The best way to lose weight without cutting out your favorite foods
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If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, chances are you’ve found yourself in this cruel cycle:
Phase 1: Observe
Notice that your favorite pants are a bit too tight, see a photo of yourself that shocks you (why does the camera never seem to match the mirror, it’s so rude), or step on the scale and shake your head in dismay when you see the number go up higher than it used to be.
Phase 2: Panic
Start freaking out. Beat yourself up to teach yourself a good lesson (because guilt is a great motivator, right?). Spend time wondering how on earth you let yourself go like this.
Phase 3: Take action
Armed with self-loathing and disgust, decide this time, you’ll be better. You decide you’ll go from flab to six-pack abs. You join a gym and/or start dieting.
Phase 4: Burnout
Get burned out of doing exercise you don’t enjoy, being hungry all the time, and/or eating kale for every meal. Console yourself with some comfort food, and revert back to habits you were trying to avoid.
Rinse and repeat.
Sound familiar? If so, I want you to know that I’ve been there too. It’s a vicious and depressing cycle and you’re not staying there any longer on my watch! Instead, I’m sharing the number one way you can lose weight the healthy way. The best part? It doesn’t involve ditching your favorite foods or beating yourself up.
Sound too good to be true? It’s not! Read on!
The best way to lose weight healthily: hara hachi bu
The Japanese have a saying called “hara hachi bu” which basically means “eat until 80% full. And it’s worth lheeding After all, Japan consistently ranks as the healthiest country in the world. ₁
So often, when we think we need to be healthier or lose weight, we jump right into restriction. What we don’t realize is that if we “start with HOW and WHY we eat, WHAT and HOW MUCH often takes care of itself.”₂
When we eat, it takes about 20-30 minutes for our belly to send a signal to our brain that we are indeed full.₃ So when we skip breakfast, suddenly realize we are ravenous around lunchtime, and down as many chicken nuggets as fast as possible, we don’t give our stomach the opportunity to give the brain the message of hey, I’m full. It hits us later when suddenly feel the pain of a “food baby.”
When you stop eating at the 80% full mark, on the other hand, you are actually eating until 100% full. Your brain just hasn’t yet gotten the memo. Chances are, you will feel 100% full within the next 15 minutes
How eating until 80% full can help you lose weight and feel more confident
One of the biggest reasons for weight gain is overeating. I know it’s not breaking news.
But when you look at the hurried, overstimulated social norm of American culture, it’s easy to see why We The People struggle with overeating. We are chronically eating more than our bodies actually need because we don’t give ourselves adequate time to slow down and eating until 80% full is certainly not the norm.
Here are some reasons to get excited about eating til 80% full
You will naturally eat less and decrease caloric intake without restrictive dieting
You will learn to tune into your body, and hunger and fullness cues
You will become more aware of why you are eating. If you hit 80% full but are dying to eat more, there’s a story there. Are you trying to cope with something? Are you eating for entertainment?
You will digest and absorb nutrients better
You will avoid the bloating and the gross feeling that comes with overeating. Honestly, this is the biggest perk for me. No matter how good the food is, I feel so gross when I overeat. I become sluggish, grouchy, and prone to beat myself up. Which leads to even more eating to cope with feeling icky. And when I don’t feel stuffed, I feel good in my body. I feel fit. I feel ready to run or dance or do whatever.
You will have more energy, especially post meals. This is also critical for me because when I overeat I’m always tired after. And then I have such a harder time handling the responsibilities of mom and work life.
“You will build tolerance for slight discomfort.” This comes from my friends at Precision Nutrition and I love it. Before deliberately focusing on this habit, the moment I would feel the slightest hint of hunger, I would be looking for something to eat. And our bodies aren’t designed to be eating constantly. Eating until 80% full can feel a bit uncomfortable at first, but then it quickly becomes your normal.
You can eat the foods you enjoy and avoid the food guilt by eating until 80% full. Now that doesn’t mean you should just eat pizza for every meal, but when you do treat yourself, you can do so guilt-free.
How to eat until 80% full
First of all, a caveat.
This WILL take practice. At first, you’ll probably overthink it. Sometimes you’ll undereat and sometimes you’ll overeat as you try to figure out what 80% full feels like for you.
That’s perfectly fine!
This is a skill and as such it will take some practice and experimentation to get it right.
At 80% full, you shouldn’t feel hungry, but also you shouldn’t feel full. You should feel like you have some room leftover but you don’t necessarily need to eat something.
