Why Eating Slower Might Be the Most Underrated Health Habit You Can Build
I used to be (and truth be told, sometimes still am) the guy who finished his plate while everyone else was still halfway through theirs. At family dinners or nights out with friends, I’d be pushing back from the table while everyone else was still chatting and chewing. And more often than not, I’d go back for seconds, not because I was still truly hungry, but because my body hadn’t had enough time to register what I’d just eaten.
Maybe you know that feeling too: eating quickly, feeling pleasantly stuffed in the moment, and then an hour later realising you ate far more than you needed. For me, this became a pattern. I wasn’t just a “fast eater,” I was an automatic eater. My fork barely hit the table between bites. And if there was a dish I especially liked (mac and cheese, anyone?), I was three bites in before I’d even registered the taste.
But something changed when I began intentionally slowing down. The first thing I noticed? I naturally ate less, without trying to restrict myself. The second? Foods I thought I loved didn’t taste quite as magical once they’d cooled during the slower eating process. (Mac and cheese was still delicious, but it no longer demanded half the tray.) I learned to take a smaller portion, savour it properly, and feel satisfied.
That small shift—something so simple as putting my fork down between bites—transformed my relationship with food. It reduced my overall intake without me feeling deprived, it improved my digestion, and it even had a knock-on effect on my sleep and energy levels. Over time, I’ve seen the same results ripple out through the lives of my clients.
Slowing down might be one of the most underrated nutrition habits you can build. It’s not flashy, it doesn’t come with fancy apps or expensive products, but it might just be the foundation that makes every other nutrition strategy more effective.
Why This Habit Matters: More Than Just Calories
The first benefit of eating slowly is obvious: portion control. Your body has built-in hunger and fullness signals, but they’re not instantaneous. Hormones like leptin and peptide YY, which signal satiety, take about 15–20 minutes to kick in after you start eating. If you’re shovelling food down, you can easily overshoot your actual needs before those signals reach your brain.
To put it simply, ghrelin is your body’s dinner bell. It rises when you’re due to eat and drops once food starts digesting. It gets the mealtime party started.
Leptin and peptide YY are more like the “full tank” lights that tell your brain you’ve had enough, but they do so with a delay. And then there’s GLP-1, a hormone that helps regulate both blood sugar and fullness. It’s the same hormone mimicked by some of the new weight-loss drugs everyone is talking about, but your body makes it naturally when you eat. The catch? It takes time to register. If you bolt down your meal, you can polish off far more than you actually need before those hormones have had a chance to do their work.
When clients practise slowing down, they often tell me they finish meals feeling satisfied rather than stuffed. And that difference matters. Feeling stuffed often leads to sluggishness, regret, and the “I’ll eat lighter tomorrow” cycle. Feeling satisfied means you’ve given your body what it needs without tipping over the edge.
The ripple effects don’t stop there. Slower eating often means fewer late-night cravings, because your hormones stay better balanced. Digestion improves, which reduces bloating and even helps with sleep because a calmer stomach at bedtime means less tossing and turning. Meals also become less stressful. Like other mindfulness practices, when you pause long enough to chew properly and breathe between bites, you’re nudging your nervous system out of sympathetic “fight-or-flight” mode and into parasympathetic “rest-and-digest,” which is exactly where your body needs to be for optimal digestion.
There’s also an underappreciated psychological benefit. When you eat slowly, you’re not just feeding your body, you’re giving your brain a chance to experience the flavours, textures, and aromas of the food. That makes eating feel more like a sensory event and less like refuelling at a gas station. It’s an approach that ties into mindfulness, presence, and ultimately, more enjoyment of the meals you love. Shared meals become conversations and experiences rather than just pit-stops to keep you going.
In fact, this connects directly with what I wrote in my other post, Stop Trying to Be ‘Good.’ Start Aiming for Well. Slowing down moves us away from the rigid, rule-based idea of food as “good” or “bad” and helps us actually experience the meal as it is—an opportunity for nourishment and connection, not a moral test.
