Keep in mind, a night off from cooking and ordering takeout or making a frozen meal is a totally acceptable part of the menu plan. The benefit is knowing ahead that you'll be doing that so you're not scrounging when hunger sets in.

And be sure to write down the plan — you're more likely to stick to it if it's in front of you as a reminder. Jessica Levinson, MS, RDN, CDN , a culinary nutrition and communications dietitian based in Westchester County, New York. Knowing in advance what you need to purchase at the supermarket will save you time, reduce food waste, and prevent you from purchasing items that look appealing but you don't actually need.

To stick with your list, avoid shopping when hungry. Research shows an increase in impulsive behavior at that time. Some staple ingredients I recommend having in your pantry, fridge, and freezer are low-sodium canned beans, canned fish, tomato sauce, whole-grain pasta, quinoa , brown rice, low-sodium stock, low-fat plain yogurt, a variety of fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, olive oil, and dried herbs and spices.

These are just some of the ingredients that can form the base of a healthy and delicious meal. For example, a seasoned cast-iron skillet is one of my favorite pans to cook eggs, saute vegetables, and make pancakes, since I don't have to use as much oil or butter to keep food from sticking.

Some of my other favorite kitchen tools are an immersion blender, Instant Pot, baking sheets, measuring cups and spoons, and a hand juicer. And of course anyone working in the kitchen should have a quality set of knives. Getting into the habit of flipping your packages over can save you time, money and even calories.

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Everyday Health Special Report: Weight Loss Reframed. By Lambeth Hochwald and Leslie Barrie. Medically Reviewed. Lynn Grieger, RDN, CDCES. RELATED: Weight Loss Reframed Special Report There are also multiple studies suggesting having strong social support in your weight loss effort can help, whether that comes from family and friends, a coach , or even an app or online community.

An Easy Way To Reduce Fat While Cooking Chef Daniel Green shows you how to cut back on fat with this easy cooking hack. Next up video playing in 10 seconds. Palumbo, RDN , a nutrition consultant from Naperville, Illinois Read Food Labels Getting into the habit of flipping your packages over can save you time, money and even calories.

Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking. Resources Silva LV et al. Association of Minimally Processed and Ultra-Processed Food Daily Consumption With Obesity in Overweight Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Nutrición Hospitalaria. June 21, Kahleova H et al. Dietary Advanced Glycation Products and Their Associations With Insulin Sensitivity and Body Weight: A Week Randomized Clinical Trial.

Obesity Science and Practice. October 17, Landry MJ et al. Cardiometabolic Effects of Omnivorous vs Vegan Diets in Identical Twins.

JAMA Network. November 30, Zomeño MD et al. International Journal of Obesity. March 3, Yancy Jr WS et al. Comparison of Group Medical Visits Combined With Intensive Weight Management vs Group Medical Visits Alone for Glycemia in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

JAMA Internal Medicine. November 4, Zhou Y et al. How Online Health Groups Help You Lose Weight: The Role of Group Composition and Social Contact. Digital Health. July 14, Martin-Vicario L et al.

Food Assistance and Food Systems Resources. Regular physical activity provides immediate and long-term health benefits.

Being physically active can improve your brain health, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities.

In addition, physical activity is important if you are trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. To maintain your weight: Work your way up to minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week. This could be brisk walking 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.

Or you could do 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity each week, such as swimming laps. The exact amount of physical activity needed to maintain a healthy weight varies greatly from person to person. You may need more than the equivalent of minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week to maintain your weight.

To lose weight and keep it off: You will need a high amount of physical activity unless you also adjust your diet to reduce the number of calories you eat and drink. Getting to and staying at a healthy weight requires both regular physical activity and a healthy eating plan.

Examples include:. The following table shows calories used in common physical activities at both moderate and vigorous levels. To help estimate the intensity of your physical activity, see Physical Activity for Everyone: Measuring Physical Activity Intensity.

Lace up those sneakers and find some motivating ideas. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices.

