Psychological weight loss hacks

Psychological Hacks To Trick Your Brain to Lose More Weight

4 min read

|

29 Sep 2023

What you'll learn in this blog

  1. Use Red Plates
  2. Choose Smaller Plates
  3. Cut Food Into Smaller Pieces
  4. Chew Slowly And Thoroughly
  5. Chew Gum
  6. Eat With Your Nose
  7. Drink Water
  8. Using Your Brain To Your Advantage

Losing weight and burning fat isn’t just about using your body, it also happens in the mind. 

Intrigued? Here are some hacks and hints you can try to trick your brain by using psychology to your advantage. 

Read on to build healthy habits and make better decisions.

Pick the right restaurant

This isn’t just about choosing places with healthy options on the menu (although that, obviously, is crucial), it’s about the subtle psychology behind the restaurant itself. 

For example, soft lighting and mellow background music can lead to a 20% reduction in calorie consumption as you’ll be more relaxed and want to savor your meal. 

The same goes for more expensive foods: people tend to take time to appreciate their meals instead of wolfing them down.

Use red plates

red plate

Amazingly, people who eat from red plates tend to consume fewer calories than people who eat from white, green or blue plates. 

One theory behind this is the natural association we have between the color red and caution or stopping, making you subconsciously stop eating sooner as a result.

Choose smaller plates

Color isn’t the only plate-based trick you can use to eat less. Smaller ceramics can also help with portion control as you’ll pile less food onto your plate.

Choosing a smaller plate will make you feel like you’ve had a plateful when you’re finished. Your brain and stomach will be satisfied, stopping you from overeating in the process.

Cut food into smaller pieces

Another way to convince yourself that you’ve eaten more without actually doing so is to make bite-sized pieces of bigger foods. 

Try cutting your sandwich into quarters instead of halves, just like when you were little. 

Likewise, cut your fruit into individual slices instead of eating from a whole apple or banana. You’ll feel fuller than usual as it feels like you’ve eaten more of a certain food.

Chew slowly and thoroughly

You’ll also feel ‘stomach satisfied’ much faster if you really take the time to chew your food. 

Doing so not only aids digestion—it also feels like you’ve actually been eating. On the flipside, gobbling down your dinner without it touching the sides can feel like you haven’t eaten much at all, mentally speaking.

Chew gum

woman eating chewing gum

In a similar way to the last tip, chewing gum can satisfy hunger somewhat by convincing your brain that you’ve eaten more than you have. 

Your jaw goes through all the motions it does to chew up food, but without consuming calories. 

This is an especially good hack to try whenever you’ve had a healthy meal replacement shake instead of a solid meal.

woman drinking meal shake

Eat with your nose

Not literally, of course. Don’t go stuffing fries up your nostrils or anything like that. 

Just take the time to smell your food first. Taste and smell are intrinsically linked, so this can take away some of your hunger before you’ve even started eating. 

Sniffing scents like banana, peppermint, vanilla, and garlic when you’re hungry can even reduce your cravings throughout the day—despite potentially making you drool.

Drink water

Often when you feel hungry, you’re really just dehydrated. If you feel the urge to snack during the day, drink a glass of water and wait a few minutes. 

You’ll likely find that your cravings subside as your brain is now satisfied because it got what it really needed. 

Likewise, drinking a full glass of water before each meal will fill you up slightly so that you eat less, consuming fewer calories in the process.

Using your brain to your advantage

bright idea

Your brain is incredibly powerful, but it loves a shortcut—that’s why these kinds of hacks work so well. 

If your brain can take a quicker route to a particular outcome while using previous experience or similarities to achieve a goal, then it will do so. 

Why? Well, because that way, your brain can conserve energy and not have to work as hard. That’s efficient.

This is great news as it means you can use these quirks to your advantage and guide your brain in the direction you want it to go to achieve your weight loss goals.

The tips in this guide are easy and can give you a quick edge when it comes to burning fat and consuming fewer calories. 

But, for an even bigger boost to weight loss, the ultimate hack is to supplement your diet with PhenQ

This tried and tested supplement raises your metabolism for faster fat-burning while suppressing your appetite and reducing food cravings.

Using PhenQ alongside a healthy diet, more exercise, and some smart psychological hacks will get your body, as well as your brain, working towards the same goal.

That way, you’ll speed up your rate of weight loss for seriously impressive results in a shorter space of time. 

It’s a win-win.