Mar 28, 2026
3 min read
What if the problem is not counting calories?More and more experts point out daily habits that can affect how much we eat without living with labels, activities or calculations in each meal.
No diet, no calorie counting: easy to change experts recommend eating less
What if counting calories isn't the problem?Many experts point to daily habits that can influence how much we eat without living with signs, gadgets or calculators in any meal.
A review of 22 studies and several controlled trials showed once again the importance of pacing when eating: Slowing down can help you eat less, although experts note that it's not a magic solution and doesn't work the same in all cases.
Counting calories can help, but not everyone wants to live with a calculator on their head.There are people who find it helpful, yes, but for many others it's a boring routine: looking at labels, measuring portions, converting each meal into a quantity.Faced with this, research has been looking for some time for a change that is very easy to implement in everyday life.
It has nothing to do with eating less out of obligation, but something simpler: eating differently.BBC Future, the BBC's popular science arm, has summarized this work for the general public and the scientific research behind it, which has been reviewed and posted on PubMed, the US National Library of Medicine's biomedical database.
It's an experience that experts talk about
This change, eating more slowly, may seem like a small thing, but this is its strength. There is no need to eat strange foods. There is no need to buy any specific, unrelated products while waiting to apply to UChicago Medicine, a research health center at the University of Chicago. As explained in a news article signed by Dr. Edwin Macdonald, the speed of eating affects how much a person eats.
What the research says
This idea wasn't born out of a passing fad.There are also studies in the same direction.A systematic review with a meta-analysis of PubMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's biomedical database, analyzed 22 studies and observed that slower speeds were associated with lower energy intake compared to faster speeds.More simply, eating more slowly is almost always associated with eating less at the same meal.
But this should not be exaggerated.The review also warns that not all studies provide the same results, and many studies are short-term trials often conducted in young and healthy adults.
An essay that helps tell a story
This caution is even better understood when looking at a specific study.A 2014 randomized controlled trial by Mena Shah was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and collected in PubMed, the US National Library of Medicine's biomedical database.
The study compared people who ate slowly with others who ate faster.The result was interesting: In participants of normal weight, slower eating clearly reduced the amount eaten.In the overweight or obese group, the difference was not as clear from a statistical point of view.However, in both groups the feeling of hunger decreased after eating.
Why fast food works against you
The explanation is quite logical: the body does not send out all its satiety signals immediately.If someone eats their plate too quickly, they may have eaten more food before those signals become clear.That is, we do not always keep eating because we are hungry, but because we eat so quickly that we do not realize that we are already full.(BBC Future)
A widely cited study helps to understand this mechanism.It was published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism and is available on PubMed, the biomedical database of the United States National Library of Medicine.He compared 17 healthy men who ate the same amount of ice cream for 5 minutes or 30 minutes.
As they do so more slowly, the two intestinal hormones associated with satiety, PYY and GLP-1, increase.This is an interesting finding because it helps explain what is going on in the body, although it is important to remember its limitations: the specimens are small and not very diverse.
Satiety is not the only thing that matters
There is another point that makes this habit even more interesting.A randomized crossover study published in 2020 and collected in PubMed, the biomedical database of the National Library of Medicine of the United States, examined 19 healthy women who ate exactly the same under two different conditions: once in 10 minutes and once in 20. When the food was eaten faster, blood sugar levels rose more.
And here's one of the key points: We're not talking about weight loss or weight loss.We also talked about restoring a more normal way of sitting at the table, which in everyday practice is lost between screens, busy schedules and eating at full speed.
How to eat more slowly with easy-to-implement changes
The good part about this tip is that it doesn't require you to display every single meal.No need to count chewing gum or eating with a stopwatch.It's helpful to take small breaks to slow down naturally.Both the American Institute for Cancer Research and UChicago Medicine have simple ideas for achieving this.
Some practical ways to do this are:
- Leave the cutlery on the plate between bites;
- Do not prepare the next bite before finishing the previous one;
- chew more calmly, without rushing to finish as soon as possible;
- take a short break between meals;
- Avoid eating on your mobile phone, computer or doing other work at the same time;
- Take a few more minutes to eat your main meals.
You don't have to do all of these things at once.Sometimes it's enough to make one or two changes to notice that the food lasts longer, the body responds well, and the feeling of satisfaction is evident.Eating very slowly won't do miracles, but it can help you eat with more control and enjoy it sooner.Sometimes the most helpful progress is not in changing the entire diet, but in stopping the binge eating.
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