
Grief counselor
As a specialist trained to help one make sense of one's feelings of loss, Grief counselors help people understand that there are many ways to express and come to terms with grief. They are particularly attuned to common reactions to grief, whether these reactions are physical, emotional, or cognitive.
Grief support group
Such groups are typically led by a counselor encouraging members to share their feelings and experiences. Being with others, expressing yourself, realizing that you're not the only one going through a particular experience, and learning from others can be especially helpful.
People who experience persistent grief should seek a therapist or counselor to help them work through the grieving process. This may include focused treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy and complicated grief therapy. For the more common acute grief, as with any other highly stressful life event, it is well worth thinking through strategies that can help you overcome or manage the stress of loss.
Mind-body activities
Take up yoga, tai chi, or qigong. These mind-body activities can help you relax and reverse the effects of stress and anxiety on a molecular level. Researchers found that genes that create inflammation in people who regularly engaged in these practices were less active. Many classes are designed specifically for stress reduction. You can find these classes online or inquire at local yoga studios and community centers.
Nature heals
There is a healing quality of nature, which has been known for centuries, be it taking the time to smell the roses, meditating, lying in a wildflower field, strolling by a meandering stream, or hiking a trail. The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates recognizes this powerful attribute in the simple statement: Nature cures–not the physician. Nature can aid in facilitating self-awareness and healing. Time spent outdoors can be restorative and healing.
Healthy diet
Stress triggers cravings for sugar and fat, which is why you reach for feel-good, high-calorie, and high-fat processed food. Yet these foods can make you feel worse. Instead, focus on keeping up a well-balanced diet: eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, and lean proteins, and drink plenty of water.
Sleep hygiene
Grief is emotionally exhausting. After a loss, people often find their sleep disrupted — they have trouble falling asleep, wake up in the middle of the night, or sleep too much. Going to bed regularly, following a bedtime routine, and avoiding caffeine and alcohol in the evening helps with more restful sleep.
Move
A simple daily walk can help ease depression, agitation, and sorrow related to grief. Finding the energy to exercise is often difficult, so if you lack motivation, enlist a workout buddy or join an exercise group.
Health checkup
It's easy to ignore your general health when grieving. This includes skipping doctor visits and forgetting to take your medications. Schedule all exams for the coming year so you don't miss them, and set timers on your phone or computer to help remind you to take your medications as scheduled, or ask a friend or family member to assist by checking in with you daily.
New responsibilities
The loss of a spouse or family member may mean you have to take over specific routine jobs. For example, you may now be in charge of cooking, general house upkeep, or organizing financial records. While these tasks can be additional stressors, turn them into a positive experience. Taking on a new responsibility can keep your mind focused on a job and distract you from your grief.
Social network
While it can be painful to see people, it is essential to maintain connections with others—social relationships are crucial to good health. Stay in touch with friends and loved ones. Try to get out and spend time with others, even if it's to talk about your grief. This affirms that you are not alone, and even if you feel isolated, there may be family members, friends, or even neighbors who can give a supportive hand. Set up a weekly get-together for lunch or coffee, or invite people over for a monthly potluck. Or try to communicate with someone daily, either by phone or email.
Coping with anger while grieving
If the death of someone you love has left you feeling angry or bitter, you might find it helpful to try the following techniques.
Consider it.
Is anger a stand-in for more painful emotions, or does the situation warrant it? Do you feel abandoned or afraid? If so, could you enlist support from others or spend some time thinking about your fears and putting them to rest? It might help to share your feelings in a grief support group and learn how others have dealt with similar feelings.
Express it.
Set aside a safe time and place each day to defuse angry feelings. Some people yell in the car with the windows rolled up. Some find stress-relief techniques like meditation or yoga helpful. Others find release in punching pillows or spurts of strenuous activity. Consider options for releasing anger and plan how to express it safely when it crops up. Sometimes, writing about situations that make you angry can help you focus on what you feel beneath your anger.
Explain it.
Tell others how short-fused you are right now. If you know you stepped over the line, apologize. Most people will make allowances.
Take one step at a time
Throughout history, across cultures and religions, grief has touched us all. Your grief is uniquely your own. Grief is not something to overcome. It is to experience. In time — and there is no standard period of grief for anyone — the sun will return, and you'll feel a little stronger emotionally and physically each day. I'm counting on this. But we all need a foundation of good health to get there. Let's give ourselves that advantage. Our loved ones would want that for us.
Medical Weight Management
The battle against COVID-19 has brought our other pandemic to center stage - obesity. February 28 through March 6th is celebrated as Obesity Care Week (OCW) every year. OCW’s vision is to promote a society that understands, respects and accepts the complexities of obesity and values science and clinically-based care.
Obesity is no longer considered a lifestyle choice or simply the result of a lack of willpower. The American Medical Association, World Health Organization, along with many medical societies now recognize obesity as a chronic progressive disease resulting from multiple environmental and strong genetic factors. 93 million Americans are affected by the chronic disease of obesity. Approximately 75% of those affected by severe obesity have at least one co-morbid condition (diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, etc.), which significantly increases the risk of premature death. Life expectancy for a 20-year-old male affected by severe obesity is 13 years shorter than a normal weight male of the same age. No state has a prevalence of obesity less than 20% — 22 states have a prevalence between 25-30%, and 25 states have a prevalence greater than 30%. Annual direct medical expenditures attributable to obesity are $147 billion. Weight management can greatly improve overall health and lessen the impact of the diseases and conditions that accompany obesity. Obesity management is about more than reducing numbers on a scale. Success is different for every individual. Obtaining a weight in the recommended range may be unrealistic for some persons with obesity. The success of obesity management is measured by improvements in health-related behaviors and well-being (e.g. improved energy, self-esteem, or quality of life), not just by the amount of weight lost. Here are a few facts:
Medical weight management reduces the effects of chronic diseases, improves lives, and saves $:
Excess weight is associated with developing over 40 chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, and at least 13 different types of cancer. The risk for developing these diseases can increase as an individual’s weight increases. And the overall risk of developing diabetes can double for people with obesity rather than excess weight. Diabetes is one of the most expensive diseases to have.
Nearly 32% of U.S. adults have hypertension (high blood pressure). Modest weight-loss, as small as 10 pounds, can lower one’s blood pressure. We have had several patients successfully come off medications.
The CDC reports that 9.4% of Americans have diabetes, with an additional 84.1 million people diagnosed with prediabetes. National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a seminal study, demonstrated a 59% reduction in progression from prediabetes to diabetes when lifestyle modifications are made. We have had several patients successfully come off insulin and cut down their pill burden.
Obesity costs the global economy about $2 trillion annually, or 2.8% of global GDP, comparable to the costs of smoking or armed violence, war, and terrorism combined.
Individuals with obesity have 42% higher healthcare costs than normal-weight; for people with severe obesity, healthcare costs are 81% higher.
Each 1-point increase in BMI leads to a 4% increase in medical costs and a 7% increase in pharmaceutical costs.
Sleep apnea may lead to additional chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Medical weight management can reduce the severity of sleep apnea. Coming off a CPAP machine after losing a sufficient amount of weight is a real possibility.
Medical weight management can decrease inflammation. This is beneficial in several direct and indirect ways.
Obesity is the fifth leading risk of death worldwide and is attributed to 5% of all preventable global deaths each year.
BMI of 40 or more is associated with a 50-100% increased risk of premature death than healthy-weight individuals.
Obesity reduces life expectancy by nine years for women and by twelve years for men.
Obesity-related cancers account for 40% of all cancers diagnosed in the U.S. Rates of 12 out of 13 obesity-related cancers increased by 7% from 2005 to 2014, while cancers not associated with overweight and obesity fell by 13%.
