If you could lose weight every week AND enjoy your food more than you do now ... and feel more satisfied than you do now with every meal... would you do it?

Using this scientifically proven method, you could lose around half a pound every week automatically, without counting calories, without changing what you eat, or when you eat.

It can be done any time, for any meal, in any setting. You just do one simple thing every time you eat. And it's so easy ANYONE can do it.

This is one of those tools that is easily taken for granted. It seems too easy. It seems too simple. It's not "sophisticated" enough.

Yet it is scientifically proven to work. It will help you lose weight like clockwork -- and help you enjoy your food more and walk away feeling satisfied with every meal.

You can't assume it won't work unless you try it.

What is the Secret?

All of us rely on a sense of fullness to determine when to stop eating. See Satiety Signals.

The secret to making your Satiety Signals work in your favor is simply to eat more slowly -- to give your built-in, natural appetite suppressor time to kick in. Take at least 30 minutes to eat your meal.

One of the tricks to eating slowly is to focus on enjoying and savoring every bite. This shouldn't feel tortuous. It should feel enjoyable. If it's truly tortuous to spend more time tasting your food, maybe you're eating the wrong food!

When all your body's "fullness" sensors are finally applied, and you feel "done", what has just happened? You've eaten less food! It doesn't feel like it ... yet it's true. You feel full, satisfied, and definitely not deprived in any way. Yet you've eaten fewer calories. Amazing isn't it?

Scientific Studies

Eating slowly and mindfully has a lot of scientific support.

One study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that when people were limited to taking small bites every 9 seconds rather than large bites, they ate 33% less food. Stated another way, participants who ate at normal speed (didn't consciously try to slow down) ate 50% more food!

In another study, participants who were instructed to eat quickly finished their meals in nine minutes and ate an average of 646 calories. The participants who were instructed to eat slowly finished their meals in twenty-nine minutes and ate an average of 579 calories. The difference between the two groups was exactly twenty minutes, resulting in 67 fewer calories eaten.

And here's the real kicker: The quick eaters were less satisfied and more hungry. The people who ate slower actually felt more satisfied than the people who ate fast. So, as we've been saying, this technique is actually a way of increasing how much you enjoy your meals.

Those numbers are similar to those from a study in China. People who chewed more ingested 12% fewer calories--that would come out to 77 calories for the fast eaters mentioned above who ate 646 calories.

Clearly, these numbers can add up. Consuming 33% less food while feeling even more full and satisfied is a big deal!

Even if you assume the smaller results, it adds up. If you reduce your calorie intake by 67 for three meals a day, that's 201 fewer calories every day, or 1,407 calories per week.

Since it takes about 3,000 calories to lose 1 pound, you could be losing an extra half pound a week through the simple act of eating more slowly and giving your body time to recognize that you're full.

How To Do It

The general idea here isn't complicated. You can start eating more slowly and savoring each bite, right now, without any further special instructions -- and start losing and/or controlling your weight while feeling more full and more enjoyment out of eating.

The following are a few optional (but powerful) tips that will help you max out the potential of this secret weapon:

Take smaller bites. Instead of shoveling as much onto your fork as possible, fill the fork about one-fourth or one-half way before taking a bite.
Chew a little more. Close your eyes and focus on the flavors while you chew. Take the time to really savor every mouthful.
Eat meals high in fiber. Meals high in fiber tend to automatically slow down your eating because they take longer to chew. In other words, vegetables, but especially leafy greens (e.g., salad) and other fibrous veggies (broccoli, celery, asparagus, etc).
Pause. If you want to really slow down the meal, put down your fork or spoon after each bite, and take a sip of water to wash it down. Don't pick up your fork or spoon again until you have swallowed the previous bite.
Wait between helpings. When your plate is empty, drink a glass of water, then wait at least 5 to 15 minutes before deciding if you want second helpings.

Tip for smoothies: Make them thick so they take longer to eat. Research shows that we don't register liquid calories as accurately as food we've chewed, so we tend to eat more. To thicken, add ice and/or a few frozen ingredients. When it's thick enough to eat with a spoon, it's easy to slow down and enjoy every bite; and depending on the smoothie ingredients it can feel like you're eating ice cream.

Anywhere, Anytime

You may protest that you don't have any extra time so you can't make meals take longer. First, be sure that's actually true (feeling pressed for time can be a feeling more than reality). But if you really don't have time, you can still eat more slowly in the time you have. You still benefit from it. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

Furthermore, lack of time could actually be your friend. If you eat slowly, you might not feel done or slightly hungry when you have to end the meal -- yet when your natural appetite suppressors (hunger sensors) kick in 5, 10 or 15 minutes later, you'll suddenly feel full. More accurately, you'll simply forget about the fact that you didn't quite feel full when you stopped eating. Try it and see how it works.

This technique is also easy to adapt to social settings. When you are eating with other people, none of these techniques will be obvious to anyone else. Plus, participating in conversation can even help you take more time between bites.

You can benefit from this idea when eating anything -- even eating treats. Instead of wolfing it down, enjoy it over a longer period of time.

The point is to do it, starting TODAY ... anytime you eat anything, and reap the rewards.

Make it a Habit

Habits are your friend and your enemy. You'll have to make this secret weapon into a habit for it to do the most good.

Eating fast can be a hard habit to break. Basically, you have to wrap your mind around the idea of the sensory (taste) aspect of eating, and focus less on the goal of "filling-the-stomach".

How to remember? At first, you could set reminders for yourself--a sticky note on the table or the plate itself, a daily morning alarm on your phone or computer--whatever it takes.

Just relax and take your time. Enjoy the food to its fullest. The benefits are worth it.

Do It

Like many other tools, it only works if you DO IT.

If you DON'T do it, it won't work, guaranteed. If you don't give it a chance, you can't claim it doesn't work -- and you're in effect saying that your opinion is better than scientific facts.

Commit to trying this out for at least a week, ideally 2 - 3 weeks, and it will work it's magic, just like all other principles we've discovered. It's a law of nature.

Do it and ... You lose weight. You feel satisfied. You enjoy eating more. What could possibly be better?