How The "Barbie" Movie Can Help You Lose Weight
Takeaway: Sensory-specific satiety is the sensation of feeling greater fullness as you eat greater amounts of the same food. Greater variety of flavors and foods leads to greater levels of consumption. Here are some strategies to help you leverage this principle for easier weight loss.
How The "Barbie" Movie Can Help You Lose Weight
Some Hollywood History
Barbenheimer, the tongue-in-cheek mash-up referring to the same-day release of two polar opposite movies—Barbie and Oppenheimer—takes a page out of the Hollywood playbook known as counterprogramming.
Counterprogramming is when very different films are released on the same day to attract wider audiences. For example, an action flick might be released the same day as an animated children’s movie, which gives dads something to do and increases the chances their child’s nagging actually works to get the family to the movie theater.
Or, a new rom-com is released the same day as a new marvel movie so that moms can sneak away and spare themselves the inevitable “nerd-out” of their husbands.
The principle is simple: offer something for everyone so that nobody feels like they lost and everyone has a good time. (Ensuring that everyone in the family wants to come back to the theater someday soon.)
From Air Bud To Taste Bud
Interestingly, our palates do something very similar with our taste buds. In nutrition, the equivalent of counterprogramming is called sensory-specific satiety.
Sensory-specific satiety is the sensation of feeling greater fullness as you eat greater amounts of the same food. With every bite of your salad, for example, each subsequent bite gets less flavorful, and therefore, less pleasurable.
The same is true of your bowl of ice cream. If you pay attention the next time you eat ice cream, the first bite is always the best, followed by the second, so on and so forth until you get to your very last bite, which probably doesn’t taste like much at all.
Counterprogramming in Hollywood ensures no family member is left bored or resentful for being dragged to the movie theater. Offer greater variety and make more people happy. The same principle is true if we apply the inverse of sensory-specific satiety—the more flavors and sensations you introduce to your mouth, the greater number of tastebuds you make happy.
This is why you always seem to have room for dessert, no matter how full you are from dinner. the change in flavors, textures, and sensations stimulates and renews your appetite, giving you room to eat more.
Greater variety of flavors and foods leads to greater levels of consumption.
This is why it’s easier to overeat at a buffet than during a normal meal with only a few choices.
Leverage The Power of Easy
How can you apply this principle of sensory-specific satiety into your life to enhance fat loss?
The answer: reduce the variety of foods present in your diet.
Practically, this could involve a few strategies:
Simplify your weekly meal plan to just a few different types of meals. Having recurring foods in your diet can help you eat less and become satisfied sooner. Not to mention it saves you time in your meal prep.
Avoid small nibbles of things throughout the day. These otherwise harmless bites of food throughout the day—a handful of chips in passing through the kitchen or dipping the tip of the spoon in the peanut butter, for example—can make you hungrier by stimulating and refreshing your appetite.
Eat all of one food on your plate before moving onto the next in a single meal. If you have steak, potatoes, and vegetables on your plate for dinner, eat all of one food then move onto the next until you are satisfied. (Instead of jumping from bite to bite: steak, potatoes, vegetables, steak, potatoes, etc.) This may help you leverage sensory-specific satiety and reach fullness sooner by reducing the variety of textures and flavors within the meal.
Avoid buffets and all-you-can-eat establishments.
How these strategies look for me:
My breakfast and lunch is always the same meal.
Breakfast is some sort of yogurt parfait with fruit, granola, and a drizzle of honey. Sometimes I’ll swap the granola and honey for chocolate chips and a drizzle of sugar-free chocolate syrup. Lunch is almost always a wrap with ham or turkey, cheese, greens, and mustard.
These meals hardly change from day to day, and leave me satisfied and contribute nicely to my nutrition goals for the day.
I avoid small nibbles throughout the day mostly by not stocking food in my house that can be nibbled on.
I don’t keep “snack” foods around, and don’t have much that doesn’t require at least some level of effort to prepare. If it’s not there you can’t eat it. This may not be realistic for those with children in the home, in which case I recommend keeping these snack foods toward the back of the cupboard or somewhere out of sight that, again, requires at least some level of effort to reach.
When I sit down for a meal with different foods on my plate, here is the order in which I will default to consuming each:
I’ll start with the vegetables. They’re going to be the lowest in calories and will act to take the edge off my hunger levels so I’m not rushing through the rest of my meal and overeating before I can even realize. Eating the vegetables first lets me slow down for everything else.
Next up is my protein source. I know that protein is important and can also be quite filling. Here I begin to slow down and savor the flavors. By the end, I’m usually most of the way satisfied with my meal.
Finally, I’ll turn my attention to the starchy carb on my plate. IF I finish what’s left, I can be assured that I won’t want any extra. Usually, especially at restaurants, I won’t even finish what’s there because I’m already full from the vegetables and protein. Nevertheless, I’m still afforded a few bites in to enjoy the flavor and taste of the carby goodness.
Lastly, I avoid buffets at all costs. Danger zone.
One Perspective Shift That Helped Me Enjoy More Dessert
Another way we can leverage the concept of sensory-specific satiety is to shift your perspective on the purpose of dessert.
We can all agree that dessert foods are not meant for our main sustenance. You don’t eat these sweets and treats for nourishment. You eat them for pleasure.
Once you accept this fact, then you can recognize that these foods are entirely about the flavor. Sensory-specific satiety means you get less pleasure with each subsequent bite.
Once I paid attention to this, I begun to be satisfied with most desserts after a few bites. I no longer felt compelled to have heaping portions of these foods, because I could tell when the pleasure started to fade.
The best part of reducing dessert to a few bites? You can afford to have dessert more often. A giant 800-calorie brownie is a big commitment and not great for your health or your health goals. Not to mention a bit overkill. But just a bite or two—much more manageable.
Next time you have dessert, really focus on how the flavor changes (or diminishes) after your first few bites.
This perspective shift is a game changer for moderating your dessert intake.
Less Is More
If you want more control over your calorie intake, then you can leverage sensory-specific satiety to your benefit by reducing meal variety.
Less options leads to less appetite stimulation, and that results in less overeating.
One last note: Please don’t ever use Barbie as a role model for anything health-related. That doll did more to screw up young girls’ perceptions of their bodies than the movie Final Destination did to screw up Millennials driving behind a truck of logs on the highway.
~ Coach Alex
P.S. This Sunday, July 30th, at 2pm EST I am hosting a live webinar where I will pull back the curtain on A-Team Fitness’ Food Freedom Framework.
What is the Food Freedom Framework?
It’s a unique approach to nutrition that teaches you to understand what matters when it comes to fat loss so that you lose more weight, make fat loss easy, and be able to enjoy your favorite treats without fad diets or gimmicks.
Who is the Food Freedom Framework for?
> Men & Women Who Struggle To Stay Consistent With A Traditional Diet
> Successful Dieters Who Have Trouble Keeping The Weight Off Once It's Gone
> Frustrated Dieters Who Are Confused About What The Best Plan Is For Fast Fat Loss
This webinar is free to attend. If you want to find a better way to reach your weight loss goals that allows you the freedom to:
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You do not want to miss this!
To register your spot, click the button down below. I do plan to keep the group small to protect the quality and intimacy of the experience, so don’t wait.
See you on Sunday, July 30th, 2pm EST!