3 weight loss tips for today’s edition of 3 Tips Friday. 3 tips you can take action on right here and right now and get a 3 day jump on your buddy who always says “I’ll start on Monday”. This edition of the weight loss tips is about how to improve digestion for weight loss.
Digestion of food is the most energy consuming thing your body does. It’s the same reason you hear your mom say “wait one hour after eating before swimming”. It’s not because you’ll get cramps, it’s because your body has sent so much blood to your stomach to do the work of digestion that you will have less energy for swimming.
Let me ask you this: If you don’t get the nutrition out of the food you’re eating, why are you eating it? That’s the whole point isn’t it? Making a few simple changes to how you eat, you can then assimilate all the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fats, enzymes and protein of which your body is built.
Chew Each Bite Of Food At Least 30 Times – Digestion starts in the mouth. It’s where the breakdown of the food first occurs. Our saliva mixes with our food during the chewing process, but only if you keep it in your mouth for awhile. If you make an effort to slow down and chew each bite of food at least 30 times, you not only take a great deal of effort off the stomach in breaking down the food, you also mix the food with your saliva, further enhancing the digestion process.
Remember, digestion of food is the most energy consuming thing your body does. Help out your stomach by chewing your food, turning it into a mush with your teeth and mixing it with your saliva. Improve your digestion, release more energy, get more nutrition out of your food and you may find that you drop a few pounds and feel better. Do this for 21 days, anchor the habit and record your results.
Eat Your Meal Slowly – By simply slowing down, your stomach has time to tell your brain that it’s full. You don’t have to finish all the food on your plate either. When you’re full, you’re full.
Never Eat To Capacity – Have you ever seen a picture of your stomach? Your stomach is a muscle that churns your food along with the digestive juices it cranks out. Your stomach needs room for this churning to take place and if it’s full to capacity, proper digestion wont take place. Remember, digestion is very energy consuming. The energy you save could better be put to cleaning your body, burning fat or for workouts at the gym.
Think of your stomach in thirds. One third food, one third liquid and one third empty for the digestion process. You’ll be much better off, be able to digest your food completely and get full nutritional value from it if it’s completely digested. Oh, and all that farting? That is partly due to undigested food being broken down in your colon. Digest your food completely and you may notice that you reduce your bloating and farting (oh, excuse me.. I meant flatulence). Do this for 21 days to create the new habit and anchor it. Record the results.
Have a weight loss tip? Leave it in the comments. Have a look at previous weight loss tips and other tips from the 3 Tips Friday section of this website.
Rob,
Awesome site, tons of solid articles. Here is another good tip to help aid digestion… Make sure you wait to drink liquids for at least 15 minutes after a meal. Too much liquid before or during a meal dilutes the digestive enzymes in your stomach, and makes it much harder for your body to digest food.
I advise a 2 hour wait after eating before drinking any fluids. The stomach is digesting for 2 hours, not just 15 minutes.
Waiting longer does make sense Rob… I’ve heard all kinds of different things, and based my 15 minute recommendation on the advise of my nutritionist. I searched around a little and couldn’t find any studies with conclusive evidence.
I did find this recommendation by Dr Rosemary Stanton which I thought was quite interesting:
“Some people think that drinking with meals will dilute the acid in the stomach and impede digestion. However, acid is secreted by the cells in the walls of the stomach as it is needed and drinking liquids is not a problem for stomach acid. In any case, the stomach’s main role is to mix foods and release small amounts into the small intestine where most of the digestion occurs.”
What are your thoughts on the validity of this?
Adam
For me it’s always about personal experience. I hear the idea (or see it), then apply it. It’s then about my personal experience.
I notice that if I drink too many fluids after a meal, my digestion seems to take longer.
I guess I have to prove the idea to myself.
and I’ll be perfectly frank – I don’t always stick to the rule.
This is an interesting article on weight loss. Knowing more about food digestion may help.
The Process Of Food Digestion – A Fascinating Story
How food gets converted into nutrients
When food is solid we chew it. We swallow it if it is liquid. Then it goes down our throats. It is interesting to learn what happens to food in entire digestive track and how our food habits influence our health, fitness and wellness…….
Read more here :
http://www.health-fitness-wellness.com/The-Process-Of-Food-Digestion-A-Fascinating-Story.html
Pradeep Mahajan