Medical weight management options are available for individuals living with excess weight and obesity and have proven results:
Physician, Dietician, Exercise coach, and Behaviour modification are the four pillars of an effective evidence-based treatment program.
Due to its progressive nature, obesity requires life-long treatment and control.
Individuals participating in weight management programs tend to lose 3-5% more weight than those following self-directed programs.
Overall, lifestyle modifications generally result in a weight-loss of 5-10% of excess body weight. Lifestyle modifications have manageable goals and include eating habits, physical activity, and overall behavior modifications.
Medications approved for long-term obesity treatment, when used with lifestyle modifications, lead to greater weight loss and increased likelihood of meaningful 1-year weight outcomes. These medications are as safe as any other medications when used by a trained physician.
Some of the medications used for long-term weight management have been proven to achieve 5-15% weight loss. Results of the use of medication for the treatment of obesity may vary.
Medical weight management reduces effects of chronic diseases:
Nearly 32% of U.S. adults have hypertension (high blood pressure). Modest weight-loss, as small as 10 pounds, can lower one’s blood pressure.
The CDC reports that 9.4% of Americans have diabetes, with an additional 84.1 million people diagnosed with prediabetes. National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a seminal study, demonstrated a 59% reduction in progression from prediabetes to diabetes when lifestyle modifications are made.
Sleep apnea may lead to additional chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Medical weight management can reduce the severity of sleep apnea.
Medical weight management can decrease inflammatory markers, which are predictors of chronic disease.
Due to its progressive nature, obesity requires life-long treatment and control.
Obesity is the fifth leading risk of death worldwide and is attributed to 5% of all preventable global deaths each year.
BMI of 40 or more is associated with a 50-100% increased risk of premature death than healthy-weight individuals.
Obesity reduces life expectancy by nine years for women and by 12 years for men.
Obesity-related cancers account for 40% of all cancers diagnosed in the U.S. Rates of 12 out of 13 obesity-related cancers increased by 7% from 2005 to 2014, while cancers not associated with overweight and obesity fell by 13%.
Obesity costs the global economy about $2 trillion annually, or 2.8% of global GDP, comparable to the costs of smoking or armed violence, war, and terrorism combined.
Individuals with obesity have 42% higher healthcare costs than normal-weight; for people with severe obesity, healthcare costs are 81% higher.
Each 1-point increase in BMI leads to a 4% increase in medical costs and a 7% increase in pharmaceutical costs.
Medical weight management provided by an obesity medicine physician is a resource for patients affected by excess weight or obesity:
Optimization of body composition analysis and resting energy expenditure (referred to as metabolism in common parlance) is the endgame. Obesity medicine physicians are trained to interpret body composition analysis, an essential part of the evidence-based treatment plan.
Minorities and middle-aged adults suffer from higher rates of obesity:
Non-Hispanic blacks have the highest age-adjusted rates of obesity (48.1%), followed by Hispanics (42.5%), non-Hispanic whites (34.5%), and non-Hispanic Asians (11.7%).
Obesity is higher among middle-aged adults (age 40-59 years; 40.2%) and older adults (age 60 and over; 37.0%) than among younger adults (age 20–39; 32.3%).
The costs and health effects of being overweight and living with obesity are high:
Just over 70% of Americans are currently overweight, with nearly 40% having obesity. In 2008 the total amount spent on medical costs associated with obesity was $147 billion. That equates to an individual increase in health care costs of $1,429 each year compared to an individual without obesity. A substantial and rising percentage of healthcare costs are associated with the treatment of obesity. In 2015, 7.91% of health spending went toward obesity-related illness, and spending on obesity-related illness increased 29% between 2001 and 2015.
Severe obesity (BMI of 40 or more) affects nearly 8% of adults aged 20 and older and is associated with a 50-100% increased risk of premature death.
The National Institutes of Health reports that adults suffering from severe obesity are most likely to die from cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. Years of lost life could be as high as compared to a healthy adult of the same age.
Obesity Medicine
An obesity medicine physician is a physician with expertise in the sub-specialty of obesity medicine. This sub-specialty requires competency in and a thorough understanding of the treatment of obesity and the genetic, biological, environmental, social, and behavioral factors that contribute to obesity. The obesity medicine physician employs therapeutic interventions, including diet, physical activity, behavioral change, and pharmacotherapy. He or she also utilizes a comprehensive approach and may include additional resources such as nutritionists, exercise physiologists, psychologists, and bariatric surgeons as indicated to achieve optimal results. Additionally, the obesity medicine physician maintains competency in providing pre-, peri-, and post-surgical care of bariatric surgery patients promotes the prevention of obesity, and advocates for those who suffer from obesity.
Check out this story Our Weight Management Program
References:
http://www.obesitymedicine.org/
http://www.stopobesityalliance.org/
Posted 3/4/2021
About Us
Dr. Amar Singh, MD, and Dr. Poonam Singh, MD, are board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and American Board of Obesity Medicine. They specialize in preventing, treating, and reversing chronic diseases using an evidence-based holistic approach. They are specifically interested in weight management, hormone re-balancing, and longevity. The American College of Physicians has recognized them as Fellows, FACP, for their excellence and contributions to medicine and the broader community. They enjoy teaching, volunteering, and advocating for their patients. Their mission is to share simple, effective, and proven strategies that lead to meaningful, sustainable, and long-lasting well-being.
It's Cold Outside! Do Your Joints Hurt?
Does your grandmother know when a storm is coming because her knees start to ache? Or have you felt your joints ache when the temperature takes a dip? Maybe grandma was right and her achy knees really could sense rain on the way. People commonly blame joint pain flare-ups on changes in the weather, but the research on the connection between the two isn’t clear. Scientists don’t agree exactly on how weather affects joint pain, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. Many of our patients notice a clear connection; some are so convinced of the link, they believe they can predict the weather better than the weather-person.! And maybe that’s true.
Here is what science says.:
A recent study finds no connection between rainy weather and symptoms of back or joint pain. This conclusion was based on data from more than 11 million medical visits occurring on more than two million rainy days and nine million dry days. Not only was there no apparent pattern linking rainy days and more aches and pains, but there were slightly more visits on dry days.
Still not convinced? That’s understandable. Maybe it’s not raining or shine that matters — perhaps it’s barometric pressure, weather changes, or humidity that matters most. Or perhaps the study missed some essential information, such as when symptoms began or got worse — after all, it can take days or even weeks after symptoms begin to see a doctor.
The question of whether there’s a link between weather and aches and pains has been studied extensively. While a definitive answer is nearly impossible to provide because it’s hard to prove a negative, prove that something doesn’t exist. The researchers have been unable to make a strong case for a strong connection. The deeper we look, the more confusing it gets.
A 2014 Australian study found no link between back pain and rain, temperature, humidity, or air pressure. This study collected data regarding the weather features at the time of first symptoms and compared it to the weather a week and a month before. An earlier study found that among 200 patients followed for three months, knee pain increased modestly when the temperature fell, or barometric pressure rose.
In one survey of 200 people with osteoarthritis in their knee, researchers found that every 10-degree drop in temperature -- as well as low barometric pressure --corresponded to a rise in arthritis pain.
A Dutch study of 222 people with osteoarthritis of the hip found that over 2 years, people said their pain and stiffness got worse with rising barometric pressure and humidity.
Two Australian studies, one on knee pain and one on lower back pain, also found no connection to weather change.
Arthritis is a general term for joint diseases causing pain, swelling, stiffness, and a decreased mobility. There are multiple hypotheses about the relationship between arthritis and weather. Although none of them have been established, a few of them are:
People with joint pain may be sensitive to changes in barometric pressure. How? It could be that when the cartilage that cushions the bones inside a joint is worn away, nerves in the exposed bones might pick up on changes in pressure.
