How To Keep Your Household Environment From Making You Fat

LOS  ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Rearranging your household could help you lose weight. And not merely because you'd burn calories moving the sofa.

It's called the obesogenic environment.  It means your environment affects your waistline. More simply, it means your house could be making you fat — and that if you make some changes in how your arrange your kitchen and the places where you eat, you could lose a few pounds.

How does it work? Follow the advice that clinical nutritionist Jennifer Cassetta recently gave to Ingrid Higginbotham.

--Banish unhealthy foods to the back of the cabinet. "Have more healthy stuff up front like the albacore tuna," Cassetta advised Higginbotham.

--The same principle applies to arranging the refrigerator. Put the strawberries up front and the chocolate in the back.

--Countertops can be a danger zone. Have something that's maybe tasty but high in calories? Move it out of sight. "Seeing these foods sometimes makes us have cravings," Cassetta said.

--As any high-end restaurant would tell you, presentation matters, too. "In a dark dish you might actually serve less, because you can see it -- there's contrast," she said.

--Eating on the couch while watching TV might be the path of least resistance, but Cassetta said you're likely to overeat and less likely to feel full.

--Also, keep the room where you eat as stress-free as possible. "You don't want to be thinking about the bills or work or clutter ," she said.

--One thing you should always leave in plain view: your workout gear. It's just one more way to nudge yourself in a healthier direction.