With obesity becoming a growing health problem in the United States, everyone is looking to get healthy through fitness and dieting but could your busy schedule be hindering the wanted results?
Nowadays, we’re always on the run. Whether it be on our way to work, home, or school we’re usually busy doing something. Because we need to fuel our bodies, we often try to squeeze food into our busy schedules but we don’t necessarily give it the time it requires. Often you pick up whatever is available near you and scarf it down while on the way to the next item on your list.
But new research suggests that eating while on the move could lead to weight gain and obesity among people who are dieting. A study held in the UK, included a total of 60 female students categorized as dieters or non-dieters. The participants were each randomly assigned to eat a cereal bar under one of three different conditions. One group watched TV while eating, another group had to walk while eating and the final group ate while having a conversation. After the initial food consumption, separate bowls of chocolate, carrot sticks, chips and grapes were presented to the participants, who were instructed to rate the foods according to how much they liked them and asked to “eat as much as you like.” Dieters who ate their cereal bar while walking around went on to eat more snacks during the taste test. In particular, the researchers found that they ate around five times more chocolate than other participants.
This study was conducted by researchers from the University of Surrey in the UK, published in the Journal of Health Psychology, and found that eating while walking could make dieters overeat later on in the day, triggering more overeating than other forms of distraction such as watching TV or chatting with a friend.
Often this is a result from not paying proper attention to you’re eating time. When you’re distracted while eating it disrupts our ability to process the impact eating has on our hunger. Because of this, you haven’t realized that you’re full or feel that because you’ve incorporated exercise into meal, it
justifies eating more later. Making a set schedule for your eating and placing the proper attention to what you’re eating will help you feel more full and result in not having to over eat throughout the day. So sit down once in a while, smell the roses and enjoy you’re food so you’re dieting doesn’t have to go in vain.
Written by Charlie Marquez
Sourced from Medical News Today.
