Avoid Pigging Out with This Simple Thought
July 22nd 2011 08:21
To feel more satisfied with your food -- and possibly avoid pigging out -- use this mind trick: Just focus on the calories.
Doing so could dial down your hunger big-time -- especially if you convince yourself you're indulging in a rich, high-calorie treat. Because new research shows that people's perception of calorie content affects their appetite-control hormones.
Mind over Hunger Pangs
In a study, researchers gave a small group of college students the same 350-calorie milk shake but told half the students that it was an indulgent 650-calorie treat. The other half thought it was a sensible 140-calorie snack. And what the students thought had a huge impact on how many hunger hormones their bodies produced. For the students who thought they were drinking a creamy, high-cal shake, their bodies' production of hunger-inducing ghrelin totally nosedived. But in the other group? Not as much. Which led researchers to conclude that just the perception of calorie intake can alter hunger-producing body chemistry.
Appetite-Lowering Logic?
Most of us typically underestimate our calorie intake. So getting an accurate picture of how many calories you're taking in at breakfast, lunch, and dinner could be a good place to start when it comes to keeping hunger hormones at bay. Outside of that, it's not clear whether it will help to tell yourself something's high in calories when it isn't. But researchers think it might, because the study strongly suggests that people's expectations, mindset, and perceptions can play a bigger role in hunger-hormone production and feelings of satiety than the actual number of calories being eaten.
5 Secrets to Appetite Control
Just as you can control things like cholesterol and blood pressure by changing the foods you eat or altering your behaviors, you can also control how hungry you feel. Just make smart choices about what you eat and what you do:
Don't confuse thirst with hunger. Sometimes you eat because your satiety centers are begging for attention. But sometimes those appetite centers want you to quench your thirst, not fill your stomach. Your thirst could be caused by hormones in the gut, or it could be a chemical response to eating; food increases the thickness of your blood, and your body senses the need to dilute it. When you feel hungry, drink a glass or two of water first, to see if that's what your body really wants.
Avoid the alcohol binge. Not only does alcohol add extra calories and decrease your inhibitions about eating, but it also inhibits leptin, the hormone that tells satiety chemicals to kick in, which helps you stop eating.
Watch your carbs. Eating a super-high-carb diet increases neuropeptide Y (NPY), a protein that decreases metabolism and increases appetite. Aim to have less than 50% of your diet come from carbohydrates. And those carbs should be complex, such as whole grains and vegetables.
Stay va-va-voom satisfied. Sex and hunger are regulated through the brain chemical NPY. Some have observed that having healthy, monogamous sex could help you control your food intake; by satisfying one appetite center, you seem to satisfy the other.
Manage your hormonal surges. There will be times when you can’t control your hunger and satisfaction hormones, and you feel hungrier than a lion on a bug-only diet. That's when you need to rely on the healthy "emergency" foods you have around you -- a handful of nuts, a piece of fruit, cut veggies -- to sate your appetite and keep you satisfied until your next snack or meal
By Mehmet C. Oz, MD, and Michael F. Roizen, MD
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