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Show references Hensrud DD, et al. Ready, set, go. In: The Mayo Clinic Diet. Mayo Clinic; Duyff RL. Reach and maintain your healthy weight. In: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Complete Food and Nutrition Guide. Losing weight: Getting started. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed Nov.

Do you know some of the health risks of being overweight? National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Department of Health and Human Services and U. Department of Agriculture. Physical activity for a healthy weight. Products and Services The Mayo Clinic Diet Online A Book: Mayo Clinic Family Health Book, 5th Edition A Book: Live Younger Longer A Book: The Mayo Clinic Diet Bundle Newsletter: Mayo Clinic Health Letter — Digital Edition.

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While you can lose weight without exercise, regular physical activity plus calorie restriction can help give you the weight-loss edge. Exercise can help burn off the excess calories you can't cut through diet alone. Exercise also offers numerous health benefits, including boosting your mood, strengthening your cardiovascular system and reducing your blood pressure.

Exercise can also help in maintaining weight loss. Studies show that people who maintain their weight loss over the long term get regular physical activity. How many calories you burn depends on the frequency, duration and intensity of your activities.

One of the best ways to lose body fat is through steady aerobic exercise — such as brisk walking — for at least 30 minutes most days of the week. Some people may require more physical activity than this to lose weight and maintain that weight loss. Any extra movement helps burn calories.

Think about ways you can increase your physical activity throughout the day if you can't fit in formal exercise on a given day.

For example, make several trips up and down stairs instead of using the elevator, or park at the far end of the lot when shopping. It's not enough to eat healthy foods and exercise for only a few weeks or even months if you want long-term, successful weight management. These habits must become a way of life.

Lifestyle changes start with taking an honest look at your eating patterns and daily routine. After assessing your personal challenges to weight loss, try working out a strategy to gradually change habits and attitudes that have sabotaged your past efforts.

Then move beyond simply recognizing your challenges — plan for how you'll deal with them if you're going to succeed in losing weight once and for all. You likely will have an occasional setback. But instead of giving up entirely after a setback, simply start fresh the next day. Remember that you're planning to change your life.

It won't happen all at once. Stick to your healthy lifestyle and the results will be worth it. There is a problem with information submitted for this request.

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Products and services. Weight loss: 6 strategies for success Follow these proven strategies to reduce your weight and boost your health. By Mayo Clinic Staff.

It is low in sugar and salt. Here a few examples of healthy meals for weight loss. For breakfast, a bowl of bran flakes with sliced strawberries and walnuts with nonfat milk. For lunch, a turkey sandwich on wheat with vegetables and an olive oil and vinegar dressing.

For dinner, a salmon steak on a bed of spinach. Healthy snacks for weight loss include almonds or pistachios, string cheese with an apple, Greek yogurt or a banana with peanut butter.

Before you begin your weight-loss journey, do some brainstorming about the kinds of healthy foods you enjoy so that you can have lots of choices as you plan your meals and snacks. Such styles of eating tend to have a few things in common—they tend to be plant-based diets, they emphasize healthy fats, no simple sugars and low sodium, and they favor natural foods over the highly processed fare typical of much of the Western diet.

For example, the Mediterranean style diet gets its name from the foods available to various cultures located around the Mediterranean Sea. It heavily emphasizes minimally processed fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and whole grains. It contains moderate amounts of yogurt, cheese, poultry and fish.

Olive oil is its primary cooking fat. Red meat and foods with added sugars are only eaten sparingly. Besides being an effective weight loss method, eating a Mediterranean style diet is linked to a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, depression and some forms of cancer.

Experts developed the DASH diet Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension specifically as a heart-healthy regimen. The combination of food types contained in the diet seem to work together especially effectively to lower blood pressure and decrease risk of heart failure. The key features of DASH are low cholesterol and saturated fats, lots of magnesium, calcium, fiber and potassium, and little to no red meat and sugar.

