The Science Of Portion Control
Another sciency study, this time looking at a part of the brain (the left posterior amygdala, or LPA as I like to call it) that registers fullness. Scientists found that the higher the subject’s BMI, the less active the LPA was. Hopefully you can look past the headline and enjoy the science part:
Each study participant swallowed a balloon, which was then filled with water, emptied, and refilled again at volumes that varied between 50 and 70 percent. During this process, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the subjects’ brains. Subjects were also asked throughout the study to describe their feelings of fullness. The higher their BMI, the lower their likelihood of saying they felt “full” when the balloon was inflated 70 percent.
“Our findings indicate a potential direction for treatment strategies – be they behavioral, medical or surgical — targeting this brain region.”
Number one, please don’t cut into my brain. Number two, one of the big “secrets” of many diets is portion control. There’s a whole thing in Weight Watchers these days where you stop eating halfway through your meal and then think about whether you’re still hungry or not. And then there’s all the diets with prepackaged food–again, not leaving it to the individual to control their portions, but imposing portions upon them. It’s fascinating to see that there may in fact be a scientific basis for some of this portion control angst.
Posted by mo pie
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I learned how to figure out if I’m full or not when eating (it’s a hold-over from the failed WLS). I was told back then that it should take me a half an hour to eat a meal (and that meal, at the time, was 4 oz of whatever I decided to eat). Now, I fix my plate with whatever amount I think I can eat, and I take my time and savor every bite. Usually, by the time a half an hour has passed, I’m full (and there’s usually stuff still on my plate). I don’t overload the plate, it’s usually 6 oz of meat, 1 cup of whatever starch/carb we’re having, and a cup of veggies. Most of the time, what ends up being left over is the starch/carb, and that goes in the trash. I don’t feel guilty about portions, I don’t feel guilty about what I’ve eaten or not eaten on my plate, and I’m certainly eating a wider variety of foods now (and a lot of that is because DH is type 2 diabetic and we have to watch carbs for him, so I eat the same way).
a) Why do you consider yourself a fat acceptance activist if you believe fat people eat differently than thinner people?
b) How do you explain the fact that people’s intake adjusts regardless of temporary changes in “portion” sizes to keep their weight steady at setpoint.
c) If “portions” matter, why is it that fat people and thinner people eat exactly the same amounts and types of food?
d) If you’re a fat acceptance activist, WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT DIETING ALL THE TIME?????????
I still think it’s a non-issue. I have a restricted stomach, and yes it registers *full* sooner, but it also registers *hungry* again sooner too.
Portion control is a lovely notion, but detaching it from the realities of people just plain needing some number of calories for their bodies, and also from metabolic changes that result from semi-starvation, make it completely pointless.
IMHO.
I think the successful weight loss of many people who have weight-loss surgery disproves the notion that changing satiety and portion size is not useful for weight loss.
I agree, Mo, that brain surgery sounds pretty drastic for all but the most imminently life-threatening instances of obesity. But this could potentially be a good target for pharmaceutical therapy in the future. I also wonder if maybe this brain area is affected in binge eating disorder or nighttime eating. The amygdala is not one of the brain regions people typically study when looking at food intake and body weight regulation. It’s more known for playing a role in memory and emotion (which can obviously be tied to food).
a) I’m not sure where you’re getting this; I was reporting a scientific study.
b) I’ve never heard of that but would be interested in reading more, if you have an article to point me to.
c) I doubt that’s universally true. It’s not like everyone’s off eating pellets; everyone eats differently and everybody’s body is different. Not sure where you’re getting this either.
d) Sounds like you might be happier reading other blogs, if reading about stuff like this makes you angry. There are lots of fat acceptance blogs out there that will give you what you’re looking for. I’ll continue to consider myself a body positive activist and a fat accepter. Sorry if that annoys you!
I found this study very interesting. I could never wrap my head around other people being too full after a teeny portion of food. I’ve always had a good appetite, and can eat a lot more than other people I know, without feeling “sick” like others describe. Perhaps my amygdala has no idea that I am full already!
Everyone in my family has the same appetite. We eat lots of food and want more within a couple of hours. And I’m the only one with a high BMI. So I don’t know that the study holds a lot of weight with me (pardon the pun)
Fed Up, this is not a fat acceptance blog. I’ve seen enough hateful comments around here (some under the guise of “science”) to verify that.
we try to define who we are: a body positivity blog that is inclusive to people losing weight and people happy to be whatever weight they happen to be.
I feel the blog is more “inclusive” to those in the first category. We might be happy at a high weight, but those around us will do everything in their power to tell us otherwise.
I rarely if ever delete comments, which is why maybe you’ll see comments you won’t like and your points of view will be challenged. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that the comments define this blog or what I’m trying to do with it. This is definitely not a blog that is hateful to fat people, I can’t believe anyone would even think that.
Okley dokley.
So when are they going to send the police around grabbing teh fattiez for mandatory brain surgery on the left pulmonary amygdala or whatever it is?
And is every woman with a BMI above 12 a potential target?
And where did I put my passport again?
