10 ways to feel FULL, not FAT

BritMumInCanada

Gold Member
Just read this article and some of the little tips are great.

So thought I would share it here.

If you find that you are never feeling satisfied after a meal or just an hour or so later you are reaching for a snack to pick you up? Well, we're here to help with some feel-full strategies. Granted there are foods that can boost your feelings of fullness but how, when and where you eat your meals can also have a bearing on your full factor too. Here are 10 ways to keep your dining habits in check to maximise your feelings of satiety and satisfaction.

Sometimes go it alone
People can eat more when they dine in company or with the television on because they become distracted as to what exactly is going into their mouth. Make sure mealtimes are all about the food, focus on it entirely and you'll feel full sooner. Avoid fast-paced music too, this can increase the speed you eat, resulting in a clean plate before your body is able to recognise it is full.


Smell and chew
When you eat make sure you give your meal a good sniff as concentrating on the smell of your food as well as the taste also switches on satiety signals. Secondly, chew, chew, chew, and chew some more, some of the hormones needed to send the satiety signals to the brain are released by your chomping.


Go for bulky and moist
The rationale behind the bulky and moist rule is pretty straightforward, simply the more air and water in food the quicker it will fill you up, calorie for calorie. So, in terms of food swaps have a vegetable soup rather than a pasty, plain air-popped popcorn instead of crisps and grapes in place of raisins.


Wait after fat
If you do have a meal with a high-fat content then make sure you allow time for that feeling of fullness to come. It can take longer for sense of satiety to come from a fatty meal compared to meal high in protein for example, so allow time for the feeling of fullness from the fat to kick in.


Get enough sleep
When your body is deprived of sleep it produces more ghrelin and less leptin. These are the hormones that are involved in the regulation of appetite; ghrelin is produced largely in the stomach and accelerates your appetite, while leptin decreases appetite as it's the hormone that signals satiety.


Get hydrated
The daily recommended amount of water to drink is around the eight glasses mark, but many of us don't get anywhere near that amount and as a result when we feel hungry, it is often because we're actually thirsty. Drink a glass or two of water before a meal, and when you do eat, the food will feel more filling.



Get a smaller plate
People tend to fill their plate however big it is, and most of us eat until it is empty. And the aim of getting a 'clean plate' makes us more likely to override the satiety signals that stop us eating. So, swap your normal plate for a slightly smaller one, and you'll find your 'full' switch will flip a little faster.


Choose fiddly foods
If you eat foods that take a little time and effort to eat, this will allow time for your body to recognise the fullness feeling. Good examples of fiddly foods are corn on the cob, a crunchy salad or fish with bones, these types of foods force you to eat more slowly and help you to feel full quicker.


Eat an apple before each meal
Apples help to promote a feeling of fullness and research has shown that eating an apple 20 minutes prior to eating a meal reduced the amount of food that was consumed at that meal. So, including an apple for your daily snack will not only contribute to one of your daily recommended fruit or veggie portions but the fibre will fill up your stomach too.


Be natural
Try to eat food that is as natural as possible as most manufactured foods tend to be very energy-dense which means they contain more calories bite-for-bite. However raw fruit and vegetables take a lot of chewing and occupy a lot of room in your stomach so they fill you up much more per bite.
 
Love it . Common sense really and most things. I do . You kinda know what works when your weight and body are constantly on your mind hey ? X
 
yeah I thought the bulky and moist bit was a good point.

As it covers so many aspects of SW, like synning fruit not in it's raw form and why certain free foods become syns when cooked in a certain way, like making crisps etc from lasagne sheets or thin slices of potato etc

Infact so many of the above are aspects of SW really and are all things I now do and understand ever since my SW journey started.
 
also i used to cut food up very small and chew until there was nothing left to chew, made you take time over the meal and therefore eat less, thoguh tbh the last couple of days my actual appitite has plumeted, not quite sure why but perhaps my mindset with food is finally getting in tuune
 
I don't ever really fancy eating an apple before meals... a bit like eating pud before mains, lol. But I do try nowadays to eat my salad, or my veg, before the bulkier part of my meal - it definitely helps me eat less.

Another tip I would add is to eat slowly. I tend to eat way too fast, and I've definitely noticed that all my very slim friends eat very slowly - and thus eat less because they stop when they're actually full, rather than just eating all of what's in front of them. It's a really hard habit to break, but I do try and make myself at least aware of how fast I'm eating so I can try and slow down a bit.

These are some really great tips though - I might print them out and put them somewhere in my kitchen to remind me when I'm cooking!
 
Thanks Britmum, very interesting as well about the fatty food taking longer to give you that full feeling.
 
Wait after fat
If you do have a meal with a high-fat content then make sure you allow time for that feeling of fullness to come. It can take longer for sense of satiety to come from a fatty meal compared to meal high in protein for example, so allow time for the feeling of fullness from the fat to kick in.


really good tip here. before diet use to eat take aways and never really felt full straight after. but always felt full after being invited out for sunday dinner. just thought it was me being greedy x
 
fable said:
Wait after fat
If you do have a meal with a high-fat content then make sure you allow time for that feeling of fullness to come. It can take longer for sense of satiety to come from a fatty meal compared to meal high in protein for example, so allow time for the feeling of fullness from the fat to kick in.

really good tip here. before diet use to eat take aways and never really felt full straight after. but always felt full after being invited out for sunday dinner. just thought it was me being greedy x

Yep it is good advice and is pretty much the idea behind SW as we are keeping ourselves fuller for longer by eating lots of low fat foods and fresh produce and of course are with the 1/3 superfree, we also get lots of vegetables and fruit into our diet.
 
Excellent post thank you!! :D

I eat far too fat - I do pretty much everything too fast - including talking! I am really trying my hardest to slow down and tatse food properly!!
 
Excellent thread - The bit about using a smaller plate is so true - Can't believe the size of the plates I used to use!
 
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