Monday, December 30, 2013

11 week update

11 week update

Today has been 11 weeks scince I started counting bites October 14th, 2013

 Started October 14, 2013 218.2 lbs

1 week October 21st, 2013 208.4 lbs 78 bites per day average 9.8 lb loss
 2 week October 28, 2013 205.4 lbs 71 bites per day average 3 lb loss
 3 wks November 4, 2013 200 lbs 60 bites per day average 5.4 lb loss
 4 wks November 11, 2013 194.4 lbs 40 bites per day average 5.6 lb loss
 5 wks November 18, 2013 192.2 lbs 36 bites per day average 2.2 lb loss
 6 wks November 25, 2013 191.8 lbs 34 bites per day average .4 lb loss
 7 wks December 2, 2013 185.4 lbs 33 bites per day average 6.4 lb loss
8 wks December  9, 2013 182.2 lbs 23 bites per day average 3.2 lbs loss
9 wks December 16, 2013 176.8 lbs 17 bites per day average 5.4 lbs loss
10 wks December 23, 2013 172.8 lbs 18 bites per day average 4 lbs lost  2.5 miles per day average
11 wks December 30, 2013 171.2 lbs  21 bites per day average 1.6 lbs lost  3.2 miles per day average

 47 lbs lost in 11  wks!!!!!


Here is my diary of how many aprox bites and miles I did this past week:

Monday: 11 bites   3 miles
Tuesday: 10 bites   3 miles
Wednesday: 50 bites 3 miles (Family Christmas)
Thursday: 10 bites  3 miles
Friday: 21 bites 3 miles
Saturday: 10 bites 4 miles
Sunday: 40 bites 4 miles (S day and Hubby took me to a Chinese buffet, Yep I counted bites there too!)

Monday, December 23, 2013

10 week update

10 week update

Today has been 10 weeks scince I started counting bites October 14th, 2013

 Started October 14, 2013 218.2 lbs

1 week October 21st, 2013 208.4 lbs 78 bites per day average 9.8 lb loss
 2 week October 28, 2013 205.4 lbs 71 bites per day average 3 lb loss
 3 wks November 4, 2013 200 lbs 60 bites per day average 5.4 lb loss
 4 wks November 11, 2013 194.4 lbs 40 bites per day average 5.6 lb loss
 5 wks November 18, 2013 192.2 lbs 36 bites per day average 2.2 lb loss
 6 wks November 25, 2013 191.8 lbs 34 bites per day average .4 lb loss
 7 wks December 2, 2013 185.4 lbs 33 bites per day average 6.4 lb loss
8 wks December  9, 2013 182.2 lbs 23 bites per day average 3.2 lbs loss
9 wks December 16, 2013 176.8 lbs 17 bites per day average 5.4 lbs loss
10 wks December 23, 2013 172.8 lbs 18 bites per day average 4 lbs lost  2.5 miles per day average

 45.4 lbs lost in 10  wks!!!!!

Monday, December 16, 2013

9 week update

9 week update

Today has been 9 weeks scince I started counting bites October 14th, 2013

 Started October 14, 2013 218.2 lbs

1 week October 21st, 2013 208.4 lbs 78 bites per day average 9.8 lb loss
 2 week October 28, 2013 205.4 lbs 71 bites per day average 3 lb loss
 3 wks November 4, 2013 200 lbs 60 bites per day average 5.4 lb loss
 4 wks November 11, 2013 194.4 lbs 40 bites per day average 5.6 lb loss
 5 wks November 18, 2013 192.2 lbs 36 bites per day average 2.2 lb loss
 6 wks November 25, 2013 191.8 lbs 34 bites per day average .4 lb loss
 7 wks December 2, 2013 185.4 lbs 33 bites per day average 6.4 lb loss
8 wks December  9, 2013 182.2 lbs 23 bites per day average 3.2 lbs loss
9 wks December 16, 2013 176.8 lbs 17 bites per day average 5.4 lbs loss


41.2 lbs lost in 9 wks!!!!!

