2 Easy Ways to Cut Your Appetite

Here are two easy ways to feel full faster on less food: use a smaller fork and chew your food longer.

Turns out these two tactics have some science behind them. In a study, people who snacked on pudding ate less when they took small bites and savored the flavor for a while.

Savor the Flavor
Yep, the pudding snackers not only took little bites, but they let the bites roll around on their tongues for a full 9 seconds. The result? They ate much less pudding than the folks who took big bites and swallowed them in 3 seconds. So next time you get the munchies, try eating with less gusto . . . Watch this 1-minute video to learn how to pick exactly the right-size food portion.

Hunger-Busting 101
Related research suggests that the longer a particular food stays in your mouth, the more quickly your taste buds will tire of its flavor -- which in turn makes you want less of the food. Another vote for taking mini bites and eating slowly. Try these additional hunger-busting tools:

• Dip your bread in oil. Find out which oil may actually help you eat less and lose weight.
• Eat for the right reasons. Learn how to control the chemistry behind emotional eating.
• Chomp on gum. Here's how it curbs afternoon snack attacks.

Add these 10 other appetite-busters to your weight-loss tool kit.

Effect of bite size and oral processing time of a semisolid food on satiation. Zijlstra, N. et al., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2009 Aug;90(2):269-75.