If you want to lengthen your life, you have to shorten your meals.

The fastest way to kill yourself is by eating more.

Continuously eating much food exhausts your digestive system by giving it no rest and keeping the other organs of your body working.

Akin to machines, these organs also have their lifespan.

By wear and tear, they also deteriorate through time.

Therefore, consider these 8 ways on how to convince your body that it needs less food.

1. Start with your mind.

Everything is a matter of mindset.

This includes your eating habits.

Your body can always adjust to whatever you give it.

All you need is to convince your mind that you can do it.

Mind over matter.

This still works.

If you want to really taper down on the amount of food intake, you should speak with your mind, reason out with it and set it to do according to what you want to be done.

Possessing control over your mind makes it easier for you to attain your goal faster.

Make yourself believe that what you are doing is for the good of your body and nothing else.

2. Eat less, taste more.

Eat less food and taste more.

This is what Zen Wellness believes as zen eating.

One thing that you battle with when you are eating is greed.

How so?

This is because when you see the food you love on the table, your mind tends to condition itself to have more of that food.

More food makes you eat fast.

However, what you are satisfying when you eat is not really the mind, but the physiologic need of the body to sustain itself.

So when you eat, don’t put too much of everything on your plate.

Get less of what you want to try and savor it.

Let the flavor play and linger in your mouth.

3. Eat only when you are hungry.

Listen to your body.

Don’t just blindly follow that 3-meals-a-day tradition.

Your body is in the best state to determine when it needs food or not.

You see, that 3-meals-a-day tradition is another mind conditioning thing.

Therefore, you tend to eat even when you’re not hungry.

Hunger, in its real sense, is the body’s cry for more nutrients as its supply is not sufficient to sustain the physical activities anymore.

Don’t eat when your body does not need it yet.

Listen carefully and supply only when it is needed.

This way, you are answering based on your bodily needs, not based on what traditional eating habits dictate.

4. It’s a matter of hydration.

Do you know what the body does when cells need energy?

Don’t answer immediately and say, “It signals the brain to feel hungry.”

Well, that’s not what really happens, when your cells need energy, it uses up the energy stored in the excess fats of your body; thus, you can really last a day without food.

So when you think you are hungry shortly after eating, don’t grab a doughnut immediately.

That’s probably your hypothalamus telling you that you need to hydrate.

Therefore, drink water instead.

You will be surprised when your “hunger” feeling is satisfied.

So before you grab a bite, drink first.

You’ll be surprised because it does wonders.

5. Chew your food properly.

Have you ever heard about the Chewing Diet?

This was introduced by Horace Fletcher as a diet method by chewing food 32-80 times then spitting out the residue.

Myth or not, this could work.

However, you don’t need to spit out what’s left after chewing.

Chewing your food properly facilitates easier and faster digestion which enhances faster and easier absorption of nutrients by the body.

When this happens, the body signals the brain that what it needs is already given, leading the brain to feel satisfied.

Plus, chewing your food 32-80 times makes you eat slowly.

It can make you eat less as well.

6. Reason with your cravings.

Cravings are temporary.

Satisfying them also has temporary results especially if your cravings are for sweet snacks like chocolates and ice cream.

According to Eat Right Now, cravings are associated with food addiction which is a brain issue.

Every time you eat something sweet or salty, “feel good” chemicals are released by the brain.

Thus, you tend to long for it again.

Remember, the primary purpose of eating is not to satisfy the brain but to supply for the physiologic needs of the body.

So before you give in to your cravings, reason out first.

Is it really going to give your body what it needs?

7. Do what’s best for your body.

Eating is a health issue, not an addiction or feel good issue.

Therefore, eat what you need, not what you want.

Give in to hunger if your body really needs it to sustain itself, not just to satisfy temporary cravings that could cause you to store extra fats.

Listen carefully to what your body is telling you and respond accurately.

Your body has a built-in system of functioning.

Hunger, thirst, and others are just signals that some nutrients are needed inside that should be supplied by food or water.

Always choose to respond right when it comes to your health.

8. Choose to live a healthy lifestyle.

There are some absolutes in health that you just cannot break like eating nutritious food, brushing your teeth, exercising regularly and having enough sleep.

In short, you should always choose to live a healthy lifestyle if you want to live long.

Besides, you lose everything when you lose your health.

You endanger your life when you compromise on the basics of a healthy lifestyle.

It’s true that healthy foods are not that delicious as compared to your favorite sweets, but that’s what your body needs.

The good thing is that you eat lesser when you eat healthy “not delicious” food.

Conclusion

Your body does not survive only with food.

It only responds to how you condition it.

Condition it to eat less and you’ll survive with it.

You just need to convince your brain that you need less food than what you actually partake.

Besides, eating less is saving your life as you do not tire out your organs in digesting what you put inside.

So before eating today, talk to your mind.

You’ve got a conditioning to make.

Did you know that even a whiff of freshly baked cookies might be responsible for your weight?

Or even though, you didn’t touch those Cinnamon Buns at work, just smelling them nullified your effort at the gym today.

Yes, you read it right, smelling food can make you gain weight.

