By Shawn Radcliffe Men's Fitness
Remember the holiday meal when you went back to the buffet table several times? Whether or not you felt hungry later that day might depend upon your memory of the mounds of turkey and potatoes—not how much you actually ate—according to a new study in the journal PLoS One.
Researchers concluded that, just after a large meal, you probably don’t feel very hungry, thanks to signals coming from your stomach and gut. But later, as your body prepares for its next meal, your brain takes over the hunger patrol. At that point, your memory of the last meal becomes important.
To test this, researchers showed people a small or large serving of soup, then secretly manipulated how much they actually ate by using a tube connected to the bottom of the bowl.Regardless of how much soup the participants ate, their hunger 2 to 3 hours after the meal depended on their memory of the size of the meal—that is, what they saw in the bowl initially.
This fits well with previous research that has found that distracted eating (like while watching television or playing video games) can lead you to feel hungrier later on, which could also be the result of not accurately remembering how much you ate.It’s difficult to trick yourself into thinking you are eating more, but you can keep from overeating by being more mindful.
Yes, that means no bucket of chicken during a football game. When you eat, eat—and when you watch football, watch football. After all, won't it just make both more enjoyable?