Does Eating More Slowly Make You Lose Weight?

We've been encouraged to put our forks down between bites.  To chew more slowly.  To intersperse our eating with sips of water, all to make the food seem like more so we eat less.

Now a disappointing new study has found that, while eating slowly does reduce hunger, it has does nothing to reduce the amount of calories we take in.   According to medicalnewstoday, eating slowly just makes us less hungry when we're done.  It looks like we eat the same.

The Web site reports that a study done at Texas Christian University found that those who ate like someone was going to take the food away consumed just as many calories as those who took their time.  But the second group stayed full longer.

Both groups also demonstrated a higher water consumption throughout the slow-eating condition, with 12 ounces of water consumed, compared with 9 ounces throughout the fast-eating condition. Interestingly, the slow eaters' high consumption of water "may have caused stomach distention in the participants and therefore may have affected the level of food consumption."

Both those at a healthy weight and others who were overweight or obese were studied.  When analyzing the participants' calorie intake, the researchers found that only the subjects of a healthy weight saw a reduction in calorie intake after consuming the meal in the slow-eating condition. The obese/overweight group ate 58 calories less, while the normal weight group ate 88 calories less.

So does eating slow make you lose more weight?  Sadly, no.  But it might make you enjoy your meal more.