Dieting your butt off, but still not able to lose all the pounds? It could be you're eating more than you realize!

How is that possible, you say? Experts report it's easier than you think, thanks to our "hefty habits" -- unconscious pairings of food with activities that sometimes cause us to eat more than we realize.

"Too often we eat on 'auto pilot' -- we associate food with certain activities or even times of the day, and without really paying attention to how much we're consuming, we overeat, " says Warren Huberman, PhD, a psychologist with the NYU medical program for surgical weight loss.

Whether it's subconsciously crunching chips while surfing the Net, grabbing that 20-ounce bottle of soda every time the phone rings, or sometimes, just automatically pairing two foods together -- like reaching for a chocolate doughnut every time you smell your morning coffee -- experts say old habits die hard, even when we're on a diet.

"Your brain stores things in a way that makes life easy for you, so if you do things in a certain manner a number of times your brain says, 'OK this is how we do things'; when those habits include food, overeating can become a simple matter of unconscious association," says Huberman.

Weight control psychologist Abby Aronowitz, PhD agrees: "If a response to a stimulus is rewarded continually, that response quickly becomes connected to the stimulus. So if you always reward the thought of having a cup of coffee with reaching for a doughnut, than those two thoughts become connected in your mind," says Aronowitz, author of Your Final Diet.

But it's not just associations that are set in our brain. It's also cravings. Huberman tells WebMD that if, for example, we have that coffee and doughnut together enough times, not only are we conditioned to reach for those two items together, our brain actually sets up a craving system to ensure that's what we do.

"This means if you have coffee and a doughnut every morning for 90 straight mornings, on the 91st morning when you pour that cup of coffee, you are going to be craving a doughnut because those two foods are linked in your brain," says Huberman.

Cravings, he says, are not random, but rather learned. "You never crave foods you have not tasted. You have to learn certain things in order for your brain to crave it, and when you repeat something enough times the craving becomes part of your brain's repertoire," he says.

Breaking the Chains That Bind

Because the first step to breaking any habit is a desire to break it, motivational psychologist Paul P. Baard, PhD, says it's important to understand why you want to change.

"The building platform is always motivation -- and in order to make it work, the motivation must be intrinsic. The change has to represent benefits you want," says Baard, an associate professor at Fordham University in New York City.

If you're simply trying to please a spouse, a parent, or even your doctor, Baard says success will be harder to achieve.

Once you're clear on your motivations, experts say the next step is to identify where your hefty habits really lie.

"Do you always plop down on the same spot on the couch, with the same television show on and the same bowl of chips in your hand?" asks Huberman. If so, he says it's a good bet you will eat all the chips, even if you didn't plan on doing so.

"Behavioral eating really is a lot like links in a chain; when you continually find yourself in a situation that is conducive to eating, or conducive to eating a particular food, and you follow through by eating that food, you reinforce a chain link of behaviors that is very much like being on autopilot, says Huberman.

To begin to change that behavior, he says, break just one link in the chain.

"Change the time you eat, the TV show you are watching, the bowl you put the chips in - eat with your left hand instead of your right hand. The point is to make your brain work a little so that every bite you take is a conscious decision and not a learned, automatic behavior," says Huberman.

What can also help: Keeping a food diary, and then studying it to see how you may be associating certain foods not so much with hunger, but with activities, events, or even times of the day.

"A lot of people eat by external cues. They see a clock and they eat, they hear a theme song come on the TV and they eat, a lot of eating is based on associations and not really hunger," says Huberman.

Substitute Good Habits for Bad Ones

While changing environmental cues is one approach, another is to keep the habit but try to make it healthier.

"As a strategy it's known as behavioral intervention. You substitute something that is good for you and that you like for something that is not so good for you, but you also like," says Aronowitz.

So if, for example, you always have a glass of milk and chocolate chip cookies before going to bed, when bedtime rolls around keep the milk, the glass, the cookie plate, and the place where you normally have the snack all the same -- but substitute a chocolate graham cracker for the high-fat, high-calorie cookie.

"In this way you won't be putting too much strain on your brain. Your habit will be similar, so it's easy to accept, yet different enough to take you out of autopilot and have an impact on your weight loss," says Huberman.

Once that happens, Baard says environmental influences will kick in to help form a new habit. "It's going to take some discipline, but if you can just make that one initial break in your habit, those environmental changes will begin reinforcing a new behavior in your brain," he says.

