Count Bites Not Calories to Lose Weight

Counting calories is a common method for dieters trying to shed a few pounds, but maybe you should try counting the number of bites you take rather than counting the calories.

Here's a new diet from the Wall Street Journal in which you count bites instead of calories.

According to the report, researchers at Clemson University discovered that men eat an average of 17 calories in a bite, while women average about 11 calories per bite -- unless they have a REALLY big mouth!

If you shoot for 100 bites in a day, it's about 1700 calories for men, and 1100 calories for women, low enough amounts to lose weight, but high enough to keep your metabolism.

Sounds like a good idea, but what happens when you lose count! Without video it's impossible to go back and see exactly how many bites you took, and you could end up eating more than you intended. I'm not sure people want to have to concentrate so much on counting while they are eating.

They also recommend chewing your bites 10-20 times, and suggest you avoid calories that you don't eat - like soda and milkshakes.

Counting calories sure seems like it's a lot easier than counting bites, but for some people this may be worth a try.