Can't lose weight? How's your Screentime?
“I always want to go on social media or YouTube whenever I am eating my meals…it seems I can’t handle not having my brain doing or listening to something for 20 minutes. – Reddit User”
Multi-tasking while eating is not a new phenomenon and it’s certainly not just a Gen-Z thing. In the 80s and 90s, the concept of TV dinners emerged to cater to the desire for entertainment during meals. As technology evolved, smaller screens, particularly smartphones, intensified this challenge.
Why do we want to do more than just eat while eating? Reasons for this behavior range from boredom and loneliness to the need for distraction.
So what? So what if you eat while watching TikTok or reading e-mail?
The science of what happens when we eat:
When you eat, your brain takes about 20-30 minutes to figure out whether your stomach is actually full from the food and drink you’ve consumed. Here’s how the Cleveland clinic explains it:
When food hits your stomach, the muscles around it begin to stretch to accommodate it.
As those muscles stretch, the nerves around your stomach send messages to your brain to let it know that you’re filling up.
Your body starts releasing hormones like leptin and cholecystokinin (CCK), which impact how full you feel.
As the hormones kick in, your brain starts to realize that you’ve had enough to eat.
Leptin is important because it tells your brain to stop wanting more food. It does this partially by turning down the signal of another substance called dopamine. Dopamine motivates you to do pleasurable things like eating. So, when you eat and your leptin levels go up, they quiet down the dopamine, telling your brain that you're satisfied, and you don't need to eat more.
Here’s a simple (and generalized) flow:
Get hungry ->
Brain releases dopamine that gets you off your butt to get some food ->
You start eating food ->
20ish minutes later body releases leptin & cholecystokinin->
Leptin dials down dopamine ->
You’re full. Ta-da!
An interruption:
Imagine if your brain's pleasure & motivation signal, dopamine gets an unfair boost. When you're scrolling through TikTok, Instagram, or checking emails, your brain keeps releasing dopamine from the anticipation of the next like, life-hack, or E-mail. So, when leptin, the signal telling you that you're full, kicks in, it struggles to stop the craving. Your brain doesn't realize your body is done eating. As a result, you may keep eating until leptin levels rise more or until you stop scrolling.
Here's the same flow, now modified with screentime during the meal:
Get hungry ->
Brain releases dopamine that gets you off your butt to get some food ->
You start eating while watching a screen ->
Brain starts releasing dopamine immediately ->
20ish minutes later body releases leptin & cholecystokinin ->
Leptin tries to dial down dopamine but overwhelmed ->
You keep eating more ->
Your body releases more leptin ->
The leptin finally quiets the dopamine ->
You’re full. Urgh - you ate too much.
Vicious Cycle:
It doesn’t help that watching screens later in the day also means there’s lower chances of finding yourself in the weightroom or the treadmill. So, those extra calories during mealtime get to stick around and show up as extra pounds. And you keep wondering why you can’t ever feel full.
What can you do about it?
Was this a problem before smartphones? Yes, TV watching did something similar. However, the dopamine released while watching Dawson’s creek or Friends pales in comparison to the personalized, individualized and often private infinite scroll – all in reach of a thumb’s length.
Next time as you sit down for a meal, consider how you can get yourself the 20 minutes for your body to send an uninterrupted signal to your brain. Here are 4 options if you just can’t be without your phone during mealtime:
1. Plan which show, shorter than 20 minutes, you’ll watch while eating. Dopamine comes from the anticipation not the actual content - so just planning should release the dopamine and hopefully get it out of the way before you eat.
2. Give your phone another job. Use it as a flashlight to read a magazine or book while playing music or a podcast.
3. Eat messy food. Trade your one-handed burrito action for an order of ribs. The fear of damaging or dirtying your phone might be greater than the dopamine hits from scrolling.
4. Get a good night’s sleep. Leptin production is
Here’s to healthier foods in your plate and greater success keeping the pounds off!
About Scroll By Choice
We are a digital wellness company focused on helping people reclaim control over their screentime. Our research based, quantifiable and personalized solutions boost innate human traits that become dulled from persuasively designed technology.
We deliver solutions for organizations that care about workplace wellness, educational institutions that want to improve student outcomes as well as for individuals interested in reclaiming control over their digital habits.
Additional Reference Reading:
Association between screen time use, diet and other health factors | ScienceDaily
Screen time: The good, the healthy and the mind-numbing - Scope (stanford.edu)
Healthy Eating: Is Too Much Screen Time Causing Weight Gain in Children? | Walden University