1) Don't cut calories too low.
The stricter your diet, the more you will be likely to experience hunger, so it's important not to cut your food intake too low. This is the main reason why diets fail: because they are too restrictive. When we're not allowed to have something, we want it more, so it's also important not to eliminate certain foods completely. Anything in moderation can't do much harm, especially if you don't consume it regularly. The occasional treat won't ruin your diet, but consistently overindulging in ice cream for example will sabotage your efforts. Strict diets not only make you hungry, but your body goes into starvation mode and your metabolism slows down, which means you'll burn less calories and lose weight more slowly.
2) Eat more complex carbohydrates.
Refined sugars are a no-no for obvious reasons, especially as they are followed by a surge of insulin followed by the inevitable 'crash' as your blood sugar suddenly drops and leaves you exhausted and ravenous. Slow carbohydrates like whole meal breads, whole meal pasta, brown rice, oats, quinoa, lentils and sweet potato are excellent for weight loss, as they don't have this effect. On the contrary, they give you sustained energy and make you feel full. They are 'low GI', which means they are broken down and absorbed slowly, keeping your blood sugar on an even keel. They also influence your mood positively as they have been linked to an increase in the brain of the feel-good neurotransmitter Serotonin.
3) Eat more fruit.
If your stomach rumbles and it's still a while before your next meal, have an apple, a pear, a banana or a cup of berries. This is often all you need to quell your hunger. I don't know how fruit got such a bad name when it's actually good for your health and very satisfying. The fructose contained in fruit works to refill liver glycogen, sending a signal to the brain, thus making you feel fuller. This is why people who include moderate amounts of fruit in their diet report feeling less hungry. This is an addition to the other benefits of fruit: fibre, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants. Of course we are talking about whole fruit here - stay away from juices!
4) Eat more fibre.
Fibre is quite miraculous, and totally devoid of calories. It adds bulk to your food and makes you feel full, while lowering the GI of your meal. It delays stomach emptying, and you tend to feel satisfied for longer. By adding volume to your meal, fibre contributes to stretching your stomach, and the brain thinks you're full. How do you increase your fibre intake? Focus on soups, vegetable curries, stews and stir fries. Have lots of salads. Besides eating fruit and vegetables, it's essential to stick to unrefined products like whole meal cereals, breads and pasta. Remember to have pulses and legumes as they are 'nutritional powerhouses', and to add nuts and seeds to your meals.
5) Eat more fat.
Low-fat diets tend to leave people hungry. Fat contributes to lowering the GI of your meals, and like fibre it slows gastric emptying. Dietary fat helps you feel fuller for longer between meals, as you food sits in your stomach longer. Adding fat to your dishes also makes them more tasteful. Without fat, food often tastes like cardboard. Fat makes food more palatable, and thus more satisfying, which plays a big role as people tend to abandon diets that are tasteless. Avoid cooking or frying in fat though. Instead, add fat towards the end of your cooking, by drizzling olive oil or adding a bit of fresh butter to your dish. If you need to fry something, use coconut oil: it's the only oil that remains stable when heated. Most other oils, including vegetable oils, become toxic at high temperatures, as their structure is altered by heat. To add 'good' fats to your diet, it's a good idea to consume nuts in moderation. It has been proven that people who include nuts in their diet (about a handful a day) are less hungry than those who don't. Eating nuts also increases your life span.
6) Drink more water.
Drinking at least eight glasses of water a day helps reduce hunger pangs. Water makes you feel fuller. It stops you from eating large quantities if you consume it before a meal. Water works well in conjunction with fibre, which acts like a sponge, increasing the bulk of your food and stretching your stomach. Another reason for drinking more water is that thirst is often mistaken for hunger. You might feel hungry, when in reality you're simply dehydrated. Before grabbing something to eat, fill up on water. Make it a habit to carry a water bottle with you everywhere you go, and sip some water throughout the day to replenish your body cells. Water is great if you suffer from stress and headaches. Water not only helps keep hunger at bay, it also stimulates your metabolism and assists your kidney and liver. You liver is your major detoxification and energy-burning organ, and drinking water will help it work efficiently.
7) Exercise moderately.
Moderate exercise has been shown to stabilise blood sugar levels and regulate hunger pangs, especially if you do it on a regular basis. Exercise is a natural antidepressant. It lifts your mood, which is important, as you tend to eat more sugar and junk food when you feel low. When you feel better about yourself you also tend to stick to your diet, as you're more likely to take better care of yourself. Exercise can be relaxing and it takes your mind off your problems, while alleviating stress and boredom. It gives you a sense of accomplishment and motivates you to stay on track.
8) Avoid 'diet perfectionism'.
In my book 'The Magic of Sensible Dieting', I devote a whole chapter to this destructive mindset. Diet perfectionism is sure to make you fail, because it is impossible to be perfect all the time when you follow a weight loss programme. While you need to adhere to certain guidelines like eating a wholesome breakfast, avoid eating late at night and eating several small meals a day, you also need to have a flexible approach to dieting if you want to succeed. If you feel guilty and miserable just because you had a piece of chocolate cake, you might believe that your diet is ruined and eat the entire cake, and abandon your diet altogether. This type of rigid dieting is bound to fail. You will possibly put on more weight in the long term, rather than losing it.
The truth is that small deviations don't do much harm in the context of a long-term healthy eating approach. If you've dieted for the last five days and decide to have a handful of cookies, because you really fancy them, it won't do you much harm. But if you decide that you're a worthless piece of crap without willpower and eat another 1000 calories of cookies to punish yourself, you're turning this slight deviation into a big problem. Always include periods of 'free' eating (on the weekend for example) and include your favourite treats in your diet, without going overboard of course.
9) Welcome hunger instead of trying to avoid it at all cost.
Hunger is not as bad as it seems. Hunger means you're burning energy and shedding excess weight, which is what you want after all. To feel slightly hungry after a meal may also be a sign that you're getting used to eating smaller quantities and that your stomach is 'shrinking'. It takes time for your body to adjust to this new way of life. If you're used to eating a lot of junk food and switch to a diet based on fruit, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, healthy carbs and lean protein, your body will be in shock for a while. Give yourself enough time to get used to being healthy! The body is a marvellous machine, and even if it has been abused for a long time, it longs to be healthy and to be looked after properly. Your body doesn't work against you. It works for you, but you need to give it a chance.
It can be good feel hungry sometimes. Before a meal, it means you need to replenish your energy stores. Hunger can be healthy, and to experience it shows that you're in tune with your body's signals. Overweight and obese people often forget what real stomach hunger feels like, due to overeating all the time, and they need to learn to identify true hunger signals, which are not the same as a desire to eat because something looks appetising. Make a decision not to be scared of hunger and welcome it instead. After all, there are a lot of healthy foods you can eat to satisfy your body's needs as well as your taste buds.
I would love to read your comments and suggestions on this article!
With love,
Bella
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