Your Eating Style:  Do you need a Makeover??

by Gay Riley, MS, RD, CCN
www.NetNutritionist.com

Eating Style refers the attitudes, emotions, environment, behaviors, and the influences associated with the foods we eat.  By learning what our unique Eating Style is we can plan a strategy to for long lasting change. Small changes we can make within the comfort of our personal lifestyle.  Popular weight loss diets usually have an “all or nothing” theme, processed packaged foods, special food lists, and rules to perpetuate restrictive thoughts and forbidden foods.  The dieter must concentrate on how to stay on the diet instead of learning about personal real life food choices and habits to change once the diet is over. Successful permanent weight loss requires food knowledge and awareness of food behaviors rather than denial, avoidance and deprivation. 

Most dieters find themselves in a vicious cycle of loss and frustrating regain.  Deprive for awhile, lose some weight then gain it back and more. It is estimated that people make 200 food related decisions a day and with deprivation diets it could be more. The truth is deprivation diets are hardly ever permanent.  At best we can shed a few pounds for a special occasion only with the realization that those lost pounds will be regained immediately.  95% of dieter’s gain back the lost pounds and more. Deprivation of favorite foods often leads to obsession, desire, appetite, and cravings therefore it makes perfect sense that once the diet ends or is abandoned we want to get back to our favorite foods.  Fantasies of “after the diet” feasting are common: the cheeseburger and fries, pizza and wings or the Friday night margarita and chips.

To lose the deprivation mindset we have to be truthful with ourselves, to know ourselves and the reality of the relationship we have to food.  Getting in touch with our food behavior is like taking a school course on food habits and studying the conditions that lead up to becoming overweight.  The science of weight gain is to consume more food than the body burns   but there are circumstances that encourage over eating: learned food behaviors, environmental cues, emotional triggers, social situations, food choices, attitudes, and tastes which have been shaped throughout life.  These factors all formulate our “Eating Style”.  By knowing your “eating style” you can avoid common high risk food situations and you can create a new way of eating to encourage long lasting weight loss. Face the truth about your relationship with food and you have the knowledge for real change.

Know Your Eating Style

 Eating Style is the way in which we relate to food: the what, how, when, where, why and with whom we eat.  What and how much are going to be the big factors for energy balance but you will be surprised to discover how much influence When, Where, Why, and Who you eat with affects the type and amount of food you eat.  Ask yourself the following questions and you will begin to recognize your eating style.

What

What foods do you typically eat?  What you eat affects your energy balance. Studies show there is a positive correlation for BMI (BMI is the measure of weight according to height) and food choices.  Higher BMI’s are associated with meat, eggs, fat, and oil, whereas lower BMI’s are associated with foods such as vegetables, fruit, beans, and grains.

Most people regularly eat the same 10 foods so identify what those foods are.  Look at the overall picture of what you eat or drink and write it down.  Packaged foods, convenience foods, fast foods, sweets, café foods, alcohol, juice drinks, soft drinks, snack foods, and high calorie processed food are the foods to focus on substituting.  Do you eat mayo or mustard on your sandwich, butter on your movie popcorn, creamy or oil and vinegar dressing on your salad, sour cream and butter on your potato?  Do you always eat the chips and bread before the meal when dining out? Once you identify your trouble foods you can begin to make subtle substitutions.  If you eat a cheeseburger with mayo and fries at lunch, change to a 6 inch sub with vegetables and baked chips or a piece of fruit. If you do not eat green vegetables add a salad at dinner with low cal dressing instead of a supersize baked potato or half a potato?  You can also categorize “what you do” while you eat but we will use “Where” you eat as a guide for the activity while eating. What time will be “When?”

 How

How much food you eat is key to energy balance.    You may eat healthy foods but if you eat more than you burn there needs to be a portion adjustment. Ask yourself questions regarding quantity or serving size. Do you go for jumbo or supersize portions, go back for seconds, prepare extra food when you cook at home, choose restaurants that offer larger portions, all you can eat buffets,  do you clean your plate?  Do you prefer volume of food over quality?  What size do you buy at the movie or coffee shop?  A 12 oz can of cola or a 20 oz bottle, medium popcorn or the bucket, the tall or vente coffee drink?

How fast you finish a meal is also important.  Eating slowly allows the body to become satiated (full feeling) before more food can be consumed.  Finishing a 1200 calorie meal in 10 minutes may promote a second trip to the buffet table.  Concentrate on adjusting your food portions and the time it takes to eat your food.  A great exercise to slow down eating is to eat half your meal first, then get up and walk for 2-3 minutes and return to your food.  The food has time to fall to the bottom of the stomach, signaling the brain that you are full.

How often you consume a particular or favorite food or beverage is very helpful to know. Habitual consumption of a particular food or drink may make a huge difference in daily caloric balance.  Cut out one regular or large sweetened soft drink and you save 150-300 calories!

When

When or what time you eat can affect food intake both physically and mentally. When physical hunger occurs you may eat more than you really need.  If food is not consumed often enough to prevent hunger then there is a risk of overeating. When can also be a learned habit from childhood, or influenced by job, family, or other schedules. The day of the week can also be a trigger to overeat so think about whether you eat differently Monday versus Friday or the weekend. Ask yourself if you eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, skip meals, eat at night, get up from sleep and eat, eat more on weekends or on weekdays, during work or after work…  Skipping breakfast or lunch often leads to overeating later.  Eating frequent meals throughout the day (every 3-4 hours) can prevent hunger as well as stimulate the metabolism to burn more calories throughout the day.

Where

Where or the location you eat can trigger specific food choices and encourage overeating. Where you eat can also determine the eating activity.  Indentify the places you eat and drink most often, in the car, at the desk or computer, in bed, standing at the counter, standing at the kitchen counter, in restaurants, hotels, airports, etc.  If you have a habit of eating and watching TV, then try to start using lower calorie foods to munch on or even better learn to watch TV without food.  Television viewing can also influence food choice.

Why

Why you eat can dramatically contribute to overeating.  The reasons why we eat are endless…Why could be an activity such as food preparation and putting leftovers away, emotional triggers such as stress, anger, or loneliness, physical reasons like lack of sleep or depression or thirst, environmental cues like food aroma, social events or situations that promote or require food and drink, or side affects from medicine.  This is sometimes the hardest eating habit to understand because the hunger cue is inter-related to the stimulus.  Sometimes thirst can be confused with hunger. It may take some investigation to figure out the reasons why you eat when you are not really hungry.

Who

Who we share our meals with or who influences the food we choose to eat plays a major role in food intake. Some of us eat more when we are alone, but many of us overeat when we are around family, friends or groups of people.  So much of our activity and socialization involves food and drink.  Study who motivates you to eat healthy, do healthy activities and who encourages you to over indulge. Increase your awareness of how others have an impact on your food choices and habits

Redesign Your Eating Style

Once you have identified your eating style you can start to make changes by having a plan.

List the detrimental habits (old style) and list an alternate plan (new style).  See the table. This simple exercise will allow you to tune into specific behaviors to change permanently.  Achieve and maintain your weight loss goals and stop the deprivation/gain cycle for good.

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