How To Organize Your Kitchen For Weight Loss Success, According To Science

If you’re trying to eat fewer cookies, chips, and other empty-calorie snacks, having them sitting out on the counter won’t help you one bit. That’s because just seeing food can be enough to make you want to eat it, whether you’re hungry or not, says Georgie Fear, RD, author of Lean Habits for Lifelong Weight Loss.

And all those nibbles can seriously add up. In one Health Education & Behavior study, researchers found that women who stored cereal and soda on their countertops weighed about 20 pounds more, on average, compared to those who didn’t. The lesson? Aim to keep those countertops food-free (more on where the snacky stuff should go later). There’s just one exception…

It’s the one type of food that science says can actually help you lose weight when you set it out in a prominent space like your kitchen island. How many pounds are we talking about, exactly? Well, the very same study mentioned above found that women who keep out a bowl of fresh fruit are around 13 pounds lighter than those who don’t.

The reasons are twofold. Fruit’s a low-calorie snack, and seeing it is a good reminder to eat it instead of rifling through the fridge or cabinet for something else, says Sarah Pflugradt, RD. At the same time, fruit just isn’t as tempting as, say, pretzels or chocolate. So there’s a pretty good chance you’ll only grab that apple or banana if you’re actually hungry. (Have extra produce? Try some of these 6 delicious dishes that use fruit instead of added sugar.)

Keep things like nuts, dried fruit, or air-popped popcorn in an easy to reach spot, so you can grab them and go whenever hunger strikes. Experts at Google have found that making healthy snacks easily accessible is an effective way to nudge people to pick those foods more often.

Pflugradt recommends pre-portioning snacks into individual snack bags or containers as soon as you bring them home. It’ll help discourage mindless snacking since you’re less likely to grab a handful from a single-serve container compared to a full-size bag. And when snack time does roll around, pre-portioned amounts make it harder to overeat. (Want to keep meals portioned on the go? Get your hands on this $15 bento box everyone is obsessed with.)

In a perfect world, you might be able to keep junky snacks out of the house altogether, so they wouldn’t be able to tempt you at all. But if others in your family like to have treats on hand, keeping it off the counter isn't enough. Your best bet is to store them in a place where they won’t taunt you every time you open the cupboard or pantry. A very high or low shelf, or all the way in the back, should do the trick. As long as it's out of your line of vision: Findings published in the journal PLoS One show that just the sight of tasty food can be enough to make us want to chow down. “If we keep food hidden, we’re more likely to forget about it,” Pflugradt says.

MORE: 11 Must-Have Organizing Products To Keep Your Kitchen And Pantry Clutter-Free

And even if you do remember there's a box of donuts hidden in the depths of the pantry, keeping them tucked away could be enough to deter you from eating them. “If you have to exert more energy to get something, you have more of a chance to think about whether you really want it,” Fear says.

So where should the healthy stuff go? Designate a spotlight zone for the most nutritious foods in your fridge and pantry, like the front of the center shelf. Keeping healthy staples right up front makes them easier to find, so you don’t have to dig past that leftover cake or mac and cheese. More importantly, findings suggest that the center shelf tends to be where our eyes focus first. And other studies show that we’re more likely to fill our plates with healthy foods if those are the first foods we see.

Specifically, canned beans like black beans, chickpeas, white beans, and lentils. They’re loaded with belly-filling fiber and protein, and can instantly turn anything from salads and soups, to pasta into a meal that’ll keep you satisfied for hours, Fear says. That means even when the fridge is empty, or you don’t have the energy to cook, you’ve got something easy and healthy on hand instead of having to order takeout.

All of which can add up to more pounds lost. In fact eating 3/4 cup of beans or legumes daily could help you drop half a pound in six weeks—even without making any other changes to your diet, according to an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition review of 21 studies.

Chances are, not everything in your fridge will be healthy 100% of the time. But you can keep your focus on the good stuff by storing it in clear containers—and using opaque containers or tin foil for the not-so-healthy stuff like leftover pizza, Fear suggests.

MORE: The 5 Best Meal-Prep Food Containers For Weight Loss

Remember, the stuff you see is the stuff you’ll most want to eat. By keeping tempting foods out of sight, you’ll automatically eat less of them. Case in point: One Cornell University study found that workers ate two fewer chocolates per day from an office candy dish when the chocolates were stored in an opaque bowl with a lid compared to a clear one.

Your fridge and pantry aren’t the only places in the kitchen you should try to keep in a relatively tidy state. Try to make a habit of putting dirty plates and dishes directly in the dishwasher instead of letting them sit out on the counter or sink. And try not to let papers and other random junk pile up on the table. (Learn more about how getting organized can help you lose weight here.)

Why? In one Environment and Behavior study, researchers had women spend time in a clean kitchen and in a messy kitchen. In both kitchens, they were offered snacks like carrots and cookies and told they could eat as much as they wanted. What happened? When the women spent time in the messy kitchens, they ate about 100 more calories’ worth of cookies.

“Any additional stress can trigger overeating, so keeping things neat could help you feel more content—and less noshy—in your living space,” Fear says. And if you have to be in the kitchen but haven’t had time to straighten up, at least try to corral the mess to one area and give yourself a neat working space, she adds.

MORE: 5 Surprising, Helpful Principles For Getting Organized

You know, the ones that have been sitting in the drawer for years that you always mean to use, but never do? Put them out on the kitchen table and light them during meals. Candles give a nice ambiance, of course, but dimly-lit dining areas also encourage people to eat slower, enjoy their food more, and eat around 14% less food, found a study published in the Journal of Marketing Research.

Just make sure to do your meal planning and prepping beforehand with the regular lights on. People make healthier choices in brighter light—so you might be more likely to decide on salmon over creamy pasta, and nibble less while you cook.