Unsurprisingly, that equates to a list of foods similar to those of the Mediterranean diet—whole grains, vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry, nuts and olive oil. As its name implies, the MIND diet Mediterranean-DASH diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay was designed by doctors to take elements from the Mediterranean and DASH diets that seemed to provide benefits to brain health and stave off dementia and cognitive decline.

In practice, it is very similar to both the Mediterranean and DASH diets, but it puts stronger emphasis on leafy green vegetables and berries, and less emphasis on fruit and dairy. In recent years, the Nordic diet has emerged as both a weight-loss and health-maintenance diet.

Based on Scandinavian eating patterns, the Nordic diet is heavy on fish, apples, pears, whole grains such as rye and oats, and cold-climate vegetables including cabbage, carrots and cauliflower.

Studies have supported its use both in preventing stroke and in weight loss. What do all of these diets have in common? Eating for your health—especially your heart health—by adopting elements from these diets is a smart way to lose weight. But is fasting healthy, and does intermittent fasting work?

Fasting—abstaining from eating for some period of time—is an ancient practice that is safe when not taken to extremes. Traditionally, the benefits of fasting have been both spiritual and physical. People who fast for religious reasons often report a stronger focus on spiritual matters during the fast.

Physically, a simple fast lowers blood sugar, reduces inflammation, improves metabolism, clears out toxins from damaged cells and has been linked to lower risk of cancer, reduced pain from arthritis and enhanced brain function.

A common intermittent fasting schedule might restrict eating to the hours of a. to p. To stay motivated:. Find a cheering section.

Social support means a lot. Programs like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers use group support to impact weight loss and lifelong healthy eating. Seek out support—whether in the form of family, friends, or a support group—to get the encouragement you need. Slow and steady wins the race.

Losing weight too fast can take a toll on your mind and body, making you feel sluggish, drained, and sick. Aim to lose one to two pounds a week so you're losing fat rather than water and muscle. Set goals to keep you motivated. Short-term goals, like wanting to fit into a bikini for the summer, usually don't work as well as wanting to feel more confident or become healthier for your children's sakes.

When temptation strikes, focus on the benefits you'll reap from being healthier. Use tools to track your progress. Smartphone apps, fitness trackers, or simply keeping a journal can help you keep track of the food you eat, the calories you burn, and the weight you lose.

Seeing the results in black and white can help you stay motivated. Get plenty of sleep. Lack of sleep stimulates your appetite so you want more food than normal; at the same time, it stops you feeling satisfied, making you want to keep eating.

Sleep deprivation can also affect your motivation, so aim for eight hours of quality sleep a night. Whether or not you're specifically aiming to cut carbs, most of us consume unhealthy amounts of sugar and refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pizza dough, pasta, pastries, white flour, white rice, and sweetened breakfast cereals.

Replacing refined carbs with their whole-grain counterparts and eliminating candy and desserts is only part of the solution, though. Sugar is hidden in foods as diverse as canned soups and vegetables, pasta sauce, margarine, and many reduced fat foods.

Since your body gets all it needs from sugar naturally occurring in food, all this added sugar amounts to nothing but a lot of empty calories and unhealthy spikes in your blood glucose. Calories obtained from fructose found in sugary beverages such as soda and processed foods like doughnuts, muffins, and candy are more likely to add to fat around your belly.

Cutting back on sugary foods can mean a slimmer waistline as well as a lower risk of diabetes. Even if you're cutting calories, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to eat less food. High-fiber foods such as fruit, vegetables, beans, and whole grains are higher in volume and take longer to digest, making them filling—and great for weight-loss.

It's generally okay to eat as much fresh fruit and non-starchy vegetables as you want—you'll feel full before you've overdone it on the calories.

Eat vegetables raw or steamed , not fried or breaded, and dress them with herbs and spices or a little olive oil for flavor. Add fruit to low sugar cereal —blueberries, strawberries, sliced bananas.

