This simple ritual will help you control your calorie intake

If you think about our life consists of repetitive moments. Morning coffee, brushing teeth, work, training in the gym - all this for us a kind of ritual to which we are accustomed. Psychologists say that they contribute to the development of good habits and let feel in control of their own lives.

Kind of evidence that rituals help us to become more disciplined, it is Confucianism, to give them a lot of attention. Not surprisingly, Asians belong to ritualized Eastern cultures have great skills of self-control than people of Western cultures.

Francesca Gino, behavioral analyst and professor at the center of business administration at Harvard Business School.

A group of researchers from Berkeley, Harvard and Chicago University claim to have found a strange (and looking pretty pointless) a ritual that helps to reduce daily caloric intake. The results of their researchEnacting rituals to improve self-control published in the edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, but distillation can be read on the website Scientific American.

Scientists conducted an experiment among the graduate students who wish to grow thin. All are kept the same physical activity in the gym, but the first half of the subjects was fed as usual, and the second applied ritual before each meal.

And although the ritual does not require subjects to limit the number of calories consumed, and indeed, according to the scientists, was invented by them at random, he has had the expected impact.

Participants in the experiment, to perform a ritual before a meal, as a result of consuming fewer calories (on average, about 1424 calories per day) compared to those who ate normally (about 1648 calories daily). Furthermore, the first and consumed less fatty foods and Sahara.

So, here he miracle ritual:

• Before you start eating, cut it into small pieces.
• Symmetrical lay slices on a plate.
• Finally, press three times with a fork or a spoon on each piece.

It gives madness? But paradoxically, this ritual works. At least, so say the researchers. However, there is a small flaw to control with the help of the volume absorbed soups you will not work for obvious reasons. However, nothing prevents you to develop your ritual for liquid food.

Decided to try out the ritual on himself? Tell us about the results in the comments.

see also

• How easily reduced calorie diet and lose weight →
• 20 ways to consume fewer calories without straining →
• How to lose weight and maintain weight without counting calories →