Here are some reasons why you might eat when you’re not hungry – and what you can do about it.

You’re not hungry but you eat anyway:

Life and calorie control would be a whole lot easier if we only ate when we were truly hungry.  Then it would simply be a biological drive that needed to be satisfied – like downing a glass of water when your throat is parched. It’s the rare person who doesn’t eat for reasons other than hunger – most of us find ourselves doing it from time to time.  Read more »

You would think that people who eat healthy and stay slim would be the ones who spend a lot of time thinking about what they eat.  After all, how else could they maintain a healthy weight unless they’re focusing on every bite?  There are some clear differences in the way normal weight and overweight people approach food and eating – but what we’ve learned is that naturally trim people actually tend to think about food less than those who are watching their weight. 

Naturally slim people have a relatively comfortable relationship with food, so they don’t really focus on it all that much.  But for heavier people, the relationship is often more difficult and complex.  Overweight people tend to be preoccupied with food – which ones are good or bad, how much or how little they should eat (and when) – to the point where they end up thinking about food all the time. 

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Every time I have a new client scheduled to see me for weight loss, I have a pretty good idea of how our first conversation will go.  The first thing they usually want to know is how much I think they should weigh.  The answer is usually less than straightforward (see my post of October 7) and that question is inevitably followed up by a similar, and equally vexing query:  “how long will it take?”.  I’ve had this same conversation countless times over the years, and my answer is always the same – “it depends”.

Not a satisfying response, I realize, but the rate at which a person will lose weight depends on a lot of things.  It’s like a road trip.  You can look at the map, determine how many miles you have to travel, figure your average speed and then estimate how long it will take you to get there.  That works sometimes.  But maybe you come across a traffic jam, or a detour.  Maybe you drive through a town you’ve never been to and decide to stop a while.   

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It’s a deceptively simple question, and one we ask ourselves all the time: how much should I weigh? It seems like it should be easy enough to figure out – you can look at standard height weight chart, estimate your frame size (and be honest – not everyone is “large”) and get a pretty good idea of your ideal weight. Or, you could use a Body Mass Index Calculator – based on your height and weight, you’re categorized as underweight, normal, overweight or obese. These tools – while useful – don’t paint the entire picture, though.

Standard height weight charts have been around for a long time. Ideal weight ranges for men and women are based on information gathered by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company – something they’ve been doing since the 1950’s and last updated in 1999. After figuring out your frame size and your height (the charts tell you to select your height in one-inch heels), you can see whether you fall in range.

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