Secret to weight loss: Eating with your non-dominant hand helps shift the scales, psychologist claims

Forget cutting calories and hitting the gym; eating with your non-dominant hand may be enough to shed the pounds.

So says social psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, who believes ‘mindful eating’ could be the answer to a healthier lifestyle.

Normally, reducing portion sizes, eating more vegetables and running more often is enough to shift the balance.

But the psychologist says bizarre hacks such as eating with a different hand and placing a mirror in your kitchen can trick the brain into eating less.

Although it can potentially be very messy, eating with your non-dominant hand is believed to help you eat less because it makes you a slower eater.

Eating with your non-dominant hand is “one of the most fun ways” to train yourself to eat less, Professor Wiseman said in his podcast On Your Mind.

‘That means it actually takes longer and it’s more conscious to eat, because you have to solve coordination problems and so on, so you end up eating less.

“That’s very simple, but actually quite effective,” says Professor Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire.

This conscious eating hack goes both ways: Eating in front of the TV, for example, isn’t a good idea because when you’re distracted, you eat more, explains Professor Wiseman.

A 2013 study found that paying attention to what’s on your plate affects the amount of food you eat. study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers reviewed 24 studies and found that distracted or rushed eating can make you eat more and that enjoying food by eating more slowly without distractions can help you control the amount you eat while sitting.

Seeing yourself in the mirror when you eat food can literally make you look at what you’re eating. Experts say that having a mirror in the room makes you eat healthier

Another way to become more aware of what you eat is to literally look at what you eat.

It may sound strange, but looking at yourself in the mirror while you eat is believed to lead to healthier eating habits.

Professor Wiseman explained that the mirror theory comes from the American psychologist Brad Bushman.

As part of an experiment, he placed a table of food outside a supermarket and encouraged people to sit down and eat the food.

Sometimes the food on the table was healthy and sometimes it was unhealthy, but in both circumstances he encouraged people to eat as much as they wanted.

In half of the tests he placed a mirror on the table so that people could see themselves eating.

‘Once people could see their own reflection in the mirror, they became more self-conscious and switched to healthier diets,’ said Professor Wiseman.

Using this logic, Professor Wiseman suggests placing a mirror in the kitchen so you can become more aware of what you eat.

He said: ‘If you want to, there’s no reason why you should, but if you want to, these are the kind of, some people call them hacks, but psychological tips, that can be quite impactful.’

Some more tried and tested weight loss tricks suggested by the NHS include swapping sugary drinks for water, cutting down on foods high in sugar and fat and eating five times a day.

Getting enough exercise by being active for 150 minutes a week is also a recommended way to shed the pounds.

WHAT SHOULD A BALANCED DIET LOOK LIKE?

Meals should be based on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, preferably whole grains, according to the NHS

• Eat at least 5 portions of varied fruit and vegetables every day. All fresh, frozen, dried and canned fruits and vegetables count

• Basic meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, preferably whole wheat

• 30 grams of fiber per day: This is the same as eating all of the following: 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 2 whole-grain cereal cookies, 2 thick slices of whole-grain bread, and a large baked potato with the skin still on

• Provide some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soy drinks), opting for lower fat and lower sugar options

• Eat some beans, legumes, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins (including 2 portions of fish per week, one portion of which is fatty)

• Choose unsaturated oils and spreads and consume them in small quantities

• Drink 6-8 cups/glasses of water per day

• Adults should have less than 6 g of salt and 20 g of saturated fat for women or 30 g for men per day

Source: NHS Eatwell guide