In order to lose weight, you need to eat less. It sounds so simple, yet the reason our bellies are overflowing out of our jeans is because we overeat at every meal. Here's a simple trick to help you eat less without missing out on your favorite foods so you still feel satisfied.
Sit down with your plate or bowl of food — be sure you're actually hungry! — and stop eating when you are 80-percent full. What does 80-percent full mean? Think of it as about a six on the hunger scale [1]: satisfied but not so full that you're tired or so overly stuffed that your belly hurts. This will not only help you eat fewer daily calories, but if you've been suffering from constant belly bloat, this could be the cure!
Eat slowly and stay focused on how your stomach feels after each bite. Leslie Langevin, MS, RD, CD, of Whole Health Nutrition [3] suggests that you can even take a 10-minute break halfway through your meal to assess whether you should continue eating more or be done.
Now the hardest part about this is to actually stop eating once you reach this point of being 80-percent full. Get the food out of your sight immediately. Don't push the plate away and keep talking with your lunch date or go back to working on your computer. If the food is there, you'll feel too tempted to start picking at it. Wrap it up and put it in the fridge for later, give it to someone else, or just throw it away. Don't feel bad — it'll do better in the compost than in your belly!