Counting calories one meal at a time is the key to losing weight
SETTING a calorie limit per meal rather than per day could be the key to losing weight.
Dieters who work out a calorie allowance for each dish are more likely to eat less than those who have a plan of how many calories they may eat each day, a study found.
Scientists showed two groups of 50 dieters pictures of food with a suggestion of how many calories were on each plate.
Participants were then asked to plan meals as part of a diet.
The first group worked out a calorie allowance per meal, while the second group just thought about what they may eat overall in a day.
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The results showed that the first group set an overall average budget of 1,528 calories per day. The second group set an allowance of 2,011.
The findings showed that, when it came to what they actually ate, thinking about the calorie content for each meal had a beneficial effect.
Slimmers who budgeted for breakfast, lunch and dinner separately consumed an average of 1,417 calories, 219 fewer than those with a single daily limit.
Dr Miaolei Jia, associate professor at Warwick Business School, who led the study, said: “Those with a daily budget thought about cutting calories for meals such as dinner and snacks, where they thought they were most likely to over-consume, but did not think about other meals.
“Those who budgeted on a mealby-meal approach cut the calories in all the meals they ate, which drove down their daily allowance.”
Aradhna Krishna, from the University of Michigan, US, who also worked on the study, said: “Our results are not just relevant for controlling how much one eats, but also how much one smokes or drinks – any context where people have a motive to reduce their consumption.”
The results were published in the Journal of Consumer Research.