Why “grazing” can be bad.

While going too long without eating can set you up for diet  catastrophes, “grazing can also rack up calories,” Lippert said. Handful after handful of almonds, or continuous sips of banana-soy smoothies,  will eventually appear on your waistline, she said.

A grazing habit degrades a person’s internal guidance about when to  eat, making it nearly impossible to tap into hungerand satiety cues, Lippert said. “If you can’t remember the last time  you were really hungry, that is not a good thing,” she said.

When we eat freely and continuously, in any place at anytime, we  begin eating more for stimulation and reward, rather than responding to  our bodies’ needs, said Dr. David Kessler, former FDA commissioner and  author of “The End of Overeating; Taking Control of the Insatiable  American Appetite” (Rodale Books, 2009).