You'll still enjoy lots of sweetness, but with fewer calories, less sugar, and more fiber. Bulk out sandwiches by adding healthy veggie choices like lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, cucumbers, and avocado.

Add more veggies to your favorite main courses to make your dish more substantial. Even pasta and stir-fries can be diet-friendly if you use less noodles and more vegetables. Start your meal with salad or vegetable soup to help fill you up so you eat less of your entrée. Set yourself up for weight-loss success by taking charge of your food environment: when you eat, how much you eat, and what foods you make easily available.

Cook your own meals at home. This allows you to control both portion size and what goes in to the food. Restaurant and packaged foods generally contain a lot more sugar, unhealthy fat, and calories than food cooked at home —plus the portion sizes tend to be larger.

Serve yourself smaller portions. Use small plates, bowls, and cups to make your portions appear larger. Don't eat out of large bowls or directly from food containers, which makes it difficult to assess how much you've eaten.

Eat early. Studies suggest that consuming more of your daily calories at breakfast and fewer at dinner can help you drop more pounds. Eating a larger, healthy breakfast can jump-start your metabolism, stop you feeling hungry during the day, and give you more time to burn off the calories. Fast for 14 hours a day.

Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast until breakfast the next morning. Eating only when you're most active and giving your digestion a long break may aid weight loss. Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time.

You can create your own small portion snacks in plastic bags or containers. Eating on a schedule will help you avoid eating when you aren't truly hungry.

Drink more water. Thirst can often be confused with hunger, so by drinking water you can avoid extra calories. Limit the amount of tempting foods you have at home. If you share a kitchen with non-dieters, store indulgent foods out of sight. The degree to which exercise aids weight loss is open to debate, but the benefits go way beyond burning calories.

Exercise can increase your metabolism and improve your outlook—and it's something you can benefit from right now. Go for a walk, stretch, move around and you'll have more energy and motivation to tackle the other steps in your weight-loss program.

Lack time for a long workout? Three minute spurts of exercise per day can be just as good as one minute workout. Remember: anything is better than nothing. Start off slowly with small amounts of physical activity each day.

Then, as you start to lose weight and have more energy, you'll find it easier to become more physically active. Find exercise you enjoy. Try walking with a friend, dancing, hiking, cycling, playing Frisbee with a dog, enjoying a pickup game of basketball, or playing activity-based video games with your kids.

Far from it. Since it was established in , The National Weight Control Registry NWCR in the United States, has tracked over 10, individuals who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for long periods of time.

Whatever diet you use to lose weight in the first place, adopting these habits may help you to keep it off:. How choosing healthier carbs can improve your health and waistline. This diet can help fight heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, and more. How focusing on the experience of eating can improve your diet.

Tips for building a fitness plan, and finding the best exercises for you. BetterHelp makes starting therapy easy.

See also: Eating disorder. Further information: Obesity § Effects on health. Skyhorse Publishing Inc. Retrieved 30 September William; Michos, Erin D.

doi : PMC PMID Circulation Professional society guideline. Timothy ; Lau, Ka Hei Karen; MacLeod, Janice; Mitri, Joanna; Pereira, Raquel F. May Diabetes Care Professional society guidelines. Evidence Syntheses, No.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality AHRQ. Retrieved 27 June Fact sheet, Informed Health Online. Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care. National Health Service. Psychology Today. Retrieved 17 October Annals of Internal Medicine.

Scientific American. Retrieved 20 October Obesity Reviews. ISSN X. S2CID Clinical Science. Dietary Guidelines — Retrieved 2 May In Hankey, Catherine ed. Advanced nutrition and dietetics in obesity.

ISBN Advanced Nutrition and Dietetics in Obesity. British Dietetic Association. Retrieved 12 December Fad-diets can be tempting as they offer a quick-fix to a long-term problem. New England Journal of Medicine.

ISSN BBC News. Weight-control Information Network. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. July Retrieved 17 July Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Health Psychology.