Monday, December 9, 2013

8 week update

Today has been 8 weeks scince I started counting bites October 14th, 2013

Started October 14, 2013 218.2 lbs

1 week October 21st, 2013 208.4 lbs 78 bites per day average 9.8 lb loss
2 week October 28, 2013 205.4 lbs 71 bites per day average 3 lb loss
3 wks November 4, 2013 200 lbs 60 bites per day average 5.4 lb loss
4 wks November 11, 2013 194.4 lbs 40 bites per day average 5.6 lb loss
5 wks November 18, 2013 192.2 lbs 36 bites per day average 2.2 lb loss
6 wks November 25, 2013 191.8 lbs 34 bites per day average .4 lb loss
7 wks December 2, 2013 185.4 lbs 33 bites per day average 6.4 lb loss

8 wks December  9, 2013 182.2 lbs 23 bites per day average 3.2 lbs loss


36 lbs lost in 8 wks!!!!!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

"Hunger is never an emergency"

The above quote is one I got from Judith Beck from The Beck Diet Solution book.   At the time I first read the book, it was an eye-opening quote for me. I was free to feel hunger if I needed to! I didn't need to run to the refrigerator the minute I felt a teeny-tiny-might-be-a-hunger-pain!

 Beck recommends Learning to Tolerate Hunger. That's the way thin and slim people naturally do! They don't think of hunger as an emergency! They eat when its convienient OR when the next meal is!  If you fear the feeling of hunger, you might regularly Eat to prevent the feeling of hunger. This is NOT how thin people eat!

If we are going to lose weight,  and keep it off, we have to feel some natural hunger. That's all there is to it!

Quote from Beck Diet Solution

"You definatly don't have to eat when you're hungry. Just because you want to eat doesn't mean you always should"


Beck recommends practicing what she calls Hunger Tolerance, and skipping a meal. She says to write down and  rate how painful it is from 1-10 on a chart in the terms of discomfort. You might be pleasantly surprised, that its not really that painful. Hunger comes in waves, its not constant!


And each time you are hungry and choose not to eat, you are burning fat!

Here is an article that says a little hunger is healthy.

Quote from http://www.shape.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-strategies/why-little-hunger-can-be-healthy

Many of my clients eat on a schedule, which is great, but they’re never really hungry, which is an indication that they’re eating too much. And a little extra food day after day can be what’s causing them to hang onto those unwanted pounds. In other words, even when you’re eating super healthy meals, in the right balance, at the right times, if you’re never hungry you’re probably eating more than your body needs to reach and maintain your ideal weight.

So even calorie-counters don't lose weight very good, if they never feel h unger!!

Learning to appreciate hunger can help you achieve your weight loss goals...

http://lifehacker.com/5878085/learning-to-appreciate-mild-hunger-can-help-you-achieve-your-weight-loss-goals

Embrace Hunger....

Quote from http://fitnessblackbook.com/dieting_for_fat_loss/embrace-hunger-and-hunger-pains-while-dieting/

Allowing Yourself to Get Hungry” is Key to Getting Lean
I don’t believe our bodies were meant to have a never ending supply of constant food. I am not suggesting that you stay hungry all the time, but don’t be so quick to grab food the second you feel hungry. This is your chance to get rid of some of that excessive body fat. Want to really lose some weight quickly? Let yourself get hungry on purpose before doing cardio. This is when you will see visible results quickly.

Remember How Hungry You Got When You Were a Kid?


And finally one of Bob Harpers Skinny Rules is going to bed hungry! Now this comes from one of the nations top fitness experts!


Quote from http://www.rd.com/slideshows/skinny-rules-%E2%80%98biggest-losers-never-break/#slideshow=slide9

Go to Bed Hungry

If you skip that midnight snack, your body will “burn fat like crazy,” Harper writes. After five hours without food, you’ll start burning your own fat and sugar. Further, it may even help you sleep better, since having fewer carbs in your bloodsteam allows your body to produce the hormones it needs to bring on sleep.

Harper admits this can be one of the tougher rules to adopt. Try to set a time after which you won’t eat anymore, and keep yourself distracted with movies, TV, Internet surfing, or whatever it takes.



So try to think of hunger as "no big Deal" When you feel hunger and its not time for your meal learn to say "Oh well, I can eat later"

Feeling hunger can accelerate fat loss. When you tolerate hunger for an hour or a few hours until your next meal, you are essentially burning fat stores. Your body is just pulling a meal from your hips or gut!

Normal people have went weeks without eating for religious or other personal reasons. If we want to change our brains into thinking like THIN people, we need to learn to tolerate and Embrace our hunger. That doesn't mean to never eat! Of course we should eat, but we shouldn't fear hunger, it should be no big deal to feel it for a while!

So try it! Embrace your hunger and never treat it as an emergency! It might just surprise you, the pounds could melt off!


Hunger is never an Emergency!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Eating slowly- a little secret with BIG results!

Eating slowly has been a big factor in helping me lose weight, and mainly just being  Satisfied  with my small amount of food I am eating.

