Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Review of The Mouthful Diet

One evening I just happened to punch in Mouthful or a similar word in google or google books search and I found a research study or two that  was about poeple counting bite and also found a book that told about the diet.  It was in the early 1970's, so I think that is probably where the Counting Bite Concept probably originated from.

Dr. Black Family Circle Article was from a little later, 1977-1978. (See first post on this blog for that article)

The book is Behavioral Approaches to Weight Control  by Edward E. Abramson . The book has about 10 pages or so dedicated to a chapter on The Mouthful Diet. The chapter is written by S. Fowler, who conducted the research study in the early 1970's.

You can find some interesting links here about the research study(s)  ect...

 Quote from
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1973-25341-001

The mouthful diet: A behavioral approach to overeating.

By Fowler, Roy S.; Fordyce, Wilbert E.; Boyd, Vicki D.; Masock, Alexander J.

Rehabilitation Psychology, Vol 19(3), 1972, 98-106.

Abstract
Tested an eating system based on learning theory principles requiring little professional supervision. Ss count mouthfuls as they are taken and establish individual daily limits of food intake according to weekly weight change patterns. 3 groups of female Ss (N = 72) were used: active, control, and dropout. Of the 58 Ss instructed in the system, 43 reported a change in eating habits with gradual sustained weight loss over 8 mo

 The study above the Participants had a gradual Sustained Weight Loss over an 8 month Period with counting bites.



http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/psycarticles-reg/the-mouthful-diet-pvfrV5xxKN



They actually designed a Bite Counter type Computer gadget and tried to patent it.... It is VERY similar to the  Eat Slower Pro App that I use 3 times a day almost every single day (and have for the last 6 1/2 months). Amazing how the App is so similar to the orginal invention! They came up with some pretty  neat inventions back in the olden days too ;)

IF you can sort down through some of the pages, there is some interesting information in this link about hte studies and how they had the poeple count their bites...

patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US4218611.pdf



In Reviewing the book I mentioned above, the information about the Mouthful Diet contained in it, matched pretty close the original Family Circle Article found in the first post on this blog.

S. Fowler  recomends establishing a baseline to see how many bites you are eating, without changing your eating habits.

He says poeple start to cut down in his experience [even though they are not required to in the first week or two]

Then he recomends  getting the number of the  average bites per day, and subtracting 2 bites per day each day, to get a new "Upper Limit of Mouthfuls" for each day next week.  

In another place (the Pdf link above about the invention) said in the study they had Participantes Subtract 1 bite per meal, total 3 bites per day from the Average Bite Count Per Day  When they wanted to lose weight that "next week".

So in recap, they do very similar to what I am doing now in Maintenance. They recomend wieghing once a week and comparing your wieght this week to last weeks weight. (I recomend weighing daily and charting on a moving average chart like Trendwieght.com which is free)

 If the weight is the same, they Recomend taking away 2-3 bites per day so you start losing again.

If you lost too much wieght, they recomend adding 2-3 bites per day to balance it out.

...and so on....once a week re-evaluating your bite count for the next week, based on your wieght loss/gain/maintain  results VS. your bite count...





The chapter on the Mouthful Diet  went on to talk about Habits, How that we Reinforce our Behavior, and the more we do good behavior, the more it becomes automatic and Reinforeced,ect...

One Quote from the book in the Mouthful Diet Chapter... page 95

Learning to stop eating is the most difficult part of dieting.  When you practice stopping frequently enough, it becomes easier to continue this pattern.  At first, stopping at bite 150 is as difficult if not more difficult as stopping at bite 75 or less later on.  This is especially true when you stop and dont see weight loss. Dont give up. Keep cutting down and keep stopping.  You are rehearsing  the behavior which is going to make the difference later.  You are controlling your own eating behavior.  You are stopping when you dont want to stop.


So practice STOPPING!  This really seems to be alot of Dieting/Maintaining in one paragraph.  When we STOP eating when our alloted  Bite Count is eaten and accept it, and make a habit of it, that is when the results come...the results that follow Behavior!


He also says that some poeple have to cut down their bites  as much as 2/3 as what they were originally eating. For me, this is true.  When I was close to 218 pounds, I was eating around 160-200 bites a day. Now around 145 pounds, I am eating 45 bites a day or so to Maintain my wieght. That is  1/4 to 1/3 of What I used to eat.  And I know Reduced Obese poeple that have lose weight, have to eat less to maintain anyway ;)

He says you can follow any diet or Special Diet with the Mouthful eating plan. He says it doesnt matter what you eat, its how much.

He says if you "squander your bites" on high calorie food,   you will have to eat less bites to continue to lose.  He talks of the Salad Loving Neighbor eating 200 bites a day.  So in recap, you can eat Low or High Calorie,  Just lots more bites with Low Calorie!