So when someone asks me if this habit is really worth it compared to, say, calorie tracking or cutting carbs, my answer is simple: it’s not an either/or. Slowing down doesn’t replace those tools, but it makes them easier and more sustainable. And in many cases, it delivers benefits all by itself.
You don't have to feel like this guy...LOL!
How To Practise Eating More Slowly (Without Watching Paint Dry)
Here’s what doesn’t work: setting a timer and trying to drag your meal out to 20 minutes. We’ve experimented with this in our programmes, and honestly, it feels painful. Clients sit there staring at their plate, trying to chew slower than feels natural, counting seconds in their head. That’s not sustainable.
What does work is focusing on a couple of simple cues:
Put your utensils down between bites. Don’t hover over your plate like you’re in a speed-eating contest. Give yourself a pause.
Clear your mouth before the next bite. Don’t load up your fork while you’re still chewing the last mouthful. Finish what’s there before moving on.
That’s it. Simple, but powerful. Most clients find that when they practise just these two behaviours, their meal naturally stretches out to a healthier pace.
What’s also important to remember is that this habit develops like any other skill: in layers. Think of it as a progression. At first, you may only manage it in one distraction‑free meal per day. Once that becomes normal, add a second meal. Later, practise it when you’re out with friends or eating in a more rushed environment. By building gradually, you avoid the trap of expecting perfection right away and set yourself up for consistency.
And inevitably, you’ll forget sometimes. You’ll look down and realise half your plate is gone before you put your fork down once. That’s totally normal. Instead of writing off the whole meal, use it as a reset. Pause, take a breath, and simply start again with the next bite. Progress isn’t about flawless execution, it’s about course‑correction. This reminds me of something Dan Harris has written about meditation in his books 10% Happier and Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: when you notice your mind has wandered, you don’t beat yourself up for it, you simply bring yourself back. The same idea applies here. If you find yourself rushing, don’t judge yourself. Just notice it, bring your attention back to the meal, and resume the practice of eating slowly and mindfully.
Clients often ask what to do in social situations where everyone else is eating quickly. My answer: set your own pace, but don’t feel you have to make a show of it. If you’re chatting between bites, you’ll naturally slow down without drawing attention. And if you feel awkward, remind yourself that no one notices as much as you think. What matters is that you’re practising an intentional choice that benefits you in the long run.
The key here is flexibility. Like any habit, it doesn’t need to happen at 100% of meals to be effective. Practise it consistently, especially at home or in social settings, and it will pay dividends.
This is where consistency comes in. In Consistency Over Chaos, I wrote about how small, repeatable actions build the foundation for progress. Slowing down is exactly that: a modest adjustment that, repeated meal after meal, reshapes not only your nutrition but also your identity as someone who eats with intention.
Busting the Myths and Objections
Myth 1: “I don’t have time.”
As I said earlier, you don’t need to eat slowly at every meal for the habit to work. Pre-portion meals when you’re pressed for time, and then double down on slower eating when you can. Even one or two slower meals per day can retrain your hunger and fullness cues. And it doesn’t take much—sometimes even stretching a meal by just two or three minutes makes a noticeable difference. It gives your body a chance to start releasing those fullness hormones, so you feel satisfied on less food.
Myth 2: “It’s not as effective as tracking calories.”
This isn’t an either/or choice. Slowing down can be used alongside calorie tracking, macro counting, or any other nutrition strategy. But here’s the kicker: when you eat more slowly, you may find you don’t need to track as meticulously because your body starts doing some of the regulation for you. Portion sizes self-correct when you tune into satiety signals. Tracking numbers can certainly help, but your body’s feedback is non-negotiable—it’s always operating in the background. Slowing down helps you actually hear it.
Myth 3: “I’ll just get bored.”
Eating slower isn’t about chewing each bite 50 times and staring into the void. It’s about presence. Engaging your senses. Enjoying the company you’re with. If anything, it adds richness to the experience. I’ve had clients tell me they discovered new flavours in dishes they’d eaten for years simply because they finally slowed down enough to notice. For social meals, slowing down usually blends in seamlessly with conversation—it often makes the experience feel more relaxed and enjoyable, not dull.