It started a couple of years ago, I found a blog called http://www.oneminutebite.com/ and I started with a simple stopwatch like this



I would start the stopwatch and everytime it turned over a minute, I would take another bite.     Now I wasn't perfect, but I tried to have 5 bites take me 5 minutes  or  10 bites take me 10 minutes ect ect!! You get the idea!


That worked for a cheap option, but I got a little more fancy now a days with my iphone and I got the 99 cent app Eat Slower Pro, which I mentioned in a previous post.  There is also a free one for iphone and android phone called Eat Slower...



This is the free one


You can also use a free (exercise)interval timer app  on the ophone or other phones


I have found One Minute to be the ideal time between putting one bite to another in my mouth. You can set it anything you want,  if its slower than you have been eating, that's progress! 

Another thing I have noticed is that it has  taken me sometimes as long  or longer as my family  or nearly so to eat my measly little bites. This alone helps one to feel more satisfied. 

This especially helps those who have a problem with binge eating! If you tell yourself you have to eat each bite only once per minute, after while it doesn't become so fun to binge anymore. It actually becomes easy to STOP binging, a it becomes boring to sit there and eat!

Eating Slowly has been proven to help people lose weight! I recommend combining eating slower with bite counting, but even if you only start by  eating each of your bites with a minute between, I can almost guarantee you that you will lose weight.   You might say, no way, I would just keep on eating, but eating slower makes it way easier to stop eating.  When people binge or overeat, they tend to SHOVEL food into their mouth.


Eating slowly helps you savor your food. I don't nessesarily chew a long time or anything, but just pausing between bites makes a difference in how you enjoy what you are actually eating!

Eating Slowly helps you realize when you are full. Sometimes only a couple bites is all it takes to feel full when you have shrunk your stomach


Here are some quotes about some studies on eating slower


Recent research presented at a meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity showed that overweight men and women took in fewer calories when they slowed their normal eating pace. And a recent Japanese study involving 1,700 young women concluded that eating more slowly resulted in feeling full sooner, and thus eating fewer calories at mealtime.


Stretch receptors in the stomach are activated as it fills with food or water; these signal the brain directly through the vagus nerve that connects gut and brainstem. Hormonal signals are released as partially digested food enters the small intestine. One example is cholecystokinin (CCK), released by the intestines in response to food consumed during a meal. Another hormone, leptin, produced by fat cells, is an adiposity signal that communicates with the brain about long-range needs and satiety, based on the body’s energy stores. Research suggests that leptin amplifies the CCK signals, to enhance the feeling of fullness. Other research suggests that leptin also interacts with the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain to produce a feeling of pleasure after eating. The theory is that, by eating too quickly, people may not give this intricate hormonal cross-talk system enough time to work.


People who eat slowly tend to consume fewer calories and weigh less than those who eat quickly, research shows. Slower eaters also report enjoying their food more and having greater satiety.
It's believed that slower eating allows fullness and enjoyment to register in the brain before too much food is consumed, Melanson says


So try eating slower and see if you are not more satisfied and lose more weight!
A question someone could ask me is, how do you eat one minute per bite while away?  The Eat slower app mentioned above has a vibration option. I Just simply place in my lap and start it and it vibrates each time I should take a bite. I put it in my lap when I feel too conspictious away from home. I Have nothing to do with the companies or sales of the above metioned apps, just my personal experience
If you try eating slower, share your results in the comments below!




Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Intermittent Fasting and tracking bites over long term

Intermittent fasting has accelerated my results! I just recently went to a 5 hour eating window of only eating between the hours of 2 PM and 7 PM everyday.  I eat 3 meals in this time frame, usually around 2 PM, 4 PM, and 6 PM or so.

If you google Fast-5 there is a lot of info out there about it, and you can read the free book here

www.fastfive.org/sites/default/files/Fast-5-ebook100.pdf

I count my bites and set a goal amount for each of my 3 meals. I usually stick to that pretty close.

I downloaded a new app last night on my iphone! Its called Daily Tracker and I can track my average daily or weekly  bites over a 2 year period, it has many graphs, bars, lines, ect!! It will be nice to see my progress over the long term.  Much much easier than calorie or point counting, I can track my bites in under 30 seconds a day! Studies show that documenting/tracking your food helps you lose more weight!

 
 
Nope I have nothing to do with the sale of this app, just  my personal review!


So far the benefits of Fast-5 (along with bite counting) have been

-taking my wild desire to eat constantly from 200% down to 10% or less

-cravings have almost disappeared!

-helping me to avoid the side effects of tapering from depression medicine...less side effects!

-improved mood, and energy at times

-accelerated weight loss!

