what is mindful eating?

Brainpower, not willpower, is the real secret to sticking to your meal plan.

The way you think about food is directly linked to how much you eat. If you fully concentrate on your meals and enjoy the taste of each bite, you’re more likely to eat only when you’re truly hungry, stop when you’re satisfied, and enjoy your favorite foods without eating too much.

Research shows that this strategy, known as mindful eating, works—and it works well.

“Mindful eaters consume fewer calories because they really savor their food,” says Susan Albers, a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic and author of Eating Mindfully. “They feel satisfied sooner than people who eat when they’re distracted.” Unfortunately, we often eat on autopilot. We grab breakfast as we’re heading out the door, eat lunch at our desk, and have dinner in front of the TV. We don’t really register how much we’re gobbling, consuming hundreds of extra calories a day. And all those extra calories pack on the pounds and make managing blood sugar levels more difficult.

Mindful eaters, on the other hand, are adept at recognizing their body’s hunger cues. They’ve learned what real hunger feels like. When their system signals them that they need to eat, they do.

You, too, can eat more mindfully to drop pounds. Here’s how.

Mindful eaters are adept at recognizing their body’s hunger cues. They’ve learned what real hunger feels like, and when their system signals them that they need to eat, they do.

Find Your Satisfaction Sweet Spot

“Think of fullness on a scale of 1 to 10,” says Jean Kristeller, Ph.D., a professor emeritus of psychology at Indiana State University and author of The Joy of Half a Cookie. “People often shoot for a 9 or a 10 but are usually satiated much sooner, at about a 6.” To determine when you’ve hit the satisfaction point, “put down your fork for a few moments several times throughout your meal to gauge where you are at and whether you still feel hungry,” she advises.

Get to Know Your Body

“True hunger comes with definitive signals: Your stomach feels empty, it growls, you can’t concentrate, you feel irritable, and you yearn for food in general, not something specific like chips or cookies,” says Jean Fain, a psychotherapist at Harvard Medical School and author of The Self-Compassion Diet. If a nutritious dinner like grilled chicken with steamed broccoli sounds pretty amazing, chances are you’re truly hungry and need to eat something. If it doesn’t, figure out what the real problem is—boredom? loneliness?—and deal with it. But remember: You may need to stick to an eating schedule to prevent low blood sugar if your diabetes medications could cause hypoglycemia. Other times, you may need to eat even if you’re not hungry—such as snacking because your meal is going to be delayed or it’s your scheduled lunch break at work, and if you don’t eat now, you’ll be ravenous later. Even during these times, listen to your body’s hunger cues and take the time to truly enjoy your food.

Be a Food Snob

Mindful eaters are picky about food—in a good way. They pass up things that don’t bring them pleasure, Kristeller says. At a cocktail party, for instance, they will skip the deviled eggs and savor the coconut shrimp instead. “[Mindful eaters] see no point in eating foods they consider mediocre,” Albers says. “There’s no payoff.”

In a study, diners who ate a meal in 22 minutes consumed 88 fewer calories than those who consumed the same food in 9 minutes.

Take Your Time

Instead of inhaling your dinner, sit at the table while you eat and make the meal last at least 20 minutes. In a study at Texas Christian University, diners who ate a meal in 22 minutes consumed 88 fewer calories than those who consumed the same food in 9 minutes. When you eat slowly, it’s easier to read your body’s hunger and fullness signals. But it’s often not possible to linger quietly for nearly half an hour over every meal. So try this easy compromise: Turn off the TV, hide your cell phone, and set aside just 3 minutes to savor the first few bites of your meal or snack. That small amount of time is enough to help your brain register pleasure and the beginning of satiety.

Come to Your Senses

Employ all five senses—not just taste—when you eat. “This gives you more pleasure from your food, so you end up being more satisfied,” says Lillian Cheung, a Harvard School of Public Health lecturer and coauthor of Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life. Stop eating on autopilot and relish each bite. Look at the colors on your plate and inhale the aroma. Listen to the sizzle of that stir-fry or the crunch of the carrots. Enjoy the texture of that creamy Greek yogurt.

Never Deprive Yourself

“Typically, when we experience the urge for an unhealthy food, we try to ignore it, which causes stress,” Albers says. And stress triggers the release of the hormone cortisol, which encourages the body to store fat and causes blood sugar spikes. Instead of trying to fight a craving, acknowledge it. Then think for a moment: Am I hungry? Do I really enjoy eating it?
Is it something special that I don’t get to have all the time?
If you can answer yes to these questions, go for it, Albers says.