Current Obesity Reports. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. Bariatric Surgery Information Guide. Retrieved 13 June Mayo Clinic.

DHHS Publication No FDA US Food and Drug Administration. Archived from the original on 26 September Retrieved 14 May March Obesity Research. Reuters Press release. PR Newswire. Archived from the original on 11 March Retrieved 17 January Retrieved 19 July Gastroenterology Review.

Circulation Narrative review. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes Systematic review of RCTs.

Annals of Internal Medicine Systematic review. BMC Public Health Systematic review. January Stroke Review. Physician Data Query. National Cancer Institute. Retrieved 3 July American Family Physician. Payne, Cathy ed. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Retracted, see doi : Committee on Nutrition Services for Medicare Beneficiaries 9 June The role of nutrition in maintaining health in the nation's elderly: evaluating coverage of nutrition services for the Medicare population.

National Academies Press. Nutrition Support for Adults: Oral Nutrition Support, Enteral Tube Feeding and Parenteral Nutrition. National Collaborating Centre for Acute Care UK.

Clinical Evidence. Type 1 diabetes in adults: National clinical guideline for diagnosis and management in primary and secondary care. Royal College of Physicians UK. Clinical Infectious Diseases. Burden, Sorrel ed. Canadian Medical Association Journal. Harvard Health. Retrieved 18 June Set yourself up for weight-loss success by taking charge of your food environment: when you eat, how much you eat, and what foods you make easily available.

Cook your own meals at home. This allows you to control both portion size and what goes in to the food.

Restaurant and packaged foods generally contain a lot more sugar, unhealthy fat, and calories than food cooked at home —plus the portion sizes tend to be larger. Serve yourself smaller portions. Use small plates, bowls, and cups to make your portions appear larger. Don't eat out of large bowls or directly from food containers, which makes it difficult to assess how much you've eaten.

Eat early. Studies suggest that consuming more of your daily calories at breakfast and fewer at dinner can help you drop more pounds. Eating a larger, healthy breakfast can jump-start your metabolism, stop you feeling hungry during the day, and give you more time to burn off the calories.

Fast for 14 hours a day. Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast until breakfast the next morning. Eating only when you're most active and giving your digestion a long break may aid weight loss. Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time.

You can create your own small portion snacks in plastic bags or containers. Eating on a schedule will help you avoid eating when you aren't truly hungry. Drink more water. Thirst can often be confused with hunger, so by drinking water you can avoid extra calories.

Limit the amount of tempting foods you have at home. If you share a kitchen with non-dieters, store indulgent foods out of sight. The degree to which exercise aids weight loss is open to debate, but the benefits go way beyond burning calories.

Exercise can increase your metabolism and improve your outlook—and it's something you can benefit from right now. Go for a walk, stretch, move around and you'll have more energy and motivation to tackle the other steps in your weight-loss program.

Lack time for a long workout? Three minute spurts of exercise per day can be just as good as one minute workout. Remember: anything is better than nothing. Start off slowly with small amounts of physical activity each day.

Then, as you start to lose weight and have more energy, you'll find it easier to become more physically active. Find exercise you enjoy. Try walking with a friend, dancing, hiking, cycling, playing Frisbee with a dog, enjoying a pickup game of basketball, or playing activity-based video games with your kids.

Far from it. Since it was established in , The National Weight Control Registry NWCR in the United States, has tracked over 10, individuals who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for long periods of time. Whatever diet you use to lose weight in the first place, adopting these habits may help you to keep it off:.

How choosing healthier carbs can improve your health and waistline. This diet can help fight heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, and more. How focusing on the experience of eating can improve your diet. Tips for building a fitness plan, and finding the best exercises for you. BetterHelp makes starting therapy easy.

Take the assessment and get matched with a professional, licensed therapist. Millions of readers rely on HelpGuide. org for free, evidence-based resources to understand and navigate mental health challenges.