It might sound absurd to you at first, but in a recent study published by Cell Metabolism, researchers of UC-Berkeley have claimed that the sense of smell impacts our metabolism and results in obesity. 

Our weight largely depends on two factors – our food intake and energy expenditure.

Maintaining a balance between them is no easy task, and our brain is at the center giving directions to organs as well as neuronal inputs.

We are designed to respond to these inputs for survival and healthy living.

The study which was conducted on mice revealed how the olfactory sense is related to metabolism.

These inputs play a crucial role in determining what to store and what to expand.

Researchers observed that mice with an enhanced sense of smell gained more weight than the control group on the same diet.

Here are the 10 ways in which smelling food can cause you to gain weight:

1. Impact on metabolism:

We all usually have a skinny friend who doesn’t get fat, no matter what they eat.

With this new revelation on the role of smell in determining the metabolic rate, we might have a partial answer.

Energy released by our body depends on olfactory inputs as well.

You might be craving for carbs if you are on a controlled diet, therefore heightening your sense of smell.

Slow metabolism is a result of the brain deciding to store fat rather than burn it off.

2. Urge to eat more:

Cookies, fresh bread, fried chicken, apple pie, popcorn, and steak, there is one thing in common to these mouth-watering dishes.

These food items smell fantastic!

It becomes difficult to stop ourselves from taking a bite.

The bite then becomes two, and before you know it you have gorged in on four pieces of fried chicken!

Yes, smelling these food items is what caused you to eat more than you wanted to.

It is what makes them so tempting, a dual assault on your taste buds and sense of smell.

3. Crave for calories:

Despite the effort to achieve that fitness goal we have been chasing after since long, we often go weak in our knees.

The concept of a cheat day is quite popular, and we decide it is okay to have a good meal once in a while.

This craving for calorie-loaded food is partially decided by our olfactory senses.

You might have noticed that nothing on your diet plan smells great.

When we go days without pleasing our sense of smell, it demands attention.

It sends stimuli to our brains to get what it needs.

Thus, forcing us to add food that smells great to our diet.

4. Skip on water:

We are primarily made up of water, an adult’s 50-65% body weight is water.

Yet, we need a mobile application to remind us to drink water.

Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to keep up with your daily intake goal?

What if water was not odorless?

We tend to pay more attention to items for which we get positive input from multiple senses.

Water gets no support from olfactory or taste receptors.

Water suppresses our appetite.

If you are trying to lose weight, have it in plenty.

You can also avoid liquid calories by drinking more water.

However, in this case, it’s the lack of smell that is impacting your weight.

5. Suppress brown fat burning:

Not all body fat is the same.

White fat is the primary fat of our body and it surrounds the internal organs, whereas, brown fat is present as several small fat droplets and is concentrated in some regions.

White fat acts as an energy reserve, while brown fat burns easily.

We need exercise to convert white fat to brown, and mind you, it is not an easy task.

When we smell good food, our olfactory input to the brain conveys a message that you are comfortable.

We believe it, and we relax.

The nerve system that governs the flight-or-fight stimuli goes into slumber, and with it the brown-fat burning program as well.

6. Tempt for favorite food:

According to research published by the Oxford Academic, obese individuals have higher preference and sensitivity to the odor of chocolate.

Energy-dense food attracts these individuals.

We can safely say, that it is the taste and smell appeal of a food item that brings it to our list of favorites.

It brings along an uncontrollable desire to consume the food.

The aroma of coffee is a classic example, and a coffee connoisseur sometimes operates solely on this sense.

7. Imagine food smells:

A lot of us associate the pleasure of food to its smell.

We might not be able to get that great aroma everywhere, but we sure do remember how it made us feel.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is correlated to how well you can imagine food smell, revealed research at the Yale School of Medicine.

Imagining food and food smell triggers craving in human beings; these cravings encourage food consumption.

In conclusion, it’s not just smelling food that impacts the weight, but also the thought of it.

8. Resist nutritious food:

We dread having broccoli as kids, and we desire peanut-butter sandwiches.

We are often asked to gulp that glass of milk while covering the nose.

An interesting observation is that no food in our diet plan prompts us to sniff it once.

Smelling food that tastes good, in turn, makes us resistant to nutritious food that lack the odor appeal.

Over time, our intake of nuts, grains and green vegetables is expected to fall.

9. Stress and food:

Each one of us gets stressed once in a while.

We might be religiously following the diet, but stress can prompt us to skip the regime.

Imagine you are just out of a stressful meeting, and you enter the cafeteria.

With the aroma of pizza wafting through the air, we are most likely to give ourselves a break and go for that calorie-loaded slice in this scenario.

The mere knowledge of this possibility is bound to make you think twice next time you find yourself in this situation.

10. Motivation:

Undoubtedly motivation to workout is scarce to find.

Every time you push yourself at the gym, you wish for immediate results.

While all good things require patience, it becomes difficult to find the right motivation or rather sustainable motivation.

Smelling food tampers with this motivation and can be an enemy to your waistline.

Conclusion:

There is still a long way to go in determining the scientific implication of this finding in the human world.