That said, Huber also reminds us that we have to be willing to tolerate a little bit of discomfort every time a habit is changed.

"It doesn't have to be pain, you don't have to be miserable, but you do have to stretch out your comfort zone and recognize that you are going to feel out of sorts until the new behavior pattern is created," says Huberman.

Baard tells WebMD you make the whole process easier if you find a sense of satisfaction in breaking your food habit.

"You want to feel good about yourself, you want to know that food is not telling you what to do, that you can do with food whatever you choose," says Baard. This, he says, is calming to the brain and can help balance the discomfort you feel from veering from the familiar to new, uncharted territories.

Overcoming Food Habits: Some Practical Tips

While changing the way we think -- and the associations we make -- may seem hard, changing our actual behavior may be easier than we think. To help you get started, here are six things you can do right now to put change in motion.

1. Eat anything you want -- but always do it sitting at the kitchen or dining room table. "Changing not the foods you eat, but where you eat them, will help break some of the association with that food, which in turn may help alter how much and how often you eat it," says Huberman.

2. Change anything about your food habit you can, including the way you eat it. "If you always hold the ice cream spoon in your right hand, hold it in your left; if you always eat out of the container, put it in a bowl. The idea here is to take yourself off autopilot so you begin to think about what you are eating and why you are eating it," says Huberman.

3. Avoid visual cues that tell you to eat. 'If you always think of eating a candy bar every time you pass the vending machine, consciously go out of your way not to pass the vending machine," says Aronowitz. The same is true if TV is your food trigger. "Make a point not to eat in front of the television -- or change the channel away from the show you always associate with that pizza or bowl of chips," she says.

4. Institute the '15 minute' rule. As soon as you get a "cue" to eat, train yourself to wait just 15 minutes before you do. Aronowitz says this will help break the automatic response cycle in your brain that, ultimately, helps cancel out the old associations.

5. Don't try to break all your nasty food habits at once. "If you do, your level of discomfort will grow so high that your brain will immediately regress to that state which is most comfortable," says Baard. At the same time, working on just one or two food habits will allow your brain enough of a comfort zone to allow you to cope with, and eventually learn, the new behavior.

6. Make eating a sole focus activity and give it your full concentration. "Put down the BlackBerry, step away from the computer, get off the telephone, and just concentrate on eating," says Huberman. The more you disassociate food with other activities, the more likely you are to not allow outside cues to dictate where and when and how much you eat.

拼命节食，仍然无法减掉体重？可能你吃掉的食物远比你想象的多！你会说：怎么可能呢？专家告诉我们，如果你有以下这个"恶习",这是很可能的：无意识地把做事和吃东西联系在一起，一边做事一边吃东西，这时我们吃的东西远比想象的多。

Warren Huberman博士说："吃东西时我们经常会处于'自动驾驶状态'--把某件事甚至是某个时间点和食物联系起来，一边做其他事，一边吃东西，没有注意自己消耗掉多少食物而吃过量。"他是纽约大学手术减肥项目的心理学家。

不管是在上网冲浪时大嚼薯片，或是电话铃响起时就抓起大罐苏打水，或者自动把两种食物联系在一起，比如每天早晨闻到咖啡味时就会伸手去拿油炸巧克力饼……专家说老习惯很难改变，即使我们正在节食。

Huberman博士说："人的大脑会记忆使你生活舒适的东西，所以如果同样的事情重复几遍，你的大脑就会说"好，我们就这么做。"当这些习惯包括食物时，饮食过度就会成为一种无意识的事情。"

体重控制心理学家 Abby Aronowitz博士赞同这种说法："如果对某种刺激所做出的反应不断得到奖励，那种反应很快就会与这种刺激联系在一起。所以如果如果你总是在喝咖啡时吃巧克力饼，这两种习惯在你的头脑中就会关联在一起。"

但这还不只是我们头脑中的关联。这还是一种强烈的渴望。Huberman告诉我们，如果我们总是喝咖啡时吃巧克力饼，我们的大脑会产生强烈的渴望，保证我们每次都会这么做。

Huberman说："这意味着如果你连续90个早晨都喝咖啡，吃巧克力饼，那么第91天你给自己倒咖啡时，你就会有一种强烈的渴望想要吃到巧克力饼，因为你的大脑已经将这两种食物关联起来。"