-belly fat is leaving

-don't have to worry about eating hardly at all...just a few hours a day. And wh en its time to eat, I don't have to agonize over how much to eat or when to eat, its mostly just on habit!  Counting bites and eating at set times during the day pretty much takes care of that!

- more clear mind

-and its just really good for us not to be eating all the time!

Monday, December 2, 2013

7 week update

Here are my stats thus far for 7 weeks today!!!!!!

Started October 14, 2013 218.2 lbs

1 week October 21st, 2013 208.4 lbs 78 bites per day average 9.8 lb loss
2 week October 28, 2013 205.4 lbs 71 bites per day average 3 lb loss
3 wks November 4, 2013 200 lbs 60 bites per day average 5.4 lb loss
4 wks November 11, 2013 194.4 lbs 40 bites per day average 5.6 lb loss
5 wks November 18, 2013 192.2 lbs 36 bites per day average 2.2 lb loss
6 wks November 25, 2013 191.8 lbs 34 bites per day average .4 lb loss
7 wks December 2, 2013 185.4 lbs 33 bites per day average 6.4 lb loss



This past week I  started eating peanut butter 3x a day some days, I also fasted more hours on Saturday.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

A bite of Peanut butter

Yep, Ive been taking about 1/2 Tablespoon peanut butter with each of my  meals, and it really makes a difference, about  3 bites peanut butter per day--- 1 1/2 Tablespoons. Not much, but it makes a difference!  Im not as hungry between meals, I feel more satisfied!!

Did you know that peanut butter is proven in studies to help people lose and maintain weight? Its because it quells cravings, and helps the body to feel satisfied and full for a longer period of time than normal. People actually eat less calories  without even trying when they ingest peanut butter. But all you need is just a bit, don't overdo it!

Check out these documents here that explain more about Peanut butter and wieght loss
http://www.peanut-institute.org/resources/downloads/fft_v8i3.pdf

http://www.peanut-institute.org/resources/downloads/fft_v7i1.pdf





Quote from http://scientificteaching.wisc.edu/old%20website/products/PeanutFiles/library/peanuts/peanutbutterdiet.htm

But the best news was yet to come, especially for all those health-conscious peanut butter lovers whose biggest question was "If I eat more peanut butter, won't I pack on pounds?" The amazing answer turned out to be "Not necessarily!"
In fact, research conducted over the past few years suggests that going back to peanut butter may actually take off unwanted pounds more easily than following a standard low-fat eating plan. In one revealing experiment, almost three times as many peanut butter dieters as low-fat dieters managed to maintain their weight loss over an 18-month period.


The principle of weight Maintenance is very important in this journey of losing weight and keeping it off in the long term!



Peanut butter increases the hormone PYY which produces feelings of satiety and fullness.  There is a reduced desire to eat for 12 hours after eating peanuts or peanut butter! 

This wonderful side effect of eating a small bit of peanut butter helps people stay on their eating plan for the long term!

Quote from http://www.peanutvan.com.au/losing-weight-with-peanuts.php


The Secret of Successful Dieting

According to research at Harvard Medical School and Brigham Women's Hospital in Boston, almost three times as many people were able to follow a higher-fat diet that included peanuts and peanut butter during an 18-month weight loss study.

101 overweight men and women were assigned to either a low fat diet or a higher monounsaturated fat "Mediterranean Style" diet. The study found that participants on the latter diet lost more weight and were able to stay with the program. These findings are consistent with a study at Purdue University, which showed that snacks of peanuts and peanut butter produced more eating satisfaction and feelings of fullness than other high-carbohydrate snacks such as rice cakes. Study participants who were fed peanut snacks didn't feel the need to add additional kilojules to their daily diets to attack hunger.




UPDATE: I now do 1 bite of Peanut butter = about 1 Tablespoon or so.  


So include 1  bite of peanut butter or more  at each meal, and see if you don't notice a difference!

Friday, November 29, 2013

Shift your bites

Did you know that shifting your bites helps you stay on plan during times like the holidays--Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Years?

These holidays are harder for people to stay on track. Make yourself a goal amount of bites to eat for that special day you are celebrating.

For example, if you are normally on 30 bites a day, allow  yourself 60 bites. This is 100 times better to Set Yourself Up for Success!! By this I mean, make a goal amount of bites you can stick to, and that you will feel like gives you some wiggle room to enjoy a bit more food than you normally eat.

The other option that might happen is if you try to limit yourself to 30 bites on Thanksgiving or Christmas, it could be an invitation to just throw up your hands and binge!

