Quote Originally Posted by Susan Otcenas View Post
"They use larger plates. When offered two plate sizes, 98.6 percent of those with the highest BMIs took the larger of the two plates to the buffet. A bigger plate tricks your eye into thinking you're not eating as much, and stuffing more food onto your plate -- and into your mouth. Use a smaller plate, get a smaller belly"

I just finished reading The 9-inch Diet. It's not really a diet book. It's more about how we've slowly been led into eating more at each meal through a series of subtle changes, one of which is that the average size of a dinner plate has expanded from the former norm of 9-inches to a current norm of 12. The author advocates the simple little change of purchasing and using 9 inch dinner plates. You'll quickly adjust to the smaller plate size, and naturally eat less food.
This is related to something I saw on TV a while back -- a show on one of the Discovery channels called "I can make you thin." The first advice the guy offered was 1. eat when you're hungry and 2. stop eating as soon as you think you're getting full. So much of it boils down to paying attention to eating while you eat so that you stop when your body tells you that you've had enough, instead of eating more food than you need just because it's there.