他说，这种渴望不是随机的，而是学会的。"你决不会渴望吃自己从没吃过的东西。只有学过的东西大脑才能知道，而当你重复一定次数以后，这种渴望就变成你大脑中菜单的一部分。"

打破这种联系

想要改掉某种习惯，第一步就是要有改正的愿望。你必须理解改正习惯的重要性。动机心理学家Paul P. Baard说："一切行为都源于动机，并且这种动机必须发自内心才能有效。改变习惯必须能给你带来好处。"Paul P. Baard是纽约福特汉姆大学的副教授。

他说，如果你只是想要讨好配偶、父母，甚至是你的一生，这种改变就更难达成。一旦你清楚了自己的动机，下一步就要明白自己的恶习是什么。

Huberman问： "你是不是总是蜷缩在沙发的同一个位置，看同一个电视频道，手里拿着同样一盒薯片？"如果确实如此，你肯定会吃光所有的薯片，即使你原本没有这个打算。 "一边做某事一边吃东西就像是链条的一环，当你在某种情形下总会吃东西，或者总是吃同样的东西，那你就加强了这种反应，就如同自动驾驶一般。"

他说，要改变这种行为，就要打破链条中的某个环节。"改变吃东西的时间，改变所看得电视节目，用左手代替右手抓薯片吃。关键是要使用一下自己的大脑，你做的这些事都是有意识的，而不是无意识的机械行为。"

这些也会对你有所帮助：记录下所吃的食物，然后想想看哪些食物不是在感觉饿了才吃，而是在做某些事情时吃的。

Huberman说："很多人受到外部刺激时就会吃东西。他们看表时吃东西，电视播放某个节目时吃东西，很多时候吃东西不是与饥饿联系起来，而是与其他某些事情相联系。"

用好习惯代替坏习惯

改变环境只是方法之一，另一个方法是使习惯变得更健康。

Aronowitz说："一个策略是行为干预。用某些对你有益的事情来代替不健康的习惯。"

比如，如果你睡前总是喝杯牛奶，吃巧克力饼干，那么你可以改变一下，睡前准备好牛奶、平常盛放巧克力饼干的盘子、牛奶杯，并且将它们都放在原来的位置，一切都保持原样，但是将高脂肪、高热量的巧克力饼换乘全麦饼干。

"这样你就不会给自己太多压力。你的习惯还是像以前一样，但更容易接受，并且不会影响你减肥。"

这样有助于你养成新的习惯。"这需要一点自律，但是一旦你开始改变，这种环境有助于你做出新的改变。同时Huber博士也提醒，每次改变自己的习惯时我们可能要稍稍容忍它所带来的不适。"你不会难过，不会痛苦，但是你可能会很想像以前一样想让自己更舒服一点。

Baard博士告诉我们，改变所带来的满足感可能会使这一过程更加容易。

"你感觉自己很棒，你知道自己不会受到食物的诱惑，你可以自主选择食物。"这有助于你克服改变习惯过程中的不适感。

养成良好饮食习惯的一些有用提示

改变饮食中的恶习听起来很难，但实际做起来会容易些。以下六个小提示有助于你养成良好的饮食习惯：

1、可以吃想吃的东西，但是请在餐厅、坐在餐桌前吃。不改变你的食物，仅仅改变吃饭的地方，同样会打破你以前养成的不好习惯，使自己不会过度饮食。

2、改变吃饭的方式。如果你吃冰淇淋时总是右手拿勺，那就换成左手；如果你总是用手抓着吃，那就把食物盛在盘里。总之不要使之成为习惯。

3、吃饭时避免与某种声音产生联系。如果你每次走过自动贩卖机时都想吃糖，那下次就绕着走。同样道理，电视机也可能会引发你的食欲。不要再看电视时吃东西，或者不要在吃东西时看同一个节目。

4、定一个15分钟规则。一旦你想吃东西，强迫自己等上15分钟再去吃。这样就不会在大脑中形成条件反射。

5、别想着一次就改掉所有坏习惯。如果你想这样做，你的不适程度会变得很高，你的大脑会退回到那个使你更舒服的状态。而每次只改正一两个习惯会使大脑更容易接受。

6、吃饭时专心致志。放下手机，离开电脑桌，挂掉电话，专心享受美食。不要把食物和其他事物联系起来，这样你就知道自己吃了多少而不会过度饮食。