 But by giving yourself more bites, you are still setting a limit, and, more chance than not, probably eating less food than you normally would have before you started counting your bites

I know this is true for me! An Unlimited Binge is completely different than allowing yourself a place to stop. When you get to your bite limit on that once in a blue moon holiday, you are done!


Be picky on what days you allow yourself more bites. Save it for extra special occasions!  Don't do it too often, or you will not be successful in losing/maintaining weight.

I have found that by allowing more bites on special occasions, it helps me to stay on track  better with meeting my weight loss goals!

So much better to meet the goal you set for yourself over those special days, then it is to  set a goal amount of bites that is too stringent, and end up binging!

Always, Always, Always Set yourself Up for Success!!!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Hapifork

There is another way to count bites out there called a hapifork. It is more expensive but its an option for counting bites!  You can set it to "train" your bites to be further and further apart and it has graphs and stats for how many "forkfuls" and how many seconds between bites, for the day, week, month, year years! I think the stastics would be handy, if you are very very gradually cutting back on bites and very gradually eating slower.




 
 
 
 








I haven't decided whether to get a hapifork or not. Its 99 dollars or so, and the 99 cents app I have does a lot of the same things! I just wish the app had more long term stats, longer than 90 days!


 

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Bites update

Ive almost been bite counting for 6 weeks now!

So here is my stats thus far:


Started October 14, 2013                            218.2 lbs

1 week    October 21st, 2013    208.4 lbs    78 bites per day average 9.8 lb loss
2 week    October 28,   2013     205.4 lbs   71 bites per day average  3 lb loss
3 wks November    4,  2013      200 lbs      60 bites per day average  5.4 lb loss
4 wks November    11, 2013      194.4 lbs  40 bites per day average  5.6 lb loss
5 wks November    18, 2013      192.2 lbs   36 bites per day average 2.2 lb loss


So that's my stastics! As you can see, the loss has slowed down significantly, but close to 30 lbs in 6 weeks!!!!!!!!!

Friday, November 22, 2013

Your stomach Shrinks!

Yep, when you count bites and gradually cut down, your stomach shrinks.  Its a proven fact.  Ive noticed many times when losing weight, I tend to get full on only a few bites compared to when I would binge and have a never ending hole to fill!

Quote http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/health/22real.html?_r=0


In one study, for example, scientists recruited a small group of obese men and women and split them into two groups: one that ate freely, and another that was put on a highly restricted diet that included small meals totaling less than 1,000 calories a day. The scientists used latex balloons to measure stomach capacity at the start of the study, and then four weeks later.
Among the dieters, gastric capacity was reduced 27 percent to 36 percent, on average, depending on how it was measured. There was no significant change in the control group

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8561056?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=1


And as your stomach shrinks, your eating hormone levels also change: leptin, ghrelin, ect, and this makes us want less food, and be satisfied with less.  Dr. Alwin Lewis talks about something similar to this called the Hungerstat.

Read all about the Hungerstat here in this article, it explains it...

http://ezinearticles.com/?Explaining-the-Hungerstat---Read-This-Before-Considering-a-Gastric-Bypass&id=4730702

In a sense, you can get your stomach "stapled" without gastric bypass. Just stay strict to eating a small amount of food/bites for  14 days+ and you will have yourself a new little pouch that will feel full on just a few bites--much less than you used to take!

In the same way, your stomach gradually stretches out again, if you take back to overeating. It even happens to people who have gastric bypass!

Who wants a small stomach? Me!!

Thursday, November 21, 2013

What do I use to count bites with?

Ive tried it and it doesn't work very good--counting bites in my head--that is!! I get confused. Was I on bite number 4 or 5? Maybe it was 6! LOL!! It gets confusing fast to try to count bites in your head!

If you are only counting a few at a time (such as 3-5) it may work to count in your head, but much past that and it doesn't seem to work very well.

There are several ways to keep track of how many bites you  have taken.

 When I first started bite counting a few years ago, I started out with a simple Golf counter  like this from amazon. Its really cheap...only 1.85 on amazon right now.

Its actually what Dr. Black from the Family Circle article recommends. (see first post in this blog)

So if you want to go the simple, cheap route, this works well! Just press the plunger every time you take a bite. I usually reset it at each meal and kept track of how many bites I ate for each meal and the whole day on paper or something.


The second way you can keep track of bites is even cheaper, but I think it would be more hassle! It is using a pencil pen and paper.  You simply make a mark each time you take a bite

I learned about it from a video on vimeo, from the one of the founders of 80 bites, and a women who lost ALOT of weight counting her bites. You can find the link here to watch the video, its also a great testimonial how good counting bites works

http://vimeo.com/17651939

This women lost 220 lbs counting her bites! Talk about a testimonial!


