Chewing Gum for Weight Loss?

Does gum curb my cravings? Absolutely not! Wouldn't it be nice if it did though?

With such a small sample group, it doesn't seem likely that the findings of this study would actually be accurate. JMHO

On the contrary! Every time I chew gum I get hungry. Maybe because my stomach expects something to eat? Maybe because the gum enhances the production of saliva?

Gum's a life-saver for me when I'm on vacation, especially when my parents and friends want to hit a buffet! I eat my one plate of food and pop a piece of gum in my mouth. It occupies me so I don't feel the need to shovel food in my face as everybody gets up a second and/or third time for food. In social settings, I sometimes feel the need to chew with everybody else, so instead of it being food, it's gum. I consume fewer calories because of it.

Now when I'm at home, I just don't chew gum; I rather hit the bottle (of water that is!).

I would say that my gum chewing habit has helped me a LOT! Now whenever I finish a meal, popping something minty in my mouth signals to my brain that I'm done, and when I'm chewing gum I don't get the boredom-hunger pangs that I used to. I do chew a lot of gum - in fact, I only take it out when it's time to eat - and it's helped me lose a considerable amount of weight. Even better, at my last dental appointment, the dentist (who also happens to be my father) told me my teeth looked the best they ever had even after six months without a cleaning... the sugarfree gum actually helps your teeth by keeping bacteria from settling on them. I FULLY support this article!

There is something to chewing, I am not exactly sure what, but it is an important part to feeling satiated.

A little more than a year ago, I had surgery on my mouth. I could not chew food for almost 2 weeks. Consequently, I never felt satisfied with what I was eating. Even soft foods that are very flavorful tasted bland in my mouth because I could not chew it to obtain the full benefit of the flavor. I ended up eating more than I wanted and felt hungry much of the time.

I am not saying that chewing gum will work, but I am not going to say that it won't. I believe more research should be done in this area and should be more scientific. I think I will do my own personal experiment and go out and buy a pack of gum. See how it goes.

there are few things as unpleasant as listening to someone chew gum. It's a real pet hate of mine. So I really hope it isn't true otherwise I'll need to invest in earplugs.

gum does help me personally when I'm bored and just want flavor but not really hungry. I can chew instead of eat. but that has to be a deliberate decision-it's not like I just add gum and it takes off weight. but I suspect this varies from person to person

Chewing gum does take my mind off eating for the most part but has other benefits as well. Some sugar free gums have a great taste to them so this aids your tasts buds so you don't have to always eat the best and sweetest foods. Gum is awesome for eating healthy.

I have some concerns that chewing gum might exacerbate TMJ dysfunction.

My personal experience - when I was chewing a lot of gum, I had increased cravings for sugar. I did an experiment on myself (documented on my blog) in which I eliminated all refined sugar for a month....this included sugar alcohols, which are found in gum and protein bars. Amazingly (well, not so amazing to me because I got off the sugar), I lost all physical cravings for sugar. I sometimes had emotional cravings, but not physical sugar cravings. Life is peaceful without the sugar cravings. ;)

I've tried gum before and it did help a bit when it came to controlling hunger. However, the slight benefit was not worth the effort it took to buy, keep and chew gum on those occasions when I wanted a small snack. I'd rather keep some fruit around instead. Higher effort but much higher return.

Gal

I chew gum occasionally to deal with my emotional eating from boredom or stress. Sometimes I just need to chew something! However, the artificial sweeteners tend to upset my stomach, so I can't do this too often.

I used to chew gum practically all day in high school, and my TMJ got really bad. I had to get braces my senior year anyway (not because of gum chewing) but I found that once I stopped chewing gum, the pain subsided greatly.

I noticed on the first episode of The Biggest Loser this season, they promoted Extra gum to all the contestants as a replacement for boredom eating. It was an obvious product placement, too.

Okay, feel free to disagree, but I read you shouldn't chew gym because then you swallow air and become bloated.

I dunno, I got nuttin.

I TOTALLY do the gum thing. It helps me not snack between meals. HOWEVER, my jaw is messed up and chewing gum makes it worse. :( So thus, my favorite weapon to fight eating snacks when I wasn't actually hungry, doesn't work anymore.

I chew gum between meals to keep my mouth busy. I have sort of an oral fixation problem...my mouth likes to be busy, so if I'm not chewing gum, I'd be eating or snacking. I don't chew a ton of it though...maybe a piece or two a day, max.