Myth 4: “Slower eating won’t make a real difference for weight loss.”
It can feel almost too simple, but the impact is real. Studies consistently show that people who eat more slowly consume fewer calories in a sitting, even when the food choices are identical. I’ve seen this first-hand with clients: they didn’t change what they ate at first, only the pace, and within weeks their portion sizes dropped naturally. One client was surprised to realise she left food on her plate for the first time in years—not because she was forcing herself, but because she was genuinely satisfied. The change didn’t come from willpower, it came from physiology. Slower eating allowed her body’s fullness signals to kick in on time, and that made all the difference.
The Bigger Picture: Why Slowing Down Is a Foundational Habit
Here’s why I call this habit foundational: it travels with you. No matter where you are, whether in a restaurant, at a family barbecue, or eating at your desk, you can still practise it. You don’t need special equipment, meal prep containers, or an app subscription. You just need awareness.
And because it ties directly into your natural hunger and fullness cues, it supports almost every other nutrition strategy. If you’re trying to lose weight, it helps you eat less without the feeling of deprivation. If you’re focused on performance or muscle gain, it helps you digest and absorb nutrients more effectively. If your goal is simply health and enjoyment, it enhances the pleasure of eating itself.
Slowing down also connects deeply with mindfulness, something I talk about often in our programmes. Food isn’t just fuel, it’s a sensory and social experience. When you’re present at the table, actually tasting your food and listening to your hunger signals, you eat in a way that feels sustainable long term. You’re not bouncing between extremes of rigid control and “screw it” indulgence. You’re building balance.
And that’s the bigger lesson here. Eating more slowly isn’t about control, it’s about trust. Trusting your body’s feedback. Trusting that you don’t need to micromanage every bite if you’re actually paying attention. Trusting that progress doesn’t come from chaos, but from consistent, intentional choices.
What makes this habit especially powerful is how transferable it is. Learning to pause at the table can spill into learning to pause in other parts of life: taking a breath before reacting to stress, giving yourself space to notice hunger for movement or rest, even modelling patience for kids around family meals. Many traditional food cultures from the Mediterranean to Japan already embrace slower, more social meals, and the health benefits of those patterns are well documented. We can borrow from that wisdom and bring it into our own daily lives.
Conclusion: The Small Habit That Changes Everything
Slowing down your eating doesn’t sound revolutionary. It’s not something you’ll see splashed across the cover of a fitness magazine. But in my years of coaching, it’s one of the most consistently impactful habits I’ve seen.
It works for busy professionals who wolf down lunch at their desks. It works for parents juggling kids who usually eat standing up. It works for dieters who’ve tried every restriction under the sun but never learned to listen to their bodies. And it works for me, the former fast eater who used to inhale mac and cheese like it was a competitive sport.
This is the habit that unlocks others. The one that travels with you, supports every other goal, and deepens your enjoyment of food along the way. It’s the small hinge that swings the big door.
So here’s my challenge to you:
At your very next meal, put your fork down between bites. Clear your mouth before the next one. Notice the flavours, the textures, the company. Give your body the chance to tell you when it’s had enough.
It might feel small, but the impact is anything but. And who knows, slowing down at the table might just help you speed up progress everywhere else. In my own journey, the habit shifted me from being the guy who cleared his plate in minutes to someone who can actually savour a smaller portion and feel satisfied. That symmetry matters—it shows how small shifts can reframe the whole experience of eating.
That’s why I call eating more slowly a gateway habit. It’s small, but it unlocks bigger wins: better digestion, more mindful choices, and more confidence in your ability to manage food without extremes. It’s not about perfection, it’s about practice.
If this resonates with you and you’d like help putting it into action, I’m always glad to answer questions or talk through how to integrate it into your life. Reach out if you need a hand—sometimes the smallest step is easier to take with a bit of guidance.