How to Eat Properly

Know what being hungry feels like. This takes some practice. Know that being hungry is a feeling of needing food, any food, in the pit of your stomach. You are hungry whenever you want to be.

When you’re eating a meal, stop when you’re full, not when you’re satisfied. Don’t you hate when you feel as if your stomach is full? This is a sign that you have made a mistake in the way you just ate. After you’re done eating, your stomach should not feel empty, but also not completely full.

Eat only when you’re hungry... U.S. culture seems to think that people get hungry at about 9 AM, 12 noon, and again at 6 PM. While this may be a generally good schedule for eating, remember that (usually) you don’t have to eat at meal time if you’re not hungry yet. Also, if you are hungry between meals go ahead and have a healthy snack. It’s not good to starve yourself between meals; if you allow yourself to become too hungry, you’ll just overeat when the meal comes. It’s all about listening to your body. You cannot follow this suggestion, however, until you have mastered Step 1, knowing when you’re hungry. Another thing to remember is that by eating a little bit whenever you’re hungry throughout the day, you shouldn’t be eating so much at meal times, because you won’t be as hungry and because you haven’t waited and starved yourself. If you follow the suggestion of eating between meals if you’re hungry, but continue to eat the same amount as if you had not snacked at meal times, you’ll only end up gaining weight

Realize that in general, your portion sizes are probably too big. Accepted portion sizes have practically doubled in the past 50 years. Remember that your stomach is about the size of your fist. Don’t expect to stuff 10 times that amount of food into it without negative consequences. Something many people don’t realize is that your stomach will stretch when you’re used to eating a lot. If you only eat small amounts of food at a time, your stomach won’t ever stretch out like it does when you gorge yourself on a big meal, and then, with a smaller stomach, it won’t take as much to make you feel full. You can do this by only taking small, right-sized portions of food onto your plate, and when you’re done with that, sit back and feel whether or not you’re still hungry. Give yourself 10 to 20 minutes. If you really are still hungry after that time has passed, take a tiny bit more; however, if you give your body time to signal your brain, you’ll find that you’re usually not still truly hungry.

Have many small meals, rather than a few big ones. This goes along with Step 3. Nutritionists point out again and again that this is a better, healthier way to eat. In general, it is considered healthier to eat five meals a day than three. In fact, if you watch any makeover or weight loss reality TV shows, they are always eating about 5 to 8 meals a day (with small portions and healthy choices at each meal, of course). This is because it keeps your body in the digesting-food mode. In scientific terms, it keeps your metabolism up. Think about it: Your body is made to process fuel effectively. If you don’t feed it, it slows down to reserve your fuel. This means your metabolism slows, and you process and use less of the stored fuel (calories). If you allow yourself to become too hungry by eating hardly anything during the day, your metabolism will be slowed way down; then when you finally do eat, your metabolism will be so slow that your body won’t be using it and digesting it efficiently.