Limit Your Selection

The more variety you’re offered in a meal, the more you’ll eat. University of Pennsylvania researchers found this out when they offered people a choice between one or three flavours of yogurt. Those with the choice ate an average of 23 per cent more. So keep down the number of different things to eat on your table, and you’ll keep down the amount of calories you consume.

Eat Alone

Pull a Greta Garbo and tell your partner you “vant to be alone.” It might just save you unwanted weight. Researchers find that meals eaten with one other person are one-third larger than those eaten alone, and the amount increases as the number of people you’re eating with increases.

Avoid TV Dinners  

It’s not on the Weight Watchers list of weight-loss tips, but distractions such as television, reading, movies, and sporting events distract you from how much you’re eating, so that you end up having more. To down-size your distraction declare a media blackout and focus on what you’re putting into your mouth.

Use Dainty Dishes

Researchers at Cornell University threw an ice-cream social to test whether oversized bowls led to overeating. They found that doubling the size of someone’s bowl increased how much ice-cream they took by 31 per cent. The moral of the story: Serve it up in smaller dishes!

Stay Away from Super-Sized Bowls

Rather than piling all of the mashed potatoes into one oversized bowl and bringing it to the table, split them into two bowls. You’ll wind up eating less.

Choose Chopsticks

Using chopsticks might be messier, but you’ll also eat less. When researchers compared patrons dining in Chinese restaurants, they found that those who were overweight were more likely to be using silverware. Normal-weight patrons chose the more labour-intensive chopsticks.

Binge on Blue

The designers of fast-food restaurants avoid the color blue like the plague. For good reason: it suppresses the appetite. So give yourself one more weapon in the war against bulging waistlines. Use blue dinner plates, and cover the dinner table with a blue tablecloth. Avoid using red, yellow, and orange in your dining areas. These colors encourage eating.

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