The 3rd way you can do it is a free tally counter app on your phone


The 4th and 5th way to count bites is 2 different apps for iphone/ android

I use Eat Slower Pro app, and its what I highly recommend. I can count my bites, eat slowly, and see how many bites Ive ate at this meal, and for the total day at a glance. It only cost 99 cents, so for you iphone users out there, I think it is so worth it!  I have mine set to 1 minute between bites and that helps me eat slow too, which is very important in the process of feeling  satisfied with less food, and less bites.



And it also shows you your average bites for the last 90 days which so encouraging as you can see your count gradually go down!




The 5th way that I know of is the 80 bites app, which I have on my phone, but I  don't use this one

80 bites has an android and an iphone app so that is an option for the android users!












Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The world is waking up to bite counting

Slowly but surely bite counting as a way to lose weight and control wieght  is becoming more known. I found a study that just came out in November 2013 studying people counting bites.

 Quote from

http://www.andjrnl.org/article/S2212-2672%2813%2901425-1/abstract

Abstract 

The obesity epidemic has triggered a need for novel methods for measuring eating activity in free-living settings. Here, we introduce a bite-count method that has the potential to be used in long-term investigations of eating activity. The purpose of our observational study was to describe the relationship between bite count and energy intake and determine whether there are sex and body mass index group differences in kilocalories per bite in free-living human beings. From October 2011 to February 2012, 77 participants used a wrist-worn device for 2 weeks to measure bite count during 2,975 eating activities. An automated self-administered 24-hour recall was completed daily to provide kilocalorie estimates for each eating activity. Pearson's correlation indicated a moderate, positive correlation between bite count and kilocalories (r=0.44; P<0.001) across all 2,975 eating activities. The average per-individual correlation was 0.53. A 2 (sex)×3 (body mass index group: normal, overweight, obese) analysis of variance indicated that men consumed 6 kcal more per bite than women on average. However, there were no body mass index group differences in kilocalories per bite. This was the longest study of a body-worn sensor for monitoring eating activity of free-living human beings to date, which highlights the strong potential for this method to be used in future, long-term investigations.


Here is another study which is really really awesome

 Quote from http://www1.umn.edu/news/features/2012/UR_CONTENT_420354.html

In the study, when people with low self-control were given a counter to monitor the number of times they swallowed, they satiated at rates similar to people with high self-control.

Attention to unhealthy food intake can lead to faster satiation
Of all the dieting aids a person could imagine, a baseball pitch counter might be the least likely.

But using a counting device to monitor the intake of unhealthy food can actually help people become satiated on that food more quickly, according to new research by the University of Minnesota’s Joe Redden.

Redden is an assistant professor of marketing in the Carlson School of Management and an expert on the topic of satiation. In the business sense, satiation occurs when “as we repeatedly consume something, we tend to like it less,” Redden says.

Satiation can pose a challenge for marketers in that people don’t enjoy their favorite things—be they products or television shows—indefinitely. But it also serves a very useful purpose when it comes to eating; that is, when a person is satiated, it’s a mechanism to stop eating.

Not all about willpower


Redden’s research gets at the intersection of self-control, desire, and attention. Conventional wisdom says that self-control is largely rooted in willpower, he says, but this research suggests that declining desire plays a key role.  

In the study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, volunteers were grouped into two categories: those who tested as having high self-control and those with low self-control. The researchers then had them use a counter (similar to those used by baseball coaches to monitor their pitchers) to keep track of how many times they swallowed, with an eye toward unhealthy food.

“When we asked people to do that, for high self-control people it didn’t make much difference, because they’re already doing a good job of that themselves; they have their own internal pitch counter,” Redden says. But for people with low self-control, “when you give them this counter … they now satiated like the high self-control people.”

He says the difference is in the “regulation of attention,” and it’s not just about sheer willpower. And paying more attention to what a person is eating is really not that hard to do.

As for healthy foods, pay no attention


Here’s another reason to be jealous of your friends who eat the healthiest. When it comes to eating the really good stuff—the carrots and leafy greens and broccoli—they tend to satiate less quickly.

“It’s kind of a double whammy,” Redden says. “They get tired of the bad stuff faster and they stay interested in the healthy stuff longer.

“The reason is that they’re switching their attention based on the food, whereas with low self-control people, they kind of pay the same attention no matter what it is.”

Here’s where it gets tricky, especially for people with lower self-control. When using the counters, they also tended to satiate more quickly when eating healthy food, which is not the desired outcome.

