Can
You Lose Weight Without Starving?
Copyright 2006 Dan Curtis, M.D.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University are providing
some clues to help you achieve permanent weight loss. They
are looking at the effects of your food choices and how
they affect your ability to lose weight. (The influence
of food portion size and energy density on energy intake:
implications for weight management. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005
Jul;82(1 Suppl):236S-241S.)
The researchers were interested in finding out what determined
how much food people eat at each meal. You might think that
people would tend to eat until they were no longer hungry
and then stop. Or that they would eat a certain number of
calories and their body would sense they had enough and
they would stop.
But what they found was somewhat surprising. They found
that people tend to eat a meal based on how big it is.
In other words, the participants in the study were used
to eating food of a certain size. Whether half a plate,
a full plate, a small bowl or a large bowl, they found that
people tend to eat the same size meal. It is as though they
do not feel it is a full meal unless it is a certain size
portion.
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