This is How Your Plate Design is Affecting Your Weight Loss Success
Did you know that your plate design could affect your weight loss success? If you are looking for another way to increase your odds of shedding the excess pounds in a short amount of time, continue reading to learn about an interesting way that you can take your diet to the next level.
Weight Loss Success Starts with the Size of Your Plate
How much food you can load onto your plate can have an impact upon how much food you end up eating, so it’s no wonder that experts recommend using smaller plates to increase your odds of weight loss success. However, a new study has shown that this strategy doesn’t always work, especially if you are feeling really hungry.
Plate Size and Perception
According to Fast Company, researchers know that plate size changes the way that you end up perceiving the food that is in front of you. Beyond that, experts have also learned that your perception is affected by how hungry you really are. If you are super hungry, your perception won’t be altered as much as it would be if you weren’t all that hungry.
How did they come to this conclusion? Well, researchers started with an experiment involving 32 women, and then another experiment consisting of 40 men and 41 women. The participants were given food in various plates in order to look into what is known as the Delboeuf Illusion.
Put simply, let’s say that you have a pizza placed on a large dish, and another pizza on a small dish. You will think that the pizza on the smaller dish is bigger than the same pizza that’s on a bigger dish. And, if you end up eating the pizza on the larger plate, you won’t feel as full as you would if you ate the same amount from a smaller dish.
Things Change When You’re Hungry
When researchers put their subjects to the test, they found that the illusion no longer applied if the participants were hungry. When your body is in need of food, it doesn’t follow the same rules of perception in an effort to survive and get the nutrition that it needs.
Apply It to Your Weight Loss Plan
How can you apply this new information to your life so that you can boost your weight loss success? Well, you could try scheduling your meals so that you aren’t ravenous by the time you are ready to eat. Then, you can place your food on smaller dishes so that your brain will be tricked into thinking that you are eating more food than you actually are. In this way, you can eat healthy foods that are low in calories and still feel satisfied.