Barometric pressure is the weight of air. During rain and snow, the temperature drops and barometric pressure decreases. Decreasing pressure (which ushers in bad weather) means air presses less on our bodies. This can cause fluid in the joints to swell slightly, which makes them stiffer. If you have stiff joints, you may be more sensitive to pain during movement, making arthritis pain seem worse.
Changes in barometric pressure may make your tendons, muscles, and any scar tissue expands and contract, and that can create pain in joints affected by arthritis.
Weather plays a key role in how much physical activity they are getting. People tend to stay indoors and lounge around more when it’s cold and rainy outside, and inactive joints can get stiff and painful. Staying in on one lousy day might not make a huge difference, especially if you have a milder case of arthritis. However, long stretches of bad weather where you don't get enough physical activity can start to make the pain worse.
Emotions drive pain perceptions. When you're happier, you tend to have less pain, and vice versa. If you are depressed, you're even more likely to have your emotions and mood affect your pain levels. It's common for the weather to affect your mood. Rainy days can put you in a gloomy funk, while sunny days can put a smile on your face. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a specific type of depression that comes with seasons. Depression usually begins in late fall or early winter and goes away during spring and summer. Every year, about 5% of Americans experience seasonal depression. It doesn't matter if you have SAD or are sad — bad weather can cause a bad mood, increasing pain. And nice weather can make you happy, and you feel less pain.
Cold temperatures cause changes in blood flow as the body naturally wants to keep us warm. When cold weather strikes, some blood flow is rerouted from our limbs to important organs, such as our heart and lungs. This takes warmth away from our joints, which can cause discomfort.
There is something else that's very important to keep in mind regarding the weather and arthritis: Influenza season. Influenza season is typically considered to last from early fall through late winter or early spring. It tends to peak in the US between December and February. The flu and arthritis are linked in several ways: People with arthritis have a greater chance of getting the flu. Both the disease itself and certain treatments, such as prescribed corticosteroids, can lower the immune system's ability to fight germs. Arthritis increases the risk of having serious complications from the flu, such as pneumonia. Again, this may be due to a weak immune system. Some of the main flu symptoms are body aches and pains. If you already have arthritic pain, these symptoms can feel even worse. One of the most important things you can do is get your flu shot. It's the most effective way to prevent Influenza. The flu vaccine is absolutely safe for people with arthritis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends getting the shot before peak flu season in early October. However, you can get it at any time throughout the flu season, and it will still be beneficial.
If damp cold weather exacerbates pain, you may wonder — why not move to where the weather is milder, warmer, or dryer? Some researchers say climate doesn’t matter. In the U.S., for example, where different regions have varied weather and climate types, one study found that even people in mild, moderate San Diego weather reported weather-related pain. In fact, they reported more pain than residents of the study’s three colder U.S. cities: Nashville, Boston, and Worcester, Massachusetts. Chronic pain doesn’t care where you live. Humidity and barometric pressure tend to change everywhere.
Ease Weather-Related Joint Pain
The studies' results are all over the place, but thankfully, you can do things that may ease the problem. You don’t need to move to a tropical climate to avoid this kind of pain. Use these ideas to get relief from weather-induced joint pain:
Stay warm: Take warm showers or baths, dress in layers during the day (including gloves and warm socks), use an electric blanket at night, or crank up the heat inside your home. This is a no-brainer!
Paraffin bath. It’s a small machine that melts paraffin wax. You dip your hands and feet in, and then you let the wax harden on your skin. Your body absorbs the heat, which may soothe achy joints. You can also use a heating pad on sore spots.
Ask your healthcare provider about non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, naproxen, or aspirin, which can reduce inflammation and pain.
Stay active. Begin exercise gradually. Try exercise that’s gentle on the joints, like yoga, pilates, or swimming. It will help you build up muscle and bone strength. If you go outside to exercise, limber up first with gentle stretches to warm up your muscles.
Healthy weight: Shedding some extra pounds has many health benefits as well, but specifically, it can take the stress off your joints. Let's look at the weight and your knees. When you walk across level ground, the force on your knees is the equivalent of 1½ times your body weight. That means a 200-pound man will put 300 pounds of pressure on his knees with each step. Add an incline, and the pressure is even greater: the force on each knee is two to three times your body weight when you go up and downstairs, and four to five times your body weight when you squat to tie a shoelace or pick up an item you dropped. Don’t strain your joints if you don’t have to. Let someone else lift those heavy boxes.
Good nutrition, hydration, adequate sleep, and keep a positive outlook. When you’re dehydrated, your sensitivity to pain increases, eat a balanced, nutritional diet, and stay hydrated.
Supplement with vitamin D or fish oil. You naturally get less vitamin D in the winter, and being deficient might make your joints hurt more. Fish oil is rich in omega 3, which helps decrease inflammation.
Be safe. Cold weather yields icy surfaces. Protect your joints from further damage from falls by wearing sturdy shoes and walking carefully.
Get a massage. Relax the muscles around your joints.
Does research matter when you have personal experience? That’s a fair question. And it’s something we’ve even heard in TV commercials about headache medicines: “I don’t care about the research. I know what works for me.” But it’s worth remembering that we humans have a remarkable tendency to remember when two things occur or change together (such as wet, gloomy weather, and joint pain), but remember less when things do not occur together. That rainy day when you felt no better or worse is unlikely to be so notable that you remember it. If you rely solely on memory rather than on more rigorous, data-driven evidence, it’s easy to conclude a link exists where, in fact, none does. Association doesn’t prove causation.
Medical myths die hard, and some seem immortal. One should remember that yesterday’s medical myth is only one discovery away from becoming tomorrow’s medical fact. Still, when the evidence is compelling, we think we’d be better off letting go of what’s been disproven, give more credence to evidence than folklore, and keep an open mind — just in case the evidence changes. When our patients tell us they can predict the weather by how their joints feel, we believe them. It’s hard to discount it when so many people notice a connection. They could represent an exception to what the studies show. But we also believe the science. Until we see evidence that’s even more compelling, we remain skeptical about the weather/arthritis connection.
References:
https://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j5326
Posted 2/25/2021
About Us
Dr. Amar Singh, MD, and Dr. Poonam Singh, MD, are board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and American Board of Obesity Medicine. They specialize in preventing, treating, and reversing chronic diseases using an evidence-based holistic approach. They are specifically interested in weight management, hormone re-balancing, and longevity. The American College of Physicians has recognized them as Fellows, FACP, for their excellence and contributions to medicine and the broader community. They enjoy teaching, volunteering, and advocating for their patients. Their mission is to share simple, effective, and proven strategies that lead to meaningful, sustainable, and long-lasting well-being.
How To Curb Sugar Craving
Do you have a sweet tooth? Most of us will overindulge at times. But the more sugar we consume, the more we want. If you crave sugary foods, you're not alone. Studies estimate that up to 90% of the adult population may experience food cravings. These cravings are often for sugary foods. Desire to improve mood drives cravings for carbohydrates and other sugary foods since consuming sweet treats increases serotonin levels in your brain. Many of us turn to sugar when we are happy and when we are sad or stressed. It is a ‘crutch’ for many.
Sugar is one of the most over-consumed substances in the standard American diet. According to the American Heart Association, American adults consume an average of 77 grams of sugar per day, more than three times the recommended amount for women. That is up to 60 pounds of added sugar annually. The numbers are even worse for American children who consume 81 grams per day, equaling over 65 pounds of added sugar per year. Children are drinking over 30 gallons of added sugars from beverages alone. The American Heart Association’s sugar intake recommendations: men should consume no more than nine teaspoons (36 grams or 150 calories) of added sugar per day and women six teaspoons (25 grams or 100 calories) per day. To put that in perspective, one 12-ounce can of soda contains eight teaspoons (32 grams) of added sugar! Sugar cravings are a formidable opponent to anyone trying to stay on a nutritious path.
