Mindfully Eat Your Way to a Healthier Weight

Search #mindfuleating on Instagram, and you get over 400,000 results. It seems that every wellness guru and nutritionist is promoting this concept. What exactly is mindful eating, and can it help you lose weight?

Mindful eating is based on the Buddhist concept of mindfulness—the ability to be fully aware of the present moment without judgment. One study defines mindful eating as “a non-judgmental awareness of physical and emotional sensations associated with eating.” Basically, this means being in tune with your eating—everything from why you want to eat to the appearance, taste, smell, and feel of the food, to how much you are eating, how fast you are eating, and that feeling of fullness settling in. It also means coping with any guilt or anxiety that foods bring.

Triggers to Eating

To change our behaviors, we need to know what triggers them. Mindfulness can help identify foods or feelings that may trigger us to overeat. For example, maybe you tend to eat mindlessly when stressed or bored. Perhaps overeating is a way of coping with anxiety or depression. Or maybe there are certain foods that you just can’t stop eating once in front of you. Ideally, we eat because we are hungry, so identifying all these other reasons for eating is an important step toward changing that behavior.

How Fast You Eat

Awareness of when that feeling of fullness sets in is one of the keys to the effectiveness of mindful eating. It’s easy to overeat when you are starving and are served something delicious. Slowing down and being mindful about the whole eating process can help you appreciate your food and recognize when that feeling of fullness sets in. Otherwise, eating quickly can easily lead to overeating since it can take up to 20 minutes for the gut to signal to the brain that you have had enough to eat.

How Much You Eat

Moreover, mindful eating can help you become aware of how much you have eaten. So rather than mindlessly munching on a bag of tortilla chips while you decide what to make for dinner, place one serving onto a plate, add a side of salsa, sit down, and enjoy your pre-dinner snack mindfully.

How Satisfied You Are

In addition to honing in on your portion sizes, mindful eating can leave you more satisfied. Imagine digging into a big bowl of ice cream while you scroll through your social media feed or watch your favorite TV drama. Now imagine savoring that bowl of ice cream, one spoonful at a time, perhaps in the company of your family or friends—but without other distractions. Chances are, you will not only eat less but also find it more satisfying.

Recent Research

While the above concepts suggest that mindful eating should help keep weight in check, there is also research to back it up. A study published in 2018 reviewed several other studies and concluded that mindful eating should be part of any weight management program and may provide substantial benefits for people who are overweight or obese. Another review published in 2017 found that mindfulness-based approaches appeared most effective for helping people with binge eating and emotional eating. This study also found that mindful eating seemed to reduce food intake among overweight populations more than in normal weight populations.’

Bottom Line

Could mindful eating help you shed excess weight? It might. Certainly, becoming more aware of our eating habits is a positive for most, especially today when life is fast-paced and ‘fast food’ has multiple meanings.

As with most effective weight loss methods, the practice of mindful eating will most likely work best if you combine it with healthy food choices and exercise. That said, for some people, just the simple act of being more mindful when they eat may be all they need to shed that extra weight! The best part of this eating concept? There are no adverse side effects or downsides.

Tips on Becoming a More Mindful Eater

All this talk of mindful eating sounds good, right? So how do you make it happen? While regular mediation is one way to become more mindful in general, there are also other strategies that you can put in place right now:

1. Slow down your meals. How long does your family sit at dinner? Do you take a real lunch break? Is breakfast eaten on the go? Make an effort to take at least 15 minutes to enjoy each meal—without distractions such as driving, reading, working, or watching TV.
2. Really taste each bite. Try putting your fork down between each bite and wait to pick it up again until after you are done chewing.
3. Now and then, try closing your eyes and really focusing on the taste, texture, and smell of the food you are eating for a couple of minutes.
4. Say thank you. So often in these modern times, we take food for granted. We forget the process it took to get our food to the table—think about everyone involved in getting that food to your table and be grateful.

Most importantly, enjoy your meal!

Last Reviewed: 09/2022