Habits
Eat without a screen, remember the meal
Distracted eating shows up later as more snacking, not less.
What it’s worth
Distracted eaters eat substantially more afterwards
Do this
- →Pick one meal a day to eat without a phone, laptop or television.
- →If that's too much, start with just the first five minutes.
- →Take a second at the end to actually register what you ate.
Why it works
How much you eat later depends partly on how well you remember eating earlier. Distraction weakens that memory, so a meal you barely noticed does less work at keeping you full through the afternoon.
The evidence
A meta-analysis of attentive eating found distraction increased later intake substantially, and that prompting people to recall their previous meal reduced subsequent snacking.
The honest bit
This isn't mindfulness as a discipline, and it doesn't require anything spiritual. It's about memory. One screen-free meal is a reasonable target; all of them is not.
Knowing it isn’t the hard part
You’ve just read the tactic. The difficult bit is the Tuesday in six weeks when you’re tired and it’s raining. Milo is a coach you text like a friend: it knows which of these you’re working on, notices when it slips, and brings it up once rather than nagging.
See how Milo worksTry next
- Decide the swap before you're in the moment — Deciding once beats deciding nightly on willpower.
- Plate it, don't graze from the packet — The single most reliable environment change: portion out, then put the packet away.
- Weigh yourself as data, not a verdict — Daily weighing helps, provided the number isn't allowed to mean anything about you.
General information, not medical advice. If you have a health condition, are pregnant, or are under 18, talk to a healthcare professional before changing how you eat or train.