The first step in controlling the sugar cravings is figuring out why you have the cravings. Craving and hunger are not the same. Hunger is your body calling for energy, while craving is your brain calling for something that releases a lot of dopamine in the reward system. When you get a craving while you’re hungry, the feeling is difficult to resist.
Insulin signals fat cells to accumulate fat while telling the other cells in our body to burn carbohydrates for fuel. That is why these carbohydrates are uniquely fattening. Since insulin levels after meals are determined largely by the carbohydrates we eat — particularly easily digestible grains and starches, known as high glycemic index carbohydrates, as well as sugars like sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup — diets based on this approach (Glycemic Index Diet) specifically target these carbohydrates. This effect of insulin on fat and carbohydrate metabolism offers an explanation for why these same carbohydrates are typically the foods we crave most.
Here are a few things to consider to overcome this challenge.
Eat a Healthy and Filling Meal
When you experience a craving and hunger simultaneously, have a healthy meal rather than junk food. Eat whole food. Simply put, whole foods are foods that are either not processed at all, or processed minimally. Examples include whole grains, legumes, fresh fruits, and vegetables. Think foods that don't need labels listing countless different unpronounceable ingredients.
Evaluate Your Protein Intake
The initial rush of sugar is quickly followed by a crash, resulting in low energy levels and poor mood. This cycle of highs and lows puts your health at risk. Protein-rich foods, such as beans, nuts, eggs, quinoa, broccoli, and pastured meat, provide a more balanced and steady energy source. You will feel more satisfied, reducing the effects of brain chemicals that cause you to seek food, even when you're not hungry. Sometimes the right way to kick your sugar cravings to the curb is to eat more protein. Protein reduces the speed with which your body processes sugars and helps you need lower amounts to experience that reward. So, get protein in to quench that yearn for sugar.
Avoid Nonnutritive Sweeteners
Replacing sugar with low- or no-calorie sweeteners can help cut calories, but the jury is out regarding the safety of regularly consuming these artificial sweeteners. Weight control is much more complex than the, now debunked, notion of eating fewer calories and spending more to achieve a negative caloric balance. Weight gain happens with artificial sweeteners, despite the reduced calorie count. Artificial sweeteners may encourage eating behaviors that increase cravings for sweets and food in general. They can affect the gut microbiome, which triggers inflammation. Inflammation is the mother of all health problems.
Studies of artificial sweeteners are mixed, indicating that people eat fewer calories and lose weight or maintain a stable weight. However, in several studies, artificial sweeteners were associated with weight gain, which might increase the risk of developing insulin resistance—a condition in which body cells do not respond properly to insulin and thus cannot easily absorb glucose from the blood-stream.
To get a better idea of how artificial sweeteners affect a person's metabolism, researchers have conducted studies in which people drink artificially sweetened beverages and then undergo a glucose tolerance test to measure how efficiently the body uses sugar. Two recent studies have found that beverages containing sucralose (Splenda) and acesulfame potassium (Sunett, Sweet One) increased insulin levels, while drinking water didn't. Neither study lasted long enough to determine whether drinking artificially sweetened beverages would eventually result in weight gain or insulin resistance. But the results suggest that artificial sweeteners may have some of the same adverse effects on insulin and weight as sugar does. It will be some time before the full impact of sucralose, acesulfame potassium, and other sugar substitutes are identified. In the meantime, it's a good idea to limit your use of them, just as you would natural sugar, and to rely on fresh fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth. Artificial sweeteners might momentarily satisfy that sweet craving, but they trick your body into thinking it’s getting fuel when it’s not. Your body soon goes looking for more calories in the form of, you guessed it, sugar, and you’re right back where you started.
It is common to mistake thirst for sugar cravings. We know that we want something fresh and cold, and we usually identify that with sugary drinks. When our bodies have a deficiency in fluids, they can’t efficiently breakdown glycogen, which causes the urge to consume something sugary. Drink water and observe how you feel before you reach for sugar.
Sports drinks can often be mistaken as a healthy choice for those who exercise. However, sports drinks are designed to hydrate and fuel trained athletes during prolonged, intense periods of exercise. For this reason, they contain high amounts of added sugars that can be quickly absorbed and used for energy. A standard 20-ounce (591-mL) bottle of a sports drink will contain 37.9 grams of added sugar and 198 calories. This is equivalent to 9.5 teaspoons of sugar. Sports drinks are therefore categorized as sugary drinks. Like soda and fruit juice, they’ve also been linked to obesity and metabolic disease. Unless you’re a marathon runner or elite athlete, you should probably just stick to water while exercising. It’s by far the best choice for most of us.
Vitaminwater is marketed as a healthy drink that contains added vitamins and minerals. However, like many other “health drinks,” Vitaminwater comes with a large amount of added sugar. In fact, a bottle of regular Vitaminwater typically contains around 100 calories and 30 grams of sugar. As such, despite all the health claims, it’s wise to avoid Vitaminwater as much as possible.
Rethink Social Habits That Drive You Towards Sugar
Many of us have social rituals during our day that help us de-stress amidst countless tasks and meetings. Suppose you have a standing tradition with a friend or coworker to eat a cookie after lunch every day or run to the corner coffee shop to get a sugary, caffeinated iced drink. In that case, rethink those social behaviors. Try to put something else in place that is healthy but rewarding. Cookies and cupcakes are tempting, but avoid consuming sweet at every celebratory event.
Try to Decrease Your Sugar Intake Gradually
Sugar fuels every cell in the brain. Our bodies view sugar as a reward. But too much of a good thing is never good. Overindulgence in sugar consumption reinforces your body’s need for that reward, essentially becoming addicted to it. But like many addictions, it is not a reasonable or sustainable strategy to quit cold turkey. If you feel as though you are out of control or moody without your first soft drink of the day or until you have a piece of chocolate, you need to consider slowly weaning your system off sugar. It’s those small, consistent changes you make in your daily diet that will work the best. Avoid processed food and sugar-sweetened beverages. The common culprits are breakfast cereals, flavored yogurt, and sauces. Ketchup is 25% sugar by volume. Per tablespoon, ketchup contains 4 grams of sugar and 190 milligrams of sodium. Although 4 grams of sugar doesn't seem like a lot, much of it comes from added sugar instead of natural sugar. The breakfast cereal aisle at the grocery store is loaded with colorful boxes featuring cute characters to attract kids. They are also tagged with claims such as "whole grains" or "reduced sugar" to reassure adults. Many of them are still just puffed candy in a box, with a few vitamins added to make them seem healthful. It isn’t very clear. Even cereals that promote themselves as part of a healthy breakfast can be made up of more than 50% sugar by weight. Sugary breakfast cereals can lead to an inevitable sugar rush and slump, which will increase your sugar craving for the rest of the day. Avoid cereals with more than 10 grams of sugar per serving and choose one with as much fiber as possible to stick with a healthy lifestyle. Research has shown that a diet with reduced sugar and increased fiber can lead to weight loss and improved insulin function. Watch your serving size. A serving ranges from 3/4 to 1 cup of cereal. Using bigger bowl results in eating more, as does eating a calorie-dense cereal such as granola. And replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners is like jumping from the frying pan to fire. They adversely affect our body, albeit without calories, just like simple sugars do.