Can we imagine a world where some people will have their olfactory senses suppressed to help them deal with obesity?

Or where those who are underweight can benefit from a heightened sense of smell?

Further research in this field could be ground-breaking.

It will impact the way we perceive food and provide an answer to why the same fitness regime works for a few.

Meanwhile, you may ponder on the question – to smell or not to smell?

Don’t let a tight schedule stand between you and your body fitness goals.

We don’t really have the whole day to hit the gym.

In fact, some people are so busy that they can only afford like an hour or less for working out.

Even if you had all the time, you don’t really need to hit the gym for the whole day.

An hour or less should be enough to burn that fat you want to cut off.

Finding the right work out to do should, therefore, be taken care of.

Here are a few 30-minute fat-burning workouts that will fit your busy schedule.

1. The barbell deadlift

You can do this in 10 sets each having 10 reps.

No rest should be taken between the reps.

This is a simple but worth it workout.

With your hands shoulder width apart, grab a barbell in a squatting position.

Keep the chest up and pull your shoulders towards the back and look straight to the wall ahead of you.

Lift up the bar and remember to keep your breathing relaxed.

What you should be focusing on in this workout is taking the weight down back to your feet and keeping the bar as close to your trunk as possible.

Lift the weight to your thigh level, hold your breath, pause and then return it slowly to the start position at your feet.

Be careful not to crush your feet with the barbell.

By the time the 30 minutes elapse, you will have burned more than enough calories.

2. Kettlebell swings

A crazy 30-minute fat-burning workout.

10 sets with 10 reps without rest will do.

Choose a kettlebell, around 16 to 32 kg and place it right ahead of you on the floor.

Stand next to it with your feet slightly spread apart (shoulder width).

Slowly bend your knees and grab the kettlebell tightly between both hands.

Keeping your back flat, pull the weight slowly between your legs to create a swing.

Be very careful with the kettlebell, it can be very detrimental if it hits your knees.

Push the hips forward and with zeal, pull the weight upwards to around shoulder height with your arms straight ahead of your trunk.

Return the weight to the start and repeat the swing.

I bet you can already feel the sweat dripping. 

3. Burpee workouts

Just like the kettlebell swings and the barbell deadlift, this workout is done in 10 sets with 10 reps each, making it a total of 100 reps.

There is no rest between the reps.

From an initial standing position, slowly squat down until your thighs get the right to the floor.

Kick your feet back to the best of your ability keeping both your arms extended.

Immediately when your limbs land, jump them back towards the hands and then make a leap into the air.

Immediately when you land, assume a squatting position and repeat this for the given sets and reps.

It may sound simple because no weights are involved, but trust me it may even work better than lifting weights.

4. Press-ups (diamond)

Press-ups aren’t just press-ups.

If you do the normal press-ups, you might spend the whole day in the gym without even feeling your biceps stretch an inch.

Diamond press-ups are the ultimate press-ups.

10 sets with 10 reps can be done very well in about 30 minutes.

It’s as easy as 1,2,3 because all you have do is to get to a normal press-up position.

In this case, bring your arms together and shape your thumbs and index fingers into a diamond shape.

With your back straight and parallel to the floor, slowly lower your body till your chest is about an inch above the floor.

Push your chest back towards the top and repeat the reps to the end.

You can take 1-minute breaks between the sets and during those breaks, you can choose to do some repo skips.

This will be better for you.

5. Bent over barbell rows

For a maximum of 30 minutes, 10 sets with 10 reps each would be enough.

For this workout, there is a break between the sets.

However, this break should not be more than 90 seconds.

The barbell is grabbed tightly with your legs slightly apart.

Keep your legs a little bent, your back straight, and the upper body very straight as well.

In short, your upper body should appear to be forming perpendicular with the floor.

Lift the weight slowly upwards close to your chest, pause, hold your breath and then slowly lower it back to the initial position.

Take advantage of the breaks to catch some breath.

Make sure you don’t bend your back for this might lead to permanent injuries.

6. Single leg deadlift rows

This is a workout that is more recommended for women who are beginners in working out.

It’s done in 10 reps that are done for either side.

Grab a dumbbell, or even a kettlebell with your left hand and shift the weight into the right leg.

Bend your knee slightly and perform a slight hinge towards the front at your hips and allow the left foot to raise up straight, anterior to the hip.

Lower your trunk until it gets to a parallel position with the floor.

Do this until you feel your right hamstring stretch a bit.

Bend your left elbow towards the ceiling and bring the kettlebell close to the chest.

In the meantime, keep your belly drawn inwards towards your spine.

Extend the left arm back to a straight position and as you return to a standing position, keep your glutes engaged.

With that, you’ll be done with the first rep.

Repeat the same for 10 reps on both sides.

Conclusion

The goal of working out isn’t just really to burn fat.

We also work out to keep fit and achieve flexibility.

The above 30-minute fat-burning workouts can also be helpful if at all you want to gain a flexible body.

You should however be very careful not to injure yourself during working out.

If you chose to go to a gym, make a good choice and make sure the instructor is quite resourceful.