As Redden says, “You don’t want to pay attention to the healthy stuff. You want to eat carrots while you watch TV; that’s a good thing.”

The bottom line: It’s when you’re eating the decadent cheesecake that you need to be much more attentive.

“This attention to how much you’re having, it’s [like] a button,” says Redden. “When that button gets pushed, you satiate faster.”





        Quote from
         http://www.discovergoodnutrition.com/2011/10/the-bite-counter-a-new-tool-for-weight-loss/
Something else the bite counter doesn’t do is track calories – yet.  But the scientists say they are working on a formula – similar to those used on exercise equipment – to provide an estimate for how many calories you’re eating.  And while they recognize that foods vary in terms of their ‘calories per bite’, the researchers have found that in a typical meal, bites average between 20 and 25 calories.  But that assumes that people are eating pretty much the same foods day in and day out

Quote from
          http://www.parl.clemson.edu/~ahoover/bite-counter/
   
        Bites as a measure
Isn't a bite of carrots different from a bite of candy? Of course. But nobody gains or loses weight in a single bite, or even a single meal. A common guideline is to lose a pound of weight per week. Our hypothesis is that bite count could serve as a surrogate for calorie count over a period of time. By automating the counting process, and enabling it anywhere, any time, the bite counter can empower individuals to better monitor intake. As with calories, it is possible to count bites for a single meal; but with either measure reduction goals are best evaluated over at least a day. Bite goals, like calorie goals, should be custom set to the individual. This would be based not only upon the size, gender, age, and activity level of the person, but also based upon the foods typically eaten. For example, a vegetarian may have a higher bite count per day than someone who regularly eats more energy-dense foods. In addition, people tend to eat the same foods week to week. Therefore, setting bite reduction goals over a period of time has the same effect as setting calorie reduction goals.



quote from http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2012/12/05/Counting-bites-may-help-to-lose-weight/UPI-43931354685534/


Volunteers were grouped into two categories: those who tested as having high self-control and those with low self-control.
The researchers had the study subjects use a counter -- similar to those used by baseball coaches to monitor their pitchers -- to keep track of how many times they swallowed.
"For people with high self-control people it didn't make much difference, because they're already doing a good job of that themselves; they have their own internal pitch counter," Redden said in a statement. But for people with low self-control, "when you give them this counter ... they now satiated like the high self-control people."
The findings were published in the Journal of Consumer Research.




My thoughts...

People tend to eat the same foods week to week!!!! And they are saying that Bite Reduction goals Over a Period of Time has the same effect as calorie reduction. AND ITS MUCH MUCH EASIER!!!




Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Adjusting your bite count


My moving average has dropped to about 3 lbs a week loss according to happy scale. I don't want to lose any less than 3 lbs a week. Here are quotes from the article in my first post on this blog....



The bite diet is intended to achieve moderate changes of two to five pounds a week, but, more important to set a lifelong pattern of eating that will maintain these changes.



No Matter what you eat, if your chart shows no weight loss, you simply have to take fewer bites.



-- Continue to keep your tally sheet with weight, date, and bites per day, reducing or adjusting your bite count till you have the right number to lose weight at the rate you want.



Adjusting my bite count....So obviously my weight has slowed quite a bite. I figured that might happen, and it is simply time to lower that bite count per day again. My body has lost 26 lbs now, and it doesn't need as many calories as it did!

Back when I have lost weight successfully in the past with Intuitive Eating, I often counted bites, and when I was losing good, my bite count was as low as around 20 or so. So I know that this is normal for my body to only want a tiny amount of food while losing steadily.



So here are my stats for around 30 bites a day for last week (60 bites allowed on Sunday)


November 11, 2013 194.4 lbs
November 18, 2013 192.2 lbs

So only a 2.2 lb loss. Which is still good, but drastically getting slower! so I  have went down to 20 bites a day this week.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

One month counting bites

Today marks my first month counting bites.

Starting weight                           218.2
Today November 14, 2013        193.4   

That is 24.8 lb lost

I started out with 80 bites, then 70, then 60, then 50, then my weight loss slowed so I dropped to 30 bites a day, and that is what I am doing now.



I am not expecting to lose 25 lbs next month!

Habit is king, habits stacked up equals success!

Monday, November 11, 2013

30 bites a day

Ive been doing around 30 bites a day now for almost 5 days.  One day I did 35 bites.


In the last week I have lost


November 4th  200 lbs
November 11th 194.4 lbs


5.6 lbs lost


I like that rate of weight loss. Im sure I will have to go below 30 bites to continue going that fast, but for now that's what is working.

Question:
How big are your bites?