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Copy Link Link copied! Download PDF. By Melinda Smith, M. and Lawrence Robinson. Four popular weight loss strategies Control emotional eating Stay motivated Cut down on sugar and refined carbs Fill up with fruit, veggies, and fiber Take charge of your food environment Get moving Keeping the weight off.

Four popular weight loss strategies 1. Cut calories Some experts believe that successfully managing your weight comes down to a simple equation: If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight.

Weight loss isn't a linear event over time. When you cut calories, you may drop weight for the first few weeks, for example, and then something changes. You eat the same number of calories but you lose less weight or no weight at all. That's because when you lose weight you're losing water and lean tissue as well as fat, your metabolism slows, and your body changes in other ways.

So, in order to continue dropping weight each week, you need to continue cutting calories. A calorie isn't always a calorie. Eating calories of high fructose corn syrup, for example, can have a different effect on your body than eating calories of broccoli.

The trick for sustained weight loss is to ditch the foods that are packed with calories but don't make you feel full like candy and replace them with foods that fill you up without being loaded with calories like vegetables.

Many of us don't always eat simply to satisfy hunger. We also turn to food for comfort or to relieve stress—which can quickly derail any weight loss plan. Cut carbs A different way of viewing weight loss identifies the problem as not one of consuming too many calories, but rather the way the body accumulates fat after consuming carbohydrates—in particular the role of the hormone insulin.

Cut fat It's a mainstay of many diets: if you don't want to get fat, don't eat fat. Not all fat is bad. Unsaturated fats found in avocados, nuts, seeds, soy milk, tofu, and fatty fish can help fill you up, while adding a little tasty olive oil to a plate of vegetables, for example, can make it easier to eat healthy food and improve the overall quality of your diet.

We often make the wrong trade-offs. Many of us make the mistake of swapping fat for the empty calories of sugar and refined carbohydrates.

Instead of eating whole-fat yoghurt, for example, we eat low- or no-fat versions that are packed with sugar to make up for the loss of taste.

Or we swap our fatty breakfast bacon for a muffin or donut that causes rapid spikes in blood sugar. Follow the Mediterranean diet The Mediterranean diet emphasizes eating good fats and good carbs along with large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, fish, and olive oil—and only modest amounts of meat and cheese.

Control emotional eating We don't always eat simply to satisfy hunger. If you eat when you're: Stressed — find healthier ways to calm yourself.

Speak to a Licensed Therapist BetterHelp is an online therapy service that matches you to licensed, accredited therapists who can help with depression, anxiety, relationships, and more.

Take Assessment HelpGuide is user supported. Learn more. More Information Helpful links. How to Stay Motivated - Srini Pillay, MD, psychiatrist and brain imaging specialist, discusses the missing rewards that motivate healthy lifestyle change.

Harvard Health Publishing Lose Weight and Keep It Off - Smart approaches to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Harvard Medical School Special Health Report Weight-loss and Nutrition Myths - Debunking myths about food, dieting, and exercise.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease Losing Weight - Including tips for recognizing roadblocks and keeping the weight off. American Heart Association Cutting Calories - Strategies for eating more while still losing weight, avoiding portion size pitfalls, and using fruits and vegetables to manage weight.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Low-Carbohydrate Diets - How a low-carbohydrate diet may help some people lose weight more quickly than a low-fat diet. Harvard School of Public Health Just Enough for You: About Portion Sizes - Tips for managing portion sizes at home and when eating out.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease. Carbohydrates and Blood Sugar The Nutrition Source Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health. Retrieved May 15, , from. Fats and Cholesterol The Nutrition Source Harvard T. Ma, Y. Single-Component Versus Multicomponent Dietary Goals for the Metabolic Syndrome: A Randomized Trial.

Annals of Internal Medicine , 4 , — Making one change—Getting more fiber—Can help with weight loss—Harvard Health. Nelson, J. Mindful Eating: The Art of Presence While You Eat.

Diabetes Spectrum , 30 3 , — Research Findings.