Surprise: Slim People Eat Differently- Sometimes it is not what you eat but how you eat it
So what do they do?
The research is conclusive. The eating habits of slim people are very different from the eating habits of the BMI challenged. I wanted to see for myself if there indeed is a difference. Since I started the 4QResolution Challenge- with the goal of not gaining weight over the Holidays- I want to find some simple ideas that I could adopt and that will make a difference. A recent dinner with 14 sailing buddies, I had the perfect opportunity- a range of slim and slightly weight challenged friends who were oblivious to my in vivo social observation study.
This is what I did.
I positioned myself between two slim crewmembers. I watched how they selected their food and how they ate it. My goal was to mimic what they did.
Here what I saw::
- What they ate:
- Both had salads with light dressing
- Both had baked seafood and steamed vegetables- many more vegetables than fish.
- Dessert was limited to a couple of bites of a pie and/or fresh fruit.
- How they ate:
- They both engaged in conversation and ate between comments
- Neither ate the bread offered while we were making meal decisions.
- The salad was eaten slowly and they did not finish all of the salad before the main entre was served.
- The main entry was picked apart. One took each shrimp and dissected it, the other ate part of the fish and left the rest on the plate.
- Both ate all of their vegetables.
- What I did
- I tried to eat at the same pace as the slim guys and that was really hard.
- I would take a bite of food when they did and then chew accordingly. Well both chewed their food many more times than I would have done. My jaws got fatigued.
- After twenty minutes, the rest of the table was done and the three of us still had half a plate of food. .
- We ordered dessert and continued eating
- Neither of them finished their entire plate of food- they sent back a good portion- in other circumstances they would have taken it home.
- Dessert was picked over and not completed.
- What I learned about the BMI Challenged folks:
- Some ate two baskets of bread before the meal
- Salads and appetizers were eaten at a break neck speed- all were hungry after a long day and night on the water-plenty of butter and olive oil.
- The main meal was not selected for its nutritional value- fried food, phenomenal sounding toppings dominated.
- Conversations slowed or stopped when the main course was served.
- While the slim folks chewed their food extraordinarily long the BMI challenged gobbled up the food as fast as possible and then finished any bread that was on the table.
- What I learned about myself:
- I am not as selective about the menu choices as the Slim folks.
- I eat too fast- I need to chew my food better and slow down
- Eating slower, I was full after about 20 minutes and stopped eating. I actually sent food back and that would never have happened if I were not doing this “scientific” study.
Bottom Line: We are creatures of habit and captive in our environment. We eat breakfast on the go, fit in lunch between meetings and rush home to eat before we take the kids to soccer practice. We are always in a hurry and the faster we eat the more we eat. (we eat 650 more calories per day now than we did in 1965). Our stomach does not have a chance to catch up and tell your brain that we are full. We rarely have the chance to eat a meal in a relaxed atmosphere filled with conversation. In other words, we eat till the food is gone, instead of eating until we are not hungry anymore. So it is not that a diet will fix our weight problems, often losing weight is tied to how we eat and how our environment impacts our eating. (more to come in other blogs)
There are some easy opportunities for simple changes that are easy to follow and not very painful.
Side note: I told the table of my findings after we were done. The BMI challenged chuckled and laughed it off. But, the slim folks asked questions and were really surprised at my findings.
