Friends can be your worst enemy when it comes to trying to keep control of your waistline. Even if they aren’t overtly using peer pressure to coax you into eating unhealthily, they can be doing so through their own actions.
Most of us know them: people who can eat and eat and not gain an ounce. That fraternity gets a little smaller after 30 when everyone’s metabolism begins to slow. But, while they still maintain this seemingly impossible dietary feat, they do so at the expense of the rest of us.
That’s because according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, thin friends who eat a lot may unwittingly make you eat more in the process. Call it subliminal peer pressure.
How come someone hasn’t thought of this diet tool before? TwoFoods is a free website application that allows you to compare two foods at once to determine which one better fits into your eating plan.
For instance, you can compare a McDonald’s grilled chicken salad to Panera’s grilled chicken Caesar salad, to find that the McDonald’s version is a better choice; or you can compare generic potato chips against Baked Lays and receive a complete nutritional analysis of calories, fat, carbs and protein grams.
One of the biggest keys to weight loss success is facing the reality of an accurate serving size. Let’s take this morning’s breakfast of cereal as a prime example, shall we? If you are anything like me, I stumble into the kitchen, blearily grab a box of cereal and a bowl, and dump the cereal into the bowl. I fill it most of the way full, and then add milk. I sit down and eat, not paying much attention until I get to the bottom of the bowl. Zzzzzz…
What’s the problem in this scenario? (Other than the fact that I’m eating while just about asleep, that is…) The almost certain culprit would be the way that I poured the cereal. Free form, loose and flowing are great things for art work, but they really play havoc on your diet. Flip that cereal box around, see where it say SERVING SIZE? Yeah, those words are actually there for a reason, not just as pretty filler for white space.
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