Studies show that people tend to eat based on their expectations. If your mind thinks you ate a large breakfast, you will eat a more sensible lunch. If your mind thinks you ate a smaller breakfast, you may be setting yourself up to eat a larger lunch. Studies have shown that participants served a “larger omelet” on day one and a “smaller omelet” on day two and ate on average 70 more calories at lunch the day they ate the smaller omelet. The funny thing is, the participants were served the same size omelets on both days. This study shows that when we think we ate a smaller amount of food at one meal, our minds meet the expectation of “making up calories” at the next meal.
Knowing this can help keep our sights on eating a consistent amount of food at the next meal even if we think we ate a smaller one at the meal prior.
Other tips that can help us from overeating calories at the next meal are as follows:
- Never skip meals
- Try and eat your meals at the same time every day.
- Include produce at every meal.
- Eat at least one serving of three food groups at every meal; otherwise, you are only snacking.
- Sit down when eating a meal.
- Put away technology when you eat.
- Do not eat the same thing every day. Vary your meals and eat something different for each meal.
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