Pick the Right Fruit
There will be times when your sugar craving will be exacerbated by the stress of the day or however many days you’ve gone without consuming it. You may feel like you can have a cheat day. Your best response to a worsening need for sugar is to eat a piece of fruit. If you get to a point where you feel frustrated, instead of eating processed sugar, eat fruit. Fruits are sweet and have natural sugar that can address your sweet tooth without throwing out your entire effort. Whole fruits are better than fruit juices as many of them are devoid of fiber and artificially sweetened. Most whole fruits, with the exception of tropical varieties, are slow-digesting because the sugars are sequestered in the cellular structure of the fruit and it takes time to leach out. It’s very different from juice or soda, where sugars slam into your body, overwhelming the liver and raising insulin too much. Fast-digesting carbs, like potatoes, white bread, and other refined carbohydrates, as well as grapes, papaya, and mango, all have a higher impact on blood sugar, but they still do not pack the same punch as soda and juice.
All fruits contain natural sugars. However, some canned fruits are peeled and preserved in sugary syrup. This processing strips the fruits of their fiber and adds a lot of unnecessary sugar to what should be a healthy snack. The canning process can also destroy heat-sensitive vitamin C, although most other nutrients are well preserved. Whole, fresh fruit is best. If you want to eat canned fruit, look for one that’s been preserved in juice rather than syrup. Juice has a slightly lower amount of sugar.
Cut Back Consumption of Starch
Starches like white rice, white bread, and pasta are complex carbs that the body process as simple carbs. They end up affecting the sugar levels in your body and feeding into your need for sugar as fuel for brain activity and energy. If you have cut out processed sugars but continue to eat an abundance of starches, then your next step is to reduce your consumption of those foods progressively and clean your system of the need for sugars.
Fiber Is Your Friend
Fiber helps clean out your system, and it is processed more slowly by the body. Fiber helps you feel fuller for longer, effectively reducing your craving for mid-meal snacks. Many people will be very deliberate about reducing sugar in their meals but will ultimately cave in when their body needs a snack because many of the snacks we have in our pantry have sugar in them. Fiber and lots of water would help you stay full for more extended periods.
Eat Sour of Fermented Food
Eating foods that are sour and bitter helps to counteract sweet cravings. Daily lemon infused water is beneficial. Fermented food is sour, helping to curve cravings while offering your body additional probiotic support. Be sure to check the nutritional information to ensure there aren't hidden sugars lurking in your bottle of choice.
Avoid Too Much Salt
Eating lots of salty foods can bring on sugar cravings. Salt is useful for seasoning but you should avoid super salty foods. They can trigger a craving for sweet foods, often why dinners out often lead to head straight to the dessert menu. Season food with other spices first before heading to the salt. When you dine out or eat packaged, processed foods, your food has more sodium in it than you probably even realize. This usually remains true even when you’re eating something clean like grilled salmon and sautéed or steamed spinach from your fave “healthy” restaurant. Here’s the kicker: the saltier your food, the bigger your sweet craving. To help avoid sugar crashes and cravings, add spices like cinnamon or clove to your meals and snacks. Try banana, peanut butter, cinnamon on toast, vegetable curry with Indian spices, and baked pear with cinnamon and nutmeg.
85/15
Make sure 85 percent of your meals include innately healthy foods like fresh produce, lean protein, and healthy fats. The other 15 percent can consist of some treats. If you make certain foods forbidden, then you crave them even more. A little treat here and there never hurts.
Go for a brisk walk
Going for a brisk walk or running may help reduce cravings. If you are a runner, running will be even better. It will distance you from the food you are craving and release endorphins, or “feel-good” chemicals in your brain, which can help turn the craving off. If you can’t go outside, do a few exhausting sets of body-weight exercises.
Chocolate, Magnesium, Chromium, and Zinc
Craving chocolate is more common among people deficient in the mineral magnesium (ask your doctor to check your levels). Head off cravings by eating plenty of magnesium-rich food like dark leafy greens, tofu, legumes, and nuts. Increase nutrient-dense foods rich in magnesium, chromium, and zinc may help improve your cells' sensitivity to insulin to maximize the amount of sugar your body can metabolize and burn.
Foods high in magnesium are green leafy vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, legumes, vegetables, seafood, whole grains, raw cacao, dark chocolate, tofu, chlorella powder.
Foods high in chromium are broccoli, whole grains, wheat germ, brewer's yeast, bran cereal, orange juice, romaine lettuce, raw onions, potatoes, green beans, bananas, apples, raw tomatoes, black pepper, grape juice.
Foods high in zinc are oysters, beef, lamb, spinach, pumpkin seeds, nuts, dark chocolate, pork, chicken, beans, mushrooms.
De-stress
High stress and cortisol levels can also lead to sugar cravings. Try 10 minutes of meditation or deep breathing, go for a walk with a friend or family member, take a hot bath, drink herbal tea, and don't forget to exercise. Combat stress and emotions by exercising regularly. Not only will the exercise improve focus, but it will also boost your energy, which is a significant factor why people look to sugar in the first place.
Spot the Hidden Sugar(s)
Sugar is everywhere. And I am not talking about the obvious ice cream, Frappuccino, and cakes. Refined sugar is in yogurt and ketchup, dressings, and bread. It’s even added in canned beans and applesauce. That’s why learning how to check labels is so important. To keep sugar away from your plate, you need to be well aware of the numerous way sugar hides in our food, with all sorts of different names and shapes (including those artificial sugars like sucralose, saccharin, and aspartame).
Here are the most common processed foods containing refined sugar:
Baked Goods (cookies, cakes, muffins, bars)
Breakfast Cereals (such as granola, corn flakes, rice crisps)
Canned Fruit
Canned Soups and Tomatoes
Condiments (such as dressings, sauces, salsas),
Chocolate Bars (unless they’re above 95%)
Gums and Candies
Yogurts and Ice Creams (not just regular but also plant-based products)
Sweetened Drinks (such as sodas, fruit juices, coffee-based drinks, plant-based milk)
The nutrition facts label is required to inform you how much sugar is in a food. However, the label does not separate the amounts of naturally occurring sugar from added sugar. Sugar is found naturally in many nutritious foods, such as fruits and vegetables. But, you have to be a bit savvier with locating foods that contain added sugar. There are more than 60 names for added sugar.
To identify added sugars, look at the ingredients list. Some major clues that an ingredient is an added sugar include:
it has syrup (examples: corn syrup, rice syrup)
the word ends in “ose” (examples: fructose, sucrose, maltose, dextrose)
“sugar” is in the name (examples: raw sugar, cane sugar, brown sugar, confectionary sugar)
Other examples of added sugar include fruit nectars, concentrates of juices, honey, agave, and molasses.
QUICK FIXES That Will Soothe Your Cravings
Nibble on some frozen fruit: blueberries, grapes. Bananas are the best to blend and quickly whip up a ‘banana ice cream.’
Mix some mashed oven-baked yam or sweet potatoes with pumpkin pie spice. They are deliciously sweet and filling!
Stuff a date or a dried apricot with a piece of 90% dark chocolate and a couple of cashew nuts. It’s so satisfying you will be delighted with it.
Slice a piece of fruit (like peach, apple, or pear) and spread with some almond or hazelnut butter. Sweet, healthy, and extremely tasty!
Combine some unsweetened coconut yogurt with some chopped strawberries and puffed millet, and you have a delicious (and quick) sugar-free dessert bowl ready in seconds.
Healthy Snack Suggestion: Do-It-Yourself Trail Mix
Ingredients
1 cup wheat cereal
1/4 cup dried fruit: raisins, blueberries, cranberries, chopped apricots, plums, or peaches, or a mixture
1/4 cup cashews (1 ounce)
Directions
Mix ingredients, split into two servings and store in sandwich-sized plastic bags. Each serving contains about 192 calories, 5 g protein, 9 g fat, 28 g carbohydrates, 3 g fiber, and 115 mg sodium.
