Mindful eating is the best way to lose weight
Eating with awareness makes us stop when we’re full, thus producing weight loss.
<
(3 of 3)
Next argument >
Context
With skyrocketing obesity rates in America and the world as a whole, people are becoming desperate to find a diet that works. Buddhist monks have practiced mindful eating for centuries, but the practice only recently became popular in America.
The Argument
Mindful eating is the practice of eating food slowly, savoring your meal and eating it with heightened awareness. [1] Whereas diets make people focus on the limits of what they can eat, mindful eating simply encourages people to stop when they’re full.
Our bodies sense fullness slowly, so by eating more slowly, we end up eating less. Less food results in a lowered caloric intake. As a result, mindful eating produces weight loss. Experts state that this practice is “highly likely” to result in weight loss without forcing persons to adhere to any specific dietary rules.
Because this practice can be so easily applied without altering one’s diet, people are more likely to stick to it. Diets result in short-term weight loss that tends to be regained, whereas a practice like mindful eating results in permanent weight loss.[2] This makes mindful eating a better way to lose weight than any traditional diet.
Counter arguments
Mindful eating does not necessarily result in lowered caloric intake. Although it may make people eat more slowly, they could be savoring rich, calorically dense foods, thus producing an increase in calorie intake. Since fullness is a subjective feeling, some people may continue to overeat.
Eating mindfully is a good practice, but it’s not a diet. Diets are essential for weight loss because without them people have no structure to guide them in reducing their caloric intake. Mindful eating can accompany a traditional diet, or be a way to maintain weight loss, but it is unlikely to produce weight loss when practiced by itself.
Framing
[P1] Eating slowly is a part of mindful eating.
[P2] Eating slowly lets us accurately sense when we're full.
[P3] Stopping as soon as you're full results in eating less.
[P4] People who practice mindful eating will eat less.