And it totally makes sense that you can follow any diet while  doing the Counting Bites Program. Low Glycemic Index, Low Carb,  South Beach,  anything. Just dont worry about the calories or serving sizes.

 All you have to do is

1.count your bites and record them,

2. Wiegh regularly and record 

3. evaluate your wieght vs. bites  once a week and change accordingly,
                          A. whether you want to gain, lose, or maintain your wieght
                          B. then you increase, decrease, or keep your bites the same based on A.


So I didnt learn alot of new stuff in the book, but just more proof that it is a legit way of eating. For some reason that made all the difference to me in the beginning when I first got inspiration to Count bites, knowing and reading about how a doctor had  it work for 200 poeple and recomended it as a Lifelong change ect... helped me to want to do it...

Although we probably will NOT be having more children, I think this Counting Bites could also work for pregnancy.  Eating a healthy balanced diet and gaining the perfect amount of weight recomended would be fairly easy with Bite Counting without the hassle of Calorie Counting. In the past, I have gained to the  Obese Range while pregnany, and acted like Pregnancy was a Free-for-all-binge. When in acutality, I was eating far far too much food and I acutally had high blood pressure in the 5th pregnancy in 2013.






Thursday, April 24, 2014

Maintenance Plan for Week 11

Well I am almost to the end of my 5 N day experiment of No Sweets on N days, and I have decided for the time being to go back to the way it was before--allowing sweets anyday of the week. Only I want to try setting a moderate limit to it next week and see how it goes. (No more than 1/3 of my bites or so for each meal for Sweets) (candy, cookies, desserts, p butter)  Sweets is not jelly, yogurt and stuff like that.  If that doesnt work well for me, then I will probably go back to the way it was originally, where I decide how many bites of sweets I shall have and it is basicly unlimted, as long as I am within my bite count. So many experiments!

In the Meantime, I found out that Tryglyceride Fish Oil is about 70% more absorbed than Ethyl Ester Fish oil, at least for some time, so I am trying to change to Nordic Naturals to see if that also helps me more.  I take around 4 grams of EPA, a high dose of fish oil for my mental health. This is my personal choice, along with exercise ect to help boost my mood as a natural alternative
  



Current Weight: 146.6  lbs   Current BMI  23.3

Inside  5 lb Maintenance Range (144.5 to 149.5)

See Goal Range/Trend wieght graphed out here
https://trendweight.com/u/cd1f67ad57c04c/



Week 11 Maintenance Plan....



Monday-Friday (N days): 45 bites
Saturday-Sunday (S days): 55 bites

N day Plan..


7:30 or before Start exercising 4 miles

Meal 1 7-7:30 AM-  7 bites

Meal 2   Noon- 12:15  14 bites

Meal 3  6 PM or when family eats  24 bites

45 bites total



Questions and Comments Welcome!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Maintenance Plan for Week 10


I am trying an experemint next week. I am going to cut out candy, desserts, cookies and peanut butter for my N days. I wonder if it has been making me feel down mentally. Just trying it for one week and see how I feel. This is a one week experemint, just for Monday through Friday. That  is how the NO S diet works, Reinhard says to cut out Sweets on N days (Monday through Friday) and allow yourself treats on S days--Saturday and Sunday. I am going to increase my bite count by 2 this week, because I will be eating  more fruits and veggies and such. On Thursday, I will re-evaluate and see if I want to do it again the next week or go back to my original plan, ect.

So off to the grocery store I go to get stuff for next week N days!


Current Weight: 147.6  lbs   Current BMI  23.5

Inside  5 lb Maintenance Range (144.5 to 149.5)

See Goal Range/Trend wieght graphed out here
https://trendweight.com/u/cd1f67ad57c04c/



Week 9 Maintenance Plan....



Monday-Friday (N days): 48 bites
Saturday-Sunday (S days): 56 bites

N day Plan..


7:30 or before Start exercising 4 miles

Meal 1 7-7:30 AM-  7 bites

Meal 2   Noon- 12:15  16 bites

Meal 3  6 PM or when family eats  25 bites

48 bites total



Questions and Comments Welcome!





Thursday, April 10, 2014

Maintenance Plan for Week 9

I have decided to up my bites by 1 bite each day for this next week. Been doing some Reading in the Maintenance Forums on 3 Fat Chicks, and some poeple notice that they maintain on a lower amount of calories AND sometimes on a little bit higher too, they maintain the exact amount of weight ect.  So I am expereminting to see how it affects my wieght, to add a bit more food. Of course, I am doing it very very very slowly, just one bite this week added to each day.

If I dont like it, then I can go back to what I was doing the next week. Its an Experemint-of-One. 

