How can I convince someone that eating way too fast is not healthy and will affect their weight?

Question

My boyfriend is constantly complaining about how fat he is but refuses to believe me when I tell him that inhaling his food (and huge huge portions) is unhealthy and a contributor to his fat gut. He works out at the gym 5 days/week lifting weights & uses our eliptical 6 days/week for about an hour each time. He limits white flour, carbs, sugar (close to none), and eats small amounts of food 7 to 8 times a day during the work week. But on the weekends he eats huge amounts of food and inhales it like a starving dog. He even eats off of a serving platter and uses a giant salad fork! Its soo terrible that he just hoovers over the plate and shovels food in until its gone. I think that it's very conterproductive to his weight loss but he says I'm wrong and that I have a phobia of food. To make matters worse his 7yr old son's learning to eat the same way and sometimes even gags from trying to scarf his food down too fast. Any sources for info would be great! Thanks

Answer 1

There is actually a video that shows what happens to the digestive process when large amounts of food suddenly enter the stomach and large intestine. You may be able to query it on Google. It shows you a microscopic view of what happens to the blood and cells during this process and how everything slows down. It's quite disturbing and makes you not want to eat and foods in excess.

If he is working out that much he obviously cares about his body and his appearance. Tell him that any time the body ingests large amounts of food, the pancreas gets dumber and dumber. It works harder to secrete more insulin to compensate for increasing glucose levels that eventually saturate the blood. It does this so efficiently that it always overshoots the amount of insulin needed to bring glucose back to normal levels in the blood after a large meal. The excess insulin is then converted into FAT. The is one of the reasons for the growing obesity epidemic, large (and the wrong) food portions followed by sedentarianism.

Some other tips:

- SNACK ON SOUP. Water-based soups don't contain many calories and are a great way to fill up-staving off your craving for a big meal or at least slowing you down if you do load your plate.

- Don't buy in bulk. It's a good strategy when it comes to toilet paper, but the more food you pack into your fridge at once, the more likely you are to eat it right away.

- Eat slower. It takes approximately 15-20 minutes for the stomach to sense it's full. If you chow down like a starved sled dog, you'll likely out-eat your hunger level, packing in more calories than your body needs before it s had a chance to even register that you're full.

He's doing his body a great disservice. And he's leading his 7yr old son down the same path. Find that video and it will make an impact (please forward me the link as well if you find it for my records).

Here's a good article on health strategies for the holidays which focuses on how to control appetite.
http://preventdisease.com/home/tips59.shtml
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Answer 2

The problem with eating too fast is that your stomach doesn't send the signal it's full until almost 15-20 minutes after the food has reached it, so if your BF is shoveling food in quickly, he's probably eating too much and not feeling it. Plus, if he's eating off a platter which holds more than one portion, it's very tempting to eat the whole thing! He needs to serve himself a reasonable amount of food on a plate and eat at the table like an adult! If he only eats a smaller amount, then it really doesn't matter how fast he eats it; it's all about the quantity! It's not a even just a weight issue, it's an etiquette problem. Sometime, you should try to calculate all the calories in a meal before you serve it and determine how much he ate of it and show him how many calories he consumed... that might convince him as well. Good luck!

Answer 3

You will not lose weight if you stop eating. It will just slow your metabolism down. You will get sick. You will lose weight but as soon as you start eating again you will gain that and more back. The best way to lose weight is slowly. If you are drinking sodas and high sugar drinks cut those out of your diet and drink water instead. Eat healthier foods, fresh vegetables, grilled/baked items instead of fried. If you want a good snack plain celery is great. It's actually got negative calories, meaning that it takes more calories to chew than the food has in it.

Answer 4

You would think that would be common sense, but apparently not. Since your boyfriend already goes to the gym, try talking to one of the trainers there. Most of the time trainers are also very knowledgeable when it comes to nutrition. Hopefully when he hears this same information coming from a professional he will listen.
Another thing you can try is show him an article about The French Diet. A big part of it is the fact that the French do not rush when they eat and they eat small portions. Here is one article, but there are many more online, and entire books dedicated to it. http://gofrance.about.com/od/issuesnewshottopics/a/diet.htm
He's very lucky to have a girlfriend as caring as you. Good luck.

Answer 5

Speaking from personal experience, I was able to lose more weight when I started eating slower and smaller portions.

When I slowed down I was able to tell when my hunger had been satisfied and found that I was pushing my plate away before it was cleaned and I wasn't suffering from eating too much.

Old habits die hard, though, and I went back to gulping my food down and put the weight back on and had a problem with Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disorder (Acid Reflux/Heartburn). I'm back to slowing things down again and once again am feeling comfortable after meals and losing weight.

Answer 6

nevermind the people who says that is not true. it is true that eating too fast is unhealthy. when you eat too fast, you are not giving enough time for the stomach to digest and your brain to tell you that's enough. so when he packs in too much at one time, the excess food is too much to burn off as energy and will store it as fat or waste. not to mention, he might choke.

Answer 7

Eating too much is a dietary problem. Eating too fast can be a social problem, it has nothing to do with weight control.

Answer 8

this is not true. Are you saying that the speed of consumption makes you fat?? its a falsity. You will contribute to an eating disorder

Answer 9

tell him his head will fall off if he eats fast.

Answer 10

Take him to your doctor and make your doctor tell him.