Take A Hot Bath or Shower
Anecdotal reports suggest that hot showers or baths for 5-10 minutes may be effective at stopping cravings. It can be invigorating anyway.
Get Your Mouth Busy
Another great way to stave off sugar cravings is to give your mouth another distraction. Whether it's chewing sugar-free gum, drinking a cup of warm herbal tea, or just doing something else, allow the craving to pass. Allow enough time to pass while you drink or wait for the piping hot tea for you to think through the craving: most cravings 30 minutes or less.
Sleep Well
Getting adequate amounts of sleep optimizes energy levels, reduces appetite, and slashes sugar cravings. When you are tired, ghrelin, the hunger hormone, increases, and leptin, the satiety hormone, decreases, leading to a craving for something sugary to give you a quick energy fix.
Create a Backup Plan
If sugar cravings feel uncontrollable, think proactively about what kind of distraction will help you overcome them. Eat a piece of fruit. Go for a walk. Listen to some music. Call or text a friend. Read a fun article. Knowing what we are going to do ahead of time is what makes all the difference.
Talk Therapy and Medication
As a last resort, psychotherapy and medications help curb sugar cravings if all else fails.
Food cravings can feel overwhelming and out of your control. But you’re not in this alone. Conquering your cravings will take time, so don’t hesitate to reach out to an obesity medicine specialist for help and to enlist your friends and family for support.
References
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119278
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11237349/
https://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e4737
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5515645/
Published 5/31/2020
Updated 2/4/2021
About Us
Dr. Amar Singh, MD, and Dr. Poonam Singh, MD, are board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and American Board of Obesity Medicine. They specialize in preventing, treating, and reversing chronic diseases using an evidence-based holistic approach. They are specifically interested in weight management, hormone re-balancing, and longevity. The American College of Physicians has recognized them as Fellows, FACP, for their excellence and contributions to medicine and the broader community. They enjoy teaching, volunteering, and advocating for their patients. Their mission is to share simple, effective, and proven strategies that lead to meaningful, sustainable, and long-lasting well-being.
How To Stop Unconscious Overeating?
Have you ever popped a bowl of popcorn, flop down in front of the television, and…poof! Next thing you know, you’re scraping the bottom? Or have you grabbed a bag of cookies, hit play on your tablet streaming your favorite program, commence munching….and munching….and munching. Eventually, come to your senses, realize that you’re left holding a bag of crumbs? Maybe it starts by grabbing a late-night snack, hitting the vending machine at work, or just grazing when you’re bored.
Sounds familiar?
Mindless eating is when we eat with little to no awareness around our food or how full we feel.
On average, you make more than 200 decisions about food each day — but you’re only aware of a small fraction of them. The rest are performed by your unconscious mind and can lead to mindless eating, which may cause you to overeat, promoting weight gain. And usually, it’s followed by a flood of negative emotions, like regret and disappointment, which can stir up some pretty terrible self-talk, like:
Why do I keep doing this?
Why can’t I stop?
I can’t stop myself. Or
I feel like I have zero control.
While most people don't binge with the same abandon, even occasional bouts of unconscious overeating -- also called "eating amnesia" -- can lead to poor nutritional habits and undesirable weight gain. But many people enter the eating amnesia zone without even realizing it. Everyone eats this way to some degree, whether they're snacking in the car, cleaning the crumbs off their kids' plates, or at a cocktail party standing next to the buffet table with their hand stuck in the bowl of nuts. Any time that food is present, and it's not a sit down eating event, there is a tendency for this kind of hand-to-mouth eating without sensing that you're full -- or were even hungry, to begin with.
Here are twenty-one science-backed tips to stop mindless eating.
Be Attentive - Unplug
Eating without using your TV, computer, or smartphone may help decrease the amount of food your body needs to feel full and satisfied. It’s hard to pay attention to our food when the kids are bouncing off the wall, the TV is blaring, or our phones won’t stop vibrating. Additionally, our minds are racing with tonight’s plans, what happened at work, and worries about school or family. Simply put, we are buzzing with dozens of thoughts at any given moment. Everything around us is competing for time and attention, and stopping to focus on what and how much we eat gets moved to the back burner.
If you eat while you work or read or watch TV, or do anything in addition to eating, you’re going to eat more. Studies show that people who dine while engaged in social interactions, television shows, or mental tasks eat more than those without distractions. In one study in Paris, forty-one mostly healthy-weight women had lunch in the laboratory under one of four conditions: alone, with a group, while focusing on the food, or while listening to a detective story. When the detective story accompanied the meal, the women took in an average of about 72 more calories than during the silent lunch.
Indeed, distractions don't work the same way for everyone. Much depends on a person's relationship with food. People who generally keep a tight rein on their eating habits, called "restrained eaters" by researchers, are far more likely to overindulge when distracted than "unrestrained eaters."
Sixty female students at Swarthmore College (half identified as restrained eaters; the other half as unrestrained eaters) participated in a UCLA study in which they snacked on M&Ms, nacho chips, and cookies while trying to remember a series of slides. The "restrained" group ate much more during the memory task than when there was no task, but the "unrestrained" eaters ate less when engaged in the task -- apparently because they were busy trying to concentrate.
Eating while you’re distracted can lead you to eat faster, feel less full, and mindlessly eat more. Whether this is watching TV, listening to the radio, or playing a computer game, the type of distraction doesn’t seem to matter much. For instance, people watching television while eating their meals ate 36% more pizza and 71% more macaroni and cheese. Moreover, the longer the show, the more food you’re likely to eat. One study noted that participants watching a 60-minute show ate 28% more popcorn than those enjoying a 30-minute show. However, this effect seems to apply both to nutritious foods and junk foods since participants watching the longer show also ate 11% more carrots. Longer distractions extend the amount of time spent eating, making you more likely to overeat. Besides, eating while distracted may cause you to forget how much you’ve consumed, leading to overeating later in the day.
Indeed, another study observed that participants who played a computer game while eating lunch felt less full and snacked on nearly twice as many biscuits 30 minutes later than their non-distracted counterparts.
By putting your phone away, switching off the TV, and focussing instead on the textures and flavors of your food, you’ll quickly stop eating mindlessly and can instead mindfully enjoy your meal. Smell the roses. Live in the moment. Taste your food.
Make It Difficult
Mindless munching is often a result of easy snack access. To slow yourself down, put in some interruption that can make you think twice about how much you want to snack. If there’s a bowl of candy sitting at your desk, you don’t think twice. It’s there. But if you put barriers in your way, it’ll test how much you want this. There’s proof in the pudding. In a candy dish study, office workers ate 125 calories less when the dish was just 6 feet away from them than when the dish was at arm’s distance. Those seemingly trivial 125 extra calories can add up to a whopping 11 lbs in just one year.
Smaller Portions
The portion sizes of today's foods contribute to unconscious overeating. From 1977 to 1996, average portions of salty snacks, soft drinks, desserts, and fast foods in American increased by about 31% -- equaling about 78 extra calories per snack. And unfortunately, the more food you have in front of you, the more you're likely to eat. In a Penn State study, 51 men and women were treated to once-a-week laboratory lunches of macaroni and cheese in portions varying from 2.5 cups to 5 cups. No matter how much they ate when offered the smallest portion, the participants ate an average of 30% more (162 calories) when offered the largest portion. Most of them were pretty unaware that the portions had changed. Their hunger and fullness were about the same, regardless of the portion size and how much they ate.
