Food: Dream Big, Eat Less

Does this apply to guys also or only to girls? Kind of absurd to make this a gender-based study.

I wonder if this is related to food diaries boosting weight-loss? I suspect that remembering what was eaten earlier in the day helps keep people accountable ... eg. if you had a big lunch and recall it in detail, you're going to re-think having a post-dinner ice-cream...

Like FitFriend, though, I'm not sure why this would only apply "if you're a woman"! (Maybe women are more likely to worry or feel guilty about "eating too much"?)

Good one! It's true! You see the guilt syndrome sits in if you think about all that you ate last and women will try to compensate by eating less at the next meal.

This goes along with a previous post saying that people with food logs are more likely lose weight. (http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2008/07/09/proof_food_journals_double_weight_loss.php)

Since when did eating become such a guilty action? We can't even look at what we eat without feeling bad anymore.

I find this an interesting subject. And agree with FitFriend as to why this would be a gender based study.

I'm not exactly following why it would be guilt "it doesn't state that they overate at the last meal - or even that they made bad food choices.

The study also does not indicate if the subjects were prone to snacking in the first place.

I am a fan of journaling as most successful dieters do journal - Not sure if this was the basis of the test though.

Gerry: lol. Great dating strategy.

I wish they had studied if this applies to males, too, because I could save A LOT on my grocery bills. My man is a human garbage disposal.

Maybe the key here is "descriptive". A lot of food ads (especially those targeted towards women) show a woman guiltily eating a piece of "decadent, rich, buttery chocolate-ganache-covered cake that's SO sinful" or whatever. I guess it kind of makes sense that if you go back and describe your last meal with delicious-sounding words, you automatically associate those words with a guilt-laden food and you don't feel as entitled to eat something good later that day.

I'm with FitFiend, that I'd like to see the effects on both males and females. I'm curious as to whether remembering previous meals decreases the amount of snacks eaten because of the guilt factor or if it is for some other reason.

I suspect that there is a lot more to this then accountability and guilt. The connection between conscious thought and physiological reactions is not well understood, but it’s clear that a connection does exist. It is possible to trigger your body into a ‘requires food’ reaction. (That is, to give the appearance of hunger or other triggers that affect how much people are likely to eat.) The same thing works the other way, by having vivid, descriptive recollections of your last meal; your body can be triggered to not give out those same signals.

I don't write but I remember and whenever I take something for a meal, I will always choose either to take a snack or a complete meal. Normally, I'll go for the former as it's handy and I simply like nibbling on them while I'm doing something. *LoL*

My snacking indulgence even made me wrote a post bout it.
www.akirasabine.blogspot.com/2008/03/for-sake-of-satisfaction.html

There's an amazing "diet" in fitness magazine this month that lets you have adessert a day. at first I thought, ha! LOL but I am convinced it a treat every day is the way to go. It's AUGUST issue of FITNESS mag. with Daisy Fuentes on the cover