Mindful eating focuses on awareness and eating experience of the food by observing how the food makes you feel and on the signals your body sends out about taste, satisfaction, and fullness. It can change your relationship with food, by choosing healthier food options and being “non-judgmental”. It involves being truly “present” with your meals and tuning into all five senses while eating. You will start to understand your body’s fullness cues, having more satisfying meals and promoting mental health. When slowing down the rate at which the food is ingested and chewed, you become fully engaged while eating, thus savoring the food. This allows the body to feel fuller sooner, thus consuming fewer calories for weight loss. You will enjoy the experience of eating and really “tasting” the food. “Dieting” focuses on a negative relationship to food, which can lead to disordered eating, which can also increase stress and anxiety with food. Mindful eating is a promising component of treatment for eating disorders, chronic dieting, and binge eating. “Dieting” also disconnects us from the eating experience and puts us out of touch with our body’s sensations. When you let go of food restriction, you help your body move toward its set-point weight range, which is the range it naturally wants to maintain if you are eating without restriction and moving your body regularly. Journaling or using a phone app is a great way of being more aware of what and how much you are consuming.
Pay attention to hunger and fullness cues by using a “Hunger and Fullness Scale”. Try to stay between a 2.5 and a 5.5.
| Very hungry | Moderately hungry | Mildly hungry | No feeling-neutral | Mildly full | Very full | Much too full |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 2.5 | Desirable | Zone | 5.5 |
Four Tips for Mindful Eating
- Eat when you are hungry-consuming calories when not hungry can lead to weight gain especially when grabbing a carbohydrate-loaded snack
- Eat slowly- doing this savors the taste of the food and signals the body to feel full sooner, thus consuming fewer calories for weight loss.
- Eat without distractions- this makes you more fully aware of what you are eating, and you become more focused on the food in front of you rather than the TV or phone, which can cause overeating.
- Be patient- it might take some time to break bad habits. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Take it one step at a time and celebrate when you achieve a goal. Mindless eating is about making changes when available, it’s not about limiting your life. Eventually, it will become a habitual behavior, not a chore.