The Single Best Way to Stop Eating Too Much

Marty Munson

November 12, 2019 6:33 PM

Doesnt matter what eating plan you use and what your schedule is like, theres one reliable thing you can do to painlessly cut calories and end up feeling (and being) lighter.

The Single Best Way to Stop Eating Too Much

Eat until youre not hungry, not until youre full, says Kristin Kirkpatrick, R.D.N., consultant for integrative and lifestyle medicine for the Cleveland Clinic.

Of course, this suggests that youre eating when youre hungry to begin with. So if youre not already doing that, thats a good place to start. So many of my patients talk to me about late-night eating, says Kirkpatrick; that's a key time that people eat too much. But you dont need to fuel up in order to sleep. Youre eating out of some other necessity, Kirkpatrick says. Boredom? Fatigue?

You might not have to figure out the deep psychological reason youre drawn to the (entire bag of) quinoa chips at 10 PM in order to stop polishing them off. Its not a bad idea to figure it out, but until you do, set up a rule for yourself that you wont eat unless youre actually hungry.

How to eat according to hunger

Think of hunger on a scale from 1 (seriously hungry) to 10 (sickeningly full), and dont eat unless youre at a 2 or 3, says Kirkpatrick. And to keep yourself from being at a 2 or 3 all the time, fuel up with foods that keep you fullyou know what well say here; protein, produce, healthy fatrather than refined carbs that leave you ravenous not long after you eat them.

On the other end of the scale, stop eating when youre at a 7, not when youre at an 8 or 9. You dont want to be full, and you dont want to be hungry; you want to be at a status quo, Kirkpatrick says. So if youre out and you eat a big appetizer and no longer feel hungry, its fine to stop or have just a few bites of dinner and take the rest home. Having a lot of food on your plate doesnt mean you have to eat it, she points out. It seems so obvious when you hear it, but its far less evident when theres a beautiful plate of food in front of you. Or a bucket of wings.

Beware the trap of thinking that you need to eat extra because itll be a long day. In the U.S., its pretty rare to be anywhere that theres no access to food, and if you will be traveling or in a food desert, you can prepare, Kirkpatrick points out. These healthy snacks can keep you deliciously on track on airplanes and on road trips . So eat to comfort now and have something ready for hunger later; dont fall into the trap of thinking you have to pre-load for the rest of the day or century. Then if you do get hungrya 2 or 3, not just a I really feel like eating now"enjoy what youve prepped.

Marty Munson