I had major detox symptoms after trying to eat 3 Tablespoons of Wheat grass a day. I am trying to find a green powder that I can start small and work up slowly that I wont have side effects with

I recieved 2 Readers Digests and they were the wrong ones, so I have almost given up on finding the other bite counting article!  




Current Weight: 145.4  lbs   Current BMI  23.1

Inside  5 lb Maintenance Range (144.5 to 149.5)

See Goal Range/Trend wieght graphed out here
https://trendweight.com/u/cd1f67ad57c04c/



Week 9 Maintenance Plan....



Monday-Friday (N days): 46 bites
Saturday-Sunday (S days): 56 bites

N day Plan..


7:30 or before Start exercising 4 miles

Meal 1 7-7:30 AM-  7 bites

Meal 2   Noon- 12:15  15 bites

Meal 3  6 PM or when family eats  24 bites

46 bites total



Questions and Comments are Welcome! 

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Interesting Article about Counting bites

I recently found an Old Article I want to share here about counting bites. 

I do not agree with the whole article, but it does bring out some good points about varying flavors in your meals and the part about the bites. I always think Bite Counting articles are interesting and noteworthy.  2 fists of food at each meal I feel is probably too much for alot of poeple, but nevertheless, ithe article is worth looking at!

The ladies who promoted this way of eating recomended 15-18 bites per meal. They also recomend having Variety with your meals, and having 3-5 distinct tastes  at every meal.     


I do this naturally myself! I crave Variety, lots of Variety. Often a bite or two of something is enough and I am off to enjoy the next delicious flavor of something else. Easy to do while counting bites and Eating slowly! 

We dont need to shovel 15 bites of  anything in my mouth to "Taste" it.  By Eating Slowly, about a minute between each  bite  I can savor each flavor and I am ready  alot of times to move on to the next flavor/food after a few bites. Try it!

Also the part in the article about Not Stretching the Stomach is very important! If we dont stretch our stomachs, if we keep them tiny pouches by counting bites, it keeps our Hunger Hormones low and we feel full on a small amount of food. A similar principle why Stomach Stapling Surgery helps poeple eat less food, and they want to keep their pouch from stretching back out again too, by keeping their portions small.
 

Quote from http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19870524&id=licxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5QIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3532,7570004


"A Two-Fisted Diet Idea"

A Pair of New York Nutritionists suggests a unique way to limit food intake. Meredith Luce Hoblock and Joan Briebart believe in the two-fisted diet Self Magazine says. 

According to this plan, Dieters can eat anything they want, as long as they consume no more than two cups of solid food at any meal.

A cup of food is roughly the size of a clenched fist, ergo the two-fisted label

The two cup standard is important because it provides sufficient nutrition without stretching your stomach. 

Two cups of food equals about 15-18 normal bites, the nutritionist continue.

So if you dont care to measure food moniter intake that way. And by the way, limit those desserts to more than three bites. 

A good way to satisfy your appetite without having to loosen your belt is to vary the flavors of the foods you eat.   Mesdames Hoblock and Briebart say that there should be at least three to five distinct tastes in every meal.   
  

Maintenance Plan for Week 8

It's that time again! 45 bites seems to be about perfect for now, and figuring in that I want to have a Capital S day (almost no restricitons on bites ect....a free day) next week on April 12th , 45 bites  N days/ 55 bites S days seems to still be about right for this next week. My plan includes 1 Capital S day a month. My last one was March 1st, and I havent had one in April so hope to take a Capital S day on the 12th.  

I have changed my goal wieght to 147 pounds for the next 12 weeks or so. So that Changes my Maintenance Range to 1 pound lower on both ends. I am comfortable moving my goal back and forth as I please As long as I always keep my goal 150 pounds or under   

My dad measured me when we went to Ohio to visit them and I am around 5 feet 6 1/2 inches, not 5 feet 6. He also measured my 11 year old son and my son is 1/16 of an inch taller than me  ;)   So my BMI is lower than I thought!  I know, I know 1/2 inch doesnt make a huge difference but still! :)



I ordered the 1978 October Reader's Digest. There is supposed to be another article about Bite Counting in one of those old Reader's Digests! I read about it online in an old Newspaper. So hopefully the October issue is the right one. 


Current Weight: 145  lbs   Current BMI  23.1

Inside  5 lb Maintenance Range (144.5 to 149.5)

See Goal Range/Trend wieght graphed out here
https://trendweight.com/u/cd1f67ad57c04c/



Week 8 Maintenance Plan....



Monday-Friday (N days): 45 bites
Saturday-Sunday (S days): 55 bites

N day Plan..


7:30 or before Start exercising 4 miles

Meal 1 7-7:30 AM-  7 bites

Meal 2   Noon- 12:15  14 bites

Meal 3  6 PM or when family eats  24 bites

45 bites total



Questions and Comments are Welcome!