Why Chopsticks might be your new weight-loss tool

I just ate a meal with chopsticks.

Why?

Mainly because it was sushi and that is just what you do with sushi.

But as I was using extra brain power to get the choptsticks placed just right in my fingers and using precise aim to pick up each piece of sushi, I realized something…

The total duration of my meal time was extended substantially because of the meticulousness required of chopsticks to accomplish each bite of food.

So What?

Well, total meal duration matters when it comes to weight loss. That is because it takes about 20 minutes for your gut to signal to your brain that you are full.

Ever eat out somewhere with friends and you are talking so much during the meal that you take 2 minutes in between each bite of food? Then you look down and a quarter of your plate is left and you are no longer hungry?

“To-go Box please!”

Oppositely, do you ever sit down for a meal at work or on the way to work and you are in such a hurry that you scarf everything down in the matter of 10 minutes only to be left with a feeling that you ate too much? That’s because you did not give your body enough time to register its fullness cues and you ended up overeating.

That equates to extra calories that your body did not necessarily need or crave but because you were in a hurry you forced your body to consume the extra calories. Do that on a long enough time frame and weight gain will occur.

What’s more is that chopsticks also force you to take smaller bites due to the nature of the loading capacity of chopsticks.

That means you are able to chew more effectively leading to more optimally digested food chunks and a happy, satisfied gut.

If you are someone that is prone to constant heart burn, indigestion, bloating, and gas, then chewing your food more and taking smaller bites may be a helpful practice for you.

The Key Takeaways:

Chopsticks Slow down your meal time leading to a higher sense of meal satisfaction despite less overall consumption of food.

This spanned across multiple meals per day and done week after week can result in less calories consumed overall, less indigestion, and a potential healthy weight loss.

Want to learn more healthy eating behaviors? Let’s talk about how your nutrition habits can impact your health outcomes.

Download this guide to healthy eating below.