How Your Kitchen Affects Your Weight Loss Efforts

If your weight loss goals seem elusive despite your best efforts, your kitchen could be to blame. That's according to Brian Wansink, director of Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab and author of a new book, Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life.

"It's easier to become slim by design than slim by willpower," says Wansink, who has studied eating behavior of Americans for the past 25 years. "Slim by design is forever; slim by willpower can be wimpy and has to last a lifetime." 

If you've got designs on a slimmer, trimmer healthier you, begin with your kitchen, Wansink recommends. Here are five top tips. 

1. Clear the clutter. Wansink's research revealed that cluttered kitchens prompted people to eat 44 percent more of their snack food than did clean, organized, decluttered kitchens.
2. Rearrange your pantry, refrigerator and cupboards, moving healthier foods forward to more visible spots and pushing less healthy options into the less accessible, less visible spots. This move was backed up by two different studies. In one, participants who moved fruits and vegetables from refrigerator crisper bins t top shelves and less healthy foods into the crispers reported eating three times more fruits and vegetables after a week than they had eaten in the week prior. In another, researchers found that women who kept even one box of cereal in plain view, such as on a counter top, weighed an average 21 pounds heavier than those who kept foods hidden away.
3. Make your kitchen a lounge-free zone. It stands to reason that the more time you spend in your kitchen, the more you'll eat. Move those comfy chairs to the living room instead and clear your kitchen of items like television sets, computers and other items that tempt you to linger.
4. Move smaller serving bowls and spoons to more easily reachable spots and use them more often. In one study, participants ate 54 more ice cream from bigger bowls and spoons than they did when eating from smaller ones. In another involving young campers, kids ate 42 percent more cereal from a 24-ounce cereal bowl than they did from a 12-ounce bowl.
5. Serve food straight from the stovetop or countertop rather than from the dining table. Research shows that this can help you eat 19 percent less food. When at the table, food is in easy reach, plus you're likely to linger, especially when conversing with others. It's a perfect recipe for overeating.

For more weight loss tips proven by scientists and nutritionists, call 800-501-8090 and schedule a consultation with a nutrition and exercise specialist at your nearest Metabolic Research Center.