Another study by the Penn State researchers looked at whether people compensate for overindulging one day by eating less the next day. For two days in a row, each participant received the same daily allotment of calories, in portions that ranged from 100% to 200% of the recommended daily caloric intake. Even when the participants had eaten several hundred extra calories on the first day, they ate just as much the second day. When the portions were doubled, the women took in 500 calories more per day and 800 calories more. So in two days, the women were accumulating 1,000 extra calories and the men 1,600.
Knowing When You're Full
What causes satiation? Most people would say they stop eating when they feel full. They feel full because their stomach is stretched. But one doesn't eat the same volume at every meal, so there has to be more to it than stomach distention. Hunger and fullness are complex mechanisms that operate differently depending on the situation and the person. Indeed, while some people happily wolf down an extra-large pizza and a liter of soda at a sitting, others declare themselves stuffed after a small soup and salad.
Even when people reach the point where they feel full, they don't always stop eating. If the environment is conducive to munching, as, at a party, it's easy to get carried away. And salty snacks, fatty foods, and sweets can often prompt people to keep eating long past their stomach's usual stopping point.
Sometimes you get bored of one food, but you still have just as high an appetite, or even higher, for another food. So while you can easily turn down an extra serving of carrots, you still clamor for that slice of carrot cake.
Food Is For Nutrition
Mindless munching is also a way of coping with feelings of anxiety and unhappiness. While indulging in an occasional "comfort food" at the end of a lousy day does little harm, frequently using food to escape from negative emotions may lead to more significant problems. Food does not solve problems. It usually sets you up for other bad feelings. After you eat that pint of your favorite ice cream, you'll still have the same emotional issues, and now you also have to cope with the guilt of overeating ice cream.
If you find yourself regularly using food to soothe your emotions, we recommend trying to work out your feelings in other ways, such as with exercise or relaxation techniques. But if you find you still can't control your eating, and it's controlling you instead, you should seek out professional help. The two questions which can help one change the way they think about emotional and mindless eating:
Am I using this food, or am I eating this food?
What’s bothering me? What am I hungry for?
Increase Your Eating Awareness
For milder forms of mindless munching, here are some do's and don'ts to follow.
DON'T:
Eat standing up, on the run, in the car, at the computer, or in front of the TV.
Deny yourself occasional treats. This just sets you up for failure.
Deprive yourself of food if you're hungry.
Use food to cope with stress or depression.
Get discouraged if you overeat -- you'll do better next time.
DO:
Eat sitting down and relaxed, in the place where you usually have your meals.
Stock your kitchen with healthy foods such as fruit, veggies, and low-fat yogurt.
Buy individual serving-size packages of snack foods so that you won't overindulge.
Put only a small serving on your plate at the start of your meals, and wait before you take seconds.
Put aside extra restaurant food at the beginning of your meal, or wrap it up to take home.
Soothe emotional upsets with exercise, a comforting bath, or a chat with a friend.
Keep a journal in which you write down the foods you eat and your feelings about your diet.
Changing a longstanding TV and cookie-chomping routine may be difficult at first, but it can be done. It just takes perseverance and willpower.
Don’t Bury The Evidence.
Use visual reminders of the foods and drinks you consume to help you stay mindful of how much you’ve already consumed. Behavioral scientists believe one of the main reasons people overeat is because they rely on external rather than internal cues to decide whether they feel hungry or full. Naturally, this can lead you to eat more than you need to. To demonstrate this point, researchers provided participants with an unlimited amount of chicken wings while watching a long, televised sporting event. Half of the tables were continuously cleaned, while the bones were left to accumulate on other tables. People with bones on their tables ate 34% less, or two fewer chicken wings, than people who had their tables cleaned. This can apply to any food that leaves evidence. You can do the same with wine. Serve new glasses of wine, and be sure to leave the old glasses out and the bottles too! Some people like to stuff their empty bags of chips and candy wrappers into the very bottom of the trash in an attempt to forget that they ate them at all. Don’t hide the wrappers! Leaving the candy wrappers on your desk at work or the chicken bones on your plate during the football game is an excellent way to remind yourself to slow down. When you’re partying with other people and having fun, it’s often easy to forget how much a person has drunk, whether it’s beer or soda. An easy way to keep track of things is to put the bottle-top in your pocket. That way, once you feel them, it’ll remind you how many you’ve had that night. It’s an easy way to keep track of something that it’s easy to lose track of.
Another experiment used bottomless bowls to refill some participants’ soups as they ate slowly. Those who ate from bottomless bowls consumed 73% more — amounting to roughly 113 extra calories — than those who ate from standard bowls. Yet, those who ate more soup didn’t feel fuller. Most also estimated their calorie intake to be the same as those dining from the regular soup bowls. These two studies show that people tend to rely on visual cues, such as chicken bones or the amount of soup left, to decide whether they’re full or still hungry. To make this natural tendency work in your favor, keep evidence of what you eat in front of you. Examples include the empty beer bottles you drank at a barbecue or the plates used for previous courses at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
See all you can eat and serve yourself in the kitchen and try to eat in another room. With snacks, always pour or put the snack into something. Otherwise, the hand always reaches into that bag without even realizing it.
Don’t Fall In “Health Food” Trap.
Not all foods labeled as healthy are right for you. Focus on ingredients rather than health claims. Also, avoid picking unhealthy sides to accompany your healthy meal. Thanks to creative marketing, even foods labeled as healthy can push some people to overeat mindlessly. “Low-fat” labels are a prime example, as foods low in fat are not necessarily low in calories. For instance, low-fat granola typically only has 10% fewer calories than regular-fat granola. Nevertheless, study participants given granola labeled as “low-fat” ended up eating 49% more granola than those provided with the usually labeled granola.
Another study compared calorie intake from Subway and McDonald’s. Those who ate at Subway consumed 34% more calories than they thought they did, while those who ate at McDonald’s ate 25% more than they thought. What’s more, researchers noted that the Subway diners tended to reward themselves for their supposedly healthy meal choice by ordering chips or cookies with their meal. This tendency to unconsciously overeat foods that are considered more nutritious, or compensate for them by having a side of something less healthy, is commonly known as the “health halo.” Steer clear of the health halo’s effects by picking items based on their ingredients rather than their health claims. Also, remember to pay attention to the side items you choose.
Ambiance Matters
You are likely to eat more with lowlights, soft music, muted colors, and attentive wait staff. Use the staff to learn more about how the food is cooked and ask your server about which dishes are healthiest. It turns out the dim lighting on your dinner date can affect more than the mood. A recent study shows that patrons dining in well-lit spaces are 16-24 percent more likely to order healthy dishes than those in dimly lit rooms due to a higher level of alertness. Cornell and University of South Florida researchers surveyed 160 patrons at four chain restaurants. Some diners were seated in brighter rooms, while the others ate in more dimly-lit spaces. Those sitting in the darker rooms ordered dishes with 39 percent more calories on average and leaned towards less-healthy items. On the other hand, those in the well-lit room skewed towards healthier choices. A replication of the study with 700 college-aged students found the same results.
Enjoy your dinner at the restaurant of your choice, being mindful of these factors.
Business parties
Take only two items of food on your plate at one time. Chow down on healthy food first, like veggies. While talking, set your food down, so you don’t mindlessly munch. When you enter the room, remind yourself of the purpose: Business or food?
Eat Slowly
Slowing down your eating speed is an easy way to consume fewer calories and enjoy your meal more. Slow eaters tend to eat less, feel fuller, and rate their meals as more pleasant than fast eaters. Scientists believe that taking at least 20–30 minutes to finish a meal allows more time for your body to release hormones that promote feelings of fullness. The extra time also allows your brain to realize you’ve eaten enough before you reach for that second serving. Eating with your non-dominant hand or using chopsticks instead of a fork are two ways to reduce your eating speed and make this tip work for you. Chewing more often can help as well.
Have Your Cake, But Skip The Bread
When eating out at a restaurant, limit yourself to the entree and just two other things—it can be two drinks, a dessert, and a roll, or it could be two rolls—it just can’t be all of the above. For example, if you have a weakness for bread, ask it not to be automatically served or ask for a limited quantity to be served. This way, you don’t even have to look at it. If you have to look at it continually, you’re going to keep asking yourself the question, “Do I want a piece? Do I not want a piece?” Save yourself. If you want to eat a dessert, skip the bread. You can share an entree with your companion or ask to pack half of your food for home even before they bring out your plate to the table. At home, put food in the back of cupboards or fridge. The idea is to make it harder to do the things we don’t want to do and easier to do the things we want to do.
Perception Is Not Reality
When people thought they were drinking “cheap” wine in a study, they ate less and stayed at dinner shorter. But the group with the “good” wine (they were the same wines) stayed longer and ate more and said the meal was better. Like a book, don’t always judge a wine bottle by its label or a restaurant by its exterior.
Drink Water
It’s easy for us to confuse dehydration with hunger. We know our body’s craving something, and we assume it’s food, but frequently it ends up being liquids, especially in active people. We would guess seven times out of ten what they think of as hunger is just slight dehydration. You don’t necessarily have to drink pure water, but make sure the beverage is low in caffeine and sodium. Caffeine and sodium dehydrate you even more, giving your mouth a feeling of thirst, which can lead you to snack.
Make Tradeoffs
A great way to reduce careless snacking is to make up some sort of condition every time you have cravings. For example, you can have anything you want from the vending machine if you are going to work out that day, or if you have a light dinner, something where there’s some sort of trade-off that you have to make. If you regularly stop by your favorite ice cream joint on the way home, start taking an alternative route home to reduce that temptation.
Smaller Packaging
Another external cue that can cause you to overeat is the size of your food packaging. Known as the portion size effect, it may contribute to significant weight gain over time. On the other hand, packages that include pause points may help diminish this effect, as they give you time to decide whether to keep eating. For example, participants eating potato chips from cans of Pringles in which every 7th or 14th chip was dyed red ate 43–65% fewer chips than those eating from cans with no dyed chips. Similarly, people eating from a large bag of 200 M&Ms consumed 31 more candies — 112 extra calories — than people given ten small baggies of 20 M&Ms. Favoring smaller packages can help you reduce the number of calories you consume by up to 25% without even noticing.
Reduce Choices
Reducing the variety of food flavors, colors, and textures you’re exposed to will help prevent you from eating more junk food. Research shows that having a wider array of food options can lead you to eat up to 23% more. Scientists call this phenomenon sensory-specific satiety. The basic idea is that your senses tend to get numb after being exposed to the same stimulus many times — for instance, the same flavors. Having a wide variety of flavors in the same meal can delay this natural numbing, pushing you to eat more. Merely believing there’s more variety can also fool you. Researchers found that participants given bowls with ten colors of M&Ms ate 43 more candies than those given bowls with seven colors, despite all M&Ms tasting the same. To make sensory-specific satiety work for you, try limiting your choices. For instance, pick only two appetizers during cocktail parties and stick to ordering the same drinks throughout the evening.
Keep in mind that this mainly applies to candy and junk food. Eating various healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts, is beneficial to your health.
Choose Your Dining Companions Wisely
When dining in groups, sit next to people who eat less or slower than you. This can help prevent overeating. When you are with one other person, you’ll devour 35% more; with a group of four, it’s 75% more, and with seven or more, it’s 96% more! Be mindful next time you’re in a group. Scientists believe that this is especially true if you eat with family or friends, as it increases the time you spend eating, compared to when you eat by yourself. The extra table time can push you to mindlessly nibble what’s left on the plate while the rest of the group finished their meal. It may also encourage you to eat a dessert you usually wouldn’t. Sitting next to slow eaters or people who typically consume less than you can work in your favor, influencing you to eat less or more slowly. Other ways to counter this effect include choosing in advance how much of your meal you want to consume or asking the server to remove your plate as soon as you’re done eating.
Use Smaller Plates And Taller Glasses
Studies show that people tend to eat 92% of the food they serve themselves. Therefore, reducing the amount of food you serve yourself can significantly differentiate the number of calories you consume. One easy way to reduce portion sizes without noticing the change is to use smaller plates and taller glasses. That’s because big plates tend to make your food portions look small, encouraging you to serve yourself more food. Using 9.5-inch plates instead of 12.5-inch plates can help you quickly eat up to 27% less food.
Studies show that using tall, thin glasses instead of wide, short ones can reduce the amount of liquids you pour yourself by up to 57%. Therefore, pick wide, short glasses to help you drink more water and tall, thin ones to help you limit alcohol and other high-calorie beverages.
Maximize Food Volume
High-volume foods help you feel full and decrease food intake at the next meal. Eating fiber-rich foods is an easy way to do this. Eating large volumes of food tricks your brain into thinking you consumed more calories, helping decrease the likelihood of overeating and weight gain. Researchers examined this effect by serving participants two smoothies identical in calories. However, one had air added to it. Those who drank the greater-volume smoothie felt fuller and ate 12% less at their next meal. An easy way to add volume to your meals without increasing the calorie content is to pick high-fiber foods with low-calorie densities, such as vegetables. That’s because extra fiber and water add volume, which stretches your stomach, helping you feel fuller. Fiber also helps slow down your stomach’s emptying rate and can even stimulate the release of hormones that make you feel satisfied. A good rule of thumb to maximize food volume is to fill at least half your plate with vegetables at each meal.
Follow Your Body’s Clock
Rely on internal cues of hunger rather than external ones to decrease the likelihood of eating more than your body needs. Relying on external cues like the time of day to determine your hunger level may lead you to overeat. A study demonstrated this idea by isolating participants in a windowless room with a clock as their only time cue. This clock was then artificially controlled to run faster. Researchers noted that those who relied on the clock to know when to eat ended up eating more often than those who relied on internal hunger signals. Interestingly, normal-weight participants were less likely to rely on the clock to determine whether it was time to eat. If you have difficulty distinguishing physical from mental hunger, ask yourself whether you would readily eat an apple. Remember, real hunger doesn’t discriminate between foods. Another telltale sign of mental hunger is wanting something specific, such as a PBJ. A craving for a particular food is unlikely to indicate real hunger.
The Bottom Line
Taking control of mindless munching is all about making conscious decisions—deciding to start eating, choosing to stay aware, and deciding when to stop. To transition from mindless to mindful eating, try some of the simple tips above. Keep yourself accountable. In doing so, you will improve your overall health. For the best results, choose just three of these tips and aim to apply them consistently for around 66 days — the average time it takes to create a habit. Excellence is simply a habit. Start now. Not later. Consistency is the key to looking great and staying healthy.
References:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17450988/
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2715054
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15827310/
https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/30/3/455/1790637
https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/28/1/105/1851151
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19875483/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14599286/
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1969-00237-001
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20470810/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5016089/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.674
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17450988/
Published 1/25/2021
Dr. Amar Singh, MD, and Dr. Poonam Singh, MD, are board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and American Board of Obesity Medicine. They specialize in preventing, treating, and reversing chronic diseases using an evidence-based holistic approach. They are specifically interested in weight management, hormone re-balancing, and longevity. The American College of Physicians has recognized them as Fellows, FACP, for their excellence and contributions to medicine and the broader community. They enjoy teaching, volunteering, and advocating for their patients. Their mission is to share simple, effective, and proven strategies that lead to meaningful, sustainable, and long-lasting well-being.
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