5 Ways to Trick Your Mind Into Eating Less

Have you ever wondered how you could lose some weight without dieting or depriving yourself? Here are five weight loss tips to trick your mind into eating less without realizing it.

1. Drink a large glass of water about a half hour or so before mealtime.
Usually it takes a while (20 minutes) before your brain realizes that you have had enough to eat since most people don't take enough time to eat their meals. By partially filling your stomach with water your brain will get the message faster and you'll stop eating sooner.

2. Eat smaller meals throughout the day, rather than just 3 large meals.
Doing so you will help you negotiate the danger zones during the day where you are most likely to fail in your weight loss efforts. Namely, you will prevent the dreaded snack attack during the afternoon. Instead, make snacks part of your day and plan for them by having nutritious items on hand to take with you.

3. Gain control of portion size by using a smaller plate when you eat.
Try this experiment: Take a large plate and a smaller plate and fill them each with the same exact amount of food. Since the large plate looks "empty" we tend to load more food onto it to make it look "full." The smaller plate, by virtue of its size, already looks full and subconsciously we are satisfied with the amount of food. This is a totally irrational decision process and by using a small plate for your meals you can cut loads of excess calories without feeling deprived!

4. Keep a Food Diary.
By keeping a detailed record of what you eat you will quickly recognize the culprits standing between you and weight loss success. Make targeted substitutions by eliminating high calorie/high fat items in your diet with healthier alternatives. These substitutions may be trivial on the surface but can make a big difference. For example, by examining your diary you realize that you drink three cups of coffee a day and use three teaspoons of sugar for each cup. Without record keeping you may not even realize how many sugar calories you are consuming each day. By switching to an alternative sweetening product you can eliminate these sugar calories and you would never notice the difference.

5. Cut down on calories from fountain soft drinks.
If you absolutely can't stomach the taste of diet soft drinks, at least cut down on the calories of regular soft drinks (a 32 oz. soda packs about 400 calories). Sure, get the large size cup but make sure you fill it with ice first. You can eliminate up to half the calories!

As you can see, there are simple ways to trick yourself into eating less. By employing these tactics you can shed pounds without even trying! And best of all, you won't feel deprived because these weight loss tips fool your mind!