How to Trick Your Brain into Eating Less

We have always maintained that in order to lose weight, it’s essential to create a calorie deficit, and for such a low calorie expenditure to happen, a great deal of importance should be placed on dieting. Exercise is an important aspect too which accelerates the whole weight loss process, but look at the huge percentage gap between what can be achieved through dieting alone compared to doing just exercise. Our body needs minimum amount of calories to do its daily activities, from maintaining the core temperature to digestion,  and even for breathing. But when there is calorie surplus, more than the body can actually burn, all the extra calories are converted into fat molecules, and get stored as subcutaneous and visceral fat. Over a period of time, calorie surplus would lead to weight gain. A lot of people believe that just by training the body, they can lose weight; however, the formula that works is “train the brain, not the body.” Overeating, stress, emotional eating, binge eating, comfort food, wrong dietary practices are the major reasons leading to weight gain and obesity, with direct links to stimulation from brain. Some people find it extremely challenging to attain control over hunger pangs and frequent snacking and it’s not entirely about will power anymore, the trick lies in training the brain to eat less food without going into starvation mode. In this post, we list out amazing ways to trick your brain into eating less so that you can fall into a calorie deficit and burn stored fat for energy, leading to weight loss.

1. Plan Meals Ahead: Following healthy weight loss diets such as on the Rati Beauty app, helps you steer clear of unhealthy food. With weekly diets readily available, with meal and snack timings in place, you can always plan ahead about your next meal and there would hardly be any room for unhealthy and junk food. This way, you can slowly wean yourself away from unhealthy eating practices.
2. Eat Food on Red Plates: There’s quite a lot of research that diners tend to eat less when food is served on red dinnerware, isn’t that amazing? If you want to eat less, shop for red dinner plates now.
3. Eat from a Bowl and Hold it in Hands: Eating out from a small bowl will trick your brain that you are having lots of food and the weight of the bowl in your hands will make you believe that there’s a lot of food in the bowl, leaving you satiated with a smaller portion.
4. Eat on Small Plates and Spoons: If you do not like the idea of eating out of a bowl, using smaller plates and spoons to eat your meals would convince your brain that you are eating more food than usual.
5. Eat without Distractions: One of the prerequisites of mindful eating – eat without any distractions, which means switch off the TV, keep away the phone, and eat in peace so that once the satiety hormone kicks in, you can keep away the fork and spoon to avoid consuming extra calories. Eat without any kind of distraction, in peace, and enjoy each bite, so that the brain feels fuller with the optimum amount of calories, without pushing you to overeat.
6. Imagine Eating your Guilt Food: This simple trick can actually curb the appetite for high-calorie guilt food (such as chocolates, red velvet cake, pizza), that you cannot have on a weight loss diet. When cravings hit hard, just close your eyes and imagine you are actually eating the food, and in a few minutes, the cravings will go away! This is because the brain reacts and releases dopamine (neurotransmitter which is linked to satiety and pleasure), upon imagining the food that you love to eat, making the cravings vanish.
7. Clean the Kitchen and Fridge of Unhealthy Food: “Out of sight, out of mind” concept comes into play when you replace unhealthy and processed food with healthy and whole foods in the kitchen, fridge, and pantry. If you cannot see it, you would not eat it.
8. Eat a Protein-Rich Snack Before Each Meal: Do not forget to indulge in a protein-rich snack such as a handful of nuts, a cup of Greek yogurt, or even a small bowl of oats with a sprinkling of chia seeds to get a good dose of protein before a major meal to keep the hunger hormone low and satiety hormones high.
9. Make Food Presentable: In some studies done recently, if you plate vegetables and salads creatively and beautifully, you would tend to enjoy it more, and in fact, look forward to eating such kind of healthy food that would keep you in calorie deficit.
10. Cut the Food into Smaller Pieces: Researchers have found out that breaking down or cutting food into smaller pieces tricks the brain into eating slowly, giving you enough time to get cues from the satiety hormone “leptin,” which takes just about 20 minutes to kick in. Practicing this technique can help you feel full with less food.

Hope these tips would help you stay on track with healthy eating and prevent unnecessary snacking and binge eating.

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