Simply put, you should feel satisfied and like you could go for a walk.
If you’re feeling sluggish right after eating or have any pain in your stomach unrelated to food intolerance, you probably overate.
Precision Nutrition has a fantastic infographic to help you gauge your fullness that I highly recommend you check out for more help!
Ideas to help you stop eating at 80% full
Stop eating, wait a bit, and then eat some more if you’re still hungry.
Take a smaller portion than you think because you are going to pressure yourself to eat everything on that plate
Remember that food is meant to serve you and to give you energy. It can be really hard to ditch the “eat everything on your plate” mentality and to feel wasteful. But don’t eat your food to save it from going to waste if it’s just going to make you full, feel sick, and gain excess weight.
In his awesome book Atomic Habits, James Clear said when he goes to a restaurant he gets a to-go box at the beginning of the meal and puts half the meal in the box before he starts eating! Or he splits the meal with someone else. I can think of only a few times when I’ve shared restaurant food with my husband and felt like it wasn’t enough food.
If eating with family or friends, the conversation will naturally help you slow down. However, I would recommend you generally avoid entertainment (except for special occasions) when eating as you will likely just mindlessly keep eating and not be aware of your hunger and fullness cues.
Lessons learned from my experience eating 80% full as part of my healthy eating project
As a part of my year-long healthy living project, I’ve been focusing on eating until 80% full myself! I can not overstate how impactful it’s been. Here are the lessons I’ve learned as I’ve tackled this habit in real life.
Physical cues made all the difference. I printed out this infographic and put it on my fridge to remind me how I should feel after eating. I also made a sticker chart. I put a sticker on the days that I ate until 80% full for most meals with the promise of giving myself a reward if I hit 90% compliance. That was super motivating.
My goal was to eat until 80% full for most meals and snacks. It was helpful to not have to be 100% perfect because it motivated me not to give up if I slipped up during the day.
It took some time to get away from a scarcity mentality. Sometimes I wanted to eat quickly intentionally so I could eat more without feeling 80% full (since my brain wouldn’t have time to catch up to my body). I had to remind myself I was literally giving myself what my body wanted. This became a lot easier as time went on.
I learned that I frequently when I stop eating at 80% full, and I think that’s okay. It was uncomfortable at first, but then it becamse my normal.
The biggest challenge (still) is after dinner. I always feel like I need a little something after the kids go to bed. Instead of fighting it, I think I’m going to give myself lower-calorie treats so that I can feel like I got a pat on the back, but also not feel bloated (eating at night tends to do that to me).
The best part of eating until 80% full is that it really made me confront why I was eating. If I already was 80% full but wanted more, this habit gave me the opportunity to stop and think, does this food just taste really good? Am I bored? Do I need something to look forward to? Could something else fill my emotional need besides eating?
The next phase of my healthy living project is eating a combo of 5 fruits and vegetables each day.
The purpose of this habit is to fill my body without vitamins, minerals, fiber, and glorious phytochemicals that help prevent chronic disease.
Here’s my plan:
Make it obvious:
I’ll keep fruits and vegetables visible in the kitchen. And since it’s been so effective, I’m sticking with creating a sticker chart on the fridge with an associated reward. I’m also going to print off this infographic and stick it on the fridge.
Make it attractive:
I will apply the suggestions in this article to make tasty vegetables. I will eat fruits and vegetables that I enjoy.
Make it easy:
I will prep and wash produce to make it really easy to grab. I will plan the fruits and vegetables I eat each day when I meal plan and make my grocery list for the week. I’ll likely eat the same produce each day for a week at at ime.
Make it satisfying:
If I have eaten 5 fruits and vegetables by the end of each day, I will reward myself with a sticker. At the end of the two-week stint, I get a reward for hitting at least 90% compliance. I’m thinking about getting myself a hydrangea plant or some super cute Desert Clay Design earrings. Just something small but cute that I wouldn’t normally just buy.
Eventually eating 5 fruits and vegetables will be it’s own reward because I know how good I feel when I eat them.
Well, there you have it friend! I can’t wait for you to see results from eating until 80% full. This skill really has changed my life for the better and I know it can help you reach your health goals too!
If you liked this post about eating until 80% full, you may also like these posts:
Eating mindfully can change your life, and it’s actually super doable
Want to be healthier but don’t know where to start? Read this!
In need of some motivation? Check out this 30-day healthy habits checklist I made for you!
Sources:
₁ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4130084/
₂ Precision Nutrition, The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition, p. 391