Seriously. Anyone else feel like it’s early 30s Weimar Republic?
The whole brain surgery is frightening. And I agree with littlem, will they start registering weight? Will they have someone coming after us in the future? Frightening.
Goodness, I hardly think this is something to get so stressed about. Surgical was just one of the three options for treatment that they were talking about considering looking into. That’s a far cry from mandatory brain surgery for all people with a BMI over 12 (and I can tell you from experience, if your BMI is under 20, you get attacked for not eating enough, so I don’t think we’re anywhere close to thinking that 12 is overweight. Calm down.) It’s just a study showing that different people respond to food in different ways. Isn’t that exactly what you’ve been arguing?
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that there was another study along the lines of portion control (although not related to weight loss specifically) showing that most people will continue to eat soup until the bowl is empty, regardless of the actual volume of soup consumed. They used a self refilling bowl and found that people would eat liters of soup without reporting being full as long as there was still soup in the bowl. This seems to indicate that most of the people in the study were using external factors to determine how much to eat, rather than paying attention to signals from their body. I can try to look up the study if you’re interested, it won an Ignobel prize this fall. :)
This reminds me of when gastric bypass started getting lots of coverage. People started screaming OMGZ WHAT IZ NEXT FATTY ROUNDUP etc.
I’m pretty sure even if they develop a brain surgery that addresses this avenue of weight loss it will be elective. Honestly, sometimes some of you sound like you’re about two comments away from getting all Ipcress File about everyone who studies weight. Not everything is an anti-fatty conspiracy.
Not sure how I feel about this, but it makes me remember what my mom always said- that our stomachs stretch out from eating too much (poor thing, she really did think that she was fat just because she overate.. I found some old journals of hers I’ve been posting on my blog and it’s just heartbreaking).
Anyhow, I don’t know whether that’s true or not but it’s also something that might be worth considering. I mean, what if their stomachs were just bigger?
Anyway, I don’t think it’s any big secret that portion control is the thing. And mindful eating. It’s too easy these days to just go nuts eating crap without even thinking about it.
“Calm down.”
Emily. Don’t be patronizing. It’s obnoxious. There’s this thing called “hyperbole for effect”. Look it up.
“I can try to look up the study if you’re interested, it won an Ignobel prize this fall. :)”
Those of us that far along in having analyzed portion control have probably already read that study and come to our own conclusions and don’t need you to do it for us. Plus, I don’t recall anyone asking.
*kthx*
Littlem-
I’m sorry if you interpreted what I said as patronizing, it wasn’t meant that way. One of the dangers of written communication, I suppose. Clearly you read what I had written as patronizing when it wasn’t meant to be, and I read what you wrote as serious when it wasn’t meant to be. I apologize for any misinterpretation on my part.
As for mentioning the article, you’re right, no one asked about it, I mentioned it because I thought it might interest people who found the article in the OP interesting. I wasn’t trying to bring it to the attention of people who already knew about it, that would be silly. Clearly people who have already, recently, done extensive research into the matter would already know about it, but I was unaware that it was common knowladge, since I had only heard about it in connection to the Ignobels, which is hardly mainstream. I was just trying to point out something I thought a few people who read this might find interesting and not have seen. I don’t see what you could object to there, so I’m a bit confused.
As for the offer to track down the article, it wasn’t an offer to hand anyone a conclusion, it was an offer to look up the citation for the article so that interested people could find it more easily that trying to Google it based on my general description, which I didn’t have the time to do when I made the first comment. Again, I don’t see what the problem would be there. I didn’t mean to be offensive, and I’d love to know exactly what I said that seems to have you upset, so that I can avoid it in the future. (Unless of course, you’re exaggerating for effect again?)
This is just an anecdote but it’s related to portions and it’s kind of funny. I made a london broil one time for dinner – it weighed two pounds and was meant to be a family dinner, likely with leftovers. My husband just thought it was his steak. It seemed a bit large, but whatever. So he set about eating it, and he couldn’t believe, as he kept eating it, how long it was taking. Then, with just a little left to go, he said “I don’t think I can finish this.” I said, “Well, hon, it was a 2 lb piece of meat, it wasn’t meant to be a single steak for one person hehe.” But I guess sometimes when you just think that’s your portion, you may go ahead and eat it, even if it is too much.
That sounds like my husband. Sometimes I have to remind him that he doesn’t have to finish absolutely everything on the plate! (He also is thin, by the way, so another anecdotal counterpoint to the original story.)
What IS it with men! My bf lives on Taco Bell, McDonald’s, potato chips and chinese takeout and is a twig. We’re talking 4000 kc a day here! I eat twice the volume he eats (but given that I’m eating 90% raw vegetables I’m still small) but if I ate what he eats I would be floating over football games with GOODYEAR on my face.
It’s really not fair, I think. And it’s unbelievable the amount of fights we have over where to eat.
Re: the study- total 18 people.
It seems to be saying that the extent to which your left posterior amygdala is acitivated, is your ‘portion control’.
Regardless of how much I weigh, I’m always hungry. ALWAYS.