I’ve been wanting to ask this question of the week for some time but I was too distracted by that little thing I had going on. ;)
Anyway, I have a co-worker who is very thin. She doesn’t look anorexic or anything like that, she just happens to have a very small frame and carries almost no extra fat on her body. Yes, I don’t want to admit there are people like this either but there are.
One day at lunch we were in the kitchen together. I was heating up my leftovers as I do almost every day and she pulled her lunch out of the fridge.
Two slices of meat-lovers Pizza Hut pizza.
Yeah… I know. All of a sudden my frozen pasta meal didn’t seem quite as appetizing.
I’m only kidding. I actually really enjoy my leftovers but the pizza did look good. I rarely get meat topped pizza anymore.
We walked back to the lunch room to meet the others and started eating.
I had quite a portion. To be honest I can’t remember exactly what I had but I just remember it being a lot. Like a double plate.
We all started eating and chatting. Before I knew it my meal was gone.
I glanced over at super thin co-worker and to my surprise she didn’t even finish her first slice yet!
I only say “to my surprise” because I would have literally scoffed down that pizza in about 2.2 seconds. I do have a pizza addiction after all. ;) But it’s about more then the pizza, I eat everything fast. I always have. Even the little guy notices at dinner and says things like “Mommy, you won the food race!”
yeah.. there’s a trophy I want. I win the prize for fastest dinner eater. Yay!
Anyway, I can’t help but notice that naturally-thin-girl is also naturally-slow-eater-girl. Coincidence? I’m not sure but I thought it made a good question to ponder.
So…. how fast do YOU eat? Do you think it has an effect on your weight?
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I’m a super fast eater… I got that habit back in the day when I was an event planner and I only had 5 minutes to wolf down my lunch before anybody started looking for me… Even the BF is amazed! He tells me all the time that I’m the ONLY girl he ever met who eats FASTER than him… Oh joy! So now when I have dinner with the BF, I try to pace myself so that I could finish eating AFTER or at the same time as him… Boy is it EVER hard!
Hmmm, I guess this is one of those things that gets tucked under easy-to-change habits that make you lose weight. Noted. I myself am also a fast eater. Everyone that promotes slow eating says, “enjoy the taste,” and I’m thinking, “I enjoyed it so much, I want more right now!”
I eat really fast when I’m alone, or with the family (as I’m usually jumping up from the table to get things for the kids and inhaling in between) but I also eat very slowly when with a friend. I had lunch with a friend today, and if I were alone, I would have inhaled the whole thing. But I only ate about half of my meal and it took forever, I guess we were busy talking!!
I eat at the speed of light. And it never satisfies my man appetite!
LOL!
Fast eater, terribly fast until I started trying to lose weight. Spent months working on eating slower so I noticed my food. I felt a lot more satisfied if I spent 30 minutes eating some rather than 5, even if it was the same quantity.
I find this pertains to eating while doing other things too, if I’m watching a movie or reading (or blogging) while eating I eat fast and don’t notice. I guess you could call it being mindful, it works, it took a lot of practice but I’m a believer now!
I eat really fast. I also find that I don’t like to eat at the table usually — I’m on the computer or in front of the tv. Especially when I’m alone. If I try to eat at the table, I get bored and pick up a magazine or something. I’m pretty sure I’ve read something about this correlating to being overweight in some people.
restrictive eater=sloooooooooooow eater. I like to take close to an hour with one meal. I need to speed it up! But I’m afraid of when it’s gone….because then it’s gone and I *can’t* have more. It’s really irrational.
Oh Roni! Way too fast. I could so relate with how you felt about the pizza. Honestly, I think there is a strong correlation between how fast you eat and weight issues.
It depends, if I’m alone I go through food like a vaccum, I normally play my video games and eat at the same time so in between load times or cut scenes I try to eat as much as possible before the game starts again. If I’m with company I tend to eat slow and less food, it’s weird I’m not a fan of eating in front of people
Guilty as charged. I am a total food inhaler. I don’t do it consciously. I just start shoveling and, before I even realize that I’m supposed to taste something, it’s gone. My BFF of 20 years is super rail thin and she eats SOOOOO slow. If we go out to eat I feel like she’s taken a bite and a half by the time I’ve eaten my entire meal. Maybe there’s something to that…
I tend to eat fast, especially since I live alone and I eat most of my meals alone, so I have no one to talk to or distract me. I think it definitely can impact your weight, and it also impacts digestion. I find that I can get pretty sick if I eat too fast (I have a bad stomach) and also, your body needs time to register that its full. So you can end up overeating without meaning to.
Its not the case for everyone though. My mother is rail thin and she inhales her food like crazy.
Interesting stuff! I know a life coach who says that if people are stressed they shift into what she calls “lizard brain”- the reptilian part of our brain that lives in fight or flight mod. In that mode we think constantly of food and consume food much faster. It is a trait that was probably really useful to our distant ancestors but not so much for us!
Evidently, making a food “off limits”- such as pizza or chocolate- will turn on this response in some people and result in the same seeking and super-fast consuming of food. I have noticed that if I am stressed out portion control is really vital- I can literally inhale an entire bag of Pop Chips or a box of crackers standing in the pantry if I don’t pay attention!
Yes, I believe that eating fast has an impact on your weight. I learned to eat fast by watching my father. Everything was on a time table. I find now that I REALLY have to make myself slow down or my meal is gone in no time. I also have a very bad habit of eating standing up-we unfortunately don’t eat at the dinner table due to crazy schedules-I seem to rush through my meals, get dishes done so that I can sit down to relax-then I don’t relax because I’m getting stuff ready for the next day-My husband suggested taking a sip of water between every bite of food-something he saw on TV about Japan and how they eat-think I might give it a try-of course he is thin and can eat everything, but he is noticing that he needs to exercise more or the pounds creep up on him-
I know that we’ve moved on to the next question, but I want you to know that since this conversation, I have been very conscious about eating slower. I have been putting my fork/spoon down between bites and not picking it up again until I have swallowed the current bite. My husband commented that he actually finished eating before me. I’ve noticed, just in these last couple of days doing this, that I am really tasting my food, I’m enjoying the food I have, and I’m satisfied sooner. I got my Shape Magazine yesterday and there was a small blurb in it about how fast people eat. It says “Researchers at Greece’s Athens University Medical School foud that people who polished off a dish of ice cream in five minutes had 27% lower levels of the feel-full hormone peptide -YY (PYY) than those who took 30 minutes. ‘Eating too quickly may decrease the production of PYY, which can lead to overeating,’ says study author Alexander Kokkinos, MD, PHD.” Taken from Shape Magazine April 2010 pg. 158
Truthfully, I probably eat a little too fast, especially if I am eating while working, or watching tv, or something else that is distracting. I do slow down when I am eating with others, if for nothing else, I like to talk a lot and prefer to do that without a bunch of food in my mouth. :) Something I have recently been trying that I learned about from the therapists at my job is eating mindfully. To do this, I eat at a table with no distractions, not even talking, and try to be fully aware of each bite I take. The goal is to really engage your body with the meal, to taste each mouthful, and to tune in to the signals our bodies tell us about when we’re full. When I practice mindful eating I often find I am full before I have finished-which is a big deal for a former Clean Plate Club member!
I am generally quick eater, but I am also very thin. I am in recovery from Anorexia and I think that I eat quickly so that I can just get it over and done with. I dont like to sit at the table forever, but also because I have a bigger meal plan than most it takes me a about the same time to eat my food. I am sorry if that is confusing, but i personally do not enjoy sitting at the table and eating!! :/