Plan Ahead to Lose Weight

Eating in a cafeteria

There’s nothing worse for a diet than impulsive eating decisions. These often happen when we tired, agitated, or simply hungry. That’s why it makes sense to make food decisions when we are relaxed and satiated.

A group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon University conducted a series of field studies in an employee cafeteria and college campus to prove this point. People were given the option to order their meal in advance or when they got to the cafeteria for lunch. When lunch was ordered several hours in advance, there was a 100 calorie (10%) reduction compared to ordering in real time.

You can take this logic to every meal during the day. If you prepped in advance and all you have to do is heat your food when you get home, there is less of a chance that you’ll order takeaway or go out for dinner.

Do you plan your meals in advance?

Source: VanEpps, et al – Advance Ordering for Healthier Eating? Field Experiments on the Relationship Between the Meal Order–Consumption Time Delay and Meal Content – Journal of Marketing Research, June 2016

Feature courtesy of Fooducate

We’ve also looked at this before and it’s worth re-visiting some of the tactics and advice in these features too:

Why not set a realistic plan and focus on 4 areas that can make a real difference? (see here)

If you’re pushed for a meal this Monday why not consider a rotisserie chicken from the deli counter? Might just save the diet from disaster (see ideas here)