My bites are on average normal sized. Not piled high  normally and not just a teaspoon either. I would say a rounded Tablespoon on average. 

When I first started I would stuff my mouth sometimes and count that as a bite, but now I know I wont lose weight if I do that! So more normal sized bites it is!

Friday, November 8, 2013

The Ultimate 21st Century Diet 25 bites by Jay Bysinger review

I got  this in the mail today.  It is similar to all the other bite plans out there, but he recomends 25 bites Breakfast, Lunch and Supper. He also counts  some high calorie food as 2 bites per bite. So that seems a bit confusing to me. Anyway, it still is confirmation that counting bites works for other people. It  is legitamite, unlike some other poeple think!

Counting bites is also very free-ing for those of us, who need some kind of a marker or limit for portion control, and yet its not time-consuming like point counting and calorie counting is.

Also, Ive did intuitive eating before and I would argue with myself ALOT whether I was "truly" hungry? Or whether I was "truly" full?  With the bite plan, there is a clear place to stop. When the alotted bites are up, your done..... Thats it.   to go over your bites means you have to make the choice to deal with whatever consequences comes with eating over your bite limit.

And with hunger, I was always focusing on it, looking for it,ect ALL DAY LONG. Now hunger comes naturally alot, I dont have to obssess!

Its so easy, Im actually thinking LESS about food and eating than I was when I was doing the wait unitl your hungry, then eat until your full method before. Sure, it worked, but it took alot more mental arguing with myself and stuff.

I also set meals for myself eating only 3 times per day, that also takes alot of arguing whether or when I should eat. If its not meal time, I dont need to eat!


Wednesday, November 6, 2013

The bite diet by Rob Moon

I just got this book last night and read through it. .

 He recommends 4 bites 6x a day, he says this is how he lost weight when he got a gastric sleeve.

 He says if he would just have done this diet, instead of getting the surgery, he would have never had to have the surgery in the first place.


Just more testimonial that counting bites and eating very very small portions is better than surgery.

If you can reset your hungerstat,  by eating small portions your stomach shrinks and those cravings for eating  huge amounts of food start to disappear!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

More info on bite counting

More information about Bite counting today.  A good place to start is 80 bites per day. Do that for a week or two and see what it does for you, then start taking 5-10 bites away at a time, as needed to continue losing weight at the pace you want to.

For example, here is how my bite journey has gone so far

I started at 80 bites per day. (sundays are always 80 bites or less  allowed for me) I wasnt perfect  but for the most part have stayed on my bite number everyday



80 bites starting weight 218.2   
70 bites week 2             208.4
60 bites week 3             205.4
50 bites week 4             200



Here are some good information sources about counting bites to lose weight


1.  Why Weight Around?   by Alwin Lewis

http://www.amazon.com/Weight-Around-Changing-Loss-Strategy/dp/0615148077/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383678005&sr=8-1&keywords=why+weight+around

Dr Lewis recommends 10 bites per day, and some would consider this extreme, although it does produce fast weight loss, he says if you cant do 10 bites per day you can try some other bite number.  For example 10 bites 3x a day and so on



2. The Bite Diet  by Rob Moon

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bite-Diet-Small-Portions-ebook/dp/B00ARV8SO2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383678175&sr=8-1&keywords=bite+diet+rob+moon



3. The Ultimate 21st Century Diet:  25 bites  by Jay Bysinger

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1606042327/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1








4. 80 bites system and app

http://80bites.com/          http://80bites.com/app 



5. Eat slower app and Eat slower pro app

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eat-slower/id417232926?mt=8

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eat-slower-pro!/id470583771?mt=8


I really like the Eat slower pro app, it keeps track of total bites for
day, and bites per day over 90 day period, showing a graph, you can see your bites gradually go down.  No, I have nothing to do with the sale of any apps or books on this page, just providing info for anyone who wants more information for the bite counting system.

Eating slower (one minute per bite or so) really helps you be satisfied with less bite and corolates well with the bite system. I can inhale 18 bites in 5 minutes OR I can use the app and eat 18 bites in about 18 minutes, feeling much more satisfied with my small portion!

6. G-bites  diet plan   A lady lost alot of weight and helps others lose weight counting their bites.

The first link is her story, the second link her plan

http://gbites.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/G-Bites_Memior_2_Revised.5171052.pdf

http://gbites.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/gbites_menu_2.10184227.pdf

7. A man who ate about 8-10 bites per meal or so after gastric bypass surgery. This is his blog post where he talks about portion control and bites per meal

http://eightbites.blogspot.com/2010/02/more-than-eight-bites_27.html