Whether you’re at your computer chomping on a bag of pretzels or watching television shoveling spoonful after spoonful of ice cream into your mouth, mindless munching is one surefire way to pack on the pounds. In fact, just mindlessly eating 100 calories a day, the equivalent of a large apple or a palmful of almonds, can lead to gaining up to 10 pounds in a year.

To prevent this mindless eating weight gain, put into practice these five ways to beat unintentional extra calories.

1. Never get too hungry. The more powerful your stomach growls, the more likely you are to ravenously consume a surge of calories before your body and brain can register that you’ve had enough. Therefore, aim to eat every three to four hours with meals and snacks comprised of healthy carbs, good fats and a lean protein.

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As you might suspect, if children play videos games to excess, they may be more apt to being overweight. The logical conclusion would be that it’s because they are sitting on their keesters and not outside breaking a sweat in the front yard with their friends.

While that might be true to some extent, the focus of new research is on what they put in their mouth while they are in the midst of their video game playing. According to new research, adolescent boys will eat more when they are playing video games, even if they aren’t hungry- the definition of mindless eating.

The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, makes a direct link between kids’ gaming habits and overeating.

Lead researcher Dr. Jean-Philippe Chaput of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa, Canada and his colleagues had 22 normal-weight teenage boys play video games for an hour. They also had some kids just sit for an hour. In each situation, they watched the children eat their lunch.
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Most of us do it: eat a quick lunch while we attempt to catch up on the day’s work. While you may be doing your boss proud, it may also have some negative repercussions on how much you eat.

According to a small study, people who eat a meal in front of the computer may eat more dessert than those who eat their meal in a more traditional manner.

In the study of 44 men and women, the participants who played video games during lunch ended up eating more cookies than the others 30 minutes after their meal. The researchers attribute this to computer users having a foggier memory of their meal, which lead to them feeling less full.

The researchers found that those in the computer group ate roughly 250 calories worth of cookies 30 minutes after the meal. On the other hand, the other group ate only about half as many calories.
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Brian Wansink, author of the bestselling book “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think,” has been hired to help improve school lunches. Wansink, former director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion and director of the food and brand lab at Cornell University, has long been successful at getting people to make healthier choices. His book focuses on how people make hundreds of decisions each day about food. His belief that people make different food choices based upon their environment has recently been put to trial in Wichita cafeterias and will be slowly moving nationwide.
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Josie Maurer is a freelance writer and founder of YumYucky.com. She lost over 40 pounds after the birth of her fourth child through sensible eating and exercise, yet she still maintains her love for large slices of cake.

Watch out for that party food! Are you hungry for dining out? When it’s time to enjoy a happy food extravaganza, it can be hard to stay on course with healthy eating. Restaurants do not typically post nutrition numbers on their menus, and dinner parties are a haven for delicious hors d’oeuvres as the thirsty cocktails flow. But how can you enjoy the eating bliss from an occasional night out without that bloated, guilty feeling as try to burn the fat?

Healthy eating plays a major role in your weight loss results. Moderation is important, too, but you should also give yourself some wiggle room to delight in all kinds of delicacies, especially given the opportunity to enjoy a special eating occasion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shares this same philosophy. In a January 2009 article published on the CDC website, they state: “Healthy eating is all about balance. You can enjoy your favorite foods even if they are high in calories, fat or added sugars. The key is eating them only once in a while and balance them out with healthier foods and more physical activity.”

You can savor the tasty moments of a food event and still achieve your fitness goals. Eating like a bird is not required. So how do you do it?
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