NUTRITION BASICS PART 1.1: EAT SLOWLY AND STOP AT 80% FULL

NUTRITION BASICS PART 1.1: EAT SLOWLY AND STOP AT 80% FULL 
By: John Stull, NSCA-CPT, Pn1, FMSC 


In the next 5 weeks I will be sharing information I learned from Dr. John Berardi, Phd, and the Precision Nutrition Team. We will cover 5 habits anyone and everyone can incorporate into their nutrition in order to improve their body composition. Improve your body composition with these 5 habits through calorie control, nutrient timing, and food selection. We will begin at the top with Habit 1. The genius behind the 5 habits is within the simplicity. 

Habit 1: EAT SLOWLY AND STOP AT 80% FULL 

Have you ever left a restaurant or the dinner table feeling satisfied only to be hit by the stomach pains of overeating? You felt great getting up but 10 minutes later your were in miserable city holding your gut and saying to yourself "damn not again, I feel miserable"? Well you and every person I know has experienced that feeling and if you continually eat like this you are sure to fail your weight loss or body composition goals. 

This habit is critical in making changes to your diet. Slow down, listen to hunger and appetite cues, and finish eating at the right time. Attention to this habit could quickly put you on track and keep your from consuming too many calories. 

It takes about 20 minutes for food to travel from our mouth to our stomachs and for our brain to get the signal that our stomach is full. So eating to fast or eating to the point of fullness can send us to miserable city because food continues to pack in our stomachs even though we already got the message that we are full. 

A good goal to strive for when making time to eat would be about 15-20 minutes. The more time you have and the less stressed you are, the better your body will digest the food you eat and store the nutrients as good energy. 

Tips from Dr. Berardi and the Precision Nutrition Team

• Have a seat when you eat 
• Slow Down 
• Turn off the TV 
• Eliminate distractions 
• Take smaller bites 
• Chew the food completely and taste it 
• Put the fork down after every few bites 
• Have a sip of water between bites 
• Chat with your dining partner

If you can train yourself to eat this way, you will enjoy food more, eat fewer calories and better be able to listen to your body by tuning into your appetite signals. 

The benefits of eating slowly and not stuffing yourself do not just stop at eating fewer calories. Here are a few more to mention from Dr. Berardi 

• enhanced appetite cues for the next meal 
• improved digestion 
• better performance with exercise/workouts
• more time to enjoy meals 
• better sleep if you're eating before bed. 

Does this all seem overwhelming and impractical? I hope not, but if it does, don't think you have to change the way you eat all at once. Try implementing one tip at a time and build on it every time you eat. You don't have to fix everything in a day, but you have to start with something if you want to improve anything... 

Reference: 

The Essentials of Sport and exercise Nutrition. John Berardi, PhD; Ryan Andrews, MS, MA, RD. 2013 Published